The White Hill Mansion is currently on the New Jersey State Register of Historic Places. Robert Field inherited the property from his father in 1757. A successful merchant, he built a comfortable mansion on the property. His widow Mary lived at White Hill throughout the Revolutionary War. It was sold several times and now currently the Borough of Fieldsboro owns and maintains the property.
An early settler who prospered in the settlement known as "White Hill" along the Delaware river was Robert Field, for whose family the borough is named. By the mid-eighteenth century "White Hill" was a small port with a commercial wharf used by boats sailing between Bordentown and Perth Amboy.
At the time of his death in 1774, Robert Field’s considerable holdings included several hundred acres, a bake house, six slaves, a vessel, commercial wharf and large brick manor house which operated as a riverside tavern for many years. It burned in the 1970s. The Fields’ last family residence, now know as White Hill Mansion, is sited on a bluff overlooking the Delaware River.
”White Hill has links to important people and events of the American Revolution (1775-1783"
After the British army captured Philadelphia in 1777, American frigates and gunboats assigned for defense of the Delaware River were trapped up river and lay at anchor just off Field’s wharf at White Hill. In May 1778, General Washington made a difficult strategic decision and ordered the American fleet burned to prevent the British from capturing it.
Mary Peqle Field “Matriarch of White Hill” (1741 - 1816) Married Robert Field II in 1765. (1723 - 1775) They had 7 children together, but only three lived to adulth and built White Hill in the 1760. He was appointed to the Committee of Correspondence of New Jersey 1774. Died under mysterious circumstances in January 1775.
After Mary Peqle Field was widowed in 1775, her home visited by the Navy, searched by the British, occupied by the Hessians, Mary survived as best she could by appearing nonpolitical. Remarried in 1779 to Commodore Thomas Read.
During the American Revolution many dignitaries, including Hessian commander Count von Donop and his entourage, visited White Hill mansion. Count Carl Emil Kirk Von Donop, a hessian colonel, was the senior officer and commanded the garrisons in Trenton, Burlington, and Bordentown, which consisted of several Hessian battalions. He was encamped at Bordentown at the time of the Battle of Trenton. Donop visited and had tea with Mary Field on two occasions and wrote orders for the protection of the Field property during the War.
1722 - Robert Field (I) purchased White Hill
1757 - Robert Field (II) inherited White Hill
1775 - Robert Field (II) drowns mysteriously in the Delaware River.
1776 - Captain Houston of the American Navy docks at White Hill and joins Mary for dinner. This resulted in her neighbors reporting her as a colonial sympathizer.
1776 - December 8th the British army invades Mary’s home looking for rebel colonial soldiers.
1776 - December 12th Captain Wrenden of the Hessian army makes White Hill his temporary quarters. During his stay Colonel, Carl von Donop visited Mary.
1779 - The Widow Mary Peale Field married second husband Commodore Thomas Read (1740 - 1788) who had commanded the stranded American fleet. Read was appointed commodore of the Pennsylvania Navy, having as the surgeon of his fleet Benjamin Rush, and made a successful defense of the Delaware River. He was appointed in June 1776, to the highest grade in the Continental Navy. The Commodore decides to make White Hill his County Seat.
1779 - Mary assists Commodore John Barry "The Father of the American Navy” escape capture by the British.
1788 - Commodore Thomas Read dies at White Hill.
Robert Field (III), the son of Mary and Robert Field, married the daughter of Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and poetess Annis Boudinot Stockton. Mother-in-law to Robert III, Molly, and Benjamin Rush and married to Signer, Richard Stockton, Annis rescued and hid important papers of the American Whig Society prior to the British invasion of Princeton. She was a penpal to George Washington and died at White Hill in 1801.
1801 Annis Stockton died at White Hill Mansion.
Robert Field (III) experienced financial difficulties and was forced to sell White Hill farm in 1804. The 200-acre farm was purchased by entrepreneur and land developer Jonathan Rhea of Trenton, who mapped out a town and began selling lots. Over the intervening years, White Hill mansion was enlarged and used as a boarding house and restaurant.
This cache is one of "The American Revolution Geo~Trail" caches throughout New Jersey. These special geocaches are hidden at many historic locations which have a connection to important New Jersey's American Revolutionary War history. To participate in the optional Geo-Trail, after you find the geocache, locate the secret code and record it into your passport which you will print from this website. Information at njpatriots.org
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Cache Lock: Tree
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