201 East Main Street, Moorestown

The house at 201 East Main Street is a contributing property in the Moorestown Historic District listed on the National and New Jersey State Historic Registers.

The oldest portion of this Late Federal, stuccoed brick house was built c. 1760 by Ephraim Haines.

On June 20, 1778, British and Hessian troops encamped on his land. In his claim for damages, the items plundered or destroyed included 2750 cedar rails, 1550 oak rails, 55 oak posts, 102 apple trees, 22 sheep, 1 horse 15 years old, 1 horse 5 years old, 2 sows with pig, 11 hogs, 20 acres of grass for mowing, 3 acres of Indian corn, 5 acres of oats and flax, 3 ploughs, 35 acres of wheat and rye and 7000 feet of good pine boards. Totalling a financial loss by his reckoning of 240 pounds, 6 shillings.

Haines was a prominent and prosperous local citizen, owning a large portion of the land east of Chester Ave. He was an overseer of highways in 1764. The 1774 tax records for Burlington County show that he owned 278 acres, with 16 cattle and horses. He sold some of that land on the south side of Main Street for a new Friends Meeting House and school in 1781. Ephraim’s son Samuel W. Haines inherited the house and made additions and renovations to the house in the mid 1820s. Samuel was a tax collector in 1817-1818 and Sheriff of Burlington County from 1813-1816 and 1819-1822.

730 Marne Highway, Moorestown

The oldest portion of this historic farm house was built c. 1770 by Joshua Bispham. The residents of the house would have been witness to Hessian troops on June 20, 1778, marching up the Old Salem Road towards Mt. Holly to meet up with the rest of the British Army. Between the years 1812 and 1816, the house was owned by Commodore Thomas Truxtun, one of the US Navy’s most important early heroes.

During his retirement, the Truxtun family moved to Chester Township from Cranbury, NJ, in 1812. He moved to this 40-acre plantation he called Woodlawn, on what is now Marne Highway. His wife did not enjoy living in Cranbury, and the previous owner of this house, Dr. George Davis, wanted to move closer to family in Brunswick so they simply traded properties. The Truxtun family lived here until 1816, when he moved to Philadelphia. Tax records from 1812 show that Truxtun owned 40 acres of land, 3 horses, and 3 head of cattle. He described the property, which he intended to continue farming as previous owners had, as “handsome, healthy, and in a good neighbourhood.”

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As a privateer commander during the American Revolution, he captured ten enemy ships. After the war he continued to sail in service of the nation he fought to create. He was one of six commanders appointed by George Washington to the new US Navy. In 1785 he was responsible for the safe return of Benjamin Franklin to the USA from his tour as Ambassador to France.

In 1786 his ship, the Canton, was one of the first American vessels to open direct trade between China and the United States. In 1794, he published an important book on navigation, Remarks, Instructions, and Examples Relating to the Latitude and Longitude, and was one of the first to map the Gulf Stream.

He also designed the original Navy signal manual and wrote the predecessor to the Navy Regulations in use today. As commander of the USS Constellation in 1799 he defeated the French ship L’Insurgente in the Caribbean as part of the “Quasi War” with France. In 1800, he forced the surrender of another French warship, La Vengeance. Six naval ships have been named for him in recent decades, including the current USS Truxtun (DDG-103), a destroyer. He had a reputation for bravery and tenacity as a disciplined but fair commander and a superior seaman and leader.

Silas Walton was another notable owner of the plantation in the later 19th century. In addition to farming his sizable acreage, he also invented a cultivator/tiller and developed a new variety of strawberry. The house remained in the Walton family until 1983.

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