History of Sussex County New Jersey United States of America

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Morris Robeson Hamilton, librarian, was born at Oxford Furnace, Sussex county, N.J., May 24, 1820; son of Gen. Samuel R. and Eliza (Robeson) Hamilton; grandson of John and Phoebe (Ross) Hamilton of Princeton, N.J.; great grandson of John Hamilton, acting governor of New Jersey, 1736-38 and 1746-47; and great2 grandson of Andrew Hamilton, who came from Scotland to America in 1685, settled at Perth Amboy and was governor of New Jersey, 1692-1701. He was fitted for college at Trenton academy and the Lawrenceville high school and was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1839. He was admitted to the bar and practised in Camden, N.J., 1842-44, and at Phildelphia, Pa., 1844-49. He was also employed in the Philadelphia post-office, 1844-49, and in the latter year removed to Trenton to become editor of the True American. In 1853 he resigned to accept a position on the staff of the New York National Democrat and was subsequently connected with the Sussex, N.J., Herald, the Camden Democrat, the Newark Journal, the Sussex Record, the Kansas City News and the Philadelphia Record. He was a member of Governor Fort's staff with the rank of colonel, 1851-54, and in 1884 was appointed state librarian of New Jersey. He was married in 1844 to Harriet Pennington, daughter of John and Mary (Pennington) Halsted of Newark, N.J. They had seven children: their son Ellis was captain of Company F, 15th N.J. vols., and was killed at the battle of the Wilderness in May, 1864; and another son, Henry, published a much approved metrical translation of Virgil's ?neid, and at the time of his death (1893) was actuary of the Penn Mutual life insurance company of Philadelphia, Pa. Colonel Hamilton was in 1900 engaged in writing a history of New Jersey.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Sussex County New Jersey

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