JONATHAN STOUT was born about 1661-1665 probably in Gravesend, Long Island, New York, the son of RICHARD STOUT and his wife PENELOPE VAN PRINCES. In 1665 when he was only a small child, Jonathan Stout removed with his parents to Middletown, Monmouth County, New Jersey, where his father Richard was one of twelve men to whom the Monmouth Patent of April 8, 1665 was granted. His first appearance in the records of Middletown occurred on February 16, 1685, when he recorded his cattle mark, which consisted of a “squeare cut out of Under side of the Right Eare and a hole in the Left Eare.” (First Town Book of Middletown, p. 83 ½ ). On August 27, 1685, Jonathan Stout married ANNA BOLLEN (b. about 1665-1670 Elizabethtown, New Jersey, d. between 1715-November 24, 1722 Hopewell, Hunterdon (now Mercer) County, New Jersey), the daughter of JAMES BOLLEN, first Secretary of the Province of East Jersey under Governor Philip de Carteret, and his wife ANN. The record of Jonathan Stout’s marriage and the births of his first four children are recorded in the First Town Book of Middletown (p. 71) as follows:
August ye 27 1685
Jonathan Stout and annah bollen were
lawfully marryed in middeltowne
J[o]nathan Stouts childrens agees
Joseph Stout was born the 25 of October 1686
Sarah Stout was born Septtember ye 10 1689
beniamen Stout was born desember ye 14 1691
hanna Stout was born march 29 1694
In 1686, Jonathan Stout was assessed quit rents on 142 ½ acres of land at Middletown, New Jersey. The following year on January 4, 1687-8, Richard Stout, Sr. of Middletown conveyed to his son Jonathan Stout a portion of his land at Waramaness near Middletown from a patent dated June 4 1677. The land was bordered on the South by John Bowne, on the East by the Hop River, on the West by a barren hill, and on the North by a division line. Stout also received from his father a tract containing 5 acres of meadow at Conesconk [Conaskonck Point] located on the East side of the elder Stout's 30 acre lot (East Jersey Deeds, Liber D, 1672-1694, p. 68). Jonathan Stout also obtained a patent for 30 acres of land in Monmouth County, New Jersey on March 22, 1687/88. The land was bordered on the East by a branch of the Hop River, on the south by Jonathan Holmes, on the Northwest by his own land, and on the west by John Bowne’s land. (East Jersey Deeds, Liber B, 1680-1688, p. 380).
Jonathan Stout was serving as an overseer of the poor in Middletown on January 3, 1698/99, as an entry in the First Town Book of Middletown shows that he made a complaint to the town treasurer asking £ 5.4.0 due him for the maintenance of John Allin:
Jenuary the 3: d 1698-9 To the Towne tresuere. wher as Jonathan Stout one of the overseers of the poor made Complaint that he did stand in need of five pound foure shillings The which he Stands ingaged for toward the maintaince of John Allin. These are therefore to pay to Jonathan Stout fivee pound four Shilling of the townes money and this with his Resept shall be your Security. Pr me wm Lawrence junyr towne Clark.
Jenary the : 3: d 1698-9 Then Received of wm Lawrence junyr the sum of five pound four shillings of the townes money for the Relife of the pore I say Received by me. Jonathan Stout.
In the year 1700, Monmouth County became the scene of widespread insurrection. Under the leadership of Andrew Bowne and Richard Hartshorne, a large part of the citizenry of the county were in open rebellion against the authority of East Jersey Governor Andrew Hamilton (d 1703), who had been appointed in 1699 by the Lords Proprietors without a royal commission signed by the King to replace Governor Jeremiah Basse. Hamilton and members of his party such as Lewis Morris had inspired contempt among the people of Monmouth County through their corrupt practices, such as jury packing and the seizure of offices. In 1700, the citizens of Monmouth County submitted a petition to the King asking for the appointment of a competent Governor. The petition was signed by Peter Stout, Benjamin Stout, Richard Stout, David Stout, and Jonathan Stout among many others. On March 25, 1701 at the trial of Moses Butterworth, who had been accused of piracy under the command of Captain William Kidd (1645-1701), Jonathan Stout and his brother James Stout were among a force of about 100 men of Middletown and Monmouth County who disrupted the court, rescued Butterworth, and imprisoned Governor Hamilton and his officials in jail for a period of four days until March 29, 1701.
