| Notes |
- ??Jasper Smith was admitted as an attorney in 1763 and practised for
many years in Trenton and vicinity. Although there is no record to
show what line of practice he pursued, in his will, in which he dwells
at length upon his activities, we find that he did a large business
and that he accumulated a very comfortable fortune, as he says, out of
the practice of law. He died in August 1813 and left personal property
amounting to nearly $17,000 and a large amount of real estate.
His will is a splendid specimen of the old-fashioned will and the
manner in which the people of that time approached the testamentary
disposition of property. He gives many details of his life, his
intense earnestness in dealing with the subject and the quaintness
with which he expressed himself makes interesting reading. The first
page or two of the will is practically a synopsis of his life and
gives the reasons which actuated him in disposing of his property.
Notwithstanding the evident care he gave to the disposition of his
estate, long after his death, in 1845, his will was brought into the
Supreme Court in litigation. The trustees of the church at
Lawrenceville had been enjoined by the will, under pain of forfeiture,
from cutting or selling timber within thirty years after obtaining
possession, and it was charged by the heirs at law that there had been
a breach of this condition. The court decided against the claim, and
referring to the motives that actuated him in making the will, says:
They may be clearly read in the history of his life, which, with
beautiful simplicity and truthfulness, he has himself recorded; in his
humble gratitude to God for His goodness to him; and in his fervent
desire to promote and perpetuate the preaching of the gospel, in his
native place. The property has since been sold.
|
1737 - 1813 (76 years)
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set