| ^ l jt=^?^ l ^^ft^'MMIMIk^i|LVli|MIL^i|Mi|MIL^^^ Gloucester County's Most Famous Citizen General Franklin Davenport 1755-1832 By Frank H. Stewart President of the Gloucester County Historical Society Gloucester County's Most Famous Citizen GENERAL FRANKLIN DAVENPORT 1755-1832 SicvJj.-, Lj ■A . GLOUCESTER COUNTY DEMOCRAT PRINT WOODBURY. N. J. 1921 Qm ••'■H Gloucester County's Most Famous Citizen Address delivered at the North Woold^ ibury Presbyterian Grave Yard, "by Frank ■H. Stewart, President of the Gloucester County Historical Society, the day of its annual meeting, January 11, 1921, when a memorial stone was dedicated to the memory of General Franklin Daven- port ; also, at the annual meeting of the Old Gloucester County Chapter S^ons of the iRevolution, held Tuesday evening, February 8, 1921, at the home of its President, Cooper and Rugby Streets, Woodbury, N. J. iReprinted, with additions, from Glou- cester County Democrat, March 17, 1921. We are gathered here today to pay tribute - to Gloucester County's most famous citizen, an officer of the Revolu- tion, anki' at the time of his decease a Major General of Militia, the ranking officer of the iState of New Jersey, hav- ing been in the military service of New Jersey for over 56 years — ^1775-1832. He was born in Philadelphia in iSep- tember, 1755. The parents of General Davenport were Josiah Franklin Daven- port and Ann Annis, married in Christ Church. Piiiladelphia. December 1.3. 1751. She was the daughter of Wil iam and Patience Story Annis, the latter a daugh- of Enoch Story, tlie elder a well-known citiz.-n of Philadeli'hia, around the year 1700. William Annis was a mariner and had two other daughters. Mnry. who mar- ried Etioch Story, probably a relative, Apr'; 13 175S, and Sarah, who married Joseph Kirll, February 21, 1753. Sarah Kirll, the aunt of (ieneral Davenport, died a widow in Woodbury July 8. 1809, according to the diary of Samuel Mickle She eft her estate to Deborah Daven- port, the sister of the General. De- b r 'i di(-d Mav 4 18-M asrod 63. Ann Davenport died September 25, ISOl. Ac- cording to Mickle both the mother and sister of the General were buried in tlie Presbyterian grave yard and the obitu- ary notice of his death says he was buried -beside his relatives. In 1769 Josiah F. Daveni>ort was part owner of a new foair-horse stage route between Philadelphia and New York. At that time he kept t tavern on Third street near Chestnut street, Philadel- phia, known as the "Sign of the Bunch of Grapes." He removed to Burlington, N. J., where on February 22, 1773, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Bur'ington County by Governor Franklin. He was the Sheriff of the Couniy in 1776 and probably died there within a year, because the last record available of him is of August, 1776, when he was paid for board of Gov- ernor Wm. Franklin, who had been ar- rested by instruction of the Continental Congress. In 1777 there was another 'Sheriff of Burlington County. On July 1, 1778, Ann, his wife on widow, advertised a boarding school for young 'adies under twelve years of age in "her lai-ge and airy house in Bur- lington." The father of Benjamin Franklin was named Josiah, sio it is likely that the Davenports were related to the Frank- lins. It is quite possiole that he was a descendant of Francis Davenport, one of the lirst prominent settlers of Bur- lington County. In .1775 he was study- ing 'aw in Burlington in the office of John Lawrence. Esq.. a relative of Cap- tain James Lawrence. He was clerk of the Burlington County Court in Feb- ruary. 1778. After the battle of Lexington, he im- mediately volunteed as a private in Captain James iSterllng's Company and served until Dec. 22. 1776, when he was promoted to Brigade Major and served under Colonels 'Griffin, Newcomb and Penrose until January 26, 1777. From the spring of 1777 to 1782 he was en- rolled under Captain Hugg. He was a participant in the battles of Trenton and Princeton, also in the actioais at Coopers' Creek and Saunders Hill on Mantua Creek where he commanded a piece of artillery as Captain-Lieutenant under Captain Samuel Hugg. While I have no evidence to sub- stantiate it, it is highly probable that he was in the Artillery Company lo- cated on the farm of Tench F'T.:ici^ on the Delaware River front near Wood- bury and opposite Hog Island when vlie British fleet destroyed Fort Mifflin. An English wai map r.f Nov. 26, 1777, shows 4 Gloucester County s Most Famous Citizen that among the ships engaged were the Isis, Somerset, Roebuck, Liverpool and I'earl, and that they concentrated their fire on the American Artillery "n the Jersey shore which consisted of tvvo eighteen pounders and two nin" pound- ers. The American account contained in a letter of William Bradford to Thomas Wharton said there were two pieceo there on Nov. 16. 