The Trent House Association will host a book talk on life of William Trent, the son and namesake of the man whose house is now the William Trent House Museum. Given by Jason Cherry, a long-time research consultant with the William Trent House Museum, this free talk will be held on Saturday, July 20th, 2 pm at the Trent House Museum Visitor Center and virtually at https://tinyurl.com/TalkJuly20. Cherry will be signing copies of his newest book , William Trent, Factor of Ambition, and displaying articles from Trent’s life before his talk, beginning at 12:30 pm. The Museum is located at 15 Market Street in Trenton, across from the Hughes Justice Complex. Free parking and the museum entrance are at the rear of the property off William Trent Place.
The founder of Trenton, William Trent, had five sons. The youngest, also called William, was still a child when his father died suddenly on Christmas Day 1724. After an apprenticeship in Philadelphia, Trent followed in his father’s footsteps as a man of business, trading with Native Americans for furs. But unlike his father he was also a military man, being commissioned by the royal governor of Virginia to assemble a force to defend British trading interests against French competition in Ohio territory. This period of the younger Trent’s life was documented in Pittsburgh’s Lost Outpost: Captain Trent’s Fort, authored by Jason Cherry, independent historian and re-enactor of that militia group.
Cherry’s new book, William Trent, Factor of Ambition, is an in-depth account of Trent’s life from his childhood to his death in 1784, documenting his ambitious enterprises, his time as a factor or agent for a powerful land speculating company, and his connections with better-known Americans such as Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. This account of a fascinating life during the years leading up to the American Revolution on the American frontier and at the English court also deals with Trent’s relationship with Native Americans, from his role in giving them blankets from smallpox victims during the French and Indian War to his reputation for effective communication in his “frame of speech to the Indians, in their style.”
The William Trent House Museum is a National Historic Landmark in the Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area and on the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail. The Museum is dedicated to sharing the authentic history of the house, property, and people with our communities, connecting the past with today and tomorrow. Owned by the City of Trenton, it is operated by the Trent House Association, which is supported by the generosity of its donors; by grants from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, the New Jersey Cultural Trust, the New Jersey Historic Trust, the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission with funding from the New Jersey Historical Commission, and the Bunbury Fund and the New Jersey Arts & Culture Renewal Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation; and by contributions from NJM Insurance Group and Orion General Contractors. For more information, visit www.williamtrenthouse.org.
