John Rutherfurd, the son of Walter and Catherine Rutherfurd, was born in New York City on September 20, 1760. He attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), graduated in 1776, studied law with Richard Stockton (1730-1781, a signer of the Declaration of Independence) and William Paterson, and was admitted to the bar in 1782. In 1791, Rutherfurd was elected as a U.S. Senator from New Jersey. He resigned from that position in 1798 and moved to Trenton; in 1808, he moved to Bergen County, New Jersey, near present-day Rutherford. He became president of the East Jersey Proprietors in 1804, and remained in that position until 1840. He was a member of the New York and New Jersey Boundary Commission in 1826, of the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania Boundary Commission in 1829-1833, and of the committee to research and plan the canals to connect the Delaware, Raritan, and Hudson rivers. On October 30, 1782, John Rutherfurd married Helena Morris (1762-1840), daughter of Mary Walton and Lewis Morris, III. John and Helena had eight children together: Mary (1784-1863), Catherine (1786-1803), Robert Walter (1788-1852), Helena (1790-1873), Louisa Morris (1792-1857), Anna (1794-1876), John (died young), and Susanna (died young). John Rutherfurd died on February 23, 1840 in Rutherford, New Jersey.