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Continental Congresses

Josiah Hornblower (1729–1809)

An English-born delegate who represented New Jersey in the Continental Congress (1785-86), Josiah Hornblower saw military action in the French and Indian War; later, he was deeply involved in New Jersey politics, rising to serve as Speaker of the General Assembly (1780) as well as a judge in the Essex County court system.

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The fourth son of Joseph Hornblower and his wife Rebecca (née Potter) Hornblower, Josiah Hornblower was born in Staffordshire, England, on 23 February 1729. A search of the name “Josiah Hornblower” reveals that his father, Joseph, worked with Thomas Newcomen, one of the early inventors of the utilization of the steam engine, in Cornwall. Biographer William Nelson, whose 1883 biography of Josiah Hornblower states, “His father, Joseph Hornblower, was even at this early day engaged in superintending the construction of steam-engines, which were just coming into general use in the coal mines of that part of England—now known as the ‘Black County’—and in the deep tin and copper mines of Cornwall, for pumping the water from the dismal depths to which shafts had penetrated. These engines, then known as ‘fire-engines,’ were designed by Thomas Newcomen, and embodied the most practical application of the power of steam that had yet been seen, being indeed the first to cope successfully with the problem of how to clear the deep mines from water.” [1]

Josiah Hornblower, raised in the atmosphere of industrious minds such as these, received a fine education in the schools of Staffordshire, and he studied to become a civil engineer to follow in the footsteps of his father. However, in 1753, Joseph Hornblower sold one of his steam engines to the Schuyler Copper Mine in New Jersey, and, unable to make the trip himself, sent his son Josiah with the parts to the New World. When he set foot in New Jersey, he never returned home, perhaps believing that the Americas, instead of England, would be at the forefront of new technologies in the coming years. He settled initially in Belleville, New Jersey, slightly northeast of the city of Newark. Still a British citizen, when the French and Indian War broke out between England and France, Hornblower volunteered for service, and he saw action during the defense of New Jersey from French incursion, rising to the rank of captain of a company of militia. [2] He married Elizabeth Kingsland, the daughter of Colonel William Kingsland, who lived in Belleville.

In 1779, Hornblower was elected to the New Jersey state General Assembly. By this time, such an election meant that one was siding with the patriotic forces, which Hornblower had decided to do. He continued his service through 1780, serving as Speaker of that body sometime during that year.

On 9 November 1785, The Connecticut Journal of New Haven reported from Trenton that “Thursday last being the day appointed in the constitution of this state for the annual meeting of the legislature, some of the Members of each house met; but, not being a quorum, adjourned to Wednesday, when a sufficient number appeared and proceeded to business. The Hon. John Cleves Symmes, Esq. was elected Vice-President of the Legislative Council, and the Hon. Benjamin Van Cleve, Esq. was chosen Speaker of the House of Assist, for the ensuing year … [on Friday] [t]he Hon. Lambert Cadwalader, John Cleves Symmes and Josiah Hornblower, Esquires, were chosen [as] delegates to represent this state in Congress, for the ensuing year.” [3] This refers to Friday, 28 October 1785. Elected for this single term, Hornblower served from 8 November 1785 to 13 November 1786. [4] In 1786, the respected journal The New-Jersey Almanack reported the same information, that the state was represented in the Continental Congress by Cadwalader, Symmes, and Hornblower. [5]

