Abraham Clark was born at Elizabethtown, Essex county, New Jersey on the 15th of February 1726, the only son of Thomas Clark, a farmer.
Abraham was an accomplished mathematician and was extensively employed in surveying and conveyancing. He was also an elementary lawyer and a safe gratuitous counsellor.
His knowledge and legal acquirements, united by an acute judgment, became so highly appreciated, that he was appointed by the Assembly to settle the claims to undivided commons. He filled the office of sheriff-was appointed clerk of the Legislature-doing credit to himself and dignifying every station he occupied. As he became known to the public his talents were more highly appreciated-not because they kindled to a blaze calculated to excite the huzzas of the multitude one day and possibly receive their execrations the next-but because they exemplified unwavering rectitude, strict justice, moral worth and disinterested patriotism.
In June 1776 he took his seat in the Continental Congress where he worked for seven consecutive years, and from 1783 to 1788 he was a member of the Legislature in his own state.
In 1788 he was again elected to Congress. At the next congressional election he was defeated for the first time. Abraham Clark died in June 1794.
Source: The Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution by L. Carroll Judson
