Peter Lane

Peter Lane Peter Lane
Peter Lane and his family were residents of Lower Bank in Washington Township. He was born, according to the 1860 Census, about 1814 or 15, a fact corroborated both by his obituary and his listing among the deceased in the 1870 Census. He was born somewhere in New Jersey, and was employed as a ship builder and sea captain. His wife was named Rebecca (maiden name as yet unknown), and they had a large family:

Nicholas V. Lane, born about 1839. He too was a ship captain, by the age of 21.
Josiah Lane; he gave his occupation in 1860 as ship captain, when he was only 18. In 1894, a J. Frank Lane voted from Lower Bank according to a poll book found from that year. I have found no one else on any of the censuses other than perhaps this man that could be J. Frank (Josiah Frank?), but there is still not enough evidence to be certain.
Mary E. Lane, born about 1844.
Arabella Lane, born about 1846
Julia Lane, born about 1848
Catherine Lane, born about 1850
Harriet Lane, born in 1860
Peter Lane, jr., born about 1854. 15 years after his father's death, he is found on the 1885 Census. He is living with his mother, Rebecca, and a man named Solomon Leeds, a man we know was still living in Lower Bank as late as 1892 from voting records.

Below is his Peter Lane, sr.'s obituary, from the New Jersey Courier of March 16th, 1870:

Died at Lower Bank, N.J., Feb 10th, 1870, Mr. Peter Lane, Esq., aged 56 years, 8 months, and 1 day.
The subject of this brief tribute to departed's worth, has been a resident of this place for years and had but recently returned, with his family to his old home at Lower Bank. Afflicted with a nervous disease, which for the past two years had, at times, unfitted him for business, it was fondly hoped by his friends that by retiring to his farm and leaving the more engrossing duties of his calling here (ship-building) to his sons, his valuable life might be prolonged and perhaps his impaired health regained. Since last spring his time has been divided between Lower Bank and Tuckerton. When able he was here, superintending and assisting in the building of a large vessel, now ready for launching. About the middle of January he left Tuckerton, nevermore to tread it's streets again. A short confinement to his bed and the scenes of earth closed with him forever! In the midst of his usefulness, in the strength of his active manhood, he has fallen; and the strong expressions of sorrow called forth by his death is proof of the high regard in which he was held, throughout the circle of his friends and acquaintances. In his death, the community, and especially the M.E. Church of which he was an official member, has sustained a loss which we have scarcely yet realized. Acitve in all that pertained to the interests of the cause of Christ, he loved to do his Master's work. At different times, both in the church at T. as well as at Lower Bank, he held the highest offices eligible to laymen. At the latter place, especially, he was very useful. He loved the course of the Lord's House, and when, in health, was rarely absent from his seat among his people. For many years he had felt the full power of the doctrine of faith in Christ, and when death came if found him not unready. To him, death was but the gate to endless joy.
His funeral was very largely attended on the Sabbath following his death. Services were conducted by the Revs. A.M. North and J.P. Connelly, in the church at Lower Bank, near which his remains were laid, there to rest, till the triumph of the Archangel, shall call up the sleeping dead.

This death is confirmed by the 1870 Census, which lists all those in the township having died in the previous 12 months. The census gives his cause of death as 'inflammation of the brain.'.