Before proceeding to consider the personality of our first historian and to speak further of his writings, it will be of interest to speak of his antecedents. His father, Lewis Fisher, served in the war of the American Revolution, on the side of the crown, in the New Jersey Volunteers, a brigade commanded by Brigadier General Cortlandt Skinner, the last Royal Attorney-General of New Jersey. The corps was sometimes known as "Skinner's Greens." It was numerically the largest organization of British Americans in Howe's army. Officers and men were mostly natives of New Jersey, New-York and Pennsylvania. One of the original six battalions was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Abraham Van Buskirk and it contained a large Dutch element. Among the officers were Major Van Cortlandt, Captains William Van Allen, Peter Ruttan, Samuel Ryerson, Jacob Van Buskirk and Waldron Blaan; Lieutenants Martin Ryerson, John Van Norden, John Heslop, John Simonson and Joost (or Justus) Earle; Ensigns Colin McVean, Xenophon Jouett, Malcolm Wilmot, William Sorrell and Frederick Handroff. Among the men in the ranks--many of whom came to New Brunswick and settled near Fredericton--we find such names as VanHorne, Vanderbeck, Ackerman, Fisher, Burkstaff, Swim, Ridner, VanWoert, Woolley, etc. By the settlement of so many men of this corps in New-Brunswick, the same thrifty "Knickerbocker" element that figured in the development of New-York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania was planted in this province. Lewis Fisher joined the New Jersey Volunteers on December 7, 1776. He was taken prisoner a few weeks later, together with his brother Peter and fifteen others. After an absence of a year and nine months he effected his escape and returned to his duty on October 2, 1778. He was thenceforth stationed chiefly at Staten Island, where his three oldest children--Eliza, Henry and Peter--were born. When the war closed the New Jersey Volunteers were quartered at Newtown, three miles east of Brooklyn, on Long Island, N.Y. In the earlier muster rolls we find Fisher's name entered as Lodewick Fischer, but later he adopted the English form Lewis Fisher. His wife, Mary, was probably of English parentage. She was the mother of a very large family and a woman of resolute spirit, which she transmitted to her descendants. The New Jersey Volunteers never numbered more than 1,500, of all ranks. They, however, rendered essential service in New Jersey and in the defence of Staten Island. One of the battalions under Lieut.-Col. Isaac Allen, was conspicuous for its gallantry in the campaigns in Georgia and South Carolina. At the close of the war the original six battalions had been consolidated into three, under command of Lieut.-Col. Stephen deLancey, Lieut.-Col. Isaac Allen and Lieut.-Col. Abraham VanBuskirk.