Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/253

 Peter Skene Ogden, Fur Trader. 231 Newark now stand. The family was one of the most promi- nent in the latter community at the time of the breaking out of the War of the Revolution. Peter Skene Ogden was born in the city of Quebec, Lower Canada, in the year 1794, the more exact date not yet having been traced. His father was then judge in the Admiralty Court at Quebec and a leading citizen among the Union Empire Loyalists then residing in Canada. His mother (a second wife of his father) was Sarah Hanson (Ogden) from Livingston Manor, near New York City, a woman of fine attainments and property in her own right. She was a sister to Capt. John Wilkinson Hanson of the British army. Peter Skene Ogden's grandfather was Judge David Ogden, a grad- uate of Yale College in the class of 1728, and mentioned by one historian as the first thoroughly trained lawyer to reside in the State of New Jersey, and a man of prominence and influence in the City of Newark. Peter Skene Ogden's father, "The Hon. Isaac Ogden, was doubtless born in Newark, N. J. He graduated in the first class that went out of King's (College), now Columbia Uni- versity, chose the law for his profession, and became a dis- distinguished jurist. Newark tradition says that at the out- break of the Revolution, his father, Judge David Ogden, and all his sons took the patriotic side, and that the son Isaac Ogden delivered a stirring address to a mass meeting from a platform extended from the second story of the old court house, Newark. * * * But in the latter part of 1776, the old Judge and his sons, Isaac, Nicholas and Peter, affiliated with the Royalist party and their property was condemned and sold during the war. However, Isaac's brothers, Abra- ham and Samuel, remained staunch and active patriots." "Judge Isaac Ogden was said to have built a store on the northeast corner of Broad and Market streets, Newark, where the First National Bank now stands. His house in Newark was alternately the residence of the British General and the American Commander, as either party happened to be sue-