The Brearly family was descended from Yorkshire England. One of his family members migrated to New Jersey at about 1680. David grew up on Spring Grove Farm near Trenton in New Jersey. He grew up with his sister and brothers named Joseph and John Brearly and Mary Olden. His parents were David and Mary Brearly. He also had a wife named Elizabeth Mullen with some children named David, George, Hetty, and Joseph Brearly. …show more content…
He chose law as his profession and with hard work he was able to attend the New Jersey bar at the age of 22. He then became the Chief Justice of Supreme Court. Where he officiated over the precedent setting case of Holmes vs. Walton. David was later elected by George Washington as Judge of Federal District in 1789. He served this position until he died one year later. With the start of the tragic American Revolutionary War, David was named the first captain in the Monmouth County militia after he spent a lot of years speaking against Parliamentary absolutism. He then ranked up to colonel in Nathanial Heard’s New Jersey militia brigade. Also from the years 1776 to 1779 he served the New Jersey Line of the Continental Army, being involved in action at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. After his judicial duties David committed much of his energy to lodge and church affairs. He was a state vice president over the society of the Cincinnati organization of the former officers of the revolutionary war. He also served as a delegate to the Episcopal General Conference in 1786 and assisted in the writing of the churches prayer book. He married Elizabeth Higbee as his second wife in