An American Family History

Justice Hezekiah Bonham was born about 1670 in Barnstable, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. His parents were Nicholas Bonham and Hannah Fuller.

When Hezekiah was 14 years old in 1684, his father, Nicholas, died and he inherited "all ye rest of my land lying within ye township of Piscataway."

He married Mary Dunn about 1690 when he was 20.

He received his patent for land on May 1, 1697 and in 1698/99 he participated with others in the purchase at Maidenhead and moved there soon after.

His first wife, Mary Dunn Bonham, died on November 7, 1699. After Mary died, Hezekiah remarried. His second wife's name is disputed by scholars. It could have been Ann Hunt, Mary Hune, or Mary Bishop. His wives and children are discussed in the section on the Hezekiah Bonham Family.

In 1700 his famous dispute with with his sister, Mary's husband, Edmund Dunham, led to the creation of the Seventh Day Baptist Church.

He was a judge in Hunterdon County in 1723.

He died on January 27, 1732/33.

October 9,1697 Deed.  
Hezekiah Bonham of Piscataway and wife Marie
to Edward Jones of Woodbridge, weaver,
for two lots in Piscataway, one bounded
E. by John Smallie,
S. W. George Drake,
N. a small brook,
S.  Daniel Lippentoune,
S. E. George Jewell;
the other, 30 acres, being the  remainder of the land, held by Bonham in right of Daniel Lippentoune and  bo't of Zerah Higgens,
N. Nicholas Bonham
S. E. George Jewell,
S. W.  the remaining part of the land,
N. W. a brook.  
New Jersey Colonial Records  Volume 21

October 27, 1698 Deed.  
Hezekiah Bonham of Piscataway and wife Mary
to Edward Slater of the same place, for a lot there, bo't of Susannah,  widow of Thomas Farnsworth,
S. Samuel Dotey,
other sides unsurveyed.
New Jersey Colonial Records  Volume 21

The first congregation of Seventh-day Baptists in New Jersey had its origin in this township, in the following manner: In the year 1700, Edmund Dunham, a Baptist exhorter and the owner of one hundred and ten acres of the town lands, felt called upon to admonish Hezekiah Bonham for working on Sunday; whereupon Bonham defied him to prove divine authority for keeping holy the first day of the week. Dunham, after investigation, failed to do so to his own satisfaction, consequently he himself renounced the observance of the first day. In the year 1705 he formed a congregation of Seventh-Day Baptists. . .
from The story of an old farm, or, Life in New Jersey in the eighteenth century by Andrew D. Mellic.