Murder Ironically, a physician, a former US Representative and New Jersey Governor responsible for the Newell Act, regarded as the forerunner of the US Life Saving Service, later the US Coast Guard, was best known in Highlands during his lifetime as the anti-Irish and anti-Catholic Governor responsible for the hanging death of James Donnelly.
The Sea View Hotel was the scene of a murder in 1857. James Donnelly, a surgery student at New York University, was working summers as a bookkeeper at the Sea View Hotel in Highlands. According to Monmouth County records, a guest entrusted him with $100, which Donnelly reportedly lost in a card game with a bartender, Albert Moses, who was 18 years of age.
Donnelly reported finding Moses the next morning with a stab in the neck, but investigators at the scene reported he had named Donnelly as his attacker. Donnelly then raised suspicion among those investigating and was reported to be behaving strangely, running out of the hotel, dumping a wad of counterfeit bills, and running down to the river presumably to dispose of the weapon. He was returned to the hotel, where he also assisted in unsuccessful efforts to treat Moses.
But the Irish surgical student had had many supporters during the several trials on charges of murder. After several convictions, and successful appeals of the conviction he was eventually sentenced to death by a Protestant judge and jury. This, and the earlier testimony by police officers, raised considerable doubt and controversy among the Irish catholic community who viewed the evidence as doubtful and charged the composition of the court as evidence of bias.
Newell, in his first year as Governor, became involved when Donnelly’s appeals ran out and he sought commutation to a life sentence. While the Court of Pardons, on which the Governor sat ex officio, voted 6 to 2 against a commutation, Newell claimed to have cast the deciding vote for execution. Donnelly was hung in front of the Monmouth County outhouse before a huge crowd, after giving a two-hour talk proclaiming his innocence. He was executed Jan 8, 1858.
Newell went on to serve in the House of Representatives and was appointed to the Life-Saving Service of New Jersey by President Abraham Lincoln. He was defeated in his bid for re-election to the House in part because of the publicity over the Donnelly affair. He ran for Governor again in 1877, but lost once again, in part because of the huge turnout against him in Jersey City because of the earlier Donnelly Affair.
Governor Newell returned to Allentown where he resumed his practice of medicine and died there in 1901. He is buried in Allentown Presbyterian Cemetery.
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