We were the women of Trenton, born into a time of unrest and revolution. While the men marched to war, we stayed behind to hold the town together. We cooked, we nursed the wounded, and we kept our families safe as battles raged just beyond our doors. Some of us passed messages in secret, carrying…

I was born in 1733 and lived in Elizabeth, New Jersey, during the most uncertain days of the American Revolution. I was a Quaker woman, raised with quiet strength and firm convictions, and I never imagined the fate of my town would rest on my voice. But in December of 1776, as British forces swept…

I was born near Annapolis, Maryland in 1737, the tenth child in the socially prominent and well-to-do Richard and Deborah Hill family. Financial difficulties forced my family to move to the Azores. I was then sent to live with my recently married sister in Philadelphia, who raised me to adulthood. I received a good education…

I was born into the Clarke family of Princeton, New Jersey, Quaker settlers whose roots in the area stretched back three generations. Our family farm sat along the edge of the Stony Brook, quiet and unassuming, until the morning of January 3, 1777, when the war for independence came crashing through our fields. That day,…

I was born around 1754, the daughter of a dairy farmer in New Jersey. When I was thirteen, I left home to work as a servant, and not long after, I married William Hays, a barber from Pennsylvania. When the Revolution began, William joined the Pennsylvania Artillery, and I followed him into camp as part…

I was born in 1745 at Spring Grove Farm in Maidenhead (today’s Lawrence Township) into a family that migrated to New Jersey about 1680 and was originally from Yorkshire, England. I chose to pursue law as my career and, after reading law with a lawyer in Princeton, I set up my practice at Allentown, New…

I was born in Hopewell, New Jersey, likely in the year 1711, though nobody wrote it down for sure. My father, Edward Hart, came to Hopewell around 1710 and helped shape the town, serving as a Justice of the Peace, a farmer, and a man trusted in the community. My family never had much formal…

I was born in Princeton, New Jersey, on October 1, 1730, into a family rooted deep in the soil of the colonies. My father, Judge John Stockton, was one of the founders of the College of New Jersey, what you now call Princeton University. Our family home, Morven, stood as a symbol of commitment to…

I was born in New Jersey in 1721 and grew up with the tides of revolution rising around me. By 1775, I was living in Trenton and serving as president of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey. That summer and the next, I helped lead the colony through one of its most defining moments. On…

I was born in 1741 and raised in a well-off family of merchants and landowners in colonial New Jersey. I lived in a house I built myself, a big Georgian-style place in Nottingham Township, made to show the kind of man I was — wealthy, educated, and respected. People came to me for decisions, and…