The lives of the black sheep in a family often resonate through the centuries, while those of their conventional, law-abiding relatives are lost to history.
Such is the case with Gilbert Imlay, who was born in the Monmouth County municipality ofUpper Freehold Township in 1754 and is the subject of the new book “Gilbert Imlay: Citizen of the World” by Wil Verhoeven, a professor of American Culture and chairman of the American Studies Department at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Imlay is chiefly remembered as the lover of proto-feministMaryWollstonecraft, with whom he had a daughter, Fanny. He later abandoned them both.
Wollstonecraft later married philosopherWilliam Godwin and died giving birth to their daughter,Mary.Mary Godwin grew up to marry poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and wrote “Frankenstein.”
Work on the new Imlay book took 10 years to research in the United States and Europe. According to Verhoeven, the Imlaystown section of Upper Freehold was named in the 1780s after the first Imlay (Patrick or Peter) to settle in New Jersey. The town was probably founded in 1690.
Gilbert Imlay was a fourth-generation descendant of Patrick Imlay. The Imlay mansion in Imlaystown was acquired by Patrick’s son, Peter, in 1727 and remained in the family until sold to the Hendrickson family around 1915. The mansion is on the north side of Doctors Creek, opposite the Happy Apple Inn.
According to Verhoeven, the current construction has 19th-century origins and was expanded with Italianate additions in the 1860-70s. The building now houses two apartments and belongs to Buddy Westendorf, owner of the Happy Apple Inn.
The Imlay House on Main Street in Allentown belonged to Gilbert’s uncle, John Imlay, a richmerchant, according to Verhoeven. The house is currently owned by Bill Borkowski.
In his book, Verhoeven states that according to folklore, the narrow, winding Main Street of Imlaystown follows the pattern of an Indian village situated on the banks of Doctors Creek.
At the time of Imlay’s death in 1828, on the isle of Jersey, the village of his birth con- tained 12 to 15 dwellings, a grist mill and saw mill, tannery, a tavern, store, wheelwright, and smith shop, according to the book.
“During much of the 18th century, the town was the hub of social, economic and political life in Upper Freehold, but its fortunes have been in a slow but steady decline,” the book states. “Along with the farms in the surrounding area that once supported the town, Imlaystown now threatens to fall prey to New Jersey’s voracious urban sprawl.”
According to Verhoeven, Gilbert Imlay leftUpper Freehold after the Revolutionary War, in which he served as a lieutenant although he referred to himself and was known as “Captain Imlay.” There were warrants out for his arrest in Monmouth and Burlington counties. Verhoeven surmises that Imlay left the area for good before September 1783, since the suits involved money Imlay had failed to repay.
Imlay went on to become a big-time land speculator in Kentucky, during which time he cheated Daniel Boone out of 10,000 acres of prime land.
Afterward came a stint in the slave trade and then he went to Europe. There he became a celebrated author and close associate of the leaders of the French Revolution.
Imlay went into business, smuggling food supplies and essential goods into France past the British blockade, and smuggling silver and diamonds out of France by way of payment. Much of that booty was stolen from guillotined French aristocrats, according to Verhoeven.
Verhoeven noted that Imlay was on personal terms with the “who’s who” of his era, including people like Boone, Gen. James Wilkinson, Gen. “Light-Horse” Harry Lee, the Girondist leader Brissot de Warville, Joel Barlow, Thomas Paine and General De Miranda.
When asked how he became interested in Imlay, Verhoeven said it started when he did an edition of Imlay’s novel “The Emigrants” for Penguin Books in 1998.
“I like black sheep in the family, and that’s certainly what he was. Plus the fact that the entireWollstonecraft world has always condemned him as a crook and a cad. He was not worse than most and better than some,” he said, adding that the book tells Imlay’s story and notWollstonecraft’s. “She was not that important in his life, really.”
In his book, Verhoeven describes Imlay as “the prototype of theAmerican conman.”
“Gilbert Imlay: Citizen of the World” is published by Pickering & Chatto, London, and is available at amazon.com.