Richard Stockton | (Declaration of Independence)

Описание: Who is Richard Stockton?

Richard Stockton was one of the Founding Fathers and a Signer of the Declaration of Independence of the United States. He was born in Stockton family home now known as Morven in the Stony Brook neighborhood of Princeton, New Jersey, the eldest of eight children born to Abigail, and John Stockton. He attended the West Nottingham Academy(now Princeton University) under Dr. Samuel Finley and graduated in 1748. After college, He studied law with David Ogden, of Newark, who was at that time the head of the legal profession in the province.

Stockton also served as a Trustee of Princeton University which was at the time called the College of New Jersey and located in Newark. Donations from the Stockton family enabled the college to move from Newark to Princeton. Stockton's law practice was very successful, and he became one of the most prominent lawyers in the American Colonies. In 1757 he wed Annis Boudinot sister of New Jersey statesman Elias Boudinot. In 1766 and 1767, he gave up his law practice for the purpose of visiting England, Scotland, and Ireland.

He was presented at court by a minister of the king and was consulted on American affairs by the Marquis of Rockingham and the Earl of Chatham. However, he changed his position a year later when the controversy over the Stamp Act arose. In 1768 he became a member of the Royal Executive Council of that colony. In 1774 he drafted and sent to Lord Dartmouth "a plan of self-government for America, independent of Parliament, without renouncing the Crown then he was appointed later as a Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court and in 1776 he was elected and served in the Second Continental Congress.

Stockton’s oldest daughter Julia wed Dr. Benjamin Rush that year, and both Stockton and his son-in-law(Rush) became the Signers of The Declaration of Independence. After signing The Declaration of Independence, He was sent by Congress, along with fellow signer George Clymer, on an exhausting two-month journey to Fort Ticonderoga, Saratoga, and Albany, New York to assist the Continental Army. On the way back to Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Stockton was captured and held as a prisoner of war in Perth Amboy before he was turned over to the military Provost Prison that the British Army maintained around New York.

It is believed that over 12,000 prisoners of war died, mostly due to exposure to the cold. Stockton was able to survive, but his time as a prisoner caused a decline in his health from which he never truly recovered. Significantly, General Washington in a counter proclamation issued late in 1777, pursuant to the emergency powers vested in him by Congress just before it learned of the victory at Trenton, had called on every person who had submitted to the Howes to repair to the nearest American general officer.

In order to secure his release from prison, Stockton signed a parole document which included a renunciation of his signing of the Declaration of Independence and a pledge to not meddle in the American Revolution effort and true to his word, Stockton resigned from being the Member of the Continental Congress after his release. He died a few years later in 1781 at the age of 50 from lip cancer, A statue of him was dedicated by congressional proceedings in 1888 and placed in Statuary Hall.



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