Early Biography
He was the son of the Rev. Timothy Symmes (1715–1756) and Mary Cleves (died c. 1746) of Suffolk County, New York on Long Island. John was born in Riverhead, New York on July 21, 1742.
Symmes was educated as a lawyer and married Anna Tuthill (1741–1776) at Mattituck, New York on October 30, 1760. They had three children; Maria (born April 23, 1765) and Mary (born August 30, 1767) at Mattituck before moving to Morristown, New Jersey sometime around 1770. Maria married Kentucky state senator Peyton Short. Another daughter Anna Tuthill Symmes was born at her father's estate Solitude, just outside Morristown, New Jersey (present day Wheatsheaf Farms subdivision off Sussex Avenue in Morris Township, New Jersey ) before his wife died in 1776.
Symmes supported the revolution, becoming chairman of the Sussex County, New Jersey Committee of Safety in 1774. When the Revolutionary war began in earnest, he served as Colonel of the 3rd Regiment of the Sussex County militia from 1777 to 1780. The unit was called into service with the Continental Army on several actions.
In 1776, he was elected to the New Jersey Legislative Council (now the New Jersey Senate); he was also a member in 1780. Symmes served on the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1777 and 1778. He was a frequent visitor to Governor William Livingston both in Elizabethtown and in Parsippany. In 1779, John married Livingston's daughter, Susannah. Besides being the governor's daughter, she was John Jay's sister-in-law.
Symmes represented New Jersey in the Continental Congress (1785–1786), then, in 1788, moved to the west, settling in what later became North Bend, Ohio. He served as a judge of the Territorial Court from 1788 until Ohio became a state in 1803. He also pursued an active career as a land developer and seller. He died on February 26, 1814 at Cincinnati, Ohio, and is buried at Congress Green Cemetery in North Bend, Ohio.
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