"Lamington" is a corruption of the Native American word for the nearby stream, the "Allemetunck" or the "Loamatong". Its name means "the place within the hills" or "the place of paint clay." There are 113 recorded variations on the spelling of Lamington, including "Alamatunk," "Lametunk" and "Lamberton."[9]
The church
The Lamington Presbyterian Church was constructed in 1826, replacing the original built in 1740. Church membership included Scots-Irish Presbyterians, Dutch and German settlers, tenant-farmers, large and small landowners, lawyers, teachers, millers, weavers, tailors, other craftsmen and workmen, slaves and freed blacks.[10]
John Honeyman (1729–1822), alleged "spy of Washington" during the American Revolutionary War lived the last 30 years of his life in the Lamington area and is buried in the Lamington Presbyterian Church Cemetery (his original gravestone, as well as a document showing his assigned church pew, is exhibited inside the church building).
Zebulon Pike (1779–1813), brigadier general and early explorer who was the namesake for Pikes Peak,[13][14] though the explorer is often erroneously said to have been born in Lamberton, a port community that has since been annexed by Trenton in Mercer County.[15]
Jane McCrea (c. 1752–1777), colonist killed by a Huron-Wendat warrior associated with the British army, whose slaying led to outrage and an increase in Patriot military support.[16]
James Linn (1749–1821), a United States Representative from New Jersey who was a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey in 1776, served in the Somerset County Militia during the Revolutionary War and is buried in the Lamington Presbyterian Church Cemetery.[18]
^Landers, R. Gloria. Pioneers, Pastors and Patriots: The 250-Year History of Lamington Presbyterian Church. (Bedminster, New Jersey: Lamington Presbyterian Church, 1990), p. 9 and front end paper.
^Powell, William S. Joseph Caldwell, 1773-1835, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press, 1996. Accessed June 9, 2014. "Caldwell, Joseph (21 Apr. 1773-27 Jan. 1835), mathematician, Presbyterian minister, and first president of The University of North Carolina, was born at Lamington, N.J., in northeastern Hunterdon County, the youngest of three children of Joseph and Rachel Harker Caldwell."
^Backes, William J.. "General Zebulon M. Pike, Somerset-Born" in Somerset County Historical Quarterly, Volume 8, p. 245. Somerset Historical Publications, Reprint Publishers, 1919. Accessed January 17, 2015. "If one will pick up almost any encyclopedia or biography he will find it stated that General Pike was born at 'Lamberton, now part of Trenton, New Jersey, January 5, 1779.' But this name has been confused with his real birthplace, which was not at Lamberton in Mercer County, but at Lamberton (now Lamington) in Somerset County."
^Washington Irving, "Biographical Memoir of the Late Brigadier General Zebulon Montgomery Pike," The Analectic Magazine Volume 4 (November, 1814): 380.
