Caleb Brokaw

Life

References for this account: [1][2]

Where they lived

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The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 1 of the places listed above are recorded only as a county or country, so they are not pinned. Cemetery and burial places have red pins.

Historical context

These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.

What we still don't know

• [HE IS NAMED IN GEORGE WASHINGTON'S GENERAL ORDERS] He served as a private in Captain Peter Dumont Vroom's Company, Second Regiment of the Somerset County Militia, and in 1780 received $139 for the depreciation of his Continental pay. In February 1779, with the army wintering at Middlebrook, a formal complaint reached the Commander-in-Chief against a Colonel Craige for "beating and otherwise ill-treating Caleb Brokaw, an Inhabitant of this State." Washington convened a Court of Inquiry of five field officers. The court sidestepped it, holding that civilians who meddle with soldiers do so at their own risk and that Brokaw's remedy lay in the civil courts. Washington was not satisfied. His order of 24 February 1779 records that "the General is sorry to find that the court seem to have mistaken his intention," and goes on: "All improper treatment of an inhabitant by an officer or soldier being destructive of good order and discipline as well as subversive of the rights of society is as much a breach of military, as civil law and as punishable by the one as the other... he seriously recommends it to all officers to consider the delicacy of their situation with respect to the inhabitants and cautiously to refrain from every thing that may have even the appearance of an abuse of power. A real one so far as depends upon him will never escape the severest notice." This is checkable and should be checked. The text is quoted from Fitzpatrick's edition of the Writings of George Washington and the Library of Congress has the papers online; the general orders of 11 and 24 February 1779 either name him or they do not.
• [HIS WILL RECORDS THE PEOPLE HE ENSLAVED, AND THEY BELONG IN THIS ARCHIVE] Caleb Brokaw's will of 2 April 1814 leaves his wife Jane, among the furniture and the cow, "my Negro girl named Deydan." The inventory taken on 25 May 1814 values his estate at $5,323.21 across 209 categories, and among the horses, hives of bees and the pew in the Dutch Church it lists "black man and woman and child ($600), a Negro boy fourteen years of age ($250), a Negro boy ten years of age ($225), and a Negro girl eight years of age ($75)." Seven enslaved people, one of them named. Deydan, a man, a woman, a child, two boys of fourteen and ten, and a girl of eight. New Jersey did not abolish slavery outright until 1846 and its gradual abolition act of 1804 freed no one already enslaved. This is recorded here plainly because it is part of what the record says, and because Deydan has a name and deserves it. Whether any of these people can be traced further — through the 1830 or 1840 censuses, or Somerset County manumissions — has not been attempted.
• [HIS GRAVE IS GONE] He was buried in an old family burying ground at Hillsborough, later Mansville. A great-great-grandson visited in 1915 and copied the stone: "In memory of Caleb Brokaw, who died May 8, 1814, in the 68th year of his life," with the verse "This spot contains the ashes of the just / Who sought no honors, betrayed no trust..." The site is now under a housing development. The 1915 transcription is all that survives of it.
• His will was proved 14 May 1814 and is filed as Somerset County 1577R, New Jersey State Library. A codicil of 29 April 1814 struck out the bequest to his son Isaac. The will names children Caleb, Anne, Mary (wife of Hendrick Fisher), Isaac and Abraham, and grandchildren; it also mentions a plantation purchased of Peter Stryker, who was his son Abraham's father-in-law.

References

1. [1] Find a Grave memorial 33278080 — Caleb Brokaw (1746–1814)Back to citation 1a Back to citation 1b Back to citation 1c
2. [2] FamilySearch Family Tree — Abraham Caleb Brokaw, LB7F-3MTBack to citation 2

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