Maskell Ewing

Maskell Ewing was the namesake and eldest son of 10 children born to an Irishman who served at different times as justice of the peace, clerk, surrogate, sheriff and judge in Cumberland County. Having assisted his father in the clerkship in Greenwich, young Maskell was elected Clerk of the State Assembly before he was 21, whereupon he moved to Trenton. He held the position for 20 years, during which he also read law in the office of William C. Houston. This portrait, attributed to Charles Willson Peale, is thought to have been painted about 1788. Its subject is identified by the name on the letter in his hand, by the law books behind him (he was admitted to the bar in 1787) and by the blue coat and yellow waistcoat he wears, identifying him with the New Jersey Militia (with which he served 1776-77). In 1787, Maskell Ewing was named executor of the estate of the prosperous Houston, giving him the means to commission a portrait.

[Credit: Courtesy The Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover, DE]