MOUNT HOLLY

township (town), seat (1795) of Burlington county, south-central New Jersey, U.S. It lies along Rancocas Creek, 19 miles (31 km) east of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established by Quakers in 1677 and incorporated in 1688, it was known successively as Northampton and Bridgetown until it was renamed for the holly-covered hill on which it was built. A temporary capital of New Jersey during the U.S. War of Independence, Mount Holly was raided several times by the British. Surviving 18th- and 19th-century buildings include the County Court House (1796); the Friends Meeting House (1775); the Stephen Girard House, home of the founder of Girard College (a Philadelphia school, established in 1848, for orphan boys); the original building of the Relief Fire Company (1752), one of the oldest volunteer fire companies in the United States; the Woolman Memorial (1783), honouring John Woolman (172072), Quaker reformer and Abolitionist; and Burlington County Historic Prison (1810), the oldest continuously used prison in the United States. Mount Holly serves as an agricultural-trade centre and has some light manufacturing, including surgical and medical instruments and packaging. Pop. (1990) 10,639; (1996 est.) 10,666.