Jonathan Hampton (1712 - 1 November 1777) was an American colonial

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

, merchant, and militia officer involved with New Jersey's frontier fortifications and defenses along the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

during the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

(1755-1763). In 1755, the Royal Governor

Jonathan Belcher Jonathan Belcher (8 January 1681/8231 August 1757) was a merchant, politician, and slave trader from colonial Massachusetts who served as both governor of Massachusetts Bay and governor of New Hampshire from 1730 to 1741 and governor of New J ...

and the colonial legislature authorized the construction of stone blockhouse fortifications along the colony's Delaware River frontier to thwart violent incursions by disaffected Native Americans and their French allies as hostilities led to the French and Indian War. These incursions and other hostilities were a continuation of a European conflict between France and England called the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

. The act authorizing these fortifications also appointed Jonathan Hampton as the victualler and paymaster of a military unit, the

New Jersey Frontier Guard {{short description, 1700s provincial military unit The Frontier Guard was a provincial military unit organized by New Jersey's colonial legislature in 1755 to man a series of frontier fortifications along the Delaware River in northwestern New J ...

, to man these forts. To supply these troops, Hampton built the

Military Road {{Use dmy dates, date=November 2019 The following is a list of military roads worldwide. Australia * Part of the A8 (Sydney) between Neutral Bay and Mosman * Military Road, part of Route 39, Melbourne * Military Road, off Wanneroo Road just north ...

linking the provincial capital at Elizabethtown (now

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

) with Morristown and the Delaware River valley (then called the

Minisink The Minisink or (more recently) Minisink Valley is a loosely defined geographic region of the Upper Delaware River valley in northwestern New Jersey (Sussex County, New Jersey, Sussex and Warren County, New Jersey, Warren counties), northeastern P ...

) in 1756-1757. This road followed Native American trails and became the route of subsequent roads, including the Union Turnpike, and present-day

New Jersey Route 10 Route 10 is a state highway in the northern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It runs from an intersection with U.S. Route 46 (US 46) in Roxbury Township, Morris County east to County Route 577 (CR 577)/CR 677 (Prospect Avenue) in Wes ...

U.S. Route 206 U.S. Route 206 (US 206) is a north–south United States highway in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, United States. Only about a half a mile (800 m) of its length is in Pennsylvania; the Milford–Montague Toll Bridge carries it over the Delawa ...

, and County Route 510. The Military Road's western terminus ends at the

Old Mine Road Old Mine Road is a road in New Jersey and New York said to be one of the oldest continuously used roads in the United States of America. At a length of , it stretches from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to the vicinity of Kingsto ...

, an old road following the Delaware and

Neversink River The Neversink River (also called Neversink Creek in its upper course) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in southeastern Ne ...

valleys between Esopus (now Kingston) in

Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

, and the

Delaware Water Gap Delaware Water Gap is a water gap on the border of the U.S. states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania where the Delaware River cuts through a large ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. The gap makes up the southern portion of the Delaware Water Gap N ...

. Hampton established a large headquarters fort, Fort Johns, on the hillside overlooking the "Shapanack Flats" section of the Delaware valley near the Van Campen's Inn in Walpack Township. Hampton owned many large tracts of land in Sussex County's Paulins Kill valley. Shortly after the creation of the county, Hampton offered several acres from these tracts to the county for the building of a courthouse (built 1762-1765) and a public green. Nearby, he offered tracts for a proposed school, and to the Anglican church for a church and parsonage for the local rector. Hampton was a freemason, however, he is often incorrectly conflated with the Jonathan Hampton of New York City that donated the altar bible, now known as the George Washington Inaugural Bible, to St. John's Lodge No. 1 after a fire in 1770. Hampton was part of a group of petitioners to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1762 who had applied to form a lodge at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. This petition was granted on January 24, 1762 with the lodge becoming Temple Lodge No. 1. Hampton died 1 November 1777 in Elizabethtown, New Jersey allegedly while celebrating news of the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga two weeks earlier. The Sussex County municipality of Hampton Township was named in his honor.Lurie, Maxine N. Lurie; and Mappen, Mar
"Hampton Township"
entry in ''

Encyclopedia of New Jersey ''The Encyclopedia of New Jersey'' is edited by Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen and contains around 3,000 original articles, along with 585 illustrations and 130 maps. It was published in 2004 by Rutgers University Press, with . The publication wa ...

'', p. 348.

Rutgers University Press Rutgers University Press (RUP) is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in New Brunswick, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University. History Rutgers University Press, a nonprofit academic publishing house operating in New B ...

, 2004. . Accessed March 13, 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hampton, Jonathan 1712 births 1777 deaths American Freemasons Colonial American merchants American surveyors History of Sussex County, New Jersey Paulins Kill watershed People of New Jersey in the French and Indian War People from Sussex County, New Jersey People of colonial New Jersey