MRS. JULIA CUMMINGS VAN ARSDALE JONES.

Mrs. Jones is a daughter of the Rev. Hooper Cummings, who is said to have been the first pastor in Newark, and who was afterward many years in Albany. He was a most eloquent divine and many of his sermons and orations have been published. He was of a strikingly noble appearance, and it was said of him, "Hooper Cummings' church is always crowded, and he is always the handsomest man in it." There are some fine portraits of him; one of them by Peale was sent to Mrs. Jones by a member of the family of the Patroon in Albany. Mr. Cummings was a man of elevated and winning character. His health failed while still in the prime of life, and he was advised to go to Charleston, South Carolina, and to cease preaching. On board ship he yielded to the urgent solicitation of the passengers to address them on Sunday. His strength failed rapidly, and he died soon after reaching the southern city. He was buried in Charleston, and his grave and monument continue to be cared for by the thoughtfulness of the good Southerners," as one of his family expresses it. The wife of Hooper Cummings was Sophia Wright, a niece of Governor Caswell, of North Carolina, and Mrs. Jones was baptized Julia Caswell, in token of her connection with that family.

Hooper Cummings was the son of John Noble Cummings, whose family bible gives this record: John Noble Cummings was born January 19, 1752, A. D., at Monmouth, New Jersey ; died July 6, 1821, at Newark, New Jersey. Married Sarah Hedden, February 13, 1782.

Sarah Hedden was born May 4, 1762, at Newark, New Jersey, and died in that city October 25, 1841.

A roll of the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati, in the State of New Jersey, bears the following record:

"Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant John Noble Cumming, born in Monmouth county, New Jersey, 1752, graduated at Princeton, 1774; First Lieutenant Captain Howell's Company,

Second Battalion, first establishment, November, 29, 1775; First Lieutenant Captain Laurie's Company, Second Battalion, second establishment, November 29, 1776; Captain Second Battalion, ditto to date, November 30, 1776; Captain Second Regiment; Major First Regiment to date, April 16, 1780; Lieutenant-Colonel Second Regiment, December 29, 1781; Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant Third Regiment, February II, 1783; discharged at the close of the war.

"Judge and Justice, Major-General of the Second Division of Militia, Vice-President of the Society 1808 to 1821; died 1821."

Tradition says that John Noble Cumming took an active part in the battle of Monmouth, where it is said he rendered efficient service to General Washington in the capacity of guide, owing to his familiarity with the country, the battle being fought upon the very ground once occupied by his father as a farm. He also took part in the siege of Yorktown in 1781. In September, 1777, he took part in the battle of Brandywine. Dr. Lewis Howell, surgeon of Captain Cumming's battalion, in a letter to his father, dated September 13, 1777. written two days after the battle, said: "Captain Cumming in this action distinguished himself.”

(See "A Centennial Sketch of Major Richard Howell, written by a grandson, 1876.")

Sarah Hedden, the wife of General Cumming, was the daughter of Captain Joseph Hedden, Jr., who was a leader among the Whigs in Newark, a member of the committee of safety, a commissioner for selling forfeited estates, etc. On the night of January 25, 1780, a regiment of five hundred men came from New York (following the river on the ice) to Newark, burned the Academy then standing on the upper common, surprised and took prisoners Captain Hedden and some other citizens, and returned by the route by which they came. Captain Hedden, having scarcely any clothes, and the night being dreadfully cold, nearly perished. He was confined in the sugar house in New York, and remained there, suffering

NOTE. The title of General was derived from his services in the State Militia after the close of the Revolution.

great hardships, until May, when his two brothers, David and Simon, got a permit and went to New York and brought him home, where he died in June, 1780.

A more full account of Captain, or, as he was sometimes called, Judge Hedden may be found in Barber & Howe's Historical Recollections of New Jersey.

Also see a sketch of Newark by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, in the October, 1876, No. Harper's Monthly.

John Noble Cumming was a son of Robert Cumming, who was born at Montrose, in Scotland, on April 15, 1702. He, Robert Cumming, came to America in 1720, and married Mary Noble in 1746. She was born in the city of New York in 1718-9, and was the daughter of John Noble, who was born in Bristol, England, in 1700, and died in Bristol in 1720. John Noble visited relations in New York and, although but seventeen years old, he succeeded in winning Catharine Von Brugh, fifteen years of age, for his wife. They returned to England in the ship of Captain Von Brugh and lived with an uncle, Sir John Stokes, at Stokes Castle. Three beautiful portraits were sent from them to the family in New York, one each of John Noble, his wife and Captain Von Brugh; they are now in possession of their descendants in Newport, Rhode Island. John Noble died at Stokes Castle in 1720, leaving his young widow with two daughters; she remained in England until 1723, one of her children having died in the meantime. She then returned to New York with her daughter, Mary. In 1734 Mrs. Noble was married the second time, and to Rev. William Tennent. He was a noted Presbyterian clergyman of that time, a man of strong and sanguine temperament, who left a deep impression on the community in which he lived and labored. His biography has been repeatedly published; one edition is said to have been written by Hon. Elias Boudinot, of whom a biographical sketch was published in the AMERICAN MONTHLY last year. A very graphic and minute account is given in the life of Rev. William Tennent of the incidents connected with a state of trance in which he lay for three days. He was a man of most vigorous and active habits, and not a person one would suppose liable to nervous conditions. There appears, however, to have been repeated occasions when he