Colonel Thomas Lowrey, nicknamed "Old Quicksilver", was born into a wealthy family in Ireland in 1737. After coming to America in 1755, he made important land deals in Flemington, Frenchtown, and Milford New Jersey.

Lowrey was a member of the Provincial Congress of 1775, a Deputy Commissary during the American Revolution. In 1776, he bought the land that is now Frenchtown from Alexander, Stevens and Parker and so begins our story of this period of Frenchtown's history.

Enjoy your journey through Frenchtown NJ History. See the navigation bar below which acts as a Frenchtown NJ Timeline.

Lenape Era

Alexandrian Era

Quicksilver Era

Malletian Era

Capner Era

Slater-Hudnit Era

Frenchtown in Hunterdon County New Jersey History: The Quicksilver Era

This era is named after Thomas Lowrey because he purchased all the land that is now Frenchtown except for the plot that had been sold to build the store near the ferry and the river. This 18 year era of our history spans the years from 1776 to 1794 when Lowrey owned the Frenchtown property. The summary below covers his story before he came to Frenchtown, and all the events that occurred during this period of his ownership whether he was involved in those transactions or events or not.

Before we get to the time when Thomas Lowrey came to Frenchtown, we must look back two decades earlier for some background on what brought this man our way. Our story begins in Flemington with two Irish immigrants; Samuel Fleming, and his friend Col. Thomas Lowrey, who came to America and settled in Hunterdon County NJ in 1755. The two families, their histories, and the histories of Flemington NJ and Frenchtown NJ are intimately entwined.

In 1756, Samuel Fleming began purchasing land and built the first house in Flemington. Fleming Castle as it is now known, still stands today on Bonnell Street and is sometimes referred to as "Fleming's Tavern". As time progressed, and other houses were built, the community came to be known as Flemings, and later Flemington.

When Fleming and Lowrey immigrated, Lowrey was only 18 years old. Lowrey married the daughter of his friend Samuel Fleming, Esther Fleming. In his seminal book; History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, New Jersey" published in 1881, James P. Snell draws a marvelous stark comparison between the business acumen of Samuel Fleming and Col. Lowrey. He states; "Lowrey was as successful as Fleming was unfortunate." Fleming apparently never stopped buying and ended up selling off his holdings at a loss, to pay off his debts.

It was in Flemington NJ before 1767, that Colonel Thomas Lowrey purchased his first property. In the Plan of Flemington, dated April 24, 1767, Lowrey is shown as the owner of two important properties on what is now Penn Avenue near the main road to Trenton (now Main Street). In 1775, Lowrey built a grain and produce store near the site of where he had earlier built his first store. This early Flemington business was an important market for grain in the region. This business fit in well with his other business venture that was located a mile or two distant, which was a mill. This mill is known as Atkinson's Mill, Quick's, and Rockafeller's Lower Mill over the years.

Meanwhile back in Frenchtown in 1771, John Sherard bought the Frenchtown Ferry from Daniel Prigmore and began running it. The community was known for a time as Sherard's or Sherrard's Ferry.

May 20,1776, Thomas Lowrey purchased a large tract of land that was partly in Alexandria and partly in Kingwood Township. For some time however, Lowrey did not move to Frenchtown. He continued to live in Flemington and build his businesses there. It is this phase of his life that he became an important figure in the American Revolution in New Jersey. Lowrey had been appointed a Deputy Commissary in the American army and had stored a great number of army supplies which in the factual accounts from the court records of the time consisted of salt pork and beef for the use of the troops. Other local accounts that have never been verified claim that Lowrey had the salt pork and beef and a large quantity of muskets. When the British occupied Trenton and Penny-Town NJ, they heard of this local storehouse and decided that they must capture these supplies to weaken the Revolutionary cause.

