For other people named John Hart, see John Hart (disambiguation).

John Hart (about 1713–May 11, 1779), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey.

Personal life

John was born in Stonington, Connecticut, but his parents soon moved to Hopewell Township, New Jersey in what was then Hunterdon County. His father was Edward Hart, who had led a militia unit in the French and Indian War. By 1739 John had acquired his own farm, near Hopewell and that year he married Deborah Scudder. The couple would have 13 children before her death in 1778.

Political career

John was elected a Freeholder of Hunterdon County in 1750. He was first elected to the New Jersey colonial Assembly in 1761 and served there until it was dissolved in 1771. He was appointed to the local Committee of Safety and the Committee of Correspondence, and became a judge on the Court of Common Pleas.

When New Jersey formed a revolutionary assembly, or provincial Congress, he was elected to it in 1776, and served as its Vice-President. In June of 1776, the New Jersey delegation in the Continental Congress was opposed to independence. As a result, the entire delegation was replaced, and Hart was one of those selected. He joined the Continental Congress on June 22, 1776, in time to vote for and sign the Declaration of Independence. He served only until August of that year.

In August of 1776, New Jersey elected a General Assembly under their new state constitution. Hart was returned to that body, and served as the Speaker of the Assembly until 1778. While meeting with the assembly in the fall of 1776, his farm and mill were burned by Hessean troops. He was forced to live in hiding in the woods and in caves. When Washington won the Battle of Princeton in 1777 Hart was able to return home, but his health had been damaged irrevocably.

He died at home of kidney failure, and is buried in the First Baptist Church Cemetery in Hopewell, New Jersey.

External link

• Hart’s Congressional biography