Early Germans of New Jersey” says Matthias was one of two sons of Matthias, brother of Morritz (Morris). The only details it gives for him are the year his will proved (1783), the name of his wife and the names of his ten children.

A little more information comes from Charles Posner who wrote “Matthias J. Cramer (1741-1783) in 1758 married Anna Maria Henn or Hamm (1741-1804).  He suffered from poor health, as did many of the Cramers and died of tuberculosis.”

A county history book on Northwestern New Jersey including Hunterdon County, published in 1927, says that the oldest cemetery there is in Lebanon Township and there is a tombstone there of Matthias Cramer giving his exact date of death.

I have found the will and read the entire (fairly lengthy) estate file for Matthias Krammer who died in 1783 in Lebanon Township, Hunterdon County. He was quite a wealthy man.

One interesting thing he did was really quite unusual in that day. Usually, a man either left his wife all his real and personal property or he left her an annual income annuity to be paid by one or several of his other heirs for the remainder of her natural life -- but in both cases with the clause -- “so long as she remains my widow”. The point of “disowning” her upon her re-marriage was not intended to be punitive, rather it was simply that he was making sure his property did not end up in the hands of the second husband at the expense of his own children.

But Matthias left his wife all his real and personal property until youngest son Noah had reached the age of 18 after which she was to be given money and would live with one of his sons, but if she remarried, she then was to get 200 pounds current money -- quite a large sum actually.

Matthias also bequeathed 200 pounds current money to each of his seven daughters: Elizabeth intermarried with George Young, Catherine, Anna, Mary, Dorothy, Alse and Margaret -- to be paid as they each reached the age of 18.

As to his sons, William (eldest), Matthias and Noah -- all under the age of 21 -- they were eventually to equally divide his 500 acres of land once all of them had reached the age of 21 and either after his widow had died or remarried or the sons made provision to maintain his widow.

So it is interesting that of his seven daughters, only Elizabeth had married -- all the rest were said to be under the age of 18 and his three sons were said to be under the age of 21. We don’t know how old Elizabeth was but we can presume -- even if she was his oldest child -- she wasn’t much more than 21 herself. Matthias named his son-in-law George Young and his oldest son William as his Executors. William then petitioned the court to divide the 500 acres in 1786 saying he was over 21 and his two brothers still younger.

“Early Germans” says that she was the wife of Matthias Cramer and gives her date of birth and date of death.

It also says that she married second Morris Sharp Cramer, cousin of Matthias.

And the book says one more thing about her, that she was a “cousin to Rev Mr. Hunt’s second wife”. There is a section of this book too on the William Hann (Henn, Hahn) family. William was born about 1704 and died 1794. Four sons are listed: Joseph, William, Jacob and John. William (Jr.) had a daughter Mary born 1771 and married Rev H W Hunt and was his second wife.

So Mary must be the cousin of Anna Maria’s referred to.

The problem is that, if Anna Maria was Mary’s first cousin, she must have been the daughter of another son of William Sr. His known sons were born too late to have had a daughter in 1740, the oldest being Joseph born 1734 -- but then again he and his wife were both born by 1704 so they might well have had an older son by, say, 1722, who possibly at age 18 had a daughter. The timing seems a bit compressed so as to make it seem unlikely to me, so I have to assume that she was a second (or higher?) cousin of Mary, which would make her a descendant of one of William’s brothers.