{{Short description|American judge (1711–1772)}} {{for-multi|his son, an officer in the American Revolutionary War|John Berrien (major)|his grandson, the United States senator from Georgia|John M. Berrien}} {{Infobox person | name = John Berrien | image = Portrait of a Gentleman, possibly Judge John Berrien.jpg | caption = Portrait of Berrien by Charles Willson Peale | birth_date = {{Birth date|1711|11|19}} | birth_place = Newtown, New York | death_date = {{Death date and age|1772|04|22|1711|11|19}} | death_place = Rocky Hill, New Jersey | burial_place = Princeton Cemetery | occupation = Judge }} '''John Berrien''' (November 19, 1711{{spaced ndash}}April 22, 1772) was a farmer and merchant from Rocky Hill, New Jersey.<ref name=Bailey>{{cite book|last=Bailey|first=Rosalie Fellows|title=Pre-Revolutionary Dutch Houses and Families in Northern New Jersey and Southern New York|year=1936|publisher=William Morrow & Company|location=New York|pages=431–3|chapter=House of John Berrien; Washington's Headquarters|oclc= 1464629}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=DEP Officially Reopens Rockingham |url=https://www.nj.gov/dep/newsrel/2004/04_0075.htm |publisher=New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection |date=July 1, 2004}}</ref> He was appointed a justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1764 and was a trustee of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, for eleven years.<ref name="courts">{{cite book |last1=Keasbey |first1=Edward Quinton |title=The Courts and Lawyers of New Jersey 1661–1912 |date=1912 |publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company |pages=303–5 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yAFAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA303 |chapter=John Berrien, 1764–1772, His home called "Rockingham," Washington's headquarters at Rocky Hill |volume=I}}</ref>
==Biography== Berrien was born on November 19, 1711, at Newtown on Long Island, now known as Elmhurst, Queens. He was the grandson of Cornelius Jansen Berrien.<ref name="nrhpdoc">{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=70000394}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Rockingham |publisher=National Park Service|first1=Charlotte |last1=Tonaszewski |date=July 1970 }}</ref> His parents were Peter Berrien and Elizabeth Woodhull Edsall.
After his first wife died, and they had no children. In 1759 he married again, to Lady Margaret Eaton. He and Margaret had a total of six children. Their son John Berrien (1759–1815) became a brigade major during the American Revolutionary War.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, Volume 52 |publisher=National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution |year=1918 |pages=652}}</ref>
Although Berrien was a prosperous and prominent individual, on April 21, 1772, he drowned himself by jumping into the Millstone River. He was believed to have committed suicide, because of "lunacy", as one account said at the time.<ref name="nrhpdoc"/> His will divided his property equally among his wife and six children.<ref name="nrhpdoc"/> He is buried in Princeton Cemetery.<ref name="courts"/>
His house Rockingham, near Rocky Hill, New Jersey was used by General George Washington as his last headquarters during the war. Congress leased it for Washington for three months while the legislators were in residence in Princeton. Washington wrote his final address to the army in 1783 while staying there.<ref name=McFarlane>{{cite book |last1=McFarlane |first1=Kate E. |editor1-last=Honeyman |editor1-first=A. Van Doren |title=Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society |date=1912 |pages=85–90 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_uY5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA85 |chapter=The Washington Headquarters at Rocky Hill |volume=I}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline}} *{{Find a Grave|9727079}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berrien, John}} Category:1711 births Category:1772 deaths Category:People from Rocky Hill, New Jersey Category:People from Elmhurst, Queens Category:Farmers from colonial New Jersey Category:Merchants from colonial New Jersey Category:18th-century American merchants Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of New Jersey Category:Princeton University people Category:Burials at Princeton Cemetery
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