Edmund Bainbridge, Sr.

Biography

https://archive.org/details/ancestryofwillia00defo/page/16/mode/2up

3 . EDMUND 3 BAINBRIDGE, according to a family record, was born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in 1702 and died on February 9, 1771. The year of his death, however, was probably 1770, as his will was proved that year in April. He married one Abigail, of whom nothing further is known, except that the family record states she died in 1770.

The first mention of Edmund 3 was on November 6, 1730, when he was one of the signers of an agreement to build a parsonage for the Presbyterian Church. John Bainbridge, presumably his brother, but perhaps his father, also signed this document. Edmund is next heard of in 1733, when he seized property belonging to his deceased father and was sued for it in 1738 by his brother John and his fellow executor. We also find that Edmund complained that John had property belonging to him and brought suit against him in 1737.

Most of the references to Edmund 3 in the records relate to the serious difficulties in which he placed himself in 1747 because of his fears that the proprietors were going to take away some of his land. On April 7, 1747, he wrote a private letter to Nathaniel Camp of Newark about this threat and the measures being taken to prevent it. ‘ If I lost my Estate,’ he wrote, ‘ and could not live in fassion should chuse an unknown land.’ The letter got into unknown hands and was forwarded to Chief Justice Morris of New Jersey, Edmund being referred to as ‘ one of the Newark Committee ’ on the land question. With others ‘ disaffected ’ he signed a congratulatory address to Governor Belcher in 1747, apparently in the hope of receiving assistance from the Executive. His son, John 4 , was active with him in his protests and early in 1747, probably in May, father and son were leaders of a mob of rioters which broke open the jail at Somerset and rescued some men charged with high treason. John was caught and placed in jail at Perth Amboy being ‘ indicted for a Riot in Somerset County and presented at Hunterdon County Sessions’.

On July 17, 1747, Edmund led a mob, variously estimated as between seventy and two hundred persons, to the Perth Amboy Jail and rescued his son. The Sheriff had a writ for Edmund on a charge of high treason and arrested him but he was taken out of the hands of the law and the rescuing party got away. A spectator wrote to Chief Justice Morris that ‘ Bainbridge the Father and his Son had (afterwards) the Impudence Attended by a few more to ride through the town ’. Serious charges were prepared against Edmund Bain¬ bridge reading: ‘ Indicted for a Riot in Somerset County, Recorded for a Riot in Middlesex County, Indicted for High Treason in Middlesex County, and presented for a Riot at Hunterdon County Sessions of the Peace ’. However, he seems to have escaped punish¬ ment and on August 18, 1748, he and his son John took oaths and gave bonds, taking ‘ the Benefit of the late Act of Grace; Entitled, An Act to Pardon the Persons guilty of the Insurrections, Riots, and disorders raised and Committed in this Province.’

The plantation owned by Edmund, or at least part of his property, was situated on Stony Brook, East Jersey.

No further record is known of Edmund 3 until July 16, 1763, when his will was made. It was not probated until April 16, 1770. He mentions his wife, Abigail, and his children, Abigail, Sarah, Absalom, John, Peter and Edmund. Bequests are made to his grandchildren, namely: Edmund, son of Peter; Edmund, son of John; Edmund, son of Edmund; Sarah Hall, Catherine Hall and Francis Hall.

Issue :

• i. ABIGAIL 4 .
• ii. sarah 4 , who probably married first, by marriage license dated November 23, 1738, Theopnilus Stevens of Trenton. She may have married, secondly,-Hall, and had issue.
• 4 . iii. PETER 4 , of whom further.
• iv. edmund 4 , who died in 1804, according to his will. Family record says aged 76 years, therefore born in or about 1728. He married Eleanor -and left two sons and two daughters. He resided at Maidenhead
• v. john 4 , who died in April 1775. It was probably he who married Sarah Doughty of Princeton by marriage license dated January 24, 1740. He married in 1745, Frances Phillips, daughter of Theophilus. She predeceased him. He left three sons and two daughters. He resided at Maidenhead.
• vi. absalom 4 , who was born in 1742, and died in 1807. He married Mary, daughter of John Taylor, a prominent Loyalist and H.M. Lord High Commissioner for New Jersey. Princeton, B.A., 1762. Ibid, M.A., 1765, Justice of Peace, Hunterdon County, 1770. Studied medicine and practiced in Maidenhead and Princeton, N.J., and Flatbush and New York, N.Y. Loyalist and surgeon with British forces. President, New Jersey Medical Society, 1773. Received pension, half-pay and other allowances from British government. Had fourteen children of whom seven died in infancy. Among the others were the celebrated Com¬ modore William Bainbridge, Captain Joseph Bainbridge, U.S. Navy, and Phoebe, who married Dr. John Maclean

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References

• Ancestry of William Seaman Bainbridge, by De Forest, Louis Effingham, Publisher Oxford : Scrivener Press, 1950. Page 17-19. < Archive.Org >