On December 14th, 1776, the British sent a detachment of 8 cavalrymen of the illustrious 16th Light Dragoons, also known as the Queen's Light Dragoons, under command of a Cornet Francis Geary to investigate the Flemington storehouse. The group did indeed find the military provisions in the storehouse and set out to report to their superiors what they had found and to return with reinforcements. As they traveled through the New Jersey countryside, somewhere in the forest between Copper Hill and Larison's Corner, they were ambushed by a small group of local militia, and Cornet Geary was killed. In another undocumented retelling of the events of this day from 1894, Lowrey is given a much more prominent role in the story. Rev. George S. Mott's, "History of the Presbyterian Church in Flemington...", tells of Lowrey's actions on that day: "Geary saw a man on Mullins Hill, who was Colonel Lowrey, evidently reconnoitering; and on inquiry was told that just beyond the hill a body of troops was encamped. This was a military lie, but it had the effect to hasten Geary's departure."

In 1785, Lowrey sold his well located properties and successful store and mill businesses in Flemington and moved to Frenchtown NJ. He built a house at the curve where Bridge Street becomes Race Street. What else Lowrey was responsible for building in Frenchtown is a subject of dispute.

In the historical accounts of Frenchtown written in the last 125 years, there appears to be a controversy about Thomas Lowrey and the time that he spent in Frenchtown, and what businesses and buildings he actually built. In the famous "History of Frenchtown" by Clarence Fargo, he states that Lowrey built a grist mill near the river and a saw mill here. He states however that there was a mill already in existence on the site of the Worman mill that had been in existence since 1736. In "History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties" by James P. Snell, it appears as an undisputed fact that Lowrey built these mills in 1785. In "Sketches of a River Town; The History of Frenchtown NJ", Ellen Fletcher states that the records clearly show that the mills were here at least a decade before he purchased the Alexandria plot in 1776. In our account, we are using the earliest date of 1736 for the grist mill.

Thomas Lowrey's wife Esther Fleming Lowrey did not approve of the Frenchtown house, and the couple went on to buy property in Milford NJ, just 5 miles upriver. Lowrey built some of the first houses there, a saw mill, a grist mill and came to have the town named after him for a time. Before he came is was referred to as Burnt Mills, then Lowreytown or Lowrytown, and later Milford.

The business skills of Thomas Lowrey have already been accounted here, but it is in one transaction that he seemed to be outdone. It is in the land transaction with Paul Henri Mallet, that Lowrey finally met his match. And it is this transaction that has made Frenchtown famous, and given us our name: "FRENCH-TOWN".

December 4,1794, is the date that a deed was signed between Thomas Lowrey and Nicolas Toulaine Defresnoye, Mallet's secretary for 968 acres in and around Frenchtown NJ. In James P. Snell's history he tells this story of the famous transaction: "Mr Lowrey had sold the Frenchtown property several times to purchasers who were unable to make the final payments, he taking the property back. Mr. Prevost (Mallet) bargained with Mr. Lowrey for the 968 acres for 7664 pounds. Mr. Lowrey thought he had him fast, as he would be unable to make the second and third payments. But, to his utter astonishment, Mr. Prevost said, 'Mr. Lowrey, deducts de interests, I pays de second.' To this Mr. Lowrey reluctantly consented. Mr. Prevost then said, 'Mr. Lowrey, if you deducts de interests, I pays de third.' This struck "Old Quicksilver" with astonishment and so wrought upon his mind that he took to his bed."

In his later life, Lowrey moved back to Frenchtown where he died in 1809. He was buried at the Kingwood Presbyterian Cemetery.

With this famous land deal, between an shrewd Irishman and an even shrewder Swiss/Frenchman, Frenchtown NJ closes out this chapter in it's history as another unfolds, The Malletian Era.

Next ~ The Malletian Era of Frenchtown New Jersey History

Other Frenchtown New Jersey History Resources

There is a more information about Thomas Lowrey, Samuel Fleming and the American Revolution in New Jersey:

A historical account of the "Raid on Flemington" or Lowrey's Storehouse and the ambush of Geary's Dragoons

More on the Lowrey Storehouse Raid and the Revolution

Samuel Fleming, Fleming's Castle and Museums of Hunterdon County