GENEALOGY OF THE ENDICOTT FAMILY - of South Jersey (NJ)
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Source: The Daily Union history of Atlantic City and County, New Jersey : containing 
sketches of the past and present of Atlantic City and county, with maps and 
illustrations specially prepared, by John F. Hall; Atlantic City, N.J.: Daily Union, 
1900

ENDICOTT FAMILY

The Endicott family became settled in what is now Atlantic County probably in 
the middle or early part of the seventeenth century; the exact date is not now 
known. Benjamin Endicott is the first of the name who is known to have resided 
within its limits. He was a resident of Port Republic prior to the 
Revolutionary war. He served in that war and was a prisoner in the hands of the
 British for a considerable time, confined in one of the prison ships in New 
York harbor. He suffered with his companions in this confinement, all the 
inconveniences and bodily discomforts which gave to those prison-ships their 
horrible reputation, the tradition of the family tells us. He suffered in 
other ways, for, whilst he was in arms in defense of his country, his property 
at home was greatly injured when it was on the line of the enemies march. 
Hardships like this called forth the following action of the Continental 
Congress, December 19, 1777.

Resolved, That General George Washington be informed that, in the opinion of
 Congress, the State of New Jersey demands, in a particular degree, the 
protection of the armies of the United States so far as the same is possible be
 extended consistent with the safety, and the struggles which have been made by
 the brave and victorious inhabitants of that State, in defence of the common 
cause cannot fail to expose them to the particular resentment of a merciless 
enemy.”

Jacob Endicott was a brother of Benjamin. He was an officer in the 
Revolutionary army, being second lieutenant of Captain Snell’s Company, 3d 
Battalion, Gloucester County troops, commissioned September 18, 1777.

The tradition in the family is that there were three brothers who first came to 
this county, and their settlement in Port Republic was directly the result of 
their being shipwrecked upon the coast. It is probable that their ship was not
 list upon the Absecon or Brigantine beach, and, if married men, they may have
 found it agreeable to make their future home in a place where, in unfortunate
 and distressful plight, they were welcomed and relieved by a kindly people. 
Certainly they could not have found here a people such as some writers have 
denominated “Jersey Pirates,” who are said to have lured unfortunate mariners 
to their destruction by false lights on the shore in order that they might be 
plundered in their helpless condition. The third brother was probably Samuel, 
and as he is said to have been lost at sea and his body washed ashore at Cape 
May, may it not have been in the original shipwreck named, and Cape May have 
referred to the South Jersey coast generally? All these were sons of John 
Endicott, of Northampton, Burlington County, New Jersey.

Benjamin appears to be the only one left of issue. He died 1n 1792. All the 
Endicotts in Atlantic County are descended from him. His children were John, 
William, Jacob, Nicholas, Joseph, Silvia, and Mary. All these children married
 and had families, and up to the year 1847 all the sons named were living.
Of the daughters, Silvia married Matthew Collins, and Mary married Eli Higbee. 
Both these left children, who reside in the vicinity of Port Republic

The descendants of Benjamin were quite numerous. They inherited a love for 
the sea, and many of the males gained a livelihood upon its waters, braving its
 dangers. Not a few have found their final resting place in its deeps. This 
love of the sea goes back further than those of the family who were the first 
to settle in this county. The same spirit existed in the Massachusetts family,
 from which our branch is descended, and many of those who were daring and 
successful sailors in foreign seas, engaging in the trade with the West Indies
 and China. All seem to have shared in those qualities and habits of life which 
are so much influenced by the dangers, grandeurs and mysteries of the sea. They
 have lived quiet, peaceful, useful lives, with little taste for public place 
or those activities which are associated with public affairs.

John, the eldest son of Benjamin, was born in 1772. He resided in Port 
Republic. Hr was a man of considerable property and influence in the community,
 and was for a time one of the County judges. He lived to an advanced age, 
dying in 1857.

William, the second son, born in 1789, married Hannah Smith, and was the father 
of a large family. He died in1856. Of his seven children, all four sons, 
Thomas, Wesley, Samuel and William followed in the footsteps of their father 
and became wedded to the sea. Wesley and William went down with their vessel in
 a terrific southwest snow storm, in 1857, and no vestige of any kind was left 
to tell the story.

Jacob, the third son, left children, whose descendants are living. Nicholas, 
the fourth son, was born in 1791, and died in 1867. He married Rebecca Higbee,
 who survived him until 1883, when she died at the advanced age of 88 years, 
Their son, Captain Richard Endicott, died in 1883, at the age of 62 years, 
without issue.

