Call Number:

C1010

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Citations should be as follows: John Beatty Family Collection, Box #, Folder #, Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1768-1804 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Beatty, John, 1749-1826

Form:

Correspondence -- 18th century and Genealogies.

Abstract:

Consists primarily of 18th-century letters and documents of Princeton graduate (Class of 1769) and New Jersey politician John Beatty and other Beatty family members.

John Beatty was a revolutionary soldier and a politician of New Jersey. He was the son of Charles Clinton Beatty, a clergyman born in Ireland who later came to America. In 1763 Charles Clinton Beatty became a trustee of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). He was sent to the West Indies to raise money for the college, and died in Barbados of yellow fever, in 1772. John Beatty had nine siblings; all four of the brothers who volunteered in 1776 became Continental Army officers. John graduated from Princeton in 1769, where he studied medicine. He enlisted in the war and served in different commissions. He was a member of the New Jersey legislature and a delegate to the Continental Congress (1784-85). Upon expiration of his term, he became secretary of New Jersey until 1805. John's brother Charles Clinton Beatty graduated from Princeton in 1775. John's other brother, Erkuries Beatty, was a soldier; he was born in 1759 and died in Princeton in 1823.

The collection consists primarily of letters and documents relating to John Beatty and members of the Beatty family: John's father, the Rev. Charles Beatty, John's brothers Erkuries, Charles Clinton, and Richard, and their sister, Elizabeth. Included is correspondence with Enoch Green, Princeton Class of 1760, who was a cousin of John Beatty; Gov. Richard Howell; James McHenry; Benjamin Guild; and thirteen letters from Charles Clinton Beatty to his sister, Elizabeth. In addition, there are accounts of expenses for the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) for money received from Samuel Stanhope Smith (treasurer); an oath abjuring Beatty's allegiance to Great Britain and affirming his allegiance to the State of New Jersey; memoranda; a mortgage document signed by Beatty and John Stockton; a document of accounts of Beatty, audited and signed by Isaac Snowden; and several handwritten notes of the genealogy of the Beatty, Green, and Guild families.

The material is organized by family member and arranged alphabetically.