John Hart (New Jersey politician)

John Hart (* about 1713 in Stonington, Connecticut, colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain, now USA, † May 11 1779 in Hopewell, New Jersey, USA ) has signed for New Jersey Declaration of Independence of the United States, making it one of the founding fathers of the United States.

Soon after his birth his parents moved from Stonington to Hopewell Township in New Jersey. His father Edward Hart leading a militia in the French and Indian War. 1739 John Hart had its own farm near Hopewell (New Jersey) and married a year later Deborah Scudder. The couple had 13 children before she died in 1778.

Hart was elected in 1750 as Freeholder of Hunterdon County. He was first elected in 1761 in the colonial Parliament of New Jersey and remained there until it was dissolved in 1771. He was appointed to the local security committee and the Committee of Correspondence and became a judge at the General Court of Appeal.

As a New Jersey formed an independent parliament or a provincial congress, he was elected in 1776 and served as its vice president. In June 1776, the delegation from New Jersey in the Continental Congress against independence. As a result, the entire delegation was replaced and Hart was one of the new delegates. He belonged to the Continental Congress from June 22, 1776, just in time to vote for the Declaration of Independence, and to sign it. He stayed only until August of the year in Congress.

In August 1776 New Jersey elected a General parliament with a new state constitution. Hart returned there and served until 1778 as speaker of parliament. During the Parliamentary Assembly in the autumn of 1776 his farm and his mill was burned down by Hessian troops. He was forced to hide in the woods and in caves. When George Washington had won the 1777 Battle of Princeton was hard to return home, but his health was irreparably damaged. He died at home of kidney failure and was buried in the First Baptist Church Cemetery in Hopewell (New Jersey).