House on Both Sides

There is an argument to be made that during the American Revolution the Trent House was owned first by a Loyalist and then by a Patriot. However, while it is clear that the second owner - John Cox - was a declared and ardent advocate for independence from Britain and an active participant in the Revolution, the sympathies and actions of  the first owner - William Bryant - are not as easily proved.

William Bryant

​Doctor William Bryant was a Yale educated physician who traveled to France to study surgery. He visited Surinam, where he recorded
his observations of the electrical eel. His paper on the subject was read at the American Philosophical Society and he was made a member.

In 1759, he began service with the British army as a "staff surgeon." He worked in an army hospital in Guadeloupe in the West Indies.

After he retired, Bryant purchased Kingsbury in in 1769 for 2,800 pounds and lived there with his wife and enslaved servants. He continued practicing medicine.

It is difficult to say whether Bryant was a Loyalist or not. In fact, he was in a difficult situation as calls for independence from England increased. If Bryant were to declare himself a Loyalist, he would have his property confiscated by the local Patriot Committee of Safety. If he declared himself a Patriot, he would lose his British army pension.

Dr. William Bryant, who owned and lived in today’s Trent House from 1769 to 1778, is usually identified as a Loyalist. But was he? His story, and the stories of people he knew in Trenton, tell us much about how people in Trenton grappled with difficult decisions about which side to support in the American Revolution and how public and vigorous their support would be.

This recording of a talk by William (Larry) Kidder explored Dr. Bryant’s life and examined the evidence often cited about his political stance. Researching Dr. Bryant’s story illustrates how a “fact” sometimes requires reconsideration and how historians act as “detectives,” sorting through partial and often conflicting evidence to shed new light on a mystery.

John Cox

There is no doubt that John Cox was a Patriot.

​Born in 1732, Cox was a prominent, wealthy Philadelphia merchant and a declared advocate for independence from England. 

During the years before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War Cox served as a Justice of the Peace for Burlington and Gloucester Counties and was a member of the Committee of Observation for Burlington County, which enforced the boycott of British goods enacted in 1774 by the First Continental Congress. In 1775 he was appointed to the position of Major in the Pennsylvania Associated Militia and became a Lieutenant Colonel in 1776. In late December 1776 and early January 1777 he fought with Washington in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. 

In 1778 Cox purchased Kingsbury from Dr. Bryant and renamed it Bloomsbury. In the same year he was appointed Deputy Quartermaster of the Continental Army under General Nathaniel Greene. 

Cox drew on his skills in business in provisioning the army. Bloomsbury became a supply depot for the Continental Army and in 1781 Rochambeau’s artillery were parked on the property in preparation for being ferried across the Delaware River during the march to Yorktown. ​

Cox was friends with the Washingtons, Generals Knox and Greene, Count Rochambeau, the Marquis de Lafayette and other revolutionary leaders and entertained them at Bloomsbury. His wife and daughters helped organize the welcome Washington received as he traveled through Trenton on his way to his inauguration in New York in 1789.

Cox and his family were also very likely to have participated in welcoming the Marquis de Lafayette when he visited Trenton in December 1784. This was during the short period that Trenton was the new nation's capital and Lafayette met with Congress there.


A hero of the American Revolution, Lafayette would have been feted by music of all kinds in private home and public houses. Two hundred and forty years later the Trent House produced an original video recording of historic music of the period, with performance by the Practitioners of Musick (John Burkhalter and Donovan Klotzbeacher) and introductory remarks by Mr. Burkhalter.
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