Later Years
In 1719, Trent built a country house below the falls of the Delaware River in central New Jersey. He platted a town or settlement around his house, which came to be known as Trent's Town, and later Trenton. It became the state capital. After his move, he became active in New Jersey politics, being elected to its Assembly and appointed as chief justice.
During the American Revolutionary War, his house was used by Hessian officers fighting for the British. In the Battle of Trenton, it was attacked by Continental Army troops.
After Trenton was designated as the state capital, the Trent House was used as the governor's mansion for many years.
William Trent died on Christmas Day, 1724, probably of a stroke. Three slaves were arrested and hanged in 1737 for allegedly poisoning him.
Read more about this topic: William Trent (Trenton)
Famous quotes containing the word years:
“The cloud was so dark that it needed all the bright lights that could be turned upon it. But for four years there was a contagion of nobility in the land, and the best blood North and South poured itself out a libation to propitiate the deities of Truth and Justice. The great sin of slavery was washed out, but at what a cost!”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“It is now many years that men have resorted to the forest for fuel and the materials of the arts: the New Englander and the New Hollander, the Parisian and the Celt, the farmer and Robin Hood, Goody Blake and Harry Gill; in most parts of the world, the prince and the peasant, the scholar and the savage, equally require still a few sticks from the forest to warm them and cook their food. Neither could I do without them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)