James Walter Wall

Mayor and Senator

James Walter Wall, son of Garret Dorset Wall, was born in 1820, and, like his father, served in the military, attaining the rank of Colonel. He also shared his father's passion for the political arena. A year after his father's death, the startup Democratic party swept the local elections, and James, at 31, became the first mayor of Burlington under the new City charter. Well-respected in town, he was a very popular mayor.

Active in literature and journalism, the younger Wall corresponded with prominent citizens throughout the eastern states. In 1861, he became aware that some of his letters to friends in the southern states, opposing the Civil War, were being censored by the postmaster general, and wrote a letter protesting this censorship. He was accused of treason and arrested at his home, though not without a fight - he threw at least one constable across a room before being restrained.

The citizens of Burlington were incensed, and local anti-war sentiments were only galvanized by Wall's arrest. The mayor was returned to his home a short time later, and was elected to the U.S. Senate the very next year. He died in 1872, and is buried, like his father, at St. Mary's Church.

Captain James Lawrence

Naval War Hero

The youngest of eleven children, James Lawrence was born in Burlington on October 1, 1781. His parents were Tories who had entertained the Hessian commander as a dinner guest at their home during the Revolution, but when the war ended, they remained in America. James was sent to study law at the age of 13, but proved an uncooperative student. Eventually, he was permitted to join the Navy as a midshipman in 1798, and gained experience in action against the Barbary pirates.

Commissioned a Lieutenant in 1802, he was a member of Stephen Decatur's raiding party which destroyed the U.S.S. Philadelphia in Tripoli harbor after it was captured by the Tripolitans in 1804.

During the War of 1812, Lawrence commanded the U.S.S. Hornet, which captured the H.M.S. Peacock, and was promoted to Captain as a result. On June 1, 1813, commanding a new and untrained crew on the 49-gun frigate U.S.S. Chesapeake off Boston, Lawrence accepted a challenge from Philip Bowes Vere Broke, captain of the 38-gun H.M.S. Shannon. Four years Lawrence's senior, Broke had commanded the Shannon for six years, and had the best trained crew in the Royal Navy.

In less than 15 minutes, Lawrence's crew was overwhelmed. Mortally wounded, Lawrence shouted, "Tell the men to fire faster and not to give up the ship; fight her till she sinks!" True to his words, every officer in the Chesapeake's chain of command fought until he was either killed or wounded. Even so, the battle was lost in under an hour, the Chesapeake was captured, and Lawrence died four days later, leaving his wife and a daughter.

In honor of Captain Lawrence, a group of women stitched the words "Don't Give Up The Ship" into a flag. The flag was presented to Oliver Hazard Perry, commander of the U.S.S. Lawrence - named for Captain Lawrence - in the summer of 1813. Perry went on to capture an entire squadron of British ships in the battle of Lake Erie, on September 13, though not before every officer on the Lawrence - except for Perry and his 13-year-old brother - was either killed or wounded.

Lawrence's words became the motto of the U.S. Navy, which has named numerous ships in his honor, and Perry's flag now hangs in a place of honor at the United States Naval Academy. Copies may be seen at other Navy installations and, of course, in Burlington. Far less well known is Lawrence's last command to his crew - "Burn her!"

Joseph Bloomfield

Soldier and Governor

Born in 1753, Joseph Bloomfield reached the rank of Captain in the Revolutionary War, then served as New Jersey state attorney general and chief justice of the New Jersey Vice-Admiralty Court. He moved to Burlington upon marrying Mary McIlvaine, and took up residence in a mansion on High Street which had been built about 1750.

Both Bloomfields supported social causes. Joseph served as president of the first Society for the Abolition of Slavery, organized in Burlington in 1783. In 1789, he donated a small plot of land near the family home to the Library Company of Burlington, which had formerly been housed in the living rooms and parlors of its members. This provided a place for the Library's first permanent home, and the small side street adjacent to the Bloomfield's house and the Library was renamed from Office Street to Library Street - a name that remains to this day. Mary Bloomfield became the first non-Quaker member of The Friendly Institution, a secretive local charity founded in 1796.

Bloomfield served as Mayor of Burlington from 1795 to 1800, the second mayor under the Act of Incorporation of 1784. He went on to serve as Governor of New Jersey from 1801 to 1802 and 1803 to 1812, then returned to military service as a Brigadier General in the War of 1812. After the war, he finished his political career as a U.S. Representative from 1817 to 1821. He died in 1823, and is buried in St. Mary's churchyard.

Oliver Cromwell

Black Revolutionary Soldier

Oliver Cromwell was born near Burlington in 1752. Raised a farmer, he served in several companies of the Second New Jersey Regiment between 1777 and 1783. After seeing action at the battles of Trenton and Princeton in 1776 and 1777, Brandywine in 1777, Monmouth in 1778 and Yorktown in 1781, he left the military at war's end. George Washington personally signed Cromwell's discharge papers, and also designed a medal which was awarded to Cromwell.

Some years after the war, Cromwell applied for a veteran's pension. He was well-liked in Burlington, and although he was unable to read or write, local lawyers, judges and politicians came to his aid, and he was granted a pension of $96 a year. He purchased a 100-acre farm outside Burlington, and fathered 14 children, then spent his later years at his home at 114 East Union Street in Burlington. He lived to be 100 years old, outliving 8 of his children, and is buried in the cemetary of the Broad Street Methodist Church. His descendants live in the city to this day.

In 1983, the Oliver Cromwell Black History Society was organized to research and preserve Black Heritage, in Burlington and elsewhere. The Society works to encourage young men to represent Cromwell and other African-American soldiers in Revolutionary War recreations at the Old Barracks Museum in Trenton, New Jersey.