|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
      
|
|
Political Powerhouses, Burlington NJ...From the Royal Governor to America’s first President...
C O L O N I A L S
“...lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as men and Christians, that they may not be brought into bondage but by their own consent, for we put the power in the people.” Thomas Ollive arrived on the ship Kent in 1677, and resided at what is now known as Alcazar, 406 High Street (14 on map). He was a founder of the City, and acting Governor of West Jersey in the absence of Gov. Samuel Jenings.
Dr. Daniel Coxe, the greatest proprietor of West Jersey, was Governor 1687-1690. His son, Col. Daniel Coxe, arrived in 1701 as Commander of the Crown’s Forces in West Jersey, then Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 1734, member of the Assembly, and member, Governor’s Council. The Col. made his home on the Green Bank. Thomas Gardiner, the father, was Surveyor General of West Jersey. Thomas Gardiner, the son, became Treasurer of West Jersey, and first Speaker of the Assembly of East and West Jersey in 1702, lived at 228 High Street (6 on map). Very powerful in building West Jersey, the Quakers had many admirable qualities, though imagination in naming of sons was not chief among them.
“... the next morning reach’d Burlington, but had the mortification to find that the regular boats were gone a little before my coming, and no other expected to go before Tuesday, this being Saturday; wherefore I returned to an old woman in the town, of whom I had bought gingerbread to eat on the water, and ask’d her advice. She invited me to lodge at her house till a passage by water should offer; and being tired with my foot travelling, I accepted the invitation. She understanding I was a printer, would have had me stay at that town and follow my business, being ignorant of the stock necessary to begin with. She was very hospitable, gave me a dinner of ox-cheek with great good will, accepting only a pot of ale in return; and I thought myself fixed till Tuesday should come. However, walking in the evening by the side of the river, a boat came by, which I found was going towards Philadelphia, with several people in her. They took me in, and, as there was no wind, we row’d all the way;...”
R E V O L U T I O N A R Y P E R I O D
Richard Smith, Esq. (Alcazar, 406 High St., 14 on map) was a principled Quaker who resigned as member of the Continental Congress when war with Great Britain became imminent.
The first President of the United States was Elias Boudinot. Elias Boudinot (Boudinot House 207 W. Broad St., 22 on map) was President of the Continental Congress when America gained its independence in 1783. Bearing that rank, he signed the Treaty of Paris; thus he was cited in the press and elsewhere as the first President of the United States. He was the Chief Executive of America when Trenton was the capital, from November 1, 1781 until January 12, 1784. Boudinot was a Congressman, Supreme court lawyer, Director of the United States Mint, and founder of the American Bible Society. He was also a trustee of what is now Princeton University, founding the Natural History chair. He fought against slavery, for the rights of the American Indians, and for religious tolerance. His son-in-law was George Washington’s second Attorney General: William Bradford. Elias and William are buried in St. Mary’s Churchyard (W. Broad St., 18, 19 on map). Judge Edward Shippen made his summer residence at 202 Riverbank (29 on map). His daughter Peggy Shippen married famous traitor Benedict Arnold.
C I R C A 1 8 1 2
“Tell the men to fire faster and not to give up the ship; fight her till she sinks!”. This he urged again and again in various forms, until all his valiant officers had been killed or wounded, to a man, and his ship captured. He died four days later. His words moved a group of women who sewed them onto a flag, paraphrased as, “Don’t Give Up the Ship”,
Joseph McIlvaine (McIlvaine House 100-102 W. Broad St., 17 on map) was U.S. Senator in 1820. Garrett D. Wall held the rare distinction of declining the joint Legislature’s appointment to the office of Governor of New Jersey in 1829, but served a term in the U.S. Senate, as did his son, James W. Wall, Mayor of Burlington 1851. They made their home at what is now Temple B’nai Israel 1801, 212 High St. (4 on map).
C I V I L W A R P E R I O DDuring the Civil War, Dr. John Howard Pugh (214 High St., built 1716, Pugh occupied 1857, 5 on map) served without compensation at the U.S. General Hospital in Beverly, and after the War, served in the House of Representatives, resumed medical practice, and in turns was president of Mechanics’ National Bank of Burlington and member, state Board of Education. Presidential hopeful Abraham Lincoln came to Burlington on at least several occasions as the Republican party candidate made his local campaign headquarters in the Blue Anchor Inn (est. 1750, SW corner of High & Broad Sts., 13 on map). Apparently the proximity of the train station made it the perfect “whistle stop”, plus the bar presented a good place to “wet your whistle”.
General Edward B. Grubb (Grubb Estate, 46 Riverbank, 28 on map) survived the Civil War to be made Ambassador to Spain. Read more about his career in Military Masters. A powerful past... and it’s our present to you. Welcome to the City of Burlington.
Read on, for more famous Burlington People to Meet:
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Tour City of Burlington Historic District • Where the past is our present to you
|
|
|
William Penn owned large tracts of Burlington, where he first was attracted to lands along the Delaware, and agreed to the “Concessions and Agreements of the Proprietors, Freeholders, and Inhabitants of the Province of West Jersey in America”, a seminal common law constitution housed in the 
Among eight Native American chiefs who amicably sold the land to the Quakers Oct. 10, 1677 was one highly esteemed for his nobility and integrity. To the rear of the 
Benjamin Franklin, author, inventor, statesman, first passed through Burlington in 1726. Tradition holds the 
Thus, the Revell House is sometimes called the Gingerbread House. The 
During the Revolution, in stark contrast to, and defiance of, his father, William Franklin was Royal Governor and the most intractable of Tory Royalists, until his arrest. The 
Similarly, lawyer James Kinsey (
In the War of 1812, Captain James Lawrence became the naval war hero. As commander of the 48-gun frigate U.S.S. Chesapeake
off Boston Harbor, on June 13, 1813 he accepted the challenge of Captain Phillip B. V. Broke aboard H.M.S. Shannon. Battle was joined, and in 15 minutes it became apparent that Lawrence’s rookie sailors lacked considerable experience. After taking a terrible battering at the hands of some of the best-trained sailors in the British Navy, the Chesapeake was boarded and Captain Lawrence, who had been mortally wounded, shouted to his men, 
and presented it to Commander Oliver H. Perry of the U.S.S. Lawrence, a ship named for James. Those colors flew during Perry’s Battle of Lake Erie rout of an entire squadron of British ships, and was made the motto of the U.S. Navy. There have been six American vessels commissioned in Capt. Lawrence’s honor. The motto flies among the flags of the 
General and later President Ulysses S. Grant safely ensconced his wife and children at 