Three of the issues that dominated the Continental Congress during this time were the lack of a quorum to conduct business (many members either did not attend, or simply refused the honor of their election), the moribund Articles of Confederation, which was making the running of a central US government impossible to do, as states could ignore dictates from the Continental Congress for taxes to pay for the armies, and, lastly, the boundaries of the Mississippi River, and what states would eventually be formed around it. While there does not appear to be any correspondence to or from Hornblower during this period of Continental Congress service, nevertheless he does appear, albeit briefly, in the Journals of that body. For instance, on 24 May 1786, following a vote, we discover that “[a] motion was then made by Mr. [Charles] Pettit [of Pennsylvania], seconded by Mr. Hornblower, to postpone the report of the committee, in order to take into consideration the following: That the acceptance by the United States of any cession heretofore made, or which shall hereafter be made, by any State, of the claims of such state to western territory, ought not, not shall be construed nor understood as confirming, or in any wise strengthening the claim of such state to any such territory not ceded.’” [6] The other references to Hornblower in the Journals refer to “yes” or “no” votes he cast on various matters before the Congress. Historian William Nelson, in describing Hornblower’s work, penned, “[His] votes in Congress clearly show that there, as in the New Jersey Legislature, he was a man of independent convictions, who hesitated not to differ from the great body of members, if his judgment led him that way, though he was by no means always in the minority. We can therefore smile at the petty ebullition of Mr. [James] Monroe in characterizing this large-minded man, of such varied attainments and such wide experience, and who had been so repeatedly and signally honored in his own State, as having ‘no positive weight of his own.’” [7] In that aforementioned letter, from Monroe to James Madison, dated 12 September 1786, Monroe explained, “I am sorry I came on the business—Before this you have recd. my letters informing of the subsequent progress & final close of the business which lately engag’d us in Congress; or rather so far as it depended on their direction. By agreement nothing was to be done in it untill [sic] our return. I expect to sit out back in a day or two. It will depend much on the opinion of Jersey [sic] & Pena. [sic] as to the movements of [John] Jay—and that of Jersey much of that of Mr. Clark now with you at Annapolis. He put Hornblower in Congress & may turn him out agn [sic; again], for he has no positive weight of his own.” [8]

Historian W.L. Whittlesey attributes Hornblower’s single term, without any chance for reelection, to his service on the New Jersey Council, from 1781 to 1784, just prior to his time in the Continental Congress, when, stated Whittlesey, he had argued that Virginia did not have the right to take any of the western lands that would open up for other states; this stance, while popular at home, apparently earned Hornblower enmity from Virginia’s Continental Congress delegation; so much so, that the influence of Monroe and Madison made his reelection to the Continental Congress, then sitting in New York City, impossible. [9]

After his Continental Congress service had ended, Hornblower returned to New Jersey, where he resumed his engineering work, as well as running the mine he had been involved with for many years, although it had been damaged in a fire in 1768; through his machinations, Hornblower was able to restore it to working order and reopened it. In 1794, utilizing his engineering know-how, he helped to construct an ore-stamping foundry, the first such factory for this kind of metalworking in the nation. Working closely with the mill that he had come to America to work in, as well as his other investments, Hornblower helped to construct the first steam engine to operate in America, based on the Newcomen model. In 1800, Hornblower penned a letter to one Aaron Kitchell (Kichell?), in which he discussed the mine:

In answer to your of the fourteenth instant, permit me to give you the following information and opinions, which is not done without consideration and much diffidence, as the enquiries you make are of great importance and delicate in their nature, as you have justly observed… . The quality of ore that may be obtained from Schuyler’s mine, is conducted under the sanction of government, with a sufficient capital and prosecuted with vigour [sic], will probably be from 100 to 120 tons annually, which ore, when smelted, will produce about 60 per cent. of fine copper. But as this quantity may be very inadequate to the necessities of government, it may be proper to explore such other mines, as those at Bound-brook, Plackemin, Rocky-hill, Brunswick, Woodbridge, &c. which, if worked with œconomy, will increase the supplies at a moderate expense, besides the chance of making new discoveries which is considerable … [10]

By the mid-1790s, it appears that Josiah Hornblower was retired. In March 1797, we find a newspaper advertisement in which he tried to lease or sell a home, owned by one Zebulon Jones, in the Village of Second River. [11] In another advertisement placed later than same year, we find “five building lots … to be sold, at Public Vendue [sic], in Bellville [sic]” with the ad signed by Hornblower. [12] In August 1799, Hornblower and his family suffered a horrific loss, when his son, William Hornblower, died at the age of 34. No cause was listed for his death, but it appears to have come on quickly, which sapped the strength of his father. [13] In his final public service, he served as a judge of the Essex County Court from 1798 until his death.