Jonathan Stout and his family were among the earliest settlers of the Hopewell Valley in present day Mercer County, New Jersey. On January 26, 1703, Jonathan Stout of Middletown acquired 300 acres of land lying above the Falls of the Delaware (Trenton) in Burlington County, New Jersey from John Chapman of Chesterfield, Burlington County for the sum of £ 65. The following year on January 1, 1704, he and his wife Anna of Middletown, New Jersey conveyed to James Hubbard of the same place, for £ 328, a tract of 250 acres of land near Middletown, as well as meadow land at Conesconck. These transactions were undoubtedly made in preparation for the family’s removal to Hopewell. Stout was residing in the area of Hopewell, New Jersey by the following year, for on July 20, 1705, William Crouch of London and William Bills of Bucks County, Pennsylvania sold Jonathan Stout of Burlington County a tract of land consisting of one sixteenth of one one-hundredth part of the province of West Jersey. The Burlington Court Book records that on September 4, 1705, Jonathan Stout was appointed to serve on a grand jury. On June 5, 1706, both Jonathan Stout and Jonathan Curtis were charged by the court for owing money to “our Sovreigne Lady the Queen,” which was to be levied against their goods and chattels (Reed, H. Clay and George J. Miller, eds., The Burlington Court Book, 1680-1709, Washington, DC: The American Historical Association, 1944, pp. 301, 315).
On April 23, 1715, the first Baptist church of Hopewell was constituted with twelve members at the house of Joseph Stout (1686-1766), the son of Jonathan Stout. Baptist minister and historian Morgan Edwards, in an article entitled “History of the Stouts” appearing in his 1792 publication Materials towards a History of the Baptists in Jersey, wrote the following on the Stouts of Hopewell:
We have already seen that Jonathan Stout and family were the seed of the Hopewell church, and the beginning of Hopewell settlement; and that of the 15 [i.e. 12] who constituted the church, nine were Stouts. The church was constituted at the house of a Stout, and the meetings were held chiefly at the dwellings of the Stouts for 41 years, viz. from the beginning of the settlement to the building of the meeting house. Mr. Hart (a minister) was of opinion (in 1790) 'that from first to last, half the members have been and were of that name.’
David Benedict, in his 1813 work, History of the Baptist Denomination in America elaborated Edwards’ comments with the following passage regarding Jonathan Stout and his family (Volume 1, p. 571):
One of the three families, who first settled in the tract, now called Hopewell, was that of Jonathan Stout, who arrived here from Middletown, about 1706. The place then was a wilderness and full of Indians. Mr. Stout's wife was Ann Bullen, by whom he had nine children, viz. Joseph, Benjamin, Zebulon, Jonathan, David, Samuel, Sarah, Hannah, and Ann. Six of these children are said to have gone to Pennsylvania for baptism. Thus it appears, that Mr. Stout's family, including the father and mother, furnished eight members for the church. Seven other members are supposed to have been Thomas Curtis, Benjamin Drake, Ruth Stout, Alice Curtis, Sarah Fitzrandolph, Rachel Hide, and Mary Drake, and these fifteen persons on the 23rd of April, 1715 were organized into a church by the assistance of Abel Morgan and John Burrows, with their Elders Griffith Miles, Joseph Todd, and Samuel Ogdon, and the same year they joined the Philadelphia Association.
The Baptist Church at Hopewell met in the homes of its members for almost 33 years, being served by ministers Joseph Eaton, Thomas Davis, and several others, during which time 55 members had joined. The first church structure was built in 1747, being 40 feet by 30 feet in size. In April, 1748, Reverend Isaac Eaton came to Hopewell, and was ordained minister of the church on November 29, 1748. The church experienced another revival in 1764, when another 123 members were added. Easton served the church faithfully until his death in 1772, when he was succeeded by Reverend Benjamin Coles. During Coles’ tenure, another 105 members were added to the church. Reverend Oliver Hart succeeded Coles in 1779, and served as minister of the Hopewell Church until his death in 1795.
