John Ogden1

#11333, (19 September 1609 - May 1682)

Family

Jane Bond b. s 1616, d. a 1683
Children 1.John Ogden Jr.8 (1638 - 1702)
 2.David Ogden+1 (1639/40 - b 1691/92)
 3.Jonathan Ogden8 (1639/40 - 1732)
 4.Joseph Ogden8 (1642 - b 1690)
 5.Mary Ogden9 (s 1652 - )
 6.Benjamin Ogden8 (c 1654 - 1722)
John Ogden, The Pilgrim (1609-1682): A Man of More than Ordinary Mark by Jack Harpster.

This book tells the story of a remarkable man who left a significant footprint in seventeenth-century colonial America. Now nearly forgotten, John Ogden was one of our country’s earliest patriots – a man who stood tall against the intrusion of foreign intervention in colonial affairs.

An accomplished stonemason, John Ogden was born in Lancashire, England in 1609. He immigrated to the New World in 1641, arriving in Rippowam (now Stamford, Connecticut) to build a dam and gristmill for the community. In 1642, he was hired to build the first permanent stone church in Fort Amsterdam, then but a small dusty settlement at the foot of Manhattan Island.

Leaving Stamford in 1644, Ogden spent the next twenty-one years on Long Island. Among other accomplishments there, he established the first commercial whaling enterprise in America.

In 1665 Ogden became one of the original patentees on the Elizabethtown Purchase, the first English settlement in the Colony of New Jersey. For the next nineteen years, until his death in 1682, he led the community though the difficult years of conflict between the settlers – who had purchased their land directly from the Indians – and the English proprietors, who attempted to usurp the settlers’ property and their government. On one occasion, he risked almost everything he owned rather than accede to a foreign authority that he felt had no legal standing. This single act of civil disobedience should allow him to stand with the foremost patriots in our history

Ogden’s service to his community included many stints as a magistrate, first at the town level and later at the East New Jersey colony level. He was also chosen on many occasions to lead delegations to deal with the Indians, who trusted him completely.

His years in New Jersey also saw Ogden develop and pursue many business interests. He built, with his own hands, a gristmill, a lumber mill, a tanyard, and a brickyard. He also conducted a successful trading business and built another whaling company.

No accurate information has been previously published about John Ogden’s earliest years in England. A one-hundred-year-old genealogical study on the Ogden family in America – which has served as the foundation for much of our information about the man – is inaccurate. Using both direct and inferential information, Jack Harpster has recreated that early time, providing the first-ever look at the ancestral home of the Ogdens and how they came to immigrate to America. Harpster has also delved deep into early colonial records to discuss the Ogden family’s life and times in America during the mid to late 1600s. The story is highlighted by many colorful incidents and descriptions, often told in the words on contemporary colonial Americans.

John Ogden, The Pilgrim (1609-1982): A Man of More than Ordinary Mark, provides new history – and often rewrites existing history – about an important colonial American pioneer. It is an absorbing, insightful biography set in an exciting but understudies period of American history.

ISBN 0-8386-4104-0.2 
Ogden Family in America relies, esp. for the English origins, on the work of discredited genealogist Gustav Anjou. For this reason, none of the English ancestors are treated using this source. 
Birth*19 September 1609He was born on 19 September 1609 at Bradley Plain, Hampshire, EnglandG; no sources given.1 
Marriage*circa 1637He married Jane Bond circa 1637 at EnglandG.3 
circa 1640He and Jane Bond migrated to Long Island, New YorkG, from England circa 1640.4 
1665He and Jane Bond removed to Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, in 1665.4 
15 February 1668He received a Commission for a whale fishery on 15 February 1668 at New Jersey.5 
20 December 1681He left a will on 20 December 1681 at New Jersey.6 
Death*May 1682He died in May 1682 at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, at age 72.1 
Probate*19 September 1682His estate was probated on 19 September 1682 at New Jersey.7 

Citations

  1. [S1083] William Ogden Wheeler, The Ogden Family in America (Elizabethtown Branch) and Their English Ancestry (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1897, 1907), 39–40.
  2. [S1090] Jack Harpster, John Ogden, The Pilgrim (1609-1682): A Man of More than Ordinary Mark (New Jersey: FDU Press at Fairleigh Dichinson University, 2006). Book description on publisher's website.
  3. [S1083] William Ogden Wheeler, Ogden Family in America, 35, 36, 39. "Little is known concerning Jane Bond, the wife of John Ogden. She was the daughter of Jonathan Bond of England, and tradition says she was the sister of Robert Bond, an intimate associate of John Ogden, both in Southampton, L. I., and Elizabethtown, N. J."
  4. [S1083] William Ogden Wheeler, Ogden Family in America, 43.
  5. [S1075] A. van Doren Honeyman, William Whitehead and others, editors, Documents Relating to the Colonial and Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey (Newark, NJ: Archives of the State of New Jersey, 1880–1949), XXI:30, "1668 Feb. 15. Privileges, Conditions and Limitation for the Whale fishery by John Ogden senior, Caleb Carwithy, Jacob Moleyn, Wm Johnson and Jeffry Jones, all of Elizabeth Town, and 21 partners from Barnegate to Sandy Hook. 1668 Feb. 15. Commission for the preceding. P. 22-23. Liber No. 2, Book of Warrants and Surveys, Office of the East Jersey Proprietors, Perth Amboy. Hereinafter cited as Documents Relating to the History of the New Jersey.
  6. [S1083] William Ogden Wheeler, Ogden Family in America, 33: ""Know all men by these presents that I John Ogden Senior Inhabitant of Elizabeth towne in y e province of new East Jersey for Divers good causes and waity Considerations moveing me hereunto but more Espetially for that Jaan Ogden is my Deare and beloved wife and soe hath been for above fowerty yeares Have Given Graunted Alienated and made over unto my above Deare wife Jaan Ogden all my Estate both moveables and immoveables that is to say houses lands catties goods and what ever else may be my proper Right & Due & what soever Lands not yet Layed out which is my Right & Due I say I Doe by these rts. fully and firmely Give Graunt Alienate and make over all & every part & parcell of ye above mentioned estate unto my aforesaid wife all Just Depts being payed Satisfied & answered: by ye advice & Councell & assistance of such overseers as I have thought fitt to Constitute namely Benjamin Parkis Jonathan Ogden & Joseph Ogden for a full & firm Ratification & Confirmation of ye promises I have Herevnto set my hand and Seall this one and twenty day of December one thousand sixe hundred Eighty and one and in the three and thirty yeare of his Majesties Raigne
    John Ogden [seal]
    "Sighned Sealed & Delivered in presence of us
    "Isaac Whitehead
    The marke W of
    Jaan Whitehead."
  7. [S1075] A. van Doren Honeyman, William Whitehead and others, Documents Relating to the History of the New Jersey, XXI:51.
  8. [S1083] William Ogden Wheeler, Ogden Family in America, 40.
  9. [S1083] William Ogden Wheeler, Ogden Family in America, 49.