Career
He then settled in Perth Amboy, where he was a vestryman at Saint Peter"s Church from 1749 to 1752. He was a large landowner in the New Jersey counties of Hunterdon, Union, and Somerset, and he owned a copper mine at Rocky Hill that was later abandoned. He served as paymaster of the 1st New Jersey Regiment (the "Jersey Blues") under Colonel Peter Schuyler (New Jersey) from 1756 to 1760.
In 1758 he was appointed by the Assembly of New Jersey to serve as a commissioner to the state"s Indian tribes.
Stevens was a vocal opponent of the Stamp Acting. When the act went into effect in 1765, he was one of a committee of four (with Robert Livingston, John Cruger, Junior, and Beverly Robinson) to prevent the issue of stamps in New York City.
In 1770 he was appointed a commissioner, along with Walter Rutherfurd, to establish the partition line between New York and New Jersey. In 1776, after the Provincial Congress had become the New Jersey Legislature under the state"s first Constitution, Stevens was elected Vice-President of Council of New Jersey, holding the office of chairman of the joint meetings of the legislature until 1782.
He represented Hunterdon County in the legislature during that period.
He was president of the convention of New Jersey when the state ratified the United States Constitution on December 18, 1787. They had two children:
John Stevens III (1749–1838)
Mary Stevens (died 1814), who married Robert R. Livingston, negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase. He was buried at the Frame Meeting House in Bethlehem Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.