Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Stryker, John

STRYKER, John, soldier, b. 2 March, 1740; d. near Millstone, N. J., 25 March, 1776. At the beginning of the Revolutionary war he was commissioned a captain of a troop of light horse in the Somerset county, N. J., militia, and afterward attached to the state troops. He was a zealous patriot during the entire war and performed conspicuous service whenever the British foraging parties attempted to raid into the Jerseys. He had the confidence of the public to an unusual degree, especially in that portion of New Jersey around Millstone, Somerset co., where he owned a large inherited estate. His family mansion still remains to this day. — His son, Peter I., practised as a physician in Millstone and Somerville, was afterward a judge, and during three sessions was president of the New Jersey senate, and by virtue of this office acted for several months as governor of the state. — His grand-nephew, James, jurist, b. at Staten island, N. Y., 2 Jan., 1792; d. in Sharon Conn., 3 June, 1864. He was graduated at Columbia in 1809, studied law with De Witt Clinton, and began practice in New York city at the age of twenty-one. During the war with Great Britain in 1812-'15 he served as a captain. He removed to Buffalo in 1830, having been appointed judge of the court of Erie county, and retained that post for ten years. He edited for several years the Buffalo “Republic,” and he also founded and conducted the “American Quarterly Register and Magazine” (6 vols., Philadelphia, 1848-'51).