Calendar
_______

Historical Sites Survey
Training Session
July 7, 10 am
Roseberry Homestead
540 Warren St
info - (908) 827-1778

Phillipsburg History Lecture
PAHS Meeting
July 15, 7 pm
Steve's Cafe, South Main St

Olde Towne Days
Roseberry Homestead
Open House
July 24-25, 10am - 5 pm
Walter Park
Free Shuttle Bus to Roseberry Homestead
(540 Warren St)

If you have an event that is open to the public and ought to be listed, please send an e-mail to our webmaster with some information about it as well as the date, time and place. It is often helpful to add a phone number for folks who may want additional information.

                                            Genealogy

We are not sure how we are going to develop this portion of the website. We clearly want it to focus on the local families of the area, and we do not want to duplicate (unnecessarily) material that is elsewhere widely available. All of the surnames that are noted in this article are in boldface.

                                                                                     _______

Dr. Michael T. Kelly, formerly of Easton, has prepared the following material, which is taken from his genealogy of the Beers family. The material is under copyright but Mike has given us permission to use it.

Jacob Roseberry: (1775-1845) m. Margaret Cline (1770-1851); parents of Margaret Roseberry-Beers (b.1809 in PA), the wife of John Beers b. 1801-2 (son of William and Sarah Opdyke-Beers, above). John and Margaret Beers’ first born was William R. Beers, b.1828 and was the grandfather of Harry R. Beers. He was the mayor of Phillipsburg in the 1870s and was employed by the Central Railroad of New Jersey.

The Roseberrys were a prominent family in Phillipsburg in the 1700s and 1800s. Jacob was the grandson of John Roseberry (1724-1814) of Durham, England, who settled in Greenwich Township, NJ about 1740. John Roseberry was married to Margaret Phillips (1727-1812), the daughter of William Phillips (m. Catherine) for whom Phillipsburg is named.

The progenitor of the Phillips family in America was Rev. George Phillips who arrived in Salem, Mass in 1630 and later lived in Watertown, MA. He founded the Congregationalist Church in America. Rev. George Phillips was born ~1593 at Rainham, St. Martins, Norfolk, England and died in 1644 at Watertown, MA. The 19th century abolitionist Wendell Phillips is a descendant of Rev. George Phillips.

Jacob Roseberry was the son of John and Sarah-Hannah (Cline) Roseberry (b. 1750 and 1756 respectively). All are buried at St. James Straw Church Cemetery. Margaret Cline-Roseberry was the daughter of John and Margaret Cline/Kline of Greenwich Township, NJ. The Cline family originally settled in Stewartsville, NJ from Germany around 1740 (ref. Ludwig Klein/Lewis Cline). John Cline, above, father of Margaret Cline-Roseberry (b. 1770), is not listed among the children of Lewis Cline.

The Roseberry homestead is located at 540 Warren Street in Phillipsburg. It is the oldest exiting building in the town and is on the National Registry of Historic Places. It was bought at a sheriff’s auction in August, 1787 by John Roseberry, the grandfather of Jacob. Details about when the house was built and the identity of its original owner are unclear. However, the prevailing belief is that the house was constructed as early as 1750 and was confiscated after the Revolution as part of the estate of John Tabor Kempe, the colonial Attorney General of New York (1759-1776) whose wife, Grace Coxe, inherited several hundred acres of land in and near Phillipsburg. Her grandfather, Col. Daniel Coxe of Trenton, held title to 1250 acres of land in this area beginning in 1715. Shortly after the marriage of Grace Coxe, the parcels transferred to her husband. John Tabor Kempe owned a sizable amount of land in Vermont, New York, New Jersey, and in the Carolinas. He was one of the wealthiest men in New York before the Revolution. Properties of Loyalists were seized by the American government and put on the block at public sales after the defeat of the British.

The progenitor of this family was Michael Roseberry b. 1685 m. Mary (?). His father was John Roseberry, b. ~1660 of Durham, England. Michael and Mary had at least the following children: Joseph (b. 1715), Michael (unknown), and John b. 1724 (as above). The three brothers were residents of Phillipsburg.