On November 24, 1722, Jonathan Stout devised his will in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, leaving a bequest of one shilling to sons Joseph, Benjamin, and Zebulon Stout, and daughters Sarah and Hannah. His son Benjamin Stout received 250 acres of land, and his son Jonathan received two tracts containing 400 acres. His three sons Jonathan, David, and Samuel were given his land comprising 1/16th of 1/100th of the province of West Jersey. He left his home plantation to his sons David and Samuel, as well as a slave. Daughter Ann and sons Jonathan and David also received slaves and household goods. One fourth of Stout’s remaining personal estate was bequeathed to his children Samuel, Jonathan, David, and Anne Stout. The will was proven March 25, 1723, with son-in-law Andrew Smith appointed as executor and Hezekiah Bonham, Hezekiah Bunell, and Bartholomew Corwine serving as witnesses. (New Jersey Wills, Liber 2, 1715-1728, p. 219; File # 33J). The preceding day, on March 24, 1723, an inventory of his personal estate, valued at £ 362.2.10 ¾, was prepared by Thomas Runion and Thomas Read.
Historian Ralph Ege in his 1908 publication Pioneers of Old Hopewell described the lands of Jonathan Stout as follows (pp. 262-263):
Jonathan Stout, the Hopewell pioneer, died in 1723, and in his will proved March 25, 1723, he bequeathed to his two youngest sons, Samuel and David, (who were at that time aged 14 and 17 respectively) the tract on which Jonathan resided at the time of his death. This was the tract lying south of the Col. Joseph Stout farm, now George E. Weart’s, and extended south about one mile along the Province line, and west to the mountain road. This tract now includes the farms of P. W. Sheppard, Harry Van Dyke, David Moore, Miss Sarah Stout, Peter O. Voorhees, and the northern half of at least the David Stout and Amos Bond farms. The will states that these two sons were left “one full equal undivided sixteenth of a proprietary, “ and one standing on the hill near Mr. George E. Weart’s dwelling and viewing the whole tract spread out like a panorama at his feet can but exclaim in admiration, “What a magnificent inheritance was theirs!”
The northern half of Jonathan Stout’s lands became the property of his son Joseph Stout (1686-1766), who in 1752 constructed a large stone house later known as “Hunt's House.” This house was the site of a Council of War held by General George Washington and other Revolutionary War leaders in June, 1778. Ralph Ege described the history of the house in detail (pp. 155-158):
Hunt’s House stood on the site of the present residence of Mr. George E. Weart, on the hill two miles northeast of Hopewell, and has been known as the Weart homestead since 1799, when it was conveyed by Wilson Stout to John Weart, the great grandfather of the present occupant.
The first pioneer of northern Hopewell, Jonathan Stout of Monmouth, settled there about 1704, and at his death in 1722 [i.e. 1723], the farm passed to his son, Col. Joseph, who died in 1767 [i.e. 1766], bequeathing it to his son Joseph, Jr. Jonathan Stout, a brother of Col Joseph [i.e. Joseph, Jr.], married Elizabeth, daughter of Wilson Hunt, and it was her brother, John Price Hunt, who resided on the Col. Stout farm during the revolution. This fact gave it the title of Hunt’s House on the military orders issued from Washington’s headquarters at that time.
The great council of war held in this house was the turning point in the history of the great struggle of the colonies for independence. This scene is beautifully and grandly immortalized by one of the bronze tablets on the Battle Monument at Freehold.
On this historic spot the First Baptist church of Hopewell was organized on April 23, 1715, and when the first meeting house was erected in 1747, Col. Joseph Stout had his heart set on having it built on the site where the church was organized, but as it was not centrally located, and would be very inconvenient for the great majority of the congregation to reach, his proposition was overwhelmingly defeated.
The old Colonel felt so humiliated at his defeat, and so indignant and disappointed that he resolved to build a house larger than the whole congregation could build.
In 1752 he carried out his resolution, and built a stone mansion five feet larger each way than the meeting house, making it thirty-five by forty-five, with two stories and a basement, giving it a very imposing appearance from the south. In 1782, Col. Stout’s son, Joseph, offered this fine property for sale. . .
Although advertised for sale at that time, the records show that in 1789 it was still in the possession of Joseph Stout, when he sold it to his cousin, Wilson Stout, who owned it ten years, when he sold it to Mr. John Weart as stated above.
Issue of Jonathan Stout and wife Anna Bollen:
Copyright © 2006-2009, James Mark Valsame, Raleigh, NC. Reproduction or publication of this material without the expressed permission of the compiler is prohibited.