1777. On February 25, 1778, he was appoint- ed Brigade Quartermaster under Col. Ellis at Haddonfield, and on June -i, 1778. Assistant Quartermaster for Gloucester County until the following winter, after which time the eneu.y never appeared in this part of New Jer- sey. From then on he was always in the New Jersey Militia serving in the capacity of Lieut. Colonel of the Second Regiment Gloucester Co. Militia from June 5th. 1703. to Nov. 4, 1796, when lie was appointed Brigadier General of the Gloucester Brigade and was at the time of his death, July 27, 1832, Majr-r (General of the First Division of the New Jersey Militia. Although enfeebled by old age and gout and harassed by the sheriff and various creditors who stripped him of all of his real estate and personal prop- erty, including his household furniture and law library, the courageous old sol- d'er never claimed or applied for a pen- sion until seventeen days before his death, and I strongly suspect that even fhon it was only done to assist his wife, who was of a distinguished family and who lived at least until 1852. General Davenport, May 18, 1804, married Sarah Barton Zantzinger, born ■>t Lancaster, Pa., March 9, 1778, the daughter of Paul and Esther Barton Znnt7inger. Esther Barton was the daughter of Rev. Thomas and Esther Rittenhouse Barton, married at Swedes Church, Philadelphia. Dec. 8, 1753. The latter, the srandniother of Mrs. Daven- nort, was the sister of David Ritten- house. the famous patriot, scientist and first director of the LT. S. Mint where his office was on the spot where I now have mine. It will be noticed that General Daven- port was in his 40th year at the time of his marriage which was, so far as I I-now, his first and only one. Diligent poar^h has failed to find a prior one. His portrait, a copy of which I now show '■ou. made by the celebrated artist, St. Momin. in 1708, was therefore made when lu> was a bachelor. St. Memin also made a portrait of Rebecca Dnvenport, the sister of the General, at the same time. She was probably the keeper of a refined board- ing house in Woodbury and was very active in the social, religious and educa- tional affairs of our town. She and her mother both died before the General and he was buried beside them in this aban- doned grave yard, the ownership of which is disjmted because of a lien for the sideivalk, probably tlirough igno- rance, because the title of the neglected place lies m the trustees of the Presoy- terian Church of this town. The old trii.ytfes died without reeonveying tiie ground to a new and younger group of trustees as was the custom of religious bodies one or two centuries ago. Capt. Archibald Moffett was one of the trus- tees of record and he died in 1816. He was the ancestor of Louis B. Moffett. General Davenport was clerk of Gloucester County Court in 1775, prob- ably a substitute clerk, and Prosecutor of the Pleas for Gloucester County drr- ing the Revolution, also a practicing lawyer. In 1781 he lived in the town of Glou- cester and had a horse and riding chair. His name appears on the 1783 Deptford Township assessment without a list of any kind of property. In 1784 he was assessed as a single man with two horses and a riding chair, also a "house and lot. On Nov. 6, 1794. he was defeated in the N. J. Legislature for Secretary of State by Samuel W. Stockton. On November 17, 1801. he was ap- pointed Master in Chancery and served until the office was vacated March 1, 1803. He was chairman of the mass meetings hold in Wnodhnrv in Nmv 1819, to fisht the contemplated removal of the county seat and public buildings from Woodbury to Camden when the Delaware river bridge seemed a cer- tainty. In Oct. 1827. General Davenport was a defeated candidate for the Clerkship of the House of Assemblv of N. J. On the first ballot he received ten of - the thirtv-niup votes cist for four candi- dates. After several ballots William L. Prall vi'as elected. The financial difficulties of General Davenport seem to have begun in Dec. 1819. because between that date and Feb. 24. 1822, he gave six or more mortgages. Sheriff Ti.nofh Doughtv. who was also a General of M'litia. made record of the sale of G'iTieral Davenport's household effp-ts April .30. 