Bergen County NJ Archives Biographies.....Robert Lettis HOOPER ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nj/njfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 9, 2008, 5:08 pm Author: Rev. Joseph F. Folsom HOOPER, Robert Lettis, Active in Revolution, Ironmaster. The name of Robert Lettis Hooper is unfamiliar nowadays. Yet Hooper was a figure of importance in the Revolutionary War. He came of New Jersey forbears, and died a resident of the State. The first American Hooper was named Daniel, and he came from Barbados. He was in 1679 a member of Governor Philip Carteret's council. He was also a justice of the peace for the county court at Elizabeth Town and Newark. Later he returned to Barbados, but came again to New Jersey. He was granted a patent for six hundred and forty-eight acres in Somerset county in 1692. Robert Lettis Hooper, the great-grandson of Daniel, was the third in succession to bear that name. His father, Robert Lettis (2nd), died April 20, 1785; he is buried at Trenton. There were two sons, Robert and Jacob. They were partners in the milling business. In 1761 the partnership was dissolved. Robert Lettis (3rd) later had a store in Philadelphia, but becoming financially embarrassed he was obliged to close up. He then traveled west, making surveys, and was engaged in projects for colonies for some years. He visited Sir William Johnson, at Fort Johnson, in the Mohawk Valley, and twice later was on the frontier at Fort Pitt. Hooper wrote from Philadelphia, August 18, 1775, a letter brimming over with enthusiasm. There were rifle companies forming, and the "servile engines of ministerial power," namely the British troops, were likely to get a surprise. Hooper settled later in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, and was made a deputy quartermaster-general. His department covered three counties in Pennsylvania, and the county of Sussex in New Jersey. In his activities to procure food and other supplies for the army, he made enemies, of course, and was once the subject of investigation. Washington, however, seems to have had confidence in him throughout the controversy. Hooper apparently objected for a time to taking the oath of allegiance to the patriots' cause, and was said to have discouraged such an act on the part of others. It appears that this attitude arose from a kind of pride or principle, and that later, after being under criticism, he subscribed without scruple to a new form prescribed by Congress for officers of the army. After the war, Hooper became an ironmaster, and had much to do with mines. He became deeply interested in the Ringwood Iron Works, in Bergen county. He took for his second wife Elizabeth Erskine, widow of Robert Erskine. Erskine died at Ringwood, December 19, 1780. The second Mrs. Hooper died in 1796, and July 30 of the next year Robert Lettis Hooper died in his home a short distance from Trenton. In the course of time Peter Cooper and Abram S. Hewitt, Cooper's son-in-law. became owners of the Durham, Iron Works of Pennsylvania, and the Ringwood Iron Works of New Jersey. On a wall in the Hewitt mansion at Ringwood hangs framed a letter written by Robert L. Hooper, in which, to a friend, he announces his engagement to the widow Erskine. Recently Charles Henry Hart, of Philadelphia, has been making investigations about Hooper. An article on Hooper, by Mr. Hart, previously published in the "Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography," now appears in a pamphlet limited to fifty copies. J. F. F. Additional Comments: Extracted from: MEMORIAL CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF MARY DEPUE OGDEN VOLUME III MEMORIAL HISTORY COMPANY NEWARK, NEW JERSEY 1917 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/njfiles/ File size: 4.0 Kb This file is located at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nj/bergen/bios/hooper-rl.txt