William Trent of Philadelphia

Trent's Scottish Heritage

William Trent (–1677) was a merchant and entrepreneur based in the port of Inverness in the 1600s, coming to prominence during its occupation by Cromwell’s army. In 1622, he married Issobell Stewart, daughter of a prominent Inverness merchant. They had seven children, one of whom was William, the founder of the City of Trenton, although his date of birth is uncertain. Some sources indicate that he was born about 1653-1655 in the Scottish Highlands; others attribute the date of his birth to 1666 when he was baptized at South Leith in southeast Scotland. ​

​In 2023 Dr. Jim Mackay, chairperson of Kirkmichael in Scotland, shared his research on the life and times of Inverness merchant William Trent, the father of Trenton's founder.

​Additional details can be found in Dr. Mackay's extensive paper, "The Life and Times of William Trent, Merchant of Inverness, and his Family including son William Trent, founder of the City of Trenton, Capital of New Jersey, and brother Maurice Trent, Merchant of Leith." More information is available here.

Trent as a Man of Business and Politics

Exactly when Trent emigrated to the American colonies is also unknown. Based on Philadelphia tax rolls in 1693, we know that he had followed his brother James to the American Colonies. ​

William Trent became a very successful and wealthy merchant in Philadelphia, trading with Great Britain and the English colonies on the mainland and in the West Indies. At one time he owned an interest in over forty ships, exporting such products as tobacco, flour, and furs, while importing wine, rum, molasses, and dry goods. He also bought and sold enslaved people, as described in more detail in the next section.

While a resident of the New Jersey colony, Trent was elected to the Assembly, commissioned a colonel in one of the militia regiments, and in 1723 became New Jersey’s first resident Chief Justice.

Trent's Family

In the 1690s Trent married his first wife, Mary Burge, with whom he had three children, James, John, and Maurice. Apparently it was through her family connections that William Trent eventually acquired the land at the Falls of the Delaware River where he would build his country seat. She died, perhaps in childbirth, in 1708, and a contemporary noted in a letter to William Penn that Trent was greatly affected by her death.

In 1710 Trent married his second wife, Mary Coddington, who was in her late teens at the time of her marriage. Born into a wealthy family and well connected Quaker family, she was the stepdaughter of Anthony Morris, a prosperous Philadelphia brewer and merchant who was a business associate and contemporary of her new husband.


​​This video imagines Mary Coddington Trent, widowed after Trent’s sudden death, reflecting on her life and uncertain future. Worried about her future, this video, first aired on December 20, 2020, shows her explaining her personal history and describing her concerns.

In 1711, Mary Coddington Trent gave birth to a son, Thomas, who died that same year. A surviving son, William, was born in the 1720s, perhaps in the Trent House. The couple and Trent’s children from his previous marriage continued to live in Philadelphia as their primary residence until 1721, when Trent made his plantation on the Falls of the Delaware his permanent home for himself, his second wife, and his youngest son.

Wealth Created from Slavery

Slavery was central to Trent's wealth. Trent was active in the slave trade, buying and selling enslaved people of African descent. We know of thirteen such transactions with other prominent Philadelphia men in just the few years (1703-1708) covered by trade ledgers in the archives of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Trent owned several enterprises on his New Jersey plantation, including a grist mill, saw mill, fulling mill, and bakehouse. These enterprises produced goods for shipment to market in Philadelphia. We know that enslaved workers contributed to Trent's income through their labor in those enterprises. And after his death, Trent's probate inventory listed eleven enslaved people, assessed at almost one-third of the market value of Trent's movable property. ​

After Trent's Death

William Trent died unexpectedly on Christmas Day 1724 without leaving a will. His burial place is unknown. 

​Trent’s oldest son, James, became executor of his father's estate, which was complicated by  his heirs from his two marriages, the number of businesses and properties Trent owned, and the debts he owed and monies he was owed. 

A first step in settling the estate was to have a probate inventory conducted, which was substantially completed in April 1726, with an addendum one year later.  ​​

​The probate inventory of Trent's estate listed the furnishings of the House as well as other items on the plantation. Included on the inventory was an “Account of Negroes” that included eleven enslaved people – six men (Yaff, Julius, Bossin, Harry, Cupid, and Pedro), one woman (Joan), two boys (Bob and Dick), one girl (Nanny), and one male child (Tom). For more information see the section below.
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To view or download a transcription of Trent's probate inventory, click here.

Mary Coddington Trent renounced her role as executor in March of 1725 so she could sue her stepson James for her dower rights. She hired well known Philadelphia attorney John Kinsey to sue for one-third part of the income from four messuages (dwelling houses with considerable land), three grist mills, one saw mill, one fulling mill, one bakehouse, one dye house, one ferry house, half an ironwork, one barn, three gardens, two orchards, thirty acres of meadowland, three hundred acres of pastureland, and two hundred acres of woodland.

Mary won her court case in 1728. Her stepson James and subsequently William Morris, her half-brother, had to pay the mortgage on the estate to her from 1729-1735. This included profits and ownership of the mills and other industries on the property. She sold all rights to most of these properties to George Thomas in 1735. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mary Coddington Trent never remarried, thus retaining control over her property until she died on December 15, 1772, in her 80s. Her death is recorded in the register of Saint Michael’s Church and she is most likely buried in the Hopewell Church Burying Ground on the site of the modern day Trenton Psychiatric Hospital.

In March of 1737, two enslaved African men were arrested in Trenton for "practising poison," citing among their victims William Trent. They were found guilty and hanged. ​

It is not known if Trent was actually murdered, or if his sudden death was later used by these men as “proof” of the efficacy of their poison. For more information on this case, the question of whether Trent was poisoned, and the laws under which the men were charged and executed, see The Case of Trent's Death.