Other grandsons of Benjamin who have passed away in recent years are Jeremiah 
Endicott and James L. Endicott, well known in the present generation. Their 
children are living in Port republic and Atlantic city, and a daughter, Mrs.
 Walters, in Absecon.

Of the grandsons of Benjamin, Thomas Doughty Endicott, son of William, was born 
in Port Republic, January 14, 1815. Adopting the calling of his ancestors, he 
became the master of a vessel at a very young age, and marrying Ann Pennington,
 a daughter of John Pennington, of Mays Landing, in 1857, he took up his 
residence in that village. He immediately built the Endicott homestead which 
stands to-day the home of one of his daughters, maintained by his estate. All 
the Mays Landing Endicotts are his children, and all except the eldest were 
born in this home. Thomas was a man of rare qualities of mind and heart. His 
life was exemplary in every respect, upright, honest, just, kind hearted, of 
superior judgment, he was successful in business and was held in the highest 
personal esteem by the community. His wife was a woman no less noted for her 
own superior judgment and loving heart, and her unselfish devotion to her 
family and community, their position was one of great usefulness. Thomas was a 
staunch friend of the church and school, in which his ten children was brought 
up, and his thought, counsel and means were given without stint to both. He 
never sought any public place of any kind, and in his whole life never held but
 one office, that of Pilot Commissioner of the State of New Jersey, and this 
was tendered to him because of his eminent fitness for the post, and without 
any application or request of his own. Having acquired a competence and being 
in rather delicate health he retired from the sea comparatively early in life 
to enjoy his home and the companionship of his family and friends. He died May 
28, 1884, surrounded by his wife and the nine children who survived him.

Thomas had ten children, Charles G., Lucy, Catherine B., Mordecai T., Isabella 
R., Mary D., Elizabeth P., George W., Hannah, and Allen B. Lucy died in 1865. 
All the other children are living. Charles is a very successful ship-owner and 
merchant in New York City, but residing in Westfield, N.J. He is widely known 
in this State, and in shipping circles, as a man of high character and 
exceptional business probity and ability.

Mordecai is a civil engineer, graduating from the Polytechnic, Troy, N.Y., in 
the class of 1868. After practicing his profession upon several works in 
private life, he was commissioned an officer of the corps of civil engineers in
 the U.S. Navy, in 1874. After a long service upon many public works of the 
Navy, he was selected by President Cleveland, in 1895, as one of the commission
 of three expert engineers to visit Nicaragua and make an examination , survey 
and report upon the possibility, permanence and cost of the construction of the 
Nicaragua Ship Canal. This commission was constituted by special authority of 
Congress. In 1897 Congress directed the organization of the Armor Factory Board
 to prepare plans , specifications and estimates of the cost of a plant for the
 manufacture of armor for war ships by the government, in consideration of the 
high prices for the same demanded by private establishments, and Mordecai was 
selected as a member of the Board. In 1898 President McKinley appointed him 
Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks of the Navy Department, with the rank of
 Commodore. In 1899, by authority of an Act of Congress, he was raised to the 
rank of Rear-Admiral, U.S. Navy. He resides in Washington, D.C.

George graduated at the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and is a 
very successful physician in Plainfield, N.J. He enjoys an exceptional 
reputation as a skilled surgeon.

Allen graduated at the University of Pennsylvania , in the law department, and 
was also a pupil in the office of the late Peter L. Voorhees. He is one of the 
first citizens of our county. He is prominent in the practice of his profession
 and a most public spirited man. He has served as County Collector, Solicitor 
of Atlantic City, and now fills the post of Law Judge of the County. He resides
 in Atlantic City.

Of the daughters who survive, Catherine is the only one unmarried. She occupies
 the old homestead in Mays Landing, which, by provision of the father’s will, 
is maintained by his estate as a home for the unmarried daughters as long as 
they remain single. Of the others, Isabella married Mr. Lucien B. Corson; Mary
 D. married Mr. Daniel E. Iszard; Elizabeth married the Rev. H. Rumdell, and 
Hannah married Mr. Lewis Howell. Elizabeth resides in Atlantic City with her 
husband who is a Presbyterian minister, and all the rest live in Mays Landing.
 All the daughters are gentle, earnest, devoted women, who are living useful 
lives, particularly in their religious duties, and making the world better for 
their presence.

The Endicotts of Atlantic County come of a distinguished ancestry, the very 
bluest blood of New England. They are direct descendants of John Endicott, the 
first Governor of Massachusetts.