18'^S. in pl^f-e of (^ol. John Baxter, late Sheriff, who had died Avithout issuing execution against liis friend Davennnrt. The list included a lihrnry of l:nv and other books, some of which are now in possession of the Gloucester County's Most Famous Citizen Gloucester Co. Historical Society; also 6 beds and beddiug, 30 chairs, 10 tables, lots of carijeting, 3 bureaus, 10 looking glasses, andirons, s-hovels and tongs, crockery ware, cups and saucers, side, board, decanters, glassware, etc. Ail otlier housohold and kitchen furniture, together with his garden tools. On April 24, 1829, his wife, Sarah Barton Davenport, gave a quit claim to James G. Clark for a dower right, also another one as his widow on April 7, 1S34, to the Camden State Bank. It is quite likely that she left the vicinity of Woodbury, because I find no trace of her residence here after that date. My presumption is that she returned to her relatives in Lancaster, iPa., and tried to forget the financial diflSculties that wor- ried her and her distinguished husband. Sheriff Jesse Smith recorded Feb. 10, 1832, to Dr. John G. Clarke, of Philadel- phia, the deeds for two brick dwelling houses bought by General Davenport of John and Ruth Sparks: one of them was decupled by the General, the other by his sister Deborah. At this lime the gallant soldier of the Revolution, crippled by the infirmities of life, with no roof over his head, nnd divested of even his furniture and books, must have been in a sorry plight, and it is no wonder that his death soon fol- lowed and that the undertaker's expense was only three dollars. It shows the truth of the old saying that "A man once had tiiree dollars and three friends. He loaned the three dollars to the three friends and lo! he had no dollars and no friends." The following obituary notice was printed in the True American for Au- gust 4, 1832, also in the United States Gazette of Philadelphia on July 31, 1832, under the heading, "Another Revolu- tionary Soldier Gone": "At Woodbury, New Jersey, on the morning of the 27th ult., General Frank- lin Davenport, in the 77th year of bis age. His remains were deposited in the burial ground near Woodbury on Satur- day afternoon last by the side of ftis relatives. As it is contemplated by his friends to give a short history of his valuable life, it is considered unneces- sary to say more upon this melancholy subject at this time than is contained in this notice." A search has failed to disclose anything that has ever been printed beyond this adequately describ- ing the patriotism and civic virtues of our most famous soldier-statesman. For the reflection of those who call his- torians and genealogists fossils and bugs. I will say that if it were not for 5 the Gloucester County Historical So- ciety that even at this late date eighty- eight years after his decease the forget- ful and forgotten friends of General Davenport would have succeeded in bury- ing the story of his life with the same lack of care used in his burial. They probably felt that even his tombstone would have been destroyed and his burial place disowned by its custodians as has actually happened with other tombstones in the neglected and dis- owned graveyard of the Presbyterian Church of Woodbury, given by a man named Tatum over two centuries ago. Fortunately it has not yet been con- demned for a public park like the old Stran.?ers burial ground where the continental soldiers killed at the battle of Rod Bank were buried and then bar- tered away and used for private pur- poses. When Cape May was a famous resort of America and the vacation place of sLntesmen, General Franklin Davenport was a frequent and popular visitor. He generally stayed at a hotel kept by a man named Edmunds and he named one of his sons after Franklin Davenport. The present Franklin Davenport Ed- munds of Philadelphia perpetuates the name of his uncle. There was also an Admiral in the U. S. Navy who named his son Franklin Davenport Zantzinger. The present surrogate of Gloucester Co. i^ nimed Franklin Davenport Fedrick and has an opportunity to examine the records made by General Davenport when he was the surrogate. There was also a Franklin Davenport Howell, probably a relativf of Governor Howell, who was a friend of General Davenport. In Book A of our Orphans Court Records, it is recorded that Franklin Davenport on February 1.5. 1785, took the oath of office as surrogate of Gloucester County and as Clerk of ihe Court before Judge John Wilkins. He thus ber>arne the first surrogate of our county after the Revolution. A month later. March 1.5th, John Cooper, Joseph Hugg and John Wilkins were affirmed as Judges of the Court. Judge Cooper was a member of Continental Congress. He died on April 1st after five years' service as a Judge and was buried in the Friends' grave vard of Woodbury. At the time of liis death the General was the oldest practicing member of the N J. Bar. He was licensed as an at- torney at law in Nov. 1776. He was made a sergeant at law in April 1797. Dr. MacGeorge says he was also a J'Hlsre. He was appointed Master and Examiner in Chancery Court May 27, 1826, to succeed E. D. Woodruff. Gloucester County's Most Famous Citizen He was