JAMES H. DEVLIN. Jr.,
Of Boston, Mass.
President of the Boston Charitable Irish Society, now in its 172d Year.
Thomas P. Johnson, Noted Lawyer One Hundred Years Ago.
Among the distinguished men who have adorned the New Jersey bar few, in their day, were held in higher repute for eloquence and extensive legal knowledge, and especially for intellectual vigor and versatility of talent, than Thomas P. Johnson.
He was born about the year 1761. His parents were Friends. His father, William Johnson, a native of Ireland, emigrated to this country about 1747. He married Ruth Potts, of Trenton. Thomas was their second child. When he was quite small the family removed to Charleston, S. C., where the father established a flourishing boarding-school and gained much repute by his lectures on various branches of Natural Philosophy. His fondness for such studies seemed to have been inherited by the son, who even in his later years continued to turn his attention to them. The father died in the South, after a residence of some years there. The mother, with five children, returned to her native state, and with the aid of her brother opened a store in Trenton. There Thomas was placed an apprentice to a carpenter[[3]] and joiner. After following this business some time he was compelled, by a rupture of a blood vessel in the lungs, to abandon it. He then engaged in teaching in Hunterdom County and afterwards in Bucks County, Pa.—later then in Philadelphia. For this profession he had rare qualifications. Few men had such powers of communication; few could so simplify truth, and throw an interest around it to captivate the youthful mind.
[3]. The annexed anecdote was communicated to the compiler by a resident of Trenton: At one of the neighboring courts a dispute arose between Johnson and his opponent respecting a point of law, during which the latter remarked in a taunting, derisive manner, “That he was not to be taught law by a carpenter.” “May it please your honors,” replied Mr. Johnson, “the gentleman has been pleased to allude to my having been a carpenter. True, I was a carpenter. I am proud of it. So was our Lord and Saviour. And I could yet, given a block of wood, a mallet and a chisel, hew something that would very much resemble that gentleman’s head. True, I could not put in brains, but it would have more manners.”
While in Philadelphia a mercantile house took him in partnership, and sent him to Richmond, Va., where the firm opened a large store. There he became well acquainted with Chief Justice Marshall, and often had the privilege of listening to the first lawyers in the Old Dominion. This probably led to his turning his thoughts to the bar. After a few years the loss of his store and goods by fire caused him to return to the scenes of his youthful days. He took up his residence at Princeton, there married a daughter of Robert Stockton, and entered his name as a student of law in the office of the Hon. Richard Stockton. In due time he was admitted to the bar as an attorney and counselor. His career was brilliant. Whether arguing points of law, or spreading a case before a jury, he was always heard with fixed attention and lively interest. So lucid was he in arranging and expressing his thoughts, so quick to seize hold of strong points in a case, and, when he pleased, so well able to touch the chords of feeling, that he rarely failed to produce an impression.
He was no indifferent student of the great political questions. With the majority of the New Jersey bar, he belonged to the Washington school, and exerted all his energies in what he honestly conceived to be his country’s real interests. For his brethren of the New Jersey bar he cherished a warm attachment, and they were forward in evincing their high esteem of his worth. A few years before his death a number of them obtained the services of an artist and had a full-length portrait of him executed. This now hangs over the judge’s chair in the court-room at Flemington. He died March 12, 1838.
History of Newton, Gloucester County, N. J.
Newton, Gloucester County, N. J., was early settled by the society of Friends. The following history was written by Thomas Sharp, the first conveyancer and surveyor of the county:
“Let it be remembered. It having wrought upon ye minds of some, Friends that dwelt in Ireland, a pressure having laid upon them for some years which they could not get from under the weight of until they gave upp to leave their friends and relations there, together with a comfortable subsistence to transport themselves and familys into this wilderness part of America, and there by expose themselves to difficulties, which, if they could have been easy where they were, in all probability might never have been met with; and in order thereunto, sent from Dublin in Ireland to one Thomas Lurtin a friend in London commander of a Pink, who accordingly came, and made an agreement with him to transport them and their familys into New Jersey, viz.; Mark Newby and family. Thomas Thackarg and family, William Bate and family, George Goldsmith an old man, and Thomas Sharp, a young man, but no familys; and whilst the ship abode in Dublin harbor providing for the voyage, said Thomas Lurtin was taken so ill that could not perform ye same, so that his mate, John Dagger, undertook it. And upon the 19 day of September, in the year of our Lord, 1681, we sett sail, from the place aforesaid, and through the good Providence of God towards us we arrived at Elsinburg, in the country of Salem, upon the 19 day of November following, where we were well entertained at the houses of the Thomsons, who came from Ireland about four years before, who, by their industry, were arrived to a very good degree of living, and from thence we went to Salem, where were several houses yet were vacant of persons who had left the town to settle in ye country, which serve to accommodate them for ye winter, proving moderate, we at Wickacog, among us, purchased a boat of the Swansons, and so went to Burlington to the commissioners, of whom we obtained a warrant of ye surveyor general, which then was Daniel Leeds; and after some considerable search to and fro in that then was called the third or Irish tenth, we at last pitched upon the place now called Newton, which was before the settlement of Phila; Pa; and then applied to S,d Surveyor, who came and laid it out for us; and the next Spring, being the beginning of the year 1682 we all removed from Salem together with Robert Lane, that had been settled there, who came along from Ireland with the Thomsons before hinted, and having expectation of our coming only bought a lot in Salemtown, upon the which he seated himself until our coming, whose proprietary right and ours being of the same nature, could not then take it up in Fenwicks tenth, and so began our settlement; and although we were at times pretty hard bestead, having all our provisions as far as Salem to fetch by water, yet, through the mercy and kindness of God, we were preserved in health and from any extreme difficulties.