John Hart's Grave

John Hart's Grave
Hopewell Old School Baptist Meeting House Cemetery 
West Broad St. and Mercer St.
Hopewell, NJ 08525

John Hart was a farmer, businessman, public official and politician from New Jersey who signed the Declaration of Independence. The actual year of John Hart's birth is unknown. However, biographers often put it in the year of 1713 in Hopewell, New Jersey. Hart was a lifelong resident of Hopewell, who was elected as one of five New Jersey delegates to the Second Continental Congress in June 1776. Hart, a strong supporter of independence, was the thirteenth delegate to sign the Declaration of Independence.

In December 1776, Hart and his family were forced to flee from their home in Hopewell in order to avoid British and Hessian raids in the area. Hart himself hid in the woods, caves and in the Sourwood mountains. Hart returned to his home after British and Hessian forces withdrew from the area following their defeats at Trenton and Princeton. In June 1778, Washington and 12,000 men from his army camped on John Hart's farm in Hopewell. The army left on June 24th, and four days later fought the British to a draw at the Battle of Monmouth.

John Hart died of kidney stones on May 11, 1779. John Hart died in debt and most of his property was sold to repay his debts. John Hart and his wife Deborah are interred at the Hopewell Old School Baptist Meeting House Cemetery. The land upon which the church and cemetery was built was donated to the Baptists by Hart in 1747. The obelisk marking John Hart’s Grave has the date of John Hart’s death as 1780, but most biographers and the NJ Gazette say that he died on May 11, 1779.

Below are two links with more information on John Hart, along with some photos that I took of his grave site:

http://www.dsdi1776.com/signers-by-state/john-hart/

https://www.geni.com/people/John-Hart-Signer-of-the-Declaration-of-Independence/6000000006712109764

MW

Timothy Matlack's Grave

Timothy Matlack's Grave 
Wetherills Cemetery (Free Quaker Cemetery)
Located behind the ARA Little League Fields
2800 Audubon Rd.
Audubon, PA 19403

Timothy Matlack is best known in American history for serving as the scribe for the original Declaration of Independence. Matlack also contributed to the American cause for independence by serving as a clerk to the secretary of the Second Continental Congress, storekeeper of military supplies, delegate to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, member of the state Council of Safety and militia officer. Matlack passed away at age 93 in Holmesburg, PA. He was originally interred in the Free Quaker Burial Ground adjacent to the Arch Street Quaker Meetinghouse in Philadelphia. In 1905, his remains were moved to the Wetherills Cemetery in Audubon, PA.

During the summer of 2015, I had the opportunity to visit a marker in Audubon, Pennsylvania for Timothy Matlack. This weekend, I decided to venture back out to Audubon to locate the grave site of Timothy Matlack. The cemetery is located in a wooded area just beyond the outfield fences of the ARA Little League Fields in Audubon.

Below is a link to my original post on Timothy Matlack, along with some photos that I took of the Wetherills Cemetery/Free Quaker Cemetery and Timothy Matlack's grave site:

http://www.mwhistoryexperience.com/search/label/Timothy%20Matlack

MW
 

Richard Stockton's Grave

Richard Stockton's Gravesite
Stony Brook Quaker Meeting House Burial Ground
470 Quaker Rd
Princeton, NJ 08540

Richard Stockton was a lawyer, jurist, legislator, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence from New Jersey. He was born and lived in Princeton from 1730-1781. In 1776, Stockton was elected to the Second Continental Congress. As a member of Congress, Stockton signed the Declaration of Independence as a delegate from New Jersey. On November 30, 1776, Stockton and a friend were captured by Loyalists and marched to Perth Amboy where they were turned over to the British. Soon after, Stockton was sent to Provost Prison in New York City, where he was intentionally starved and subject to freezing weather. After five weeks of torture, Stockton was released from prison on parole. He was forced to sign a parole document with General William Howe as a condition of his release. This parole document stated that Stockton would not meddle in the affairs of the war.

Stockton's estate Morven, and property were seized and destroyed by the British in the early years of the war. Following his parole, Stockton resigned from Congress and returned to Morven. He attempted to earn a living by reopening his law firm, and teaching the law to students. Stockton developed cancer of the lip and died at Morven on February 28, 1781. Richard Stockton is memorialized in a number of locations throughout New Jersey. Two of his sons went on to find success in politics and in the military. His son Richard was a lawyer and senator from New Jersey. His son Commodore Robert Field Stockton was a U.S. Navy officer who was a hero of the War of 1812. Robert also went on to serve as a military governor of California and senator from New Jersey.

The Stony Brook Quaker Meeting House is located near Princeton Battlefield (January 3, 1777). Stockton's marker is located on the right hand side of the entrance to the cemetery. Stockton's home Morven is also located nearby in Princeton.

Below are two links with more information on Richard Stockton:

http://www.dsdi1776.com/signers-by-state/richard-stockton/

http://www.revolutionary-war.net/richard-stockton.html

MW

Abraham Clark's Grave

Abraham Clark's Grave
Rahway Cemetery
1670 Saint Georges Ave.
Rahway, NJ 07065

Abraham Clark was a signer of the Declaration of Independence from New Jersey. Clark was also a member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey from 1791 until his death in 1794. Clark was a surveyor and lawyer by trade. During the American Revolution, two of his sons, Aaron and Thomas, served in the Continental Army as officers. Both sons were captured by the British and tortured. Abraham Clark died on September 15, 1794 approximately two hours after suffering a sun stroke, having observed the construction of a bridge on his property. Clark Township in New Jersey is named in his honor.

