Richard Stockton was an American lawyer, jurist, legislator, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Background
Richard was born on October 1, 1730 at the Stockton family home now known as Morven in the Stony Brook neighborhood of Princeton, New Jersey, United States and was a son of John and Abigail (Phillips) Stockton.
His grandfather, also Richard, had removed in 1696 and acquired a large tract of land. The first of his line in America was his great-grandfather, another Richard, who was in Flushing, Long Island, as early as 1656. John Stockton was for many years presiding judge of the court of common pleas of Somerset County, New Jersey, and a liberal patron of the College of New Jersey, being largely instrumental in securing its removal from Newark to Princeton.
Education
Richard Stockton received his preparatory education at the academy conducted by the Rev. Samuel Finley in Nottingham, Maryland, and entered the College of New Jersey at Newark, from which he was graduated in 1748.
He took up the study of the law in the office of David Ogden of Newark, was licensed in 1754 as an attorney, in 1758 as a counselor, and in 1764 as a serjeant.
Career
In the course of a decade he built up a large practice and became generally recognized as one of the most eloquent members of the bar in the middle colonies. Among his legal proteges who received their training in his busy office were Elias Boudinot, William Paterson, and Joseph Reed. Shortly afterward, however, he was drawn into public affairs.
As a trustee of the College of New Jersey, he was requested by the board in 1766 to tender the presidency to John Witherspoon, then residing at Paisley near Glasgow.
Finally, after prolonged negotiations, in which the aid of young Benjamin Rush was enlisted, Mrs. Witherspoon yielded and Stockton's mission was successful. Stockton always maintained a close attachment to his alma mater, was one of its chief financial advisers throughout his lifetime, and held the opinion that great changes would occur when the colleges had "thrown into the lower House of Assembly men of more foresight and understanding than they now can boast of".
On his return home in 1767 he immediately took a prominent role in provincial politics. In 1768 he was appointed to the Council, which position he retained until the end of the royal government. A year later, during the rioting directed against lawyers because of the costs, abuses, and multiplicity of law suits, he took a vigorous stand and brought about the resumption of orderly judicial process in Monmouth County.
In 1774 he was commissioned one of the justices of the supreme court. Such leisure time as he enjoyed in this period was devoted to the improvement of his extensive landed estate, "Morven, " at Princeton, where he bred choice horses and cattle and gathered art treasures and a considerable library. His early position on the differences between the colonies and the mother country had been that of a moderate.
In 1764 he suggested, as the readiest solution of the troubles, the election of some able Americans to Parliament, but a year later, during the controversy over the Stamp Act, he maintained positively that Parliament had no authority over the colonies.
Under date of December 12, 1774, he drafted and sent to Lord Dartmouth "An Expedient for the Settlement of the American Disputes, " in which he "suggested substantially a plan of self-government for America, independent of Parliament, without renouncing allegiance to the Crown" (Nelson, post, p. 429).
Immediate measures would have to be taken, he averred, or else there would be an "obstinate, awful and tremendous war". This appeal is regarded as having been the basis, in part at least, of the petition of the Continental Congress to the King, July 8, 1775.
He was elected to the Continental Congress, June 22, 1776, and took his seat six days later in time to hear the closing debate on the Declaration of Independence. During his attendance at the subsequent sessions his name was brought forward by his friends at home as a candidate for governor, and on the first ballot in the legislature (August 30, 1776) the votes were equally divided between Stockton and William Livingston.
The next day Livingston was chosen governor and Stockton first chief justice of the new state, which position he declined, preferring for the time being the more active career in Congress. During the summer and fall of 1776 Stockton served on numerous important committees of Congress.
During his absence on his journey in Saratoga, November 23, he was appointed as one of a committee "to devise measures for effectually reinforcing General Washington, and obstructing the progress of General Howe's army". Before he could reach Princeton, however, the enemy had invaded New Jersey.
He placed his family in the home of a friend, John Covenhoven, in Monmouth County, for safety, but while there was betrayed by Loyalists, dragged in bitterly cold weather to Perth Amboy, and confined in jail. Removed subsequently to New York, he was imprisoned and subjected to indignities which provoked a formal remonstrance from Congress (January 3, 1777), and efforts to secure his exchange. His release found him in shattered health, his beautiful estate wantonly pillaged, and his fortune greatly depleted.
He remained an invalid until his death at Princeton, February 28, 1781, in his fifty-first year.
Achievements
Religion
For two generations his family had been Quakers, and it was his wish to be buried at the Stony Brook Meeting House Cemetery in Princeton.
Views
Quotations:
Stockton initially showed little interest in politics. He once wrote, "The public is generally unthankful, and I never will become a Servant of it, till I am convinced that by neglecting my own affairs I am doing more acceptable Service to God and Man. "
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Rev. Doctor Samuel Smith, vice president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) said at Stockton's funeral: "The remains of a man who hath been long among the foremost of his country, for power, for wisdom, and for fortune; and who, if what honors this young country can bestow, if many and great personal talents, could save man from the grave, would not thus have been lamented here by you. Behold here 'the end of all perfection. ' The office of a judge of the province, was never filled with more integrity and learning than it was by him, for several years before the revolution. Since that period, he hath represented New-Jersey in the congress of the United States. But a declining health, and a constitution worn out with application and with service, obliged him, shortly after, to retire from the line of public duty, and hath at length dismissed him from the world. "
Connections
Stockton married Annis Boudinot, a talented poetess, the sister of Elias Boudinot who in 1762 married Stockton's sister, Hannah. Of Stockton's two sons, the elder, Richard, became eminent at the bar, and of his four daughters, the eldest, Julia, married Dr. Benjamin Rush.