Stephen Crane (politician)

Stephen Crane (* 1709 in Elizabethtown , Province of New Jersey , †  July 1, 1780 ibid) was an American politician . Between 1774 and 1776 he was a delegate for New Jersey to the Continental Congress .

Career

Nothing is known about Stephen Crane's youth and schooling. In 1743 he was part of a delegation from his home country that traveled to London to petition King George II . Further details of this process are not known. In New Jersey he was the chief of police in Essex County as sheriff . In 1750 he became a member of the parish council of his native Elizabeth, which at that time still bore the old name Elizabethtown. Professionally, he was an appeal judge. Between 1766 and 1773 Crane sat in the colonial New Jersey House of Representatives, of which he was president in 1771. He also served as Mayor of Elizabethtown from 1772 to 1774.

In 1774 and 1776 he represented New Jersey in the Continental Congress. But since he, like some other delegates from New Jersey, opposed a separation from Great Britain , the entire delegation of this state was withdrawn in 1776. In 1776 he became chairman of the Elizabethtown City Council and in 1776, 1777, and 1779 he was a member of the State council . When British troops marched through his hometown on June 23, 1780 during the War of Independence , Crane was badly wounded by a bayonet. He succumbed to these injuries on July 1 of the same year. Stephen Crane was the grandfather of Congressman Joseph Halsey Crane (1782-1851) from Ohio and great-great-grandfather of the writer Stephen Crane (1871-1900).

Web links

• Stephen Crane in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Stephen Crane in the database of Find a Grave (English)