THE SUTTON FAMILY OF NEW JERSEY
JONATHAN 4 (Zebulon 3, Daniel 2, William 1)Lived in Bedminster Township, Somerset County, where he paid, in 1787, taxes on one hundred and fifty acres of land, amounting to F2, 12s., 8d. He md., about 1761, Rachel 5 Colyer, who was born March 12, 1740. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church at Basking Ridge, and after his removal, about 1789-90, to Sparta, in Sussex County, was an elder in the local Presbyterian Church until his death, on Feb. 2, 1818, at the age of eighty-three years. His wife, Rachel, died at Sparta, April 12, 1810, age seventy years. Jonathan 4 was a Revolutionary soldier, and, like his brother Uriah, held a captain's commission. He was always referred to by his immediate descendants as "the Captain" The facts of his service and losses, the hardships and suffering of his wife and children during his absence in the field, owing to the ravages of the Hessians, we have from the statements of his son Jacob (died 1852) and Jacob's wife, Hannah (died 1862), to their grandson, the Rev. J. Ford Sutton, D. D. (born 1827). From this authority we learn that Jonathan 4, and his brothers Uriah 4, and Joseph 4, were present at the battle of Monmouth, and bore their testimony to the great suffering of the troops on account of the intense heat. We are told how his family would sit up all night to make cartridges, with windows darkened for fear of spies, and how the Hessians came and pitched the sheaves from the stacks of wheat till their horses waded "up to the belly" in it, and how, turning the mother and children out of the house, they plundered it of what they desired, and destroyed the remainder. How near Captain Jonathan came to losing the powder that was in his charge is another incident. He had removed it from its hiding-place under a stack of buckwheat straw only the night before a squad of cavalry came in search of it. They tore the stack to pieces, and were much exasperated to find only the place where it had lain. Children:
Note about Jonathan: some in Handwriting: Jonathan Sutton's Record Discovered. He was Sergeant in Capt.
John Polhemus' Company 1st Regt. New Jersey Troops from Oct. 29,
1775 (Signed) The Military Sec., War Dept., Washington D. C. Printed Note before that one which was in handwriting; Unfortunately, Jonathan 4 Sutton's name does not appear in the "Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey" (compiled by Adjutant-General Stryker). The author, however, does not claim that the "Register" is absolutely complete, since the rolls from which it was compiled were often very carelessly kept and quite imperfect. Note: Rachel 5 Colyer (John 4, Thomas 3, Moses 2, Thomas 1
Colyer) Of Hingham, Mass. 1635) Wife of Jonathan 4 Sutton, was
dau. of John 4 and Hannah Colyer (Collyer or Collir) of
Bernardsville, Somerset Co., New Jersey. His will was proved
1779. Jonathan Sutton being a witness. Another daughter, Grace
Colyer m. about 1761, Joseph 4 Doty, son of Jonathan 3 Doty. The following account of the losses in the Revolution of Henry 4 Sutton (Joseph 3, Thomas 2, William 1) may be of interest. Henry 4 was a private of N. J. State Troops, and one of the Middlesex County "Committee of Observation:" (Then it names the stuff which I won't bother to copy) ZEBULON 5 (Jonathan 4, Zebulon 3, Daniel 2, William 1)Married, March 2, 1786, Mary, born August 30, 1768, dau. of Edward and Martha Lewis. He died July 1, 1826, at Newfoundland, N. J., and was buried there. His wife, Mary, removed to Penn. and died April 7, 1856. He was an elder of the Presbyterian Church, and a soldier of the Revolution (see Stryker's "Officers and men of New Jersey," page 776). His descendants, by the line of his eldest son Nathan, live at Gardner, Grundy County, Ill. Children:
MARK 6 (Zebulon 5, Jonathan 4, Zebulon 3, Danied 2, William 1)Married Dec. 6, 1826, Lydia Young, born Aug. 4, 1803. His descendats live at Muncy, Lycoming County, Pa. Children:
JACOB 5 (Jonathan 4, Zebulon 3, Daniel 2, William 1)Lived in Hardyston Township, Sussex County, N. J. Married March 18, 1797, Hannah Rorick born April 21, 1777. (She was daughter of Michael Rorick, born in Bergen County, April 10, 1749, died at Franklin Furnace, Sussex county, Oct. 28, 1832; and Lucretia Hardin, born in Mass. Feb. 21, 1752, died at Franklin Furnace, Sept. 12, 1834: they were married in 1774. (The name Rorick was originally spelled Rohrig, and is probably of Palatine German origin.) Jacob Sutton died Dec. 27, 1852, age seventy-nine; his wife died March 27, 1862, age eighty -five. Children:
Note: Catharine 6, died April 19, 1891, survived by six children. One of these, Captain Lewis Van Blarcom, is a leading lawyer of Sussex County. He married, Aug. 17, 1871, Mary, daughter of Dr. Alexander H. Thompson, and has children, Katharine and Andrew. MICHAEL 6 Rorick (Jacob 5, Jonathan 4, Zebulon 3, Daniel 2, William 1)Lived in Hardyston Township, Sussex County, N. J., near Franklin Furnace. Married, March 29, 1822, Elizabeth Forrester, born Jan. 23, 1799. She was daughter of Peter Forrester (son of an Englishman, so said tradition but there is an old New Jersey family of Forrester). Joan Forrester, and Anna Briscarrick, Scotch and Celtic, and Katharine Pietersen (dau. of daniel Pietersen, a man of Dutch ancestry, and Eva Hardt). Michael R. Sutton died Jan. 6, 1881, age eighty-four, in Romeo, Mich., whither he removed in 1856. His wife died in Romeo, Jan 6, 1865, age sixty-six. Children:
Note: The father of Eva Hardt, who married Daniel Pietersen, was a well-to-do German of the Rhenish Palatinate. He fled from the civil and religious disturbances of his native state to America about 1735, accompanied by his wife, his daughter Eva, and four other children. He had paid passage for all in full; but, when he died at sea, the captain of the vessel not only seized the entire effects of the widow (including some valuable old silver), but, on reaching port, sold her and her children as redemptioners. Such abuses were only too common in those days. A reminiscence of Eva Hardt's old home on the Rhine is perhaps not unworthy of notice, as showing how slight a tradition may survive the lapse of nearly two centuries. Her father owned a vineyard, and in the time of the vintage she and other children, standing at upper windows of opposite houses, would fill their mouths with the sweet must, and try which could spurt it farthest into the street below. It may be imagined that, in thrifty German households, this did not occur very often. This book was published by Wellington Sutton on the SUTTON Mailing List Invite your online SUTTON cousins to use the handy subscription form at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/5248/ |
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