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Hannah SMITH was born March 27, 1764 and died February 24, 1838, aged seventy-three years, ten months, and twenty-six days, according to her tombstone in the cemetery of the Baptist Church in Northfield, NJ. About 1780-82 she married Thomas FORCE whose name is spelled FORSE on his tombstone in the same cemetery. He was born December 21, 1758, in Woodbridge, NJ and died March 30, 1827 (g.s.), a son of Samuel FORCE and his second wife, Sarah FREEMAN. Samuel was a great-grandson of the pioneer, Matthew FORCE, a French Huguenot who was in Gravesend, LI in 1660 and his wife Elizabeth PALMER, through Benjamin and Elizabeth BUNN, Thomas and Mary SPENCER. Thomas FORCE lived at Canoe Brook, near Livingston, NJ and in October 1785 joined the Baptist Church in Lyons Farms, NJ where he was a Deacon for many years. He served in the Revolutionary War as a Corporal in the Second New Jersey Regiment and for a time was a prisoner on the famous prison ship Jersey. In 1787, and again in 1790, he was Overseer of Highways in Newark Township, NJ. In his will, dated January 22, 1822 and proved April 10, 1827, Thomas FORCE of Livingston Township mentioned his wife Hannah; his daughters Vashti, Hannah, Lockey and Mariah; and sons Charles, William Burton, Whitfield and Smith. To the latter two he bequeathed a certain tract of land consisting of 86 acres in Ohio, which he had purchased of Ebenezer WARD. The executors were his wife Hannah, son William BURTON and Moses ELY and the document was witnessed by Abner BALL, Nancy CONDIT and Wells WADE (Essex Co. Sur. Recs. BK:D:473) "The old sawmill of Deacon Thomas FORCE located on Canoe Brook midway between the Northfield road and the turnpike was revived in 1852 by John EMMONS, but timber at last became so scarce that even that had to be abandoned" (William H. Shaw, Hist. Of Essex and Hudson Counties, NJ 1884, v.2, pg. 858). Hannah and Thomas had 10 children: Whitfield Force, Caroline, Smith Force, Charles Force, Vashti Force, Hannah Smith Force, Thomas, Lockey Ball Force, William Burton, Maria Wilberforce Source: Peter Smith of Jamaica, Long Island and Some of his Descendants, July 1954 Contributed by: Samuel Steel page created by johubbard 14 Dec 1999 submitted by Mark Force |