a founder and on the first board of Trustees of Woodbury Acad- emy in 1791. He was president of the Board in 1820. He was a founder and first Vice- President of the Gloucester Co. Bible Society founded April 29, 1816. He was one of the founders of the Woodbury Fire Co., founded March 16, 1799. He was a founder, first President and attorney or the Gloucester Co. Aboli- tion Society founded April 27, 1793. _ It ceased to exist when laws preventing slavery were passed by New Jersey. He was a founder of the Union Library Co. Founded April 24, 1794, incorporated April 21, 1814, as the Woodbury Library Co. He was its president in 1803 and served for several years. The library still exists here in our city library, and is one of the oldest ones in the United States. General Davenport's career as a Freemason was not the least of his many activities. He was at the 1791 sessi->n of the New Jersey Grand Lodge as a visiting brother. At the July 3rd, 1792, meeting he was recorded present as a Past Master. He was made a Mason in Trenton Lodge No. 5, Nov. 15, 1790. He demit^ed July 2, 1792, and with twelve others made application to the Grand Lodge the following day for a warrant for a new lodge at Woodbury. He was brst Worshipful Master of Woodbury Lodge No. 11 and served for several yeiirs. He served continuously 1792 to 1818 inclusive, and when the Lodge was destroyed by fire in 1817, to- gether with its jewels, records and fur- niture, he was its ofiicial head and was instrumental in securing a new warrant and an appropriation of one hundred dollars from the Grand Lodge to rebuild the Lodge room. He was active as an officer of the Grand Lodge for over twenty years. At the December 31st, 1792, meeting, he served as Junior Grand Warden pro tem. July 1, 1795, he acted as Junior Deacon of the Grand Lodge. In 1798 he was Junior Warden protem. From 1805 to 1815 he served as Junior Grand Warden and in 1810 and 1811 acted as Senior Grand Warden pro tem. During 1815-16-17 he was Senior Grand War- den and in 1817 Deputy Grand Master pro tem. On Juno 6th, 1809. he installed John Dunham as Master of Friendship Lodge No 22. at Port Elizabeth, and in 1811. installed the oflRcers and consecrated the new hall of the new Lodge known as Sharptown Lodge No. 32. Among my first recollections is the demolition of this Salem County landmark on the site now occupied by the general store of William Richman. The application for the Charter of Woodbury Lodge No. 11 was signed by General Davenport, Joseph Ellis, Thomas Hodgson, Benjamin H. Tallman, John Blackwood, Benjamin Whitall, Joshua Howell, Jr., Champion Wood, Elijah Cozens. Amos Pearce, William Rice, Samuel Clement and Joseph P. Hillman. Its first oflicers were, in 1792: Frank- lin Davenport Master; John Blackwood, Senior Warden; Champion Wood, Junior AVaitlen. In 1794, he was Master and James Hopkins was Junior Warden. In 1797, General Davenport was still the Master; Thomas Wilkins, Junior War- den; Amos Pearce, Treasurer. Rev. Andrew Hunter and Joseph Ellis were Masrcrs of two of the Army Lodges of 1782, the former of Lodge No. 36 of the Niw Jersey Line and the latter of No. 32 of Burlington. Rev. Andrew Hunter was Woodbury's most famous clergyman and his first wife is buried in the disowned graveyard in North Woodbury. His second wife was a daughter of Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Col. Joseph Ellis, it will be noticed, was one of the Charter members of No. 11 of Woodbury. General Joseph Bloomfield, who gave the AVoodbury Academy school lot to us for educational purposes, was Past Master of Bristol, Pa.. Lodge, in De- cember, 1786. He was later a Governor of New Jersey and a life long friend of General Davenport, and probably lived in Woodbury at oae time. Col. Elijah Clark of Woodbury, also buried at North Woodbury, was Deputy Grand Secretary of the New Jersey Grand Lodge in 1796. His son. Major Lardner Clark, removed to Tennessee and became the first merchant of Nash- ville. He was also a Philadelphia mer- chant and lived near Haddonfield. Elisha Clark, brother of Major Lard- ner Clark, was Clerk of the Gloucester County Courts and a well-known Wood- burian. Among tht members of Woodbury Lodge No. 11, in addition to those already mentioned as members, were: Lucius H. Stockton, James B. Caldwell. Isaac Kay. Samuel Chatham. After 1800. ^he following aiipear: Thomas West. Joshua Ladd Howeli. James M. AVhitall, Day- ton Lumm;.R, Daniel Cooper, John Zane, John Cade, John Dunham, John E. Jeffers, Master in 1823, Jeremiah J. Foster. William Newburn, Isaac Hincii- man and .Tesse Price. Gloucester Count fs Most Famous Citizen It is ihiglily probable that with the de- cease of General Davenport, the guiding star of Woodbury Lodge No. 11, that it ceased work. Nothing appears of record after his oecease and the Lodge, together with a great many others, ivas stricken off the list of Member Lodges of the New Jersey Grand Lodge in 1841. Brearley of Bridgeton is today the only existing Lodge in South Jersey that was contemporaneous with No. 11. The grand officers who occasionally visited Woodbury No. 11 always ex- pressed sati.