John Hart (born between 1706 and 1713 – May 11, 1779) was a public official in colonial New Jersey who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. A timeline of his contributions and service to the building of our nation may be found here along with family records. It begins at the bottom left column with John Hart, great grandfather of John Hart the signer, and ends with a descendant of John's son Edward, Urania m Lot Pratt. This account gives the ancestral lines of John and Deborah Scudder Hart. [1]
Sources disagree as to the year and place of John Hart's birth. He was perhaps born in 1706 in Stonington, Connecticut, or in 1713 in Hopewell Township, Hunterdon (now part of Mercer) County, New Jersey. On page 104 of Cooley's book he wrote that the baptism took place before the Presbyterian Church there was established according to the church records and that his father carried him to the church three miles from where he had settled.
Hart was baptized at the Maidenhead Meetinghouse (now the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville) on December 31, 1713. He was the son of Captain Edward Hart, a farmer, public assessor, Justice of the Peace, and leader of a local militia unit during the French and Indian War, and grandson of John Hart, a carpenter who came to Hopewell from Newtown, Long Island.
In 1741, John Hart married Deborah Scudder (1721 – 1776). The couple would have thirteen children: Sarah (m Jacob Wikoff), Jesse (m Martha Mattison), Martha (m John Wood), Nathaniel (m Elizabeth Stout), John (Jr. m Mary/Catherine Knowles), Susanna (m Major John Polhemus), Mary, Abigail,, (m Moses Stout), Edward (m Nancy Ann Stout), Scudder (Unknown), an infant daughter, Daniel (m Margaret Bunn), and Deborah (m Joseph Ott), of whom only Daniel and Deborah were still minor children at the time of John Hart's death in 1779. [2] [3] Deborah Hart predeceased her husband, dying October 28, 1776. In 1747 he donated a piece of land in his front meadow to local Baptists who had been seeking a place to build a church. The location was known for some time thereafter as the Old Baptist Meeting House. John Hart is buried there and a monument was set up there in his memory and dedicated July 4 1865.
16 April 1779 Hart, John of Hopewell, Hunterdon, NJ. Eldest son Jesse, the house and lot lately bought from Benjamin Stout including 79 acres. to son Nathaniel the land where testator lives including 193 acres, and he is to pay brother Daniel and sister Deborah when of age. To son Edward the 100 acres were Nathaniel now lives. Names underage granddaughter Mary Hart born of son John Hart if he fails to provide for her. His rights to land at Rocky Hill, Somerset Co. to be sold. Names daughter Sarah Wikoff, and underage daughter Deborah. Exe sons Jesse, Nathaniel and Edward and brother's son Levi Hart. Inventory 17 May 1779 Proved 26 May 1779. Source as cited above.
In June, 1776 John Hart was a member of a newly formed delegation to the Second Continental Congress from New Jersey. He signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. [4] [5]
In December 1776, the British advance into New Jersey reached Hunterdon County. A marked man due to his status as Speaker of the Assembly, Hart was obliged to escape and hide for a short time in the nearby Sourland Mountains. His farm was raided by British and Hessian troops, who damaged but did not destroy the property. The Continentals' capture of Trenton on December 26 allowed Hart to return home.
Prior to the Battle of Monmouth, Hart invited Gen. George Washington and the Continental Army to make camp on his farm, and his offer was accepted. From June 22–24, 1778, 12,000 men occupied his fields, and on at least one occasion Gen. Washington dined with their host.
In 1865, John Hart was disinterred from his unmarked grave in the family plot and reburied beneath a monument in the yard of the First Baptist Church of Hopewell, authorized by an Act of the Legislature (dated 5 April 1865) after citizen pressure to memorialize him appropriately. Documents associated with the dedication of the new monument were included in the official annual publication of the Legislature. These include several speeches and an extensive "oration and eulogy" by Governor Joel Parker that described his actions before and during the Revolution in detail, as well as his so-called kindness towards his slave Jack and other remembrances. There is an account of the dinner party, some of the conversation, the "relics" that were shown (including his Bible, a deed, and a piece of the table on which Jefferson wrote the Declaration). [6]
On page 87 are extracted Bible records. [7]
Children of John Hart. [8] [9] Extracts from Family Bible in John Hart's writing. Sarah, born October 16 [Year not legible], m Jacob Wykoff Jesse, born November (September) 19, 1742, m Martha Mattison Martha, born April 10, 1746 (1744), m John Wood Nathaniel, born October 29, 1747, m Betsy Stout John, born October 29, 1748, m Catherine Knowles Susannah, born August 2, 1750, m Major John Polhemus Mary, born April 7, 1752, died about age 30 Abigail, born February 10, 1754, m Moses Stout Edward, born December 20, 1755, m Nancy Stout Scudder, born December 30, 1759, died young A daughter, (nameless) born March 16, 1761. Daniel, born August 13, 1762, m Margaret Bund Deborah, born August 11 (21), 1765, m Joseph Ott.
John Hart owned four slaves at the time of his death.
Only Hannah was directly named in his will, who was willed to his daughter Deborah when she turned eighteen.
The 17 May 1779 inventory taken by Nathan Stout and Jared Sexton includes the following two entries
Hart may have owned other enslaved people prior to his death; Hammond mentions a Delbie, unnamed in the probate. Other sources for them are cited in the 1977 biography by Hammond, which includes a chapter titled "Slave Owner Hart" with details of people owned by John Hart, his children, and other family members.
The most documented of these is Jack, who is described in some sources as mulatto. The earliest biography of Hart, published in 1827, referenced "many characteristic anecdotes. recollected by his surviving friends. It is told, for example, that he had a negro servant named Jack, between whom and his master the best understanding always subsisted. " [11] which is the likely source for the story told at the dedication of the Hart monument in 1865.
"Mr. Hart was a man of great kindness of heart. It is told that he had a negro named Jack, who was a great favorite of his master. While Mr. Hart was absent, Jack committed some offence [sic] that subjected him to the charge of larceny of his master's goods. On his return, Mr. Hart was solicited by some of the family to punish Jack, but he refused, and declared that Jack could not steal from him, since he had confided all his moveables to his care, and nothing more than a breach of trust could be made of it." [12]
Hammond posits this event "probably occurred in 1759, when a notice appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette about the running away of one mulatto and three negro men. One of these belonged to Joseph Golden, Hart's nearest neighbor, and other was described as
'A Negroe man, named Jack, thick and well set, the property of John Hart, took with him a cloth coloured kersey coat, several shirts and pairs of breeches, shoes and stockings. Ten pounds will be given for taking up and bringing him back to his Master.' [13]
Hammond posits Jack is the same "Mulatto Jack" who reported a missing cow to the town of Hopewell 27 Nov 1768. [14] Hammond suggests "the fact that he had his own cow tends to support the tradition of friendship between the two." [15]
This statement is not sourced but is frequently repeated online.
"On his prosperous plantation Hart had many cattle, sheep, swine, horses and fowl, and he also owned four slaves." [16]
One way to source slaveholders is using New Jersey tax lists (aka "ratables") which include the number of slaves/indentured servants, acreage, and number of animals. This could be checked.
Typically, you could also verify whether a person owned slaves using the Documents book of probate abstracts (cited above). In the case of John Hart, only a dollar amount for his inventory was provided. The original inventory typically lists all possessions with a dollar value assigned. If the deceased owned slaves, they are listed by gender and age (sometimes name) and the value they were assigned by whomever took the inventory. The microfilmed copy of the original inventory could be checked when the State Archives reopens to see if he owned slave(s) at his death.
There are likely biographies or other sources that can be used to verify and better explain this aspect of Hart's history.
