Shepard Kollock was born in Lewes, Sussex County, Delaware in September of 1750.  His exact date of birth is not known.  Shepard was the youngest of 7 children born to Shepard Kollock, Sr. and Mary Goddard.  Shepard learned the trade of printing under William Goddard, the famous printer from Philadelphia.  Shepard was apprenticed to William Goddard in 1767. In 1770 Shepard fell ill and was sent to the island of Saint Christopher (St. Kitts) in the West Indies.  Shepard settled in the town of Basse Terre.  While there Shepard got a job as a journeyman printer for a local newspaper. 

In 1772 a hurricane blasted the islands of the West Indies.  Soon after a boy who lived there wrote a story about the great hurricane.  He brought his story to the paper for publication.  Shepard was so impressed by this young man’s work that not only did they publish this work, but Shepard took an interest in the boy and encouraged him to go to the colonies and get an education.  Shepard worked with a group of other mentors on the islands who rallied to raise the money to send this boy to the Colonies and get him a proper, formal education.  This boy was none other than Alexander Hamilton.  This encounter in the West Indies would pay off immensely for Shepard in years to come.

Shepard was still on St. Christopher Island when he learned of the beginning of the American Revolution.  Believing in the cause and the fight for freedom he returned immediately to his father's house in Delaware.  Once there he was disheartened to learn that his brother Simon was not interested in the Patriot cause for Freedom and believed in staying loyal to England.  So the next day Simon left for New York to join the English loyalist forces and Shepard set out to join up with the Patriots.

Shepard joined the militia and went to fight for the cause of Independence.

He served as a Lieutenant in the NY militia in 1776.  From 1777-1779 he served as a First Lieutenant in the Second Continental Artillery in the Continental Army.

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In 1779 General George Washington decided that he wanted his advisors to find him a printer who could write and publish a newspaper that would promote the Patriot cause.  General Knox consulted with Alexander Hamilton as to who they could find to carry out this job.  Remembering Shepard Kollock from his boyhood days, Alexander Hamilton suggested Kollock for the job.  Shepard was given an honorable discharge from the army and was sent to Chatham, NJ where he published the first edition of his Patriot newspaper.  It was called the New Jersey Journal and the first edition was printed on February 16, 1779. 

The Kollock family are said to be descendants of French Huguenots who fled France for religious freedom in the British Colonies. Her father became a printer and when the revolution began was commissioned in the Continental Army. Like many in the Colonies, members of the same family often took different sides; and in this case, Shepard Kollock's half-brother, Simon Kollock was a Captain (some records say Colonel) with the British Army and led troops in rooting out colonials in Elizabethtown. When the Americans won the war, Simon exiled to Canada with other loyalists.

All of children of Shepard Kollock were prominent and influential in the infancy of the United States, and two of his sons, Henry Clinton Kollock (1778-1819) and Shepard Kosciusko Kollock (1795-1865), were Presbyterian ministers. Three daughters Mary Goddard Kollock, wife of Judge Frederick Kollock Nash, former Governor of NC; Sarah "Sally" Kollock who married, who married Judge Samuel King and later Judge Harris; and Susan Davis Kollock, who married Rev. John Knox Witherspoon both married influential men and removed to Hillsborough, Orange Co, NC, where they contributed greatly and their descendants prospered. Two other sisters, Lydia Austin Kollock (1800-1879), and Jane Hay Kollock (1791-1867), also married ministers, and remained in New Jersey.

Henrietta Blanchard Kollock was born in Elizabethtown, (now) Union Co, NJ the 4th of 9 known surviving children (3 boys/6 girls) born to Revolutionary War patriot Lt. Shepard Kollock and his wife, Susannah "Susan" Arnett. She was the paternal grandchild of Shepard Preterman Kollock Sr. & Mary Goddard of Delaware. (Shepard Kollock Sr. was the biological son of Comfort Shepard and Thomas Preterman. When his mother married 2nd to Simon Kollock, he adopted his stepfather's surname. She was the maternal grandchild of Isaac Arnett (1726-1801) and Hannah White (1733-1823), a Revolutionary War Hero herself. 

Retta Kollock 19 years old when she married 25-year old Rev. John McDowell of Bedminster, NJ on February 5, 1805. The couple would have only one known surviving child, Elizabeth McDowell (1816-1874), losing at least two other child in infant deaths. The couple would later adopt their nephew, John McDowell Kollock, son of Retta's brother Isaac Arnett Kollock & Elizabeth Harden Cox, and John would later drop the surname Kollock and was thereafter known as John McDowell, Jr.

Rev. John McDowell & Henrietta Kollock resided most of their married years in Philadelphia where her husband was pastor of the Spring Garden Presbyterian Church. She was widowed in 1863 when her husband of 58 years passed at age 83. She survived him 4 years, passing at her son-in-law home (Rev. Willard M. Rice) in 1867 at age 81.

Sources: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/7397652/person/6154023720/facts

jimda3d originally shared this on 06 Jun 2011

ddimmock_1 originally shared this on 16 Dec 2013

IN MEMORY OF SHEPARD KOLLOCK, Esq. an officer of the Revolution who after having guided in the establishment of the liberty of his country, and for many years filled with usefullness various civil stations, died in the full assurance of a glorious resurrrection , of a blessed immortality, July 28th 1839 Aged 88 Years. From the Kollock Family Website: http://shepardkollock.homestead.com/ShepardKollock1750.html