-)ifaction re,garding its of- fir-ers and its orderly conduct. iHe was the only Gloucester Countian that ever sat in the TTnited States Sen- ate, Dec. 5, 1798, to Feb. 27, 1799. On March 4, 1799, he took his seat in the U. S. Congress and served one term of two years, having been elected in Nov. 1798. Hiq service in the Senate was by appointment of Governor Richard Howell to fill a vacancy. While Surrogate, he wrote on page 146 of his office record the following: The Surrogate of the County of Gloucester. Franklin Davenport, having marched from Trenton, N. J., through Pennsylvania to Pittsburg as Colonel Commandant of a detachment of New •Jersey Militia consisting of seven hun- dred and twenty-four rank and file with a double proportion of Field and Staff officers by order of the President of the United States. George Washington, to assist in nuelling an insurrection raised by the patriots of the day. Fr. Davenport. Note — I left Woodbury the 18th of Sept.. 1794, and returned home the last of December fodowing. Fr. Davenport. Benjamin Whitall, Jr., was a surgeon on this expedition. In some of his writings a similarity exists between his penmanship and that of George Washington, the oval char- acter of his letters being very unusual. The Ghnicester Co. Historical So- ciety has- a cannon ball about the size of an orange which was one of two found by Clayton S Thompson on his farm, which "was undoubtedly fired down the old Kings highway that crossed the Bodo Otto farm just below the present sand stone dwelling house. We know that Franklin Davenport was there and it is easy to imagine had something to do with the actual dis- charge of the field piece that sent it across from the Otto house to the Thompson farm. Our secretary, Mr. Carter, who was raised in the Otto place, remembers plowing across the abandoned Kings Highway that cro'^sed his father's field to avoid the deep waters of Saunders run. Because of the fact that the tW3 I ire Companies of Woodbury have sent dele- gations to pay their share of respect to the memory of General Davenport, it is fitting to add a • few special remarks about the Woodbury Fire Company. THE WOODBURY FIRE COMPANY Until Samuel Mickle, diarist and mer- chant of Woodbury, proposed on April 29, 1793, that the inhabitants of Wood- bury furnish themselves with fire buck- ets, nothing had been done for fire pro- tection. This was apparently done be- cause on May 5, 1799, Friends Pre- parative Meeting of Woodbury sub- scribed thiity pounds for the encour- agement of a lately proposed fire com- pany. The two schools in Woodbury subscribed forty dollars each besides fire buckets. It would, therefore, seem that before this time in accordance with the suggestion that Friend Mickle had made six years before that a subscrip- tion be collected for the purchase of fire buckets had been adopted and that the buckets had been placed with the Academy and the Deptford Free Schools. On Dec. 12, 3799. Franklin Daven- port appeared before the Board of Free- holders on behalf of the Woodbury Fire Company and requested assistance for the purchase of the fire engine and other apparatus, and succeeded in securing an appropriation of $200.00 to be paid by the County Collector or Treasurer on or before the first of the ensuing year. The fire engine, wdiich cost 1.35 pounds or $432.00. was delivered July 8. 1799. A subscription list dated April 27, "!V99, includes among others the name of Franklin Davenport, who sub- scribed eight dollars. This list hangs in the house of Friendship Fire Co. and the engine, strange to say, has es- . caped destmction and is now a venerable relic of AVoodbury. and is also in pos- session of the Friendship Co. as a di- rect successor of the original company. I have been informed that about half a^ doen wells were dug on the most de- sirable locations for fighting fires in Woodbury. I have often tried to locate them but \vithout success; although Mr. Benjamin W. Cloud said he would write me giving the locations I have never gotten the information. I desire to express my appreciation for assistance from iFrank Willing Leach. Dr. Carlos E. Godfry. Dr. Wal- lace MacGeorge, and Isaac Cherry, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of F. & A. M. of New Jersey. LIBR/ Conservation Resources Lie-Free® Tvm I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 01 1 698 235 3