The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: NJ
Qualifying Service: Signer Declaration of Independence / Patriotic Service
Abraham Clark was born on 15 February 1726 in Elizabethtown, Essex County, New Jersey.
He was trained as a surveyor. He taught himself law and was involved in surveying and legal work regarding titles, mortgages, and so forth. He was well-respected for often helping poor people with legal advice and title issues at no charge. Because of this, he was sometimes called "The Poor Man's Counselor."
Before the Revolution, Abraham served as a clerk for the New Jersey colonial assembly and as sheriff of Essex County. When the Revolution began, he served on the New Jersey Committee of Safety and was elected to the rebel New Jersey provincial assembly in 1775. This assembly appointed five men to the Continental Congress on 21 June 1776, including Abraham Clark.
He voted for independence on 2 July 1776 and signed his name to the Declaration of Independence. About the vote, Abraham wrote to his friend Elias Dayton on 14 July, "Our Declaration of Independence I dare say you have seen. A few weeks will probably determine our fate. Perfect freedom, or Absolute Slavery. To some of us, freedom or a halter. Our fates are in the hands of An Almighty God, to whom I can with pleasure confide my own; he can save us or destroy us; his Councils are fixed and cannot be disappointed, and all his designs will be Accomplished."
He served nearly ten years in the Continental Congress during and after the war. Abraham had two sons who served as captains in the war, and both were taken prisoner and held captive on the notorious British prison ship, Jersey. The British offered to release his sons if Abraham would switch sides and pledge allegiance to the King, which he refused to do. Due to its proximity to Staten Island and New York City, Elizabethtown was the site of dozens of battles and skirmishes during the war. Much of his property was destroyed, though his house survived.
Abraham served in the New Jersey legislature for four years, during which he introduced a bill forbidding the abuse of enslaved people and authorizing their freedom under certain conditions. After the war, he was one of twelve men who met at the Annapolis Convention to discuss the necessity of a new constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation. He and the other attendees, including Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Dickinson, urged the Confederation Congress to meet in Philadelphia to revise the inadequate Articles. He was then elected to attend the Constitutional Convention in May 1787, but he could not attend because of illness.
His last act of public service was to represent New Jersey in the US House of Representatives from 1791-1794, where he is said to have insisted on and been responsible for printing the word "Liberty" on United States coins. He also persuaded Congress to put symbols of America on the coins instead of the head of the current president, which was the other proposal. The Patriot passed away in 1794 after suffering a heat stroke on his property. He is buried in Rahway, New Jersey.
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Send your submission1, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space 1Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.
Additional Information:
findagrave.com adds additional children; Sarah; Cavalier; Susan
DAR states: AARON IS THE ONLY CHILD WITH ESTABLISHED DESCENDANTS; OTHERS MUST BE PROVEN