Biography of ABRAHAM CLARK
As early as 1675, a shipwright named Richard Clark was living in Southold,
Long Island, New York. He moved about 1678 to Elizabethtown, New Jersey.
Abraham Clark was born in what is now Roselle on 15 February
1726, the only child of Judge Thomas Clark. He became a surveyor and studied
common law. He never qualified as a lawyer, but many disputes were settled
peacefully through his knowledge and tact. His ability as a surveyor resulted
in his appointment by the Colonial Assembly to survey and divide the lands of
Bergen Township, and later he was designated by the Royal Governor, William
Franklin, to survey, lay out and build a road between Newark and Trenton. His
grandson, Thomas, a charter alderman and magistrate of the town, inherited
from his father and grandfather the family farm between Rahway and Elizabeth,
and here his only son, Abraham, was born. Later he was nicknamed "Congress
Abraham" to distinguish him from other Abraham Clarks in the vicinity. He was
a frail child, consequently pampered by his family, and as a growing youth he
was considered too slight for heavy farm work. He seems to have had little
formal education as a child, but he was a born student and was probably taught
at home. His liking for mathematics led him to study surveying. As an aid in
this, he equipped himself to settle land disputes and to transfer property
titles by studying law on the side. He rarely, perhaps never, charged for
legal services, and there is a strong suspicion he was never admitted to the
bar. He enjoyed giving free whatever his slight knowledge of law permitted,
and he enjoyed the title he acquired: "The Poor Man's Counsellor." When he was
about 23, he married Sarah Hatfield, from a family the Clarks had known for
more than a generation. They went to live in his father's house near
Elizabeth. They had a family of 10 children. He was given 2 offices under
the Crown: Clerk of the Colonial Assembly and High Sheriff of Essex County.
His integrity was recognized early during his work with the poor, who had
found they could trust him. By 1774, Clark was an avowed Whig, identified
with the patriot cause and soon became a bold advocate of independence. When
Committees of Safety began to spring up throughout the colonies, Clark was
placed on New Jersey's committee, later becoming its secretary. In May 1775,
Abraham Clark was elected to the Provincial Congress of New Jersey He was appointed
to the Second Continental Congress on 22 June 1776. On July Fourth, he wrote
from Philadelphia to his local people: "Our Congress is an August Assembly,
and can they support the Declaration now on the Anvil,they will be the
Greatest Assembly on Earth. We can die but once...We are now embarked on a
most tempestuous sea...It is gone so far that we must now be a free
independent State or a Conquered Country." As a Signer of the Declaration of
Independence, Abraham wrote to a friend: "As to my title, I know not yet
whether it will be honourable or dishonourable; the issue of the war must
settle it. Perhaps our Congress will be exalted on a high gallows." That is
exactly what would have happened, if the British had won--unless the victors
had preferred to behead them. He was much of the time "in want of health" but
there was no absenteeism in Clark's record in Congress. He was a most
energetic member, and the Library of Congress still contains many reports in
his handwriting on many subjects that concerned the patriots of 1776. He
labored mightily to gather the supplies that General Washington's army so
badly needed. Three times he was elected to Congress while giving interim
service in the New Jersey Legislature. He was a delegate to the Anapolis
Convention in 1786, where they discussed interstate commerce. Chosen a
Representative of New Jersey to the Philadelphia Convention that framed the Federal
Constitution in 1787, he was unable to attend because of ill health. The
British forces landed on Staten Island, only a few miles across the water from
Clark's New Jersey home. His estate escaped destruction at the hands of the
British, but he had so neglected his private business affairs that he lost
heavily in the Revolution. Two of his soldier sons were captured and confined
on a British prison-ship. Abraham Clark was a man of average height, slender,
with dark hair and heavy eyebrows, "very temperate", with no special ambition
for wealth, reserved in manner and thoughtful. On 15 September 1794, he was out
in one of his fields watching a bridge being built when suddenly he suffered
sunstroke. Realizing his danger, he stepped into his chaise and drove himself
home. He died 2 hours later. [Copied from a book in the Lincoln Public
Library, "Signers of the Declaration" by Bakeless.]
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