Notes for: Vincent Bodine
From: Cranchris [mailto:cranchris at comcast.net>]
Sent: Thursday, October 3, 2019
Subject: Vincent Bodine
Hello! I am a Trustee of the Cranbury Historical & Preservation Society in Cranbury, New Jersey. I am also on the Steering Committee that has identified a 18th century house & saved it from demolition by moving it. Our research indicates that Vincent Bodine bought the house and 150 acres in 1760. Vincent, his wife, Ann Dey and eight children lived there. The home remained in the family for nearly fifty years.
Our committee is seeking information on this Bodine family. We also wish to notify your group of our find. We have a copy of the deed from the N.J. State Archives.
Thank you.
Karen Kelley
Regarding the above, the following paragraph comes from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranbury,_New_Jersey#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20the%20Cranbury%20Historical,and%20the%201760%20Bodine%20farm.
In 2019, the Cranbury Historical and Preservation Society saved the 1713 East Jersey Cottage from demolition and had the building relocated across Old Trenton Road, onto its original 1693 Fullerton tract, the 1752 Philipse property and the 1760 Bodine farm. The building retained its intact hand-hewn post and beam structure with pegged mortise and tenon joints and rubble nogging.
He apparently moved about 1736/37 (maybe 1745) with his father to Cranbury, Middlesex County, New Jersey.
The following comes from the Sinnott book (page 166) and some can also be found in "Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey," v. 1: On September 22, 1760, he bought 150 acres on the Millstone River, beginning where Rocky Brook runs into the Millstone (East Jersey Deeds, Book R, p. 126), and the next year on April 14, he purchased an additional tract which had originally been confirmed to this father-in-law, Lawrence Dey. These lands were known as the Old Church Farm, near Red Tavern (from the fact that the first church in all that section of the state was there erected. The farm is near the old Red Tavern and east of Hightstown, Mercer county, New Jersey, and has been almost continuously in the possession of the Dye or Dey family until the present time - 1906). One of his descendants, Mrs. Ann Eliza (Bodine) Dey, living in 1897, and then entering her eighty-seventh year, made the statement that her father, James Bodine, frequently said he recollected General Lafayette, with a detachment of troops, being quartered on the farm of his father, Vincent Bodine, at Cranbury, during the Revolution. This reminiscence is, at least partially, corroborated by General Washington's report to Congress, July 1, 1778, in wich he recounts the detention of the army at Cranbury (New Jersey Archives, second series, v. ii, pp. 286 and 287).
His last will and testament was dated July 22, 1785 and proven on March 22, 1790. He named eight children in his will. One of his children may be Catherine Bodine who married Gabriel Ten Broeck.
He is thought to be buried at First Church burying-ground at Cranbury.
From Ronny Bodine:
Vincent Bodine had moved to Middlesex County by 6 March 1752 when he witnessed a deed from William Crawford to John Rue (East New Jersey Deeds K2: 171). On 20 Sept 1760 he purchased 150 acres along the Millstone River (East Jersey Deeds K2: 126-127) and on 14 April 1761, then described as a resident of the South Ward of Perth Amboy, Middlesex County, an additional tract of 50 acres (East Jersey Deeds K2: 127-129), purchased from John Height. This latter tract had been granted in 1760 to John Hight and Vincent Dey. Sinnott's "Annals...", p 166, incorrectly assigns Lawrence Dey as co-seller with John Hight, though Lawrence Dey was a subscribing witness. In his report to Congress, General Lafayette reported that during the detention of General Washington's army at Cranbury, on 1 July 1778 he visited Vincent Bodine and his family and was their guest at least for one day. (New Jersey Archives, 2nd series, v. ii, pp. 286 and 287).
The will of Vinson Bodine, of South Ward of New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey was written 22 July 1785 and proved 22 March 1790. Therein, he made bequests to his wife Ann and children James, Vinson, Lydia, Mary, Ann and youngest daughters Catharine, Charlott and Elebeth, the latter three not yet being of age (New Jersey Wills, 30: 530).
Ann Dey was the daughter of Lawrence Dey, in whose will of 26 July 1790 he refers to "my daughter Ann Burdine's children."