Obituary of Abigail Jane (Wootton) Hamilton
Abigail Jane (Wootton) Hamilton (1941-2025)
Abigail Jane (Wootton) Hamilton passed away on December 2, 2025 at her assisted living facility in Basking Ridge, NJ. She was 84 years of age.
Abby was born January 13, 1941 in Orange NJ, to John and Ruth (Moller) Wootton of Boonton NJ. As a child she attended the private St. John’s School in Mountain Lakes, NJ, graduating in 1958. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1962 and began teaching, as well as assisting in the family business, the Boonton Feed & Supply Co.
In 1963 Abby married Alan S. Painter, and had two children, John Alan Painter and Elizabeth Hunt (Painter) Ricciardelli. Soon they sold their small house in Morristown, NJ, and committed to rebuilding an historic house in Mendham, NJ, which had been nearly destroyed in a fire. As the social turmoil of the late 1960s and early 1970s escalated, Abby found herself absorbed with the women’s liberation movement of the time and also more active in her Episcopal church, St. Marks in Mendham. Women were not yet permitted to be priests in the Episcopal Church, but she nevertheless decided to earn her Masters Of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary, graduating in May 1974. That same year she was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, a position opened up to women only in 1970, and served at St. Paul’s Church in Morris Plains.
During this period there was significant pressure on the male-dominated Episcopal church leadership to allow women into the priesthood, and Abby was deeply involved in the lobbying of that movement. In 1974 a group of eleven women were “irregularly” or unofficially ordained into the priesthood in Philadelphia by three retired bishops in an act of defiance and challenge. Two years later, in September 1976, the General Convention finally bowed to the pressure and approved the ordination of women into the Episcopal church. Abby was ordained as a priest on January 5, 1977 at St. Paul’s Church, becoming the fourth legally ordained in the country, and the first in New Jersey.
In October, 1979, Abby was assigned as rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Newark, a neglected urban parish with a small congregation. Not many parishes were ready to accept female priests, and the male-dominated church leadership was still reticent about the idea. In a July 5, 1981 Daily Record interview Abby was asked about the biggest challenge in running her assigned church, and she replied: “Paying the fuel bill.” Opting out of the available rectory, Abby instead commuted from a nearby town and she would sometimes arrive on a Sunday morning to find the copper water pipes stolen from inside the church. She persevered, in 1982 winning the Bishop’s Outstanding Service Award, becoming more involved in church leadership roles, and strengthening St. Andrews until 1990. During this period she also remarried, to the Reverend David Hamilton.
In 1990 Abby transferred to be rector of Holy Innocents Church in West Orange, NJ, where she served the remainder of her career, retiring in 2006. She also began service with the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, now in a position to help cement the gains women had made in the church and to encourage a younger generation of women to follow in her path. At Holy Innocents she grew the congregation in size and had a special devotion for final services in the small cemetery located on site.
In retirement Abby continued some involvement with the church, but turned her attention to being a grandmother and cheerleader for her grandchildren, and the epicenter of extended family. She was a fixture at school band competitions, sports events and graduations. Her chocolate chip cookies were legendary, supplied in quantity to family in unmarked paper bags. Living in Hackettstown and then in Three Bridges, NJ, she also worked part-time at Old Feed Mill Auction, an endeavor of her brother, Jack Wootton, and held at the former site of Boonton Feed & Supply Co. She moved to assisted living in 2023.
Abby is survived by her two children John and Elizabeth, as well as four grandchildren.
A private ceremony will be held at Holy Innocents Church in West Orange, where her ashes will also be buried.