Hedden Family History & Genealogy

PATRIOTS
The Martyrdom of Justice Hedden
in the American Revolution

Newark, New Jersey, was a tough place to live during the American Revolution. It was a small town of 200 families, but its citizenry was bitterly divided between those sympathetic to the American cause and Tories who wanted the American colonies to remain under British control. Fighting among neighbors was common, inflamed by frequent raids against civilians by the British soldiers and their Hession allies, stationed in nearby New York City. Newark Tory loyalists would mark homes and other property with a large letter "R" to alert the next British raiding party of the locations of "rebel" families to be attacked. These forays resulted in theft of livestock, the burning of homes and "abuse of men and women" according to a contemporaneous account. American sympathizers, when they got a chance, retaliated against their Tory neighbors.

One of the prominent American activists in Newark was a local magistrate, Justice Joseph Hedden, Jr. Prior to the war, he participated in community meetings called to select delegates to the first Continental Congress. Resolutions were passed at these meetings condemning the British monarch for his oppression of the American colonies. In the late 1770s, Justice Hedden, "a man of great nerve" according to contemporaneous accounts, was appointed "Commissioner for the County of Essex for signing and inventorying the Estates and Effects of persons gone over to the Enemy"--in other words it was his job to confiscate the property of the local Tories for the American government. One American account of his activities was as follows: "The position was one that demanded absolute fearlessness and firmness. So well did Justice Hedden fulfill his duties that he was pointed out by those who had gone over the British as a Newarker worthy of the bitterest persecution."

The British sympathizers hated him. Accounts of Justice Hedden's activities in the British-controlled Royal Gazette noted the "brutality" of his behavior in driving Tories out of their homes, and accused him of enriching himself with the proceeds of the confiscated property.

On the night of January 25, 1780, Justice Hedden was at home in Newark with his family when a large British raiding party arrived, setting fire to downtown buildings and going towards the Hedden home. His sister, Elizabeth Hedden Roberts, lived nearby and later recounted what happened. She saw the burning buildings and heard that her brother's home was being attacked. She ran to the Hedden house to find chaos: her brother was being dragged out the door in his nightshirt and socks by British soldiers, the children were screaming and her sister-in-law was bleeding heavily from stab wounds in her face and breast from British bayonets.

The British marched Justice Hedden and other American prisoners out of town in the frigid cold. An American sympathizer threw the Justice a blanket to wear over his nightclothes. The prisoners were marched through the night, all the way to New York City, a distance of seven miles (they crossed the Hudson River on the ice) where they were thrown in a military prison.

Justice Hedden continued to receive poor treatment while in prison and historical accounts indicate that he probably suffered from gangrene brought on by frostbite incurred during the awful march to prison. By September 1780 he was near death, and his brothers Simon and David Heddon talked the British jailers into letting the Justice go home to die. He died in Newark on September 27, 1780.