John Endicott was born in Dorsetshire, England, in the year 1588. Very little
 is known of his early life prior to the time he became known as a Puritan and 
a member of a little colony organized in England, which came to the shores of 
New England in 1628. The family to which he belonged was of respectable 
standing and moderate fortunes. He belonged to that class in England called 
“Esquires,” or “gentlemen,” composed mainly at that time of independent 
landholders of the realm.

The Puritans sought refuge from persecution for religious opinions. A small 
settlement was effected at Plymouth, in 1624, and this was so successful that 
some men of substance and means resolved to purchase a grant from the crown,
 which they effected “by a considerable sum of money,” and the project of 
establishing a colony in New England was launched. One of this company, and the 
principal one to carry out its objects, was John Endicott. He arrived at Cape 
Ann with his followers in the “Abigail,” in 1628, when 40 years of age. The 
life of Mr. Endicott from this time to his death, in 1665, is part of the 
history of New England, and the establishment of the free institutions in this
 country. He was Governor of the Massachusetts Colony for 16 years, and served 
longer continuously than any other. Dr. Bentley, the historian, says: “Above 
all others he deserves the name of the father of New England.” Mr. Felt calls 
him “The father of New England.” Mr. Upham says of him, “Mr. Endicott was the 
most representative man of all the New England colonists.”

He passed through all the military grades to that of Sergeant Major-General of
 Massachusetts. He was an intrepid and successful leader, a man of superior 
intellectual endowments and mental culture, vigorous mind and fearless and 
independent spirit. With great energy and firmness of character, aided by 
religious enthusiasm, his faith and confidence never forsook him, and the whole
 colony looked up to him in all their hardships, privations and struggles for 
livelihood and religious and political freedom. He was a man of very tender 
conscience. Longfellow says. “He is a mane both loving and austere; and tender
 heart; a will inflexible

Such was the first Endicott to come to this country, and from whom those of the
 family in this country trace their descent.

Governor Endicott had two sons, John and Zerubbabel. John died without issue.
 Zerubbabel had seven children, five sons and two daughters. One of the sons, 
Joseph, was born in Salem, Mass. In 1699. He was christened at the first 
Church, in Salem, July 17, 1672. He moved from Massachusetts to Northampton, in
 the county of Burlington, New Jersey, in 1668. As he was the first to enter 
the State, this year is the 202d anniversary of the settlement of the family in
 New Jersey. Joseph was the only grandson of the Governor to come to this 
State, and all the New Jersey Endicotts are descended from him. He died in May,
 1747, at Northampton, age 75 years. He left at his death, according to his 
will recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, at Trenton, two sons, 
John and Joseph, and two daughters, Anna Gillam and Elizabeth Deloraine. A 
grandson, Joseph Bishop, is also mentioned. In a deed executed by him and 
recorded in what is now Boxford, Massachusetts, he styles himself “Joseph 
Endicott, of Northampton, County of Burlington, in West Jersey, in the 
Government of New York, yeoman.”

Joseph had two sons, as stated above. Of the second, Joseph, there is no 
memorial, and he probably never married. The first son, John is the only one 
who left issue, and all who came to Atlantic County are descended from him.

John Endicott had six children: Samuel, Zerrubabel, Benjamin, Jacob, Mary, who 
married a Mr. Matlock, and Sarah, who married a Mr. Hancock He is said to have 
died at a very advanced age, but the year is not known. Three of his sons came
 to Atlantic County, and the only one of these who left issue is Benjamin 
Endicott, the soldier of the Revolution, with whom our story began.

Portraits of Governor John Endicott show his descendants in the seventh 
generation, in New Jersey, bear much resemblance to him, as do the children 
in the eight. Many possess the traits of character which history records as 
belonging to their distinguished ancestor. Few of this family in this country 
have held public office. Governor Endicott was a central figure in the early 
colonial history of New England for nearly 40 years, but all the great duties 
and honors came to him; it is said that they “fell upon him.” Not one is known 
to have been a politician in the ordinary acceptation of that term. Mr. William
 Endicott, of Salem, Massachusetts, who was Secretary of War in President 
Cleveland’s Cabinet, is the fifth cousin of the present generation in this
 county. His daughter, Miss Endicott, is married to the present Right-Honorable 
Joseph Chamberlain, of the British Cabinet, being Colonial Secretary. He is the 
central figure in the present war between Great Britain and the Boars in 
Africa. It is believed that the very cordial relations which have existed in so
 marked a degree between Great Britain and this country since Mr. chamberlain’s
 advent to power as a leader, are largely the result of his marriage with this 
beautiful American girl.

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