Person in this family
Jeremiah Stilwell
Born 1768; death not recorded
Jeremiah Stilwell was born at **Bedminster in Somerset County in 1768**, when New Jersey was a British colony — which makes him the earliest-born person in this part of the archive. He is named as a **brother of Daniel Stilwell**, and so an uncle of Henry. His memorial cites a published family history, *The History of Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell, Progenitor of the Stillwell Family in America*, which is the obvious route back another generation. **[VOLUNTEER-WRITTEN FIND A GRAVE PAGE, NOT A RECORD]** — secondary throughout, and not verified here against the documents it refers to.
Uncertain
Jeremiah Stilwell was born at **Bedminster in Somerset County in 1768**, when New Jersey was a British colony — which makes him the earliest-born person in this part of the archive. He is named as a **brother of Daniel Stilwell**, and so an uncle of Henry. His memorial cites a published family history, *The History of Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell, Progenitor of the Stillwell Family in America*, which is the obvious route back another generation. **[VOLUNTEER-WRITTEN FIND A GRAVE PAGE, NOT A RECORD]** — secondary throughout, and not verified here against the documents it refers to.
Born at bedminster-somerset-nj
Birth: From our family tree - no record found yet
How is this person related?
Andrew John Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Gina D. Cacace’s no relationship found in this archive
Abigail Ann Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Marie C. Fitzgerald’s no relationship found in this archive
Kevin Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Worked out from the recorded parents and marriages. No sex is recorded for anyone in this archive, so the wording stays neutral.
Life
A written life story has not been added for this person yet.
Family
No family links have been added yet.
See this family in the family treeWhere they lived
Use the place list first. The map below is optional.
Places listed on this page
- Somerset, Somerset County, New Jersey
- New Jersey
The map could not load. The complete place list is above it.
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.
What the records say
0 of 2 records transcribed.
Record exhibit
Find a Grave memorial for Jeremiah Stilwell, born Bedminster, Somerset County, 1768
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
The exact words from this record have not been typed out yet.
Record exhibit
Stillwell genealogy (1931), volumes 2 and 3 — searched, and this family is not in them
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
The exact words from this record have not been typed out yet.
Historical context
These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.
What we still don't know
- [ASKED AND ANSWERED: NO] **Lester Stillwell**, the eleven-year-old killed by a shark in **Matawan Creek on 12 July 1916** — one of the Jersey Shore attacks that Peter Benchley later drew on for *Jaws* — was a New Jersey Stillwell of the same era, and the question of a connection is a fair one. **Nothing connects him to this family.** He was of **Matawan in Monmouth County**; ours are of **Somerset**, some thirty miles off. The 1931 Stillwell genealogy, which does cover Monmouth, contains **neither Lester nor this family**. A shared descent from Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell is likely enough for any two New Jersey Stillwells and would put them many generations apart, but it is a guess about a surname and not a finding. Written down because it is the kind of question that gets asked twice.
- **His parents, who are also Daniel's** — the generation this archive most wants on this line.
- *The History of Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell* is cited on his page. The 1931 *Stillwell genealogy* volumes on archive.org were searched and cover the Staten Island and Monmouth branches, not Somerset; the Nicholas Stillwell history is a different book and has not been found online.
- His death, and whether he is buried near Elcey at Hillsborough.
- **Where this family sits among the American Stillwells is not established.** The standard published genealogy traces most of them from **Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell**, who settled at Gravesend on Long Island in the seventeenth century, and follows that line into Hunterdon, Sussex and Monmouth counties. **Our people are in Somerset County** — Bedminster and Franklin Township — and the 1931 volumes were read in full and do not contain them. So this branch either descends from Nicholas by a path the book does not trace, or it does not descend from him at all. The book cited on Jeremiah's memorial, *The History of Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell*, is a different work and is not online; it is the obvious next place to look.