On 21 January 1809, Josiah Hornblower died at his home in Newark, New Jersey. The Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, published in Philadelphia, stated, “[A] man of the most respectable and unblemished character, whose life was highly valued, and where death is deeply deplored by all who knew him, but especially by his surviving relatives … His Christian fortitude, patience, and resignation were remarkable, when struggling under the most afflicting bereavements.” [14] He was laid to rest in the Belleville Dutch Reformed Churchyard in Belleville, Essex County, New Jersey. The stone adorning his grave has been wiped clean by the elements over the years; in 1929, the Newcomen Society placed a plaque on the grave that calls Hornblower a “Pioneer Engineer and Distinguished Citizen.”

[1] [1] Nelson, William, “Josiah Hornblower, and the First Steam-Engine in America, With Some Notices of the Schuyler Copper Mines at Second River, N.J., and a Genealogy of the Hornblower Family” (Newark, NJ: Daily Advertiser Printing House, 1883), 3-4.

[2] [2] Hornblower official congressional biography, online at http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000791.

[3] [3] The Connecticut Journal [New Haven], 9 November 1785, 2.

[4] [4] Historian Edmund Cody Burnett confirms the newspaper account, that Hornblower, along with the others, was elected to the Continental Congress seat on 28 October, and not 27 October, 1785. See Edmund Cody Burnett, ed., “Letters of Members of the Continental Congress” (Washington, DC: Published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington; eight volumes, 1921-36), VIII:xc.

[5] [5] Truman, Timothy, “The New-Jersey Almanack for the year of our Lord 1786. Being the Second After Leap-Year. Also the Eleventh of American Independence After the 4th of July Next. Fitted to the Latitude of Forty Degrees, and a Meridian of Near Five Hours West From London. Containing The Motions of the Sun and Moon; the True Places and Aspects of the Planets; the Rising and Setting of the Sun; the Rising, Setting, Southing and Age of the Moon. Also, The Lunations, Conjunctions, Eclipses, Rising, Setting and Southing of the Planets; Length of Days; Judgment of the Weather; Festivals, and Other Remarkable Days; Quakers General Meetings; Courts; Roads; Tide-Table, &c. With Chronological Observations, Useful Tables, and a Variety of Instructive and Entertaining Matter in Prose and Verse. By Timothy Trueman, Philom.” (Trenton, NJ: Printed and Sold by Isaac Collins, 1785), 35.

[6] [6] Ford, Worthington Chauncey, et al., eds., “Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789” (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office; thirty-four volumes, 1905-37), XXX:301.

[7] [7] Nelson, “Josiah Hornblower,” op. cit., 48.

[8] [8] James Monroe to James Madison, 12 September 1786, in Stanislaus Murray Hamilton, ed., “The Writings of James Monroe: Including a Collection of His Public and Private Papers and Correspondence Now for the First Time Printed” (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons; seven volumes, 1898-1903), I:164.

[9] [9] Whittlesey, W.L., “Hornblower, Josiah” in Allen Johnson, et al., “Dictionary of American Biography” (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons; eleven volumes and five supplements, 1958-77), IX:231-32.

[10] [10] Hornblower, Josiah, “Letter from Mr. Hornblower to Mr. Kitchell, on the Subject of Schuyler’s Copper Mine, in New-Jersey. April 18th, 1800. Printed by Order of the House of Representatives of the United States” (Philadelphia: Privately Published, 1800), 3-4.

[11] [11] “To be Sold, or Let,” The Centinel of Freedom [Newark, New Jersey], 22 March 1797, 3.

[12] [12] “To be Sold,” The Centinel of Freedom [Newark, New Jersey], 27 September 1797, 4. An additional advertisement, earlier than these that are highlighted here, appeared in The Centinel of Freedom for 28 December 1796, 3.

[13] [13] “Died, at Belleville,” The Centinel of Freedom [Newark, New Jersey], 13 August 1799, 3.

[14] [14] “Died, at Belleville,” Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser [Philadelphia], 2 February 1809, 3. For another obituary on Hornblower, see The Centinel of Freedom [Newark, New Jersey], 24 January 1809, 3.

Citation Types

MLA 9th
"Josiah Hornblower (1729–1809)." Continental Congresses, edited by Mark Grossman, Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Cong_0201.
APA 7th
Josiah Hornblower (1729–1809). Continental Congresses, In M. Grossman (Ed.), Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Cong_0201.
CMOS 17th
"Josiah Hornblower (1729–1809)." Continental Congresses, Edited by Mark Grossman. Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Cong_0201.