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Copyright 2007 New Jersey Newspaper Foundation.
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Thomas Paine and Bordentown, N.J.
By
Mae Kramer Silver (1/25/2004)
This article is dedicated
to Bordentown's Mayor Bill Collom and his wife
Esther, both active supporters of the town's
history.
Thomas Paine really had two
hometowns. One was in England and the other in
New Jersey. Born on January 29, 1737, in the
county of Norfolk, England, Thomas Paine spent
his early years in Thetford village that began
its life in the 9th Century. Thomas Paine was the
only surviving child of Frances and Joseph. He
was sensitive and bright, excelling in
mathematics and science. His father was Quaker
and as such was regarded with a certain
hesitation and sometimes suspicion by villagers
even though he was made a freeman of Thetford.
His mother was Anglican. Between his parent's
different religions, he seemed to have learned a
tolerance and respect for both, but he clearly
identified more with his father's Quakerism.
Since the fine-honed sensitivity to community
intolerance and social injustice heavily
concerned Quakers, it seemed natural that Thomas
Paine would identify these characteristics in
Thetford. From his house on White Hart Street,
now the site of the Thomas Paine Hotel in
Thetford, Thomas Paine saw the public gallows
where each March, young and old, breathed their
last and swung guilty of crimes such as stealing
bread or poaching game to relieve starvation.
Thetford was widely known in England for its
royal corruption and mismanagement that continued
until the nineteenth century when finally it was
bridled into civility and honesty. Thomas Paine
saw and felt how brutally unfair it was to be
poor in Thetford.
When Thomas Paine entered
America in 1774 he came to Philadelphia, the City
of brotherly love - a Quaker city in a Quaker
state. Most of his life in Pennsylvania was in
Philadelphia or the immediate areas around it. He
became friends with Joseph Kirkbride, a Quaker,
who became his lifelong friend. When the British
destroyed their place in Bucks County, the
Kirkbrides moved to Bordentown and built a house
there. Bordentown was a Quaker town founded in
1682 by Thomas Farnsworth who left England to
find a place in the new world where he and his
family could practice their Quaker religion in
peace. As Thomas Paine followed the Kirkbrides to
Bordentown, he must have felt a certain comfort,
a certain atmosphere of acceptance, for it was in
Bordentown in 1783 that Thomas Paine bought the
only house and property he ever owned. In
recognition of his service to the founding of the
United States of America, the state of New York
had given him the place in New Rochelle that now
houses his museum and national association
headquarters. But, his
picked-out-bought-and-paid-for Bordentown cottage
and property were his heartfelt choice.
Bordentown, New Jersey, was Thomas Paine's second
hometown.
Secondary sources state that
Thomas Paine owned a cottage and a few acres. A
closer look at the records in Mt. Holly, N.J.,
shows a larger description never before published
until this writing. Paine owned a cottage and
perhaps more than one, and seven (7) acres, some
of which were next to or in the vicinity of
Kirkbrides' place in Bordentown. The seven acres
began at what is now northwest Church and
Farnworth, 132 feet west, then 66 feet north, 132
feet east, crossing Farnsworth 80 feet, north and
south, into a large rectangle, then proceeded
across Farnsworth Avenue north to Hilltop and
then westerly. In a town that was only a mile
square, seven acres was a good slice of land in
Bordentown. Thomas Paine bought the cottage and
property from Elizabeth Martin (or Martain) ca.
1783. This date cannot be ascertained because
neither Martin nor Paine recorded the purchase
and transfer deeds to their property. One
suspects this was not done because deed
recordings cost money, which maybe Paine and
Martin were short of, and possibly recordings
were not required to transfer property legally.
Regardless of the reasons,
when Thomas Paine sold his property to John
Oliver in 1808 for $800, the recording of that
property and sale emerged. The sale occurred when
Paine lived in New York City in rooms considered
objectionably squalid by his friends. One of his
friends, Thomas Addis Emmet, a distinguished
Irish lawyer who had been imprisoned because of
his Revolutionary activities and now lived in the
City, urged Paine to raise money through the sale
of his Bordentown properties to fund more
comfortable accommodations for himself during his
last days. Apparently Thomas Paine, unable to
appear in person to execute this business, sent
two good friends to effect this transfer. His
friends, Emmet and John Sturdevant swore as
subscribing witnesses to this sale before Joseph
Gates, one of the justices of the Supreme Court
of New York, dated November 24, 1808. How telling
and how fitting it was that Thomas Paine's
property in his American hometown, Bordentown,
that had given him so much pleasure during his
time there, had provided him with the means for
final necessary healthy and comfortable care
during his last earthly days that ended on June
8, 1808, in New York City.
Mae Kramer Silver is
President of the Thomas Paine Society of
Bordentown.
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