Dr. Ambrose Ellis Cook, MD

Dr. Ambrose Ellis Cook, MD, son of Colonel Ellis Cook and Margaret Griswold Cocker, was born at Hanover, Morris Co., New Jersey, 11 July 1772.^1,2 He died at Bound Brook, Somerset Co., New Jersey, 28 June 1828,^3,4 and was buried at the Old Presbyterian Graveyard, Bound Brook, Somerset Co., New Jersey.^4,5

Ambrose married Sarah Piersall Wheeler, daughter of David Wheeler and Hannah Youngs, at Hanover 17 June 1794.^6,1,2,7

About 1807, a member of the family compiled a family register. It appears the three younger children, all born after 1806, were added later without their birthdates, nor were any children's marriages ever entered (only Robert, Hannah, and Ambrose are known to have married).²

In 1793, Ambrose Cook purchased what was known as the Frelinghuysen House (earlier known as the Harpending House). Named for the hero of the Battle of Trenton, Maj General Frederick Frelinghuysen, the house was used as a meeting place throughout the Revolution.

Ambrose had a large practice and was known as a man of considerable strength. On one occasion three men came to the hotel with the intent to do him harm (for reasons not clear). When they sent a message stating their intentions, he went straight to the bar-room, went to a corner and invited them to take their shots, "Come on now boys." And so they did: The doctor broke the first man's arm with a single blow; the second was thrown against a table so hard "his limb was broken." The third, seeing the fate of his friends, ran. Dr. Cook graciously and kindly set the broken bones, no doubt dispensing some sound advice about knowing who to pick a fight with.⁸

About 1805, he was involved in a dispute with the church minster, Rev. David Barclay. Dr. Cooke was the prosecutor in a case before the church Presbytery which was investigating Rev. Barclay who was charged with adultery. Apparently only one woman was willing to present a written statement, so the case was dismissed. Barclay decided to move on, but not before destroying the records of the church. (This explains why there are are no church records of the births of Dr. Cook's earlier children.) However, Barclay did not let the matter rest. Since the charges had been dropped, he was not fully exonerated, and he made an effort to clear his name by charging defamation in the Court of Common Pleas of Somerset County against Dr. Cook. Barclay won a small judgement, but Cook appealed to the Supreme Court where the judgement was reversed. Dr. Cook's involvement appears to end at this point, but, unfortunately for Rev. Barclay, all of the private proceedings of the Presbytery were now a matter of public record. Barclay's problems were later chronicled in The Several Trials of the Rev. David Barclay Before the Presbytery of New Brunswick (1814) by Jacob Kerr, a Justice of the Peace of Sussex County.⁹

He died at the Frelinghuysen house in 1828. There were no handles on coffins in those days, and to carry his coffin, three sticks were placed underneath, and six men at the ends carried the body to its resting place. Dr. Cook had instructed before his death that a bier should be made to carry his coffin, and afterwards should be placed on his grave and left there until it was needed at the next burial. The bier remained there for twenty days and during that time a note was written and placed there:

Later, two maple trees were set in front of the house by daughters Althea [Alethia] and Ann [Hannah].

When he died, intestate, his youngest son John was under age, and the Orphans Court procedings recorded all of his surviving children, naming: