A view of Richard Edsall wearing a Lieutenant’s uniform for the Continental line during the Revolution. He is riding a palomino colonial farm horse.
Richard Edsall is buried in Vernon. He was a Revolutionary War Patriot. He went with his father-in-law Colonel John Seward up to the Battle of Minisink. He will be on one of our new Patriot Markers.
A reason also to cover him is that the Edsall name was then, and is now, a common one in Sussex County. It began in this country with Samuel. The following family information is as described by A. A. Haines in Hardyston Memorial.
Samuel Edsall came from Reading, Berkshire Co., England, in the ship Tryall, in 1615, landed in Boston, and came to New Amsterdam previous to 1655 where he married his first wife. His knowledge of the Indian tongues made him highly esteemed as an interpreter and negotiator between the Indians and the Dutch, and the early English settlers in New Jersey. He died soon after 1701. His youngest son, Richard, by his third wife, Ruth Woodhull, was born about 1652. A surveyor, he resided in Newtown, L.I., then at Hackensack, N. J., and finally in Orange Co., N. Y. Richard’s third wife was Hillegonde DeKay, of New York, by whom he had five sons and one daughter. Among these were Jacobus and Richard 2d.
Richard, born 1750, was a Captain in the Second Sussex Regiment N. J. troops, and Lieutenant in the Jersey line of the Continental Army. Father and son participated in the battles of Brandywine and Monmouth and other conflicts of the Revolution. Richard was a land surveyor and lived at English Neighborhood, Bergen Co., when the war began. He married his first wife Polly, eldest daughter of Colonel John Seward, of Snufftown, in 1771.
Richard Edsall II lived in Vernon, became entirely blind, and died May 10, 1823.
Joseph, son of Richard, born in Vernon Township in 1783, was quartermaster in the army during the War of 1812, and a member of the Legislature in 1825. He married Sarah DeKay and died in Vernon in 1833. He was the father of Richard E. Edsall, of Hamburg. Jacobus 2d, commonly called “ Coby,” was attached to Captain
Huddy’s Co. of artillery, State troops during the war. His brothers, Benjamin and Joseph, were privates in the State troops. Coby lived at Rudeville in a log house near where his grandson, Benjamin H. Edsall, lived in the 1870s. He received a pension from the Government for his war services, and was very bitter in his hatred of the British.
As for later Edsalls, there was a T.D. Edsall who sold insurance in the Wallkill Valley. Photos I have show his calendars on the walls of public places in Franklin Furnace. There was Benjamin B. Edsall. He provided a major milestone in our county with the Sussex County Sesqui-Centennial celebration that took place on Sept. 2, 1903. This was a prominent event with many people backing it and provide support in the county. Benjamin delivered a 70-page address to the public. Remarks for the event were also provided by New Jersey Governor Franklin Murphy. Rare copies of that address in soft cover book form are still existing.
I had Elodie Edsall in my whole life at Franklin School, from kindergarten through twelfth grade, and also in our church. Elodie’s daughter lives in Vernon today, and her kids are active in sports and school here in Sussex County.
So, the intent of this vignette is to speak of a Patriot who will be on one of our new markers and to explain his Revolutionary War experience. Intent is also for understanding the 400 years of meaningful contributions by the Edsall family to our area; and that their impact still continues through today and into the future.
Bill Truran, Sussex County’s historian, may be contacted at billt1425@gmail.com He is the author of “Voices of ‘76: Americans Speak of our Freedom.”
