David Brearley

David Brearley (sometimes Brearly) is buried in St. Michael's churchyard. While he is most often commemorated as one of the New Jersey delegates to the federal Constitutional Convention of 1787 and as a Signer of the U.S. Constitution, he played many roles in a short life. Lawyers think of him as the first federal judge appointed for New Jersey, while Masons speak of him as the state's first Grand Master. He was the vice-president of the original New Jersey Cincinnati Society, made up of officers who served in the Revolutionary War, as well as a delegate to the Episcopal General Conference of 1786 and a writer of the Episcopal prayer book. His first wife was a daughter of Trenton attorney Abraham Cottnam and in 1779 they bought and moved into the Cottnam family home on the south side of Pennington Road, above Calhoun. He died in 1790, at the age of 45.

[credit: photograph courtesy Trentoniana Collection, Trenton Public Library]