In 1717 Joseph Borden settled here, bought up a substantial part of the land and changed the town’s name to Borden’s Towne. By 1740, he started a packet line from Philadelphia to Bordentown. Travelers would stop and rest in Borden’s Towne and then board the Borden Stage for Perth Amboy where they would make their ferry boat connections to New …
Richard Gilder (1844-1909)
Richard Watson Gilder was born on February 8, 1844 at Bordentown, New Jersey. He was the son of Jane (Nutt) Gilder and the Rev. William Henry Gilder, and educated at his father’s seminary in Flushing, Queens. There he learned to set type and published the St. Thomas Register. Gilder later studied law at Philadelphia. During the American Civil War, he …
Stephen Sayre (1736-1818)
Stephen Sayre was born in Long Island, graduated from Princeton University and served as a captain of militia in the last of the French and Indian Wars. At about thirty years of age, Sayre visited England and was part of the thousand-strong American community living in London during the outbreak of the War of Independence. He was chosen High Sheriff …
Susan Waters (1823-1900)
Born in Binghamton NY May 18 1823 she died in Trenton NJ at the Quaker Nursing home July 7, 1900. Susan Waters first arrived in Bordentown in the mid 1850’s and then returned to stay in 1866. She lived on Mary Street with her husband and parents until she sold her home in 1899 to move to the nursing home. …
Patience Wright (1725-1786)
A woman ahead of her time Patience Lovell Wright was born on Long Island in 1725. She moved to Bordentown at age 4 with her family. At 23 Patience married an elderly Quaker Farmer Joseph Wright. They lived at 100 Farnsworth Ave. in Bordentown City. Together they had five children; the last Sarah was born after Joseph’s death. At the …
Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844)
Several years after the banishing of his family from France in 1816, arriving under vigilant disguise as the Count de Survilliers, Joseph Bonaparte, former King of Naples and Spain and brother to Napoleon I of France, purchased the Point Breeze Estate near Bordentown from American patriot, Stephen Sayre. He lived there for 17 years, entertaining guests of great fame such …
Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791)
Francis Hopkinson, member of the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence lived in this town. His beautiful home is still standing, a treasure on the National Register of Historic Places. It was used as British headquarters when the town was occupied during the Revolutionary War. Francis’ son Joseph, author of our first national anthem, Hail Columbia, resided …
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
Thomas Paine was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. He authored the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution and inspired the patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of transnational human rights. Historian Saul K. Padover described him as “a corsetmaker by trade, a …
Clara Barton (1821-1912)
Born in North Oxford Massachusetts on Christmas Day 1821 Clara Barton arrived into a large family of teachers and educators. The youngest of five children Clara learned early the importance of education, caring and self reliance. She was 10 years younger then her youngest sibling, 3 out of 4 of her brother and sisters were teachers. When her brother David …