John Hamilton ( 16811747) was an American politician from the colonial period who served as acting governor of the Province of New Jersey from 1736–1738, and from 1746–1747.
Career
The son of
Andrew Hamilton, proprietary governor of both
East New Jersey and
West New Jersey
West Jersey and East Jersey were two distinct parts of the Province of New Jersey. The political division existed for 28 years, between 1674 and 1702. Determination of an exact location for a border between West Jersey and East Jersey was often ...
, John Hamilton was first appointed to the
New Jersey Provincial Council
The New Jersey Provincial Council was the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature under colonial rule until it was replaced by the New Jersey Legislative Council under the New Jersey Constitution of 1776.
History
The Provincial Council was est ...
on June 15, 1713 during the administration of Governor
Robert Hunter. Although a resident of
Perth Amboy
Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey. Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 55,436. Perth Amboy has a Hispanic majority population. In the 2010 census, th ...
, in the Eastern Division of the province, Hamilton was appointed to a Western Division seat. He remained on the council through the administrations of governors
William Burnet,
John Montgomerie
Colonel John Montgomerie (died 1731) was colonial governor of New York and New Jersey from 1728 to 1731.
Life
Montgomerie was born in the parish of Beith in Scotland. His father, Francis Montgomerie, was a member of the Privy Council under W ...
,
Sir William Cosby and
Lewis Morris.
The senior councillor actually residing in New Jersey would, by virtue of his seniority, be president of council. Hamilton became president after the death of
John Anderson on March 28, 1736. Anderson had been acting governor for 18 days, since the March 10 death of Governor Cosby; John Hamilton thus became acting governor, and served until 1738, when Governor
Lewis Morris took office.
In 1735 John Hamilton was appointed an assistant judge of the New Jersey Supreme Court. In 1740 he was appointed a commissioner to settle the boundary between
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
and
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. He was again acting governor after the death of Morris in 1746.
[''New Jersey Colonial Documents, Archives of the State of New Jersey, First Series, Vol. IV''; Daily Advertiser Publishing House, Newark, New Jersey, 1882. p. 183]
John Hamilton died in 1747 in Perth Amboy.
See also
*
List of colonial governors of New Jersey
The territory which would later become the state of New Jersey was settled by Dutch and Swedish colonists in the early seventeenth century. In 1664, at the onset of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, English forces under Richard Nicolls ousted the Du ...
References
1680s births
1747 deaths
Colonial governors of New Jersey
Pre-statehood history of New Jersey
18th-century British people
Members of the New Jersey Provincial Council
American people of Scottish descent
Burials in New Jersey
{{NewJersey-politician-stub