Hilliard, Reuben, 1769-1812

Reuben Hilliard was a Quaker minister from Burlington County, New Jersey. He was born in 1769 in Burlington, New Jersey, to Samuel and Hannah Hilliard. Reuben worked as a laborer in the nearby town of Evesham, and eventually became superintendent of his aunt's farm in Rancocas. Around 1793 he was briefly imprisoned for refusing to pay a militia fine, and soon afterwards he began to speak at Rancocas Meeting. In 1795 Hilliard was recognized a minister by Burlington Monthly Meeting. He made religious visits to meetings in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. He married Hannah Townsend in 1801 and spent the next five years moving around southwestern Jersey, living first in Evesham, then Burlington, then Old Springfield in 1804, and finally settling in Salem in 1806 at the urging of his friend John Wistar. Hilliard died there in 1812.