Abraham Clark is buried in Rahway Cemetery in Rahway, NJ. His grave is fairly close to the main entrance of the cemetery that faces Saint Georges Avenue.

Below is a link to the Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence page, along with some photos I took during my recent visit:

http://www.dsdi1776.com/signers-by-state/abraham-clark/

MW

Timothy Matlack

Timothy Matlack Marker
Pawlings Road near Audubon Road
Audubon, PA 19403

Timothy Matlack was a New Jersey born Pennsylvania Patriot during the American Revolution. Matlack was a controversial figure in Pennsylvania over the span of his adulthood. He enjoyed gambling, horseracing and cock fighting. After falling into debt, he was thrown into debtor's prison. The Quakers secured his release from prison, only to disown him after he failed to reform. Matlack's "hobbies" provided him with the opportunity to interact and socialize with people of all classes. These interactions would later serve him well as he proved to be a skilled organizer of men in his home colony and state.

Matlack served in a variety of positions during America's struggle for independence, to include clerk to the secretary of the Second Continental Congress, storekeeper of military supplies, delegate to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, member of the state Council of Safety and militia officer. Matlack fought in the Battle of the Assunpink Creek (the Second Battle of Trenton) and the Battle of Princeton. Matlack is best known for his fine penmanship, and is believed to be the individual who inscribed the Declaration of Independence on parchment. Matlack passed away at age 93 in Holmesburg, PA. He is buried at the Wetherills Cemetery (aka Free Quaker Cemetery) in Audubon, PA.

Below is a write up on Timothy Matlack from the Explore PA History website, along with a few photos that I took of Timothy Matlack's marker:

"When Philadelphia's radical leaders organized their committees for resistance to British imperial policy in 1774, only one of them intended to instigate a revolution: former Quaker Timothy Matlack. Fiercely opposed to the conservative leadership of John Dickinson and the Pennsylvania Assembly, Matlack, a merchant and brewer turned revolutionary, served on the extra legal Council of Public Safety. A committed political and social radical, Matlack kept regular company with people from the 'poorer sorts.' In an era when wealthy Pennsylvanians worked hard to display refined cultural profiles, supported by goods and activities imported from England, Matlack reveled in the popular culture of the colony and its combative, competitive entertainments. For this reason, his ascent to political prominence is all the more interesting.

Born in New Jersey in 1736, Matlack grew up in a Quaker family. In the late 1740s, he moved to Philadelphia, where he developed a penchant for gambling, horseracing, and the lower-class sport of cockfighting. When his business affairs fell into ruin, wealthier Quakers redeemed him from debtor's prison. But Matlack's refusal to reform his ways - and his criticism of those Friends who held slaves - resulted in his disownment from the Society of Friends in 1765.

Matlack's poor record and restless temperament did not make him a good candidate for elective public service, but he took readily to the mechanical and organizational political tasks that all successful revolutions require to remain dynamic and vital. He became a clerk to Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Second Continental Congress. He thrived on committee work in the radical Philadelphia community that constructed a de facto shadow government that prepared to take over in the city and state if the regular provincial government faltered.

Matlack served as a delegate to the Pennsylvania provincial convention that wrote the radical 1776 state constitution, and associated with such confirmed radicals as James Cannon and David Rittenhouse. He also served with Philadelphia's artisan-dominated militia battalion, and saw some military service in New Jersey in late 1776 and early 1777. He became secretary to the powerful unicameral Pennsylvania assembly under the new constitution, and remained in that office until the end of the Revolution. He served in a similar capacity with Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council, which filled the function of a governor in more conventional political systems.

Driven from office by conservative enemies at the end of the war, Matlack became a leader of the Free Quakers, a group of disowned Friends who had supported the Revolution in violation of the Quaker Peace Testimony, and resumed his public diatribes against political foes. In 1781, his heckling of Whitehead Humphreys, a conservative member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, resulted in a public fistfight. The vengeful Humphreys subsequently wrote and distributed a poetic broadside that reflected some of the upper class's contempt for Matlack.

'Altho' dear Tim you've rose so great,
 From trimming cocks to trim the state;
 Yet to a brother, lend an ear,
 A moment - tho" in humble sphere . . .
 Did you forget in days of yore
 When you, like Price, was wretched poor?
 But all at once you've raised so high,
 Quakers can't safely pass you by!'

Although Matlack returned to public life in the 1790s, mostly in the capacity of a clerk and functionary, he was not as effective in building governments as he was in tearing them down. He spent his final years in rural Philadelphia County, where he died in 1829. He is buried in Audubon, on the Schuylkill River, not far from Valley Forge.

Timothy Matlack's contribution to American independence was critical in mobilizing public support for the patriot cause. Since the eighteenth century, every modern revolution in the western world has depended on actors like him, men of conviction and resilience willing to work on mundane tasks and smaller functions in the service of a greater goal."
(http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-156)

MW