Upcoming Events

Major William Trent, Revolution, and the Lower Ferry

Sunday, June 5, 2022 - 2 pm 
In-person at the 1719 William Trent House Museum & via Zoom

William Trent, the Philadelphia merchant who bought 1,000 acres at the Falls of the Delaware in 1714 and established Trent’s Town there, had a son who was his namesake. The younger William Trent was commissioned by the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia to establish a fort at the Forks of the Ohio, near present-day Pittsburgh, to defend British interests. After the War in 1769 he sailed to England to petition for recompense for funds expended in that cause. Upon returning in the summer of 1775, he learned of fighting in Massachusetts and the colonies in an uproar. With the Revolutionary War looming closer to New Jersey, Trent would propose a new colony, operate a ferry business and plantation in south Trenton, and finally make the decision between King and country.  

Jason Cherry will describe the role that William Trent’s son and the Lower Ferry played in the Revolutionary War, drawing on his continuing research into the life and times of the younger Trent. 

A native of Butler, Pennsylvania and 2002 graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Jason Cherry has participated for more than 30 years in re-enactments of the group of volunteers hired under William Trent, Jr. in 1754, a unit known as Captain William Trent's Company. His book, Pittsburgh’s Lost Outpost: Captain Trent’s Fort, was published in 2019 and he is working on a complete biography of the younger William Trent.  

After fighting for the British in the French and Indian War,
Trent’s youngest son, like others, faced a difficult choice as revolution loomed

Jewish Life in Trenton -
Trent House Neighbors in Late 19th & Early 20th Centuries

Sunday, June 12, 2022 at 2 pm
​In-person at the 1719 William Trent House Museum & via Zoom

Arthur Finkle, chair of the Trenton Jewish Historical Society, will describe the history of the Russian Jewish community in the Trent House neighborhood in the late 1800s and early 1900s. 
While doing archival research for the society, Mr. Finkle, whose roots in Trenton reach back three generations, realized there was no fully documented work on the city’s Jewish history — so he wrote one. The book that grew out of his studies, Trenton’s Jews: Beginning, Adaptation and Achieving the American Dream, was published in 2016 by Hadassa Word Press.

This free program will be offered both in-person in the Visitor Center at the William Trent House Museum, 15 Market Street, Trenton (across from the Hughes Justice Complex) and via Zoom at https://tinyurl.com/TrentonJews.