Biography:

William Trent, born in Scotland, immigrated to the United States by the early 1690s with his brother James. He embarked upon a successful career as a merchant in Philadelphia, trading mainly with Great Britain and with other American colonies. He was also involved in the African and West Indian slave trade. He served on Pennsylvania’s Provincial Council and also was a justice on the Supreme Court, though he was not a lawyer.  In 1714 William Trent purchased a large tract of land in centr
al New Jersey and began construction on a house. His family moved there in 1721, and Trent continued his active civic life, serving on the colony’s Assembly and as their chief justice. He died on Christmas Day, 1724. The area around his home, called Trent’s Town, eventually
became known as Trenton. Trent and his first wife, Mary Burge, had four children: James, John Maurice, and Mary.  Following Mary (Burge) Trent’s death in 1708, William married nineteen-year-old Mary Coddington, who was about twenty-five his years his junior.  Their son William (b. 1715) was their only child who lived to adulthood.