John Jacob Faesch

Background

John Jacob Faesch was born in 1729, in the canton of Basle, Switzerland.

Career

Faesch came from Hesse-Cassel to New Jersey in 1764 under a seven-years’ contract by which the London company was to pay him "2500 guilders per annum Rhenish, " as well as all travel expenses, furnish a house and meadow and put him in charge of all their forges, mines, and ironworks.

Succeeding "Baron" Hasenclever at Ringwood, Charlotteburg and Long Pond, “the smart little Dutchman” was superseded in 1771 by Robert Erskine, later Washington’s surveyor-general, who sued him for unlawfully retaining company property.

It is thought that Faesch had planned to take the property at Mt. Hope.

In 1772 with D. Wrisberg he leased a house and an extensive acreage there.

He also bought several tracts of land. These and other similar transactions gave rise later to much litigation.

He was naturalized in June 1766 by a special legislative act, and on March 24, 1773, he was commissioned one of the county judges.

He held the honor during life, and became an ardent Whig.

With the outbreak of the Revolution, Faesch remained loyal, entered the war with zeal, and "cast a large amount of shot and shell for the Government. "

To carry on his enterprise he had been furnished with about three hundred war prisoners, mostly Hessians, nearly all of whom afterward remained in New Jersey, and an army guard to foil robbers.

Occasionally he was honored by visits from Washington.

In the postwar slump he moved to Morristown, thence to Old Boonton where he built a house now ninety feet under water in the Parsippany reservoir.

He served as a delegate to the New Jersey convention in December 1787 and signed the ratification of the federal Constitution.

He subscribed heavily to church and school enterprises, set up a ponderous coach known for long waits at the tavern, and died of dropsy. His business disintegrated in his sons’ hands. John J. Faesch died on May 26, 1799, in Morristown, New Jersey.

Achievements

• John Jacob Faesch built the famous Mt. Hope furnace, enlarged his charcoal lands to over 10, 000 acres, established a high repute for ability and integrity, became a leading citizen and the wealthiest ironmaster in Morris County.

Personality

He was a "generous and large-hearted man, but very aristocratic in his ideas. "

Connections

John J. Faesch married Elizabeth Brinckerhoff of Parsippany, by whom he had two sons and two daughters.

His second wife, Susan Lawrence Leonard, sister-in-law of Capt. Lawrence of the Chesapeake. They had no children.

Wife:

Susan Lawrence Faesch (Leonard)

Wife:

Elizabeth Faesch (Brinckerhoff)

Daughter:

Eliza Faesch

Son:

John Jacob Faesch, Jr.

Son:

Richard Brinkerhoff Faesch