John Berrien
Template:Short description Template:For multi Template:Infobox person John Berrien (November 19, 1711Template:Spaced ndashApril 22, 1772) was a farmer and merchant from Rocky Hill, New Jersey.<ref name=Bailey>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was appointed a justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1764 and was a trustee of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, for eleven years.<ref name="courts">Template:Cite book</ref>
Biography
Berrien was born on November 19, 1711, at Newtown on Long Island, now known as Elmhurst, Queens. He was the grandson of Cornelius Jansen Berrien.<ref name="nrhpdoc">Template:Cite web</ref> His parents were Peter Berrien and Elizabeth Woodhull Edsall.
After his first wife died, and they had no children. In 1759 he married again, to Lady Margaret Eaton. He and Margaret had a total of six children. Their son John Berrien (1759–1815) became a brigade major during the American Revolutionary War.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Although Berrien was a prosperous and prominent individual, on April 21, 1772, he drowned himself by jumping into the Millstone River. He was believed to have committed suicide, because of "lunacy", as one account said at the time.<ref name="nrhpdoc"/> His will divided his property equally among his wife and six children.<ref name="nrhpdoc"/> He is buried in Princeton Cemetery.<ref name="courts"/>
His house Rockingham, near Rocky Hill, New Jersey was used by General George Washington as his last headquarters during the war. Congress leased it for Washington for three months while the legislators were in residence in Princeton. Washington wrote his final address to the army in 1783 while staying there.<ref name=McFarlane>Template:Cite book</ref>
References
External links
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