Capt. Archibald Kennedy (d. 1794) lived on an estate called Pavonia between Newark and Powles Hook. He had been a captain in the British navy, until he lost his command after refusing to take stamped paper aboard his ship in Boston harbor for safekeeping during the Stamp Act controversy. Kennedy was suspected of being a Loyalist during the Revolution and much of his property was destroyed. In 1790 he went to England and two years later, upon the death of a cousin, became the eleventh earl of Cassillis.

Amboy is Perth Amboy, N.J.