Hornblower

manage the copper mine. During the French and
Indian War he was commissioned captain, Jan.
26, 1756, but was not in active service. In 1758
he helped manage the Biles Island church lottery
(Episcopal), though himself a Baptist. Having
leased the house and store of Peter Bayard, de-
ceased, at Belleville, and, from the Van Cort-
landts, a ferry over the Passaic River, by 1770
he had bought these properties and 115 acres of
land nearby, and led in building a new school.
With John Stearndall he leased the Schuyler
mine for fourteen years from July i, 1761, at
one-seventh the ore, the mine producing at the
average rate of $3,500 annually until the engine
house burned in 1773.

Hornblower served on a war committee of
twenty-one in 1776, in 1778 as commissioner for
tax appeals, and in 1779 on a committee to pre-
sent the grievances of Newark to the legislature.
Elected to the Assembly, he took his seat at Tren-
ton, Oct. 26, 1779, and worked on committees to
draft an election law, settle the treasurer's ac-
counts, regulate enemy intercourse, and com-
plete troop quotas, voting steadily for all meas-
ures to raise money and push the war. Reelect-
ed in 1780, he was chosen speaker and narrowly
escaped capture by the enemy. Elected to the
Council, 1781-84, he took part in the protest
against claims of Virginia and other states to the
western lands, headed a committee to urge that
Congress locate the federal capital in New Jer-
sey, and became a valued leader. He was elected
to the Congress of the Confederation Oct. 28,
1785, and during his year's service worked stead-
ily to strengthen the Union and protect the small
states.

Retiring to his farm, he took part (1793-94)
in an unsuccessful revival of the copper mine and
helped experiment with the steamboat Polacca
(trial trip on Oct 21, 1798). He was appointed
judge of the Essex court of common pleas in
1790, and held that office until his death in 1809.
During his later years he presided at many pub-
lic meetings. He built a fine new house, though
he and his wife would not leave the old one, and
set tip a gorgeous coach-and-four, but walked
himself. Nine months after the death of his wife,
"a very beautiful woman," he died of "a long and
painful illness." Tall and commanding, a digni-
fied judge, a courtly gentleman, noted for hospi-
tality, energy, courage, wide knowledge, con-
ciliatory nature, and honesty of purpose, he was
characterized by the Newark Centinel of Free-
dom (Jan, 24,1809) as "a useful, benevolent cit-
izen." His youngest son, Joseph Coerten Horn-
blower [<ju/.], became chief justice of New Jersey.

[See William Nelson, "Josiah Homblower and the

Hornblower

First Steam Engine in America," with many references
to other sources, in Proc. N. J. Hist. Soc., 2 ser,, VII
(1883) ; Biog. Dir. Am. Cong. (1928). "VV.L.W—y

HORNBLOWER, WILLIAM BUTLER

(May 13, iSsi-June 16, 1914), jurist, was born
in Paterson, N. J., and was a descendant of no-
table ancestry on both sides of his house. His
great-grandfather was Josiah Hornblower [q.v.]}
member of the Congress of the Confederation
and a judge of the court of common pleas of Es-
sex County, N. J.; his grandfather was Joseph
C. Hornblower [q.v'.], who for fourteen years
was chief justice of the supreme court of New
Jersey; and his father was the Rev. William
Henry Hornblower, pastor of the First Presby-
terian Church in Paterson and later professor of
sacred rhetoric in Western Theological Semi-
nary, Allegheny City, Pa. William Butler Horn-
blower's mother, Matilda Butler, the daughter
of Asa Butler, a Connecticut manufacturer, was
a descendant of Revolutionary leaders and colo-
nial judges. The influence of two uncles, Joseph
P. Bradley [q.vJ\, justice of the United States
Supreme Court, and Lewis B. Woodruff, United
States circuit judge, played a strong part in
Hornblower's choice of the law for his profes-
sion. His schooling was obtained at the Quack-
enbos Collegiate School and at the College of
New Jersey (Princeton). At college he won a
number of literary, oratorical, and scholarship
honors and received the degree of A.B. in 1871.
In 1873 he began the study of law at Columbia
and in 1874, after a time in the employ of Sanford,
Robinson & Woodruff, he became a clerk in the
law firm of Carter & Eaton.

His talents in both the court room and the of-
fice early marked him for professional distinc-
tion. Two years after his graduation from Co-
lumbia in 1875 with the degree of LL.B., and his
admission to the bar, he was taken into partner-
ship by his employers and became the trial law-
yer for the firm of Carter & Eaton. At the age
of thirty-six he received strong indorsements
for an appointment to the New York court of
appeals, and in 1888 he founded the firm of
Hornblower & Byrne, which, with its successors,
continued for twenty-six years under his leader-
ship. At various times he represented the New
York Life Insurance Company, the Otis Eleva-
tor Company, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St.
Paul Railway Company, and the New York Se-
curity & Trust Company. He was also counsel
to the receiver of Grant & Ward, former Presi-
dent Grant's firm, and was one of the personal
counsel of Joseph Pulitzer. Although he was a
trustee of the New York Life Insurance Com-
pany in 1891 and 1906, when the management of

232