He was born 1779 in Upper Mount Bethel Township, Pennsylvania to Loyalist Michael Hess and Gertraudt Van Cortlandt (a descendant of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, the Bayard family, and the Schuyler family from New York).
Born in 1779 in Upper Mount Bethel Township, Pennsylvania, he was a son of Loyalist Michael Hess and Gertraudt Van Cortlandt (a descendant of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, the Bayard family, and the Schuyler family from New York).