John Coxe (13)
Election date: 1744 (Elected to the original American Philosophical Society.)John Coxe (1708?–1753) was a lawyer, landowner, and public official in Trenton, New Jersey, and an early member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1744. Born into a prominent family—his father served on the New Jersey Governor’s Council and his maternal grandfather was a justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court—Coxe was briefly educated in England and then practiced law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Upon his father’s death he inherited extensive lands, including mills and forges; he numbered among the proprietors of West Jersey. In 1745 he was named to the Governor’s Council, where he clashed with Governor Jonathan Belcher. Coxe’s time in office also coincided with the New Jersey land riots, when settlers resisted elite efforts to turn them out. (PI)