** Philemon Dickinson was a gallant officer of the Revolution. He was a Whig of the truest dye, and entered the Revolutionary army at the outset of the contest. Although possessed of an ample fortune, he cheerfully hazarded it for the good of his country, preferring poverty with liberty, to wealth with slavery. He was at the head of the Jersey militia in the battle of Monmouth, where he displayed the greatest bravery. He was a member of Congress from his state after the establishment of the present Federal government, and in various civil and military stations he discharged his duty faithfully. Twelve years of the latter part of his life were passed in domestic retirement at his seat near Trenton, where he died on the 4th of February, 1809, at the age of sixty-eight years. *** Howe, in the Historical Collections of New Jersey, page 101, records one or two incidents of this incursion which were related to him by a person who was a resident there at the time. He said the British officers dined at the house of Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who, with his family, was absent at the time. A young lady, eighteen years old, named Mary Comely, provided the dinner for them. While they were dining, she was informed that the soldiers were robbing the houses of her mother and grandmother, on the opposite side of the street. She went in, and stealthily cut a piece from the skirt of one of the soldiers' coats. This she handed to the commander, and by it he detected the thief. By this means the property of her relations and some neighbors was restored. A Whig, in order to save his property, slew a sheep, and made a good dinner for the soldiers; but, before the meal was ready, the bugle sounded for the troops to form in line. The dinner was partaken of by Colonel Baylor and his light horse, who arrived toward evening. **** Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, situated upon the east bank of the Delaware, at the Falls, thirty miles from Philadelphia. The first settlements were made by Quakers, on both sides of the river, about 1679. The region in the vicinity of the Falls was called by the Delaware Indians, Sankhican, a name signifying gun or firelock, from the circumstance that a tribe of Mohawks, who used guns, occupied that spot. A purchase of a large tract of land lying on both sides of the Assanpink was made by Colonel William Trent, of Philadelphia, in 1714, and from him Trent Town or Trenton derives its name. [[[M'Conkey's Ferry, where Washington crossed the Delaware.--Long Bridge.--Capture of Forts Washington and Lee.]]] {221}nied by the Honorable G. W. Smyth, of Belvidere, started for M'Conkey's Ferry (now Taylorsville), eight miles above Trenton, the place where= ```On Christmas day, in seventy-six, ```Our gallant troops, with bayonets fixed, ````To Trenton marched away,"= and, with Washington, crossed the Delaware, on the memorable night of that festival. [Illustration: 9229]