As the Bernards Township Historian, I’ve learned a great deal about the families that founded Bernards Township. I’ve presented this list to the Bernards Township Committee for consideration. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let us know.
Robert Terry – Terry Lane – 1945 Tuskegee Airmen Flight Instructor
Captain Robert Terry was a flight instructor from Basking Ridge for the Tuskegee Airmen from 1941 to 1945. Terry, who was 30 at the time, taught young Afro-Americans to fly fighter Curtiss P- 40 Warhawks, Bell P- 39 Airacobras and P-51 Mustang fighter planes who served America well during the European campaign in North Africa and Italy. He also trained other pilots to escort B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers, using P-47 and P-51 airplanes at the USAAF bases around Tuskegee, Alabama.
“My father was in the air more than he was on the ground,” said Terry’s son Qaaim Saalik (Robert Terry Jr. changed his name along with his Muslim faith). Many residents wrote us stating that Terry’s skill as a pilot won him an exemption from prejudice in Bernards. It was a different story when Terry applied to major airlines for work as a commercial pilot. In each instance, he was turned down. He never landed a commercial pilot job at a major airline.
John Morton – Morton Terrace – 1779 Hospital – The Rebel Banker
As a wealthy merchant, Morton became known as the “Rebel Banker” for loaning large sums of money to the rebel cause. In 1775, Morton liquidated most of his capital to lend to the Revolutionary War effort. After the capture of New York City by the British, John, and Maria Sophia Morton were forced to flee with their large family (six kids) to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where they remained for several weeks in a house in Springfield with five other families, who were also fugitives. Not feeling safe, they decided to go beyond the “Long Hill” and settled on Basking Ridge in 1776, where they called for their belongings from New York City.
Elias Boudinot – Boudinot Drive – 1771 Basking Ridge Resident
Boudinot was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress and President of the Continental Congress in 1783. He purchased over 100 acres of land in Basking Ridge in 1771 and 1772 from Edward Lewis but would remain in Elizabeth for a while longer. Boudinot served on New Jersey’s first Committee on Correspondence, formed in 1774, tasked with contacting the legislatures of each colony so that they could join Virginia and offer concerted opposition toward British encroachments. In August 1775, Boudinot secretly rounded up and sent to General George Washington desperately needed supplies of gunpowder. A year later, he served as an aide-de-camp to Brigadier General William Livingston, who became the state’s first governor elected under the new state constitution. In 1777, Boudinot was commissioned Commissary General of Prisoners by the Continental Congress. He lived in Basking Ridge while serving as president of the Continental Congress from 1782-83. He sold the house in 1785.
Alexander Kirkpatrick Street – Founding land owner- Bernards Township
Alexander Kirkpatrick (b.1697) settled at Mine Brook in 1736 on the farm lately owned by Henry Baird. The Kirkpatricks belonged to a noble family in Scotland. Alexander, the ancestor of the family in this country, was born at Watties Neach, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. He moved with his family to Belfast, Ireland, after the birth of his son David in about 1725.
John Ayers- Ayers Court – One of earliest settlers – Bernards Township
John Ayers came from Woodbridge, New Jersey, and was born on March 02, 1663, in Newbury, MA. Son of Obadiah Ayres and Hannah Ayres (Pike), husband of Mary Ayers and Ruth Ayres. He had seven sons: John, Thomas, Obadiah, Nathaniel, Benjamin, Moses, and Aaron. He moved to Basking Ridge the same year Harrison bought the land from the Indian Chief Nowenwalk. John Ayres, who settled on the Millstone in 1717, is mentioned as having landed in the east part of the Basking Ridge in 1727. John Ayres is noted for donating 1 ½ acres, which included the land on which a log meeting house stood in 1730, but it was said that the meeting house had probably been there since at least 1725 (the BRPC states 1717).
James Alexander – James Alexander Way – 1720 – Original Landowner- Bernards Township
James Alexander, the father of William Alexander (Lord Stirling), was a large landowner who had to deal with “squatters” on his land. James Pitney was noted as being on James’ land when he first arrived in the area. Research shows Cornelius Brees, from Staten Island, bought land in 1720 from James Alexander on the East side of the Dead River, which had been occupied by James Pitney. John Ayres’s son Obadiah also bought land from Alexander.
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