Judge, Hugh, approximately 1750-1834

Hugh Judge was a Quaker minister. Judge was born about 1750 to Hugh and Margaret Judge, Irish Catholic immigrants to British North America. His father died when Judge was quite young, and Hugh grew up in Philadelphia under the care of his mother, and was placed out as an apprentice. Judge started attending meetings of the Society of Friends as a young man. Upon finishing his apprenticeship, he moved to Springfield and learned the milling trade from Samuel Levis for a year, then worked at a mill on the Wissahickon creek for a year. He first appeared in the ministry during this period, during the 11th month of 1772, at a meeting at 2nd Street in Philadelphia.

In 1773 Judge moved to Pikeland in Chester County, Pa., to work as a miller for William Lightfood, brother-in-law of well-known minister Susanna Lightfoot. The same year he joined Uwchlan Monthly Meeting. In 1776 he married Susanna Hatton, daughter of Susanna Lightfoot, and went to work on the farm of Thomas Lightfoot, his new wife's step-father. He was acknowledged as a minister by Uwchlan Monthly Meeting shortly after his marriage.

From 1778 to 1780 Judge farmed part of the land of his wife's step-father. In 1780 he rented a grist mill near Concord Monthly Meeting, which he kept until 1783. During this time he made two religious visits to Virginia in company with Richard Ridgway and Joseph Townsend. In 1783 Judge rented a mill on the Brandywine River in Delaware and moved his family to Wilmington. The following year he traveled to Nantucket in the hopes of improving a bout of ill health, and while in New England made religious visits to several meetings. On this journey he was accompanied by Joseph Tatnall, and stayed at the house of William Rotch Sr. Soon after his return to Delaware, Judge began making plans to make a religious visit to the south. He departed late in 1784 in company with Isaac Jacobs, traveling as far as South Carolina, and returned in April of 1785.

Judge continued making religious visits throughout his life, including to Baltimore Yearly Meeting in 1787 with Nicholas Waln; to New York and New England, including Maine, from 1790 to 1791; to Upper Canada from 1799 to 1800; again to New England in 1800; and to Ohio from 1814 to 1815. He also moved several times. Late in 1792 Judge settled in New Rochelle, N.Y., and became a member of Mamaroneck Particular Meeting and Purchase Monthly Meeting. He moved to New York City in 1797, where he witnessed several outbreaks of Yellow Fever. In 1804 he moved to Little Falls, Maryland, where he lived as a farmer.

After his religious visit to Ohio, Judge decided to relocate there, settling in Barnesville in 1815. Over the course of the next decade he and his wife made several religious visits in Ohio and Indiana. They also traveled back east several times to attend Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting, and New England Yearly Meeting. Judge continued making eastward trips even after the death of his wife Susanna in September 1827 and the Hicksite controversy that took place the same time. (Judge seems to have taken the side of Elias Hicks). He died on December 21, 1834, while staying in Kennet Square, Pa., during one such journey.