Family:Thomas Clark and Hannah Winans (1)

Abraham Clark was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey on February 15, 1726 the only child of Thomas Clark (born 1701) and Hannah Winans, who married about 1724. The signer�s paternal grandparents were Elizabethtown residents, Thomas Clark (born 1670) and Margaret Duehurst, who married in 1692. Abraham�s great-grandparents, Richard Clark (1613-1697) and wife Elizabeth also lived in Elizabethtown. Richard emigrated from England to Barbados in 1634 where he resided until 1651 when he moved to Southampton, Long Island. In 1657, Richard Clark fought in the Indian War. By 1667, Richard and Elizabeth settled in Southold, Long Island, where he was a shipbuilder and planter. About 1675 the family moved to Elizabethtown where the Clark name became synonymous with public service.

Abraham�s mother, Hannah, came from a family long in residence in the Elizabethtown area. Hannah�s parents were Samuel Winans, Sr. (1670-1747) and Zerviah (1684-1737). Abraham�s maternal great-grandparents John Winans (1640-1694) and Susanna Melyn (1645- c. 1688) married in New Haven, Connecticut, in August of 1664. John Winans, who emigrated from Holland, was one of the eighty associates that founded Elizabethtown in 1664. Over one-hundred-fifty Winans family members are buried in the cemetery adjacent to the First Presbyterian Church in present day Elizabeth, New Jersey, where the Clark and Winans families worshiped.