Joseph Bloomfield

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American general and 4th Governor of New Jersey (1753–1823)

title: "Joseph Bloomfield" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1753-births", "1823-deaths", "continental-army-officers-from-new-jersey", "governors-of-new-jersey", "new-jersey-attorneys-general", "lawyers-from-burlington-county,-new-jersey", "lawyers-from-middlesex-county,-new-jersey", "people-from-burlington,-new-jersey", "politicians-from-woodbridge-township,-new-jersey", "united-states-army-generals", "american-presbyterians", "mayors-of-burlington,-new-jersey", "democratic-republican-party-united-states-representatives-from-new-jersey", "democratic-republican-party-state-governors-of-the-united-states", "19th-century-american-lawyers", "18th-century-new-jersey-politicians", "18th-century-mayors-of-places-in-new-jersey", "19th-century-new-jersey-politicians", "19th-century-united-states-representatives", "candidates-in-the-1795-united-states-elections", "candidates-in-the-1797-united-states-elections"] description: "American general and 4th Governor of New Jersey (1753–1823)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bloomfield" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American general and 4th Governor of New Jersey (1753–1823) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Joseph Bloomfield
image	Portrait of Joseph Bloomfield.jpg
caption	painting by Charles Willson Peale
order	4th
office	Governor of New Jersey
term_start	October 29, 1803
term_end	October 29, 1812
predecessor	John Lambert (acting)
successor	Aaron Ogden
term_start2	October 31, 1801
term_end2	October 28, 1802
predecessor2	Richard Howell
successor2	John Lambert (acting)
office3	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New Jersey's at-large congressional district
term_start3	March 4, 1817
term_end3	March 3, 1821
predecessor3	Ezra Baker
successor3	George Cassedy
office4	Mayor of Burlington, New Jersey
term_start4	1795
term_end4	1800
predecessor4	Bowes Reed
successor4	James Sterling
spouse	Mary McIlvaine (1752–1818)
Isabella Ramsey (1779–1871)
birth_date
birth_place	Woodbridge, Province of New Jersey, British America
restingplace	Saint Mary's Episcopal Churchyard
death_date
death_place	Burlington, New Jersey, U.S.
party	Democratic-Republican
::

The township of Bloomfield, New Jersey, is named for him.

Birth

Joseph Bloomfield was born in Woodbridge in the Province of New Jersey to Moses Bloomfield, a physician, and Sarah Ogden on October 18, 1753. Moses Bloomfield was a surgeon and an abolitionist who represented Middlesex County in the Provincial Congress of New Jersey.

Education and military service

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Coat_of_Arms_of_Joseph_Bloomfield.svg" caption="Coat of Arms of Joseph Bloomfield"] ::

Joseph was educated at Reverend Enoch Green's school in Deerfield Township, New Jersey, where Green was the pastor of the local Presbyterian Church. Bloomfield studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1775 and began his law practice in Bridgeton, New Jersey. He entered the Continental Army as captain of the 3rd New Jersey Regiment on February 9, 1776. He attained the rank of major on November 28, 1776, and was appointed judge advocate of the northern army. He was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777. He resigned from the Continental Army on October 28, 1778, after he was elected clerk of the New Jersey General Assembly.

In 1794, Bloomfield led Federal and New Jersey state troops to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, a popular uprising conducted by Appalachian settlers who resisted the excise tax on liquor and distilled drinks, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From 1795 to 1800 he served as Mayor of Burlington, New Jersey.

At the start of the War of 1812 Bloomfield was commissioned as a brigadier general in the United States Army on March 13, 1812. He served until June 15, 1815, along the Canada–US border.

Marriages

Joseph married Mary McIlvaine (1752–1818), the daughter of William McIlvaine (1722–1770), a physician from Burlington, New Jersey. Her brother, Col. Joseph McIlvaine (1749–1787), was the father of Joseph McIlvaine (1769–1826), United States Senator from New Jersey. They had no children.

After the death of his first wife, he married Isabella Ramsey (1779–1871), the daughter of John Ramsey.

Public life

At the close of the Revolutionary War, Bloomfield became one of the founding members of The Society of the Cincinnati in the state of New Jersey, and served as the State Society's president from 1808 until his death in 1823.

He practiced law in Burlington, New Jersey, and was the registrar of the admiralty court from 1779 to 1783.

Elected office

He served as the New Jersey attorney general from 1783 to 1792 and as a trustee of Princeton College from 1793 until his death. He was elected Governor of New Jersey as a Democratic-Republican and served in office from 1801 to 1802 and from 1803 to 1812.

In 1814, Bloomfield was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.

Congress

Bloomfield was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Fifteenth United States Congress and reelected to the Sixteenth Congress from March 4, 1817, through March 3, 1821, where he represented New Jersey's at-large congressional district. While in Congress, he led the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions. Bloomfield ran for, but was not elected to, the Seventeenth Congress. He also previously ran in the 1795 and 1797 elections for the at-large seat, both of in which the top 5 would win; he finished 7th both times.

Death and burial

Bloomfield died in Burlington, New Jersey, on October 3, 1823, and was buried in Saint Mary's Episcopal Churchyard in Burlington.

Legacy

In 1796, what had been known as the Old First Church was formed and was named the Presbyterian Society of Bloomfield in honor of Joseph Bloomfield. When the Township of Bloomfield was formed, the name was taken from the name of the church.

References

[https://web.archive.org/web/20011015093719/http://08016.com/bloomfield.html Joseph Bloomfield], Burlington City, N.J. Accessed July 1, 2011. "Born in 1753, Joseph Bloomfield reached the rank of Captain in the Revolutionary War, then served as New Jersey state attorney general and chief justice of the New Jersey Vice-Admiralty Court. He moved to Burlington upon marrying Mary McIlvaine, and took up residence in a mansion on High Street which had been built about 1750.... Bloomfield served as Mayor of Burlington from 1795 to 1800, the second mayor under the Act of Incorporation of 1784."
Frank Charles McElvain. (1999). "A History of the McElvain-McIlvaine Family Line". S. MacElvaine.
Metcalf, Bryce (1938). ''Original Members and Other Officers Eligible to the [[Society of the Cincinnati]], 1783-1938: With the Institution, Rules of Admission, and Lists of the Officers of the General and State Societies'' Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc., p. 55.
"Officers Represented in the Society of the Cincinnati".
"Joseph Bloomfield | The Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey".
[http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistb American Antiquarian Society Members Directory]
Pierce Jr., Frank Hutches. (1951). "The Governors of New Jersey". [[Newark Evening News.
"A New Nation Votes".
"A New Nation Votes".
[http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/NJ/BU.html#R9T0WRDZO St. Mary's Churchyard] at [[The Political Graveyard]]. Accessed August 21, 2007.
[http://www.firstbaptistbloomfield.org/blmhist.htm Bloomfield, New Jersey – A Brief History] {{Webarchive. link. (June 29, 2007 , Bloomfield Presbyterian Church. Accessed August 21, 2007.)

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