Some Revolutionary War Minutemen from Milford, Windsor Township, New Jersey
	Mary Hutchinson, the  daughter of William and Catherine Hutchinson and granddaughter of  William and Ann (Simpson) Hutchinson, was born in Milford (now  Etra), New Jersey, on the 24th of March in 1775. Here in what was then Middlesex  County, she met an immigrant from Germany named Christopher Hartman.  Their adventure begins on the Hutchinson homestead that stood very near  what is now Etra Lake, East Windsor Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, in a  quiet little village that was then known as Milford.
	Christopher was born in Germany on the 6th of May in 1750. He, his  father, and his fathers family immigrated to this country in 1753 and settled in  Bucks County, Pennsylvania. When his father died at the age of eight, he and the  family moved into Burlington County, New Jersey, where Christopher was  bound out as an apprentice to Joseph Bullock to learn farming. He stayed  with Bullock until he was twenty one at which time he began working at  the dye works in Burlington. He subsequently moved over into Middlesex County,  New Jersey. He became acquainted with Mary Hutchinson's family;  especially her brothers Robert, Ezekiel, Sylvester, and Aaron.  (These four later became Reverends and traveled extensively throughout the  country on horseback as circuit riders for Francis Asbury and the  Methodist Church).
	While in Middlesex County, Christopher joined the minutemen of the  county militia in 1775 as did Robert Hutchinson(at age 16), Robert  English, Ramouth Bunting, and others from the area. During his military  service as a minuteman, Christopher took part in actions against the  Tories on Long Island, against the British on Staten Island, expeditions against  the British War ships Phoenix and Asia and various tours in the  towns of South Amboy, Elizabeth Town, Powles Hook, Cranbury, Morris Town,  Somerset Court House, Springfield, and New Brunswick. In 1778, he acted as a  guide for Virginia Militia in pursuit of the British and was with them during  the Battle of Monmouth. In his own words, he described one expedition to  a person who wrote it down for him being that Christopher couldn't write:
	"When they got down to Springfield, there was a French General  there with a detachment, Thinks but is not certain that the French General's name was La Fayette
	In another section of narrative, he described his militia unit being called  out on a tour to Morris Town to meet up with General Washington. During  his service as a minuteman during the war, Christopher was married to  Mary Hutchinson, in the Presbyterian Church of Cranbury, New Jersey, on  April 20th, 1777.
	In support of Christopher's application for a pension, his old malitia  buddies Robert English, Ramouth Bunting, and the Reverend Ezekiel  Hutchinson (of the Methodist Eppiscopal Church, in Clermont County, Ohio)  gave affidavits supporting his minutemen service in Middlesex County, New  Jersey. In fact, they gave affidavits to each other in support of each of their  pension claims and from these affidavits more details of the Milford, Windsor  Twp., New Jersey connection come to light. At the time they gave their  affidavits (1830), they were all residing in Ohio. The Rev. Ezekiel  Hutchinson stated that he knew Robert English from Middlesex County,  New Jersey, as English lived about three quarters of a mile from his  father's home in Milford. And he further new that English was in the  Revolution as a minuteman because whenever English was called upon for  duty and went out on a tour, Ezekiel's brother (Rev. Robert  Hutchinson) went along with Enlish. These facts were further  confirmed by Ramouth Bunting's affidavit who also knew the above two  families.
	The most interesting affidavit of this group is that of Robert  English, who mentions the town of Hightstown, New Jersey, as being the  regular meeting place for the Middlessex County minutemen from this area when  they were called out for duty. In his affidavit, he spells Hightstown  phonetically as "Hydes Town". Some of the details of the tours he mentions in  the affidavit are:
	"The company met at Hydes Town and marched from there to Scott    plains meeting house. General Washington lay on the Sowerland    Mountains, the British lay at Elizabeth Town and Major Andre was hung    that smae year... The company met at Hydes Town their usual place of meeting    and marched first to the coast... guarding the shore from the incursions of    the British."
	In 1793, Christopher was offically listed as a militia man in the  South Amboy township Militia at the age of 43 and Robert English was on  the Windsor township Militia rolls at the age of 37.
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