Benjamin Campbell of Newark Mountain, New Jersey

Benjamin Campbell and his two sons, Moses and Aaron, came to my attention as I read Stephen Wickes' History of the Oranges... for the first time more than a decade ago.  I thought there must be a relationship to my Campbell ancestors who had lived in the same area, but there was no documented connection.

And, sadly, a decade later, there is still no documented connection. What we do have is unequivocal evidence that we share a common ancestor in the circa 1600s time period.  He is known by the Y-DNA mutation that is unique to him and his male descendants: R-FTB16962.

Wickes' entry is a baptism in the records of the Newark Mountain Society for the three Campbells on August 3, 1758. That was all I knew of them until I corresponded with a male descendant of Moses. In that descendant's possession was a copy of the Moses Campbell family bible where the family had recorded births and deaths. What a gold mine for his genealogy!

[More on Moses Campbell from a 2016 blog post.]

From the bible we learn the names of all 13 of Moses' children, 10 of whom appear to have lived to adulthood. The oldest child, Rachel, was born November 30, 1773 and died before her first birthday. Their 5th child was also named Rachel, born August 1, 1779

The second child, Anna, was born September 17, 1775, married a Baldwin, and died in 1836. Hers was the only death of a married child recorded, so it is presumed the other children lived past 1836.

The youngest child, James C., was born March 12, 1797.  His oldest sister, Anna, was 21 at his birth and his parents were 45 and 41.  It was James' descendants that appear to have preserved the family bible.

Below is page 1 of the family bible showing the birthdates of this large family of 13 children.

The births are continued on page 2 along with some deaths.

Moses and Catharine were married on April the 18th, 1773....almost exactly two years before the "Shots Hear 'Round the World" at Lexington and Concord. Despite having a family (in fact they had twins in 1779), Moses served in the local militia during the Revolutionary War, which lasted from 1775 until 1783.  More on that in another post.