from The History of Camden County by George R. Prowell
One of the earliest settlers in what is now Delaware township was Thomas Howell, who, although not of the Dublin colony, yet, in 1675, purchased part of a share of the propriety in West Jersey of Benjamin Bartlett, whose wife, Gracia, was a daughter of Edward Byllinge.
Howell resided in Staffordshire, England. He came to this country and located a tract of six hundred and fifty acres of land, in 1682, on the north side of Coopers Creek, in Waterford (now Delaware) township,
which included what is generally known as the Jacob Troth farm on the east, and extended down that stream nearly one mile, and back into the woods about the same distance.
Upon this tract, which he called Christianity, he built a house, in which he lived the short time he was in the settlement.
The next year, 1683, he, with Samuel Coles, represented the territory which a few years later became Waterford township, and, with Mark Newbie and others from Newton township, represented the Third (or Irish) Tenth in the Legislature of the State.
The house in which he lived is supposed to have been near the creek, on the Barton farm. He located other lands in Gloucester County, which soon after passed to others, as he died in 1687.
Before his death he conveyed one hundred acres of the land on Coopers Creek to Richard Wright ....
His family consisted of his wife, three sons -- Samuel, Daniel (married Hannah Lakin, in 1686) and Mordecai -- and three daughters, -- Priscilla (married Robert Stiles), Marion (married Henry Johnson) and Catharine. His children were born in England, and his wife, Catharine, did not come to this country during, his life-time, but, in 1693, was a resident of Philadelphia. Samuel, the eldest son, remained in England...
