The wife of the celebrated engineer and early American statesman, Mrs. Josiah Hornblower, nee Elizabeth Kingsland, was born to Col. William Kingsland and the former Margaretta Courter on the Kingsland estate in New Barbadoes Neck (present day Kearny), New Jersey. She was introduced to her future husband by their neighbors, the Schuyler family, when he came to the area to build a pump engine for the Schuyler copper mines. An elegant, beautiful young woman of charm and intelligence, she captivated the young engineer, and the couple were married in 1755, only a year or two later. They went on to become the parents of a large family, and their youngest son, Joseph, eventually became chief justice of the New Jersey State Supreme Court. The Revolutionary War years brought both triumph and tragedy to the couple. An ardent American patriot, Elizabeth helped her English-born husband evade capture by the British, who particularly resented him for fostering American industial independence as well as political freedom from Great Britain. However, her sorrows included the loss of their son, who was killed in action in 1777, and bitter division within the Kingsland family, her brother being among those who remained loyal to the Crown. Elizabeth Hornblower remained a model of grace under pressure, and an inspiration to supporters of the American cause. Known as a superb hostess and as a generous contributor to the Dutch Reformed church in Second River (present-day Belleville), her gifts to the congregation included the magnificent cloth which draped its pulpit. She was in her 74th year when she died at 10:00 am on the morning of April 24, 1808, predeceasing her beloved husband by less than a year.

Source of birth record—Second River, New Jersey Dutch Church Records from the Holland Society Archives Book 58 Image 39.