SOURCE: Wikipedia, Richard Stockton (Continental Congressman) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stockton_%28Continental_Congre Caesar Rodney was weary when he reached his plantation near Dover on the night of July 1, 1776. Witherspoon was a proponent of Christian values, his common sense approach to the public morality of civil magistrates was influenced by the ethics of Scottish philosophers Francis Hutcheson and Reid rather than Jonathan Edwards. Exhausted, racked by cancer, Rodney set out after dusk and rode all night through the pouring rain and the crashing thunder, stopping only long enough to change horses. Family. Witherspoon saw morality as having two distinct components: spiritual and temporal. A Signer of the Declaration of Independence Under Attack. John later became a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Morven is now a State owned Museum, a magnificent home which stands today as a testimonial to the Stockton family. An error has occured while loading the map. Two years later, the 68-year old minister married 24 year old Ann Dill, with whom he would have two daughters. He is co-editor of the. As a native Scotsman, long wary of the power of the British Crown, Witherspoon soon came to support the Revolution, joining the Committee of Correspondence and Safety in early 1774. ", William Ellery of Rhode Island deliberately moved close to the signing table "to see how they all looked as they signed what might be their death warrants." As he raced through the stormy darkness, it must have occurred to Caesar Rodney that a political storm was rising out of Philadelphia that would change the course of history. Although Livingston later won the election by one vote, Stockton was unanimously elected to serve as the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, but he turned down that position to remain in the Congress. She became a professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University. Committees of Correspondence were organized in 1772 to exchange information among the colonies and mold public opnion in the developing struggle. In 1776, Stockton was elected to the Second Continental Congress, where he took a very active role. These changes helped the school be more on par with Harvard and Yale, soon transforming the college into a school that would equip the leaders of a revolutionary generation. John Knox Witherspoon, Signer of the & Princeton, Mercer, New Jersey, United States, President of College of New Jersey [present Princeton], Presbyterian minister, Signer of Declaration Of Independance, Elizabeth Montgomery (29 May 1722 - 1 October 1789), Anne Witherspoon (23 July 1749 - 1 April 1817), Christian Witherspoon, d.s.p. He attended the Haddington Grammar School, and obtained a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh in 1739. In 1766 and 1767, he gave up his law practice for the purpose of visiting England, Scotland, and Ireland. The U.S. National Archives contains other messages showing that Washington duly contacted General Howe in New York regarding the exchange or release of Stockton and others. But even as late as January 6, 1776, the Congress adopted a resolution stating that the colonies, "had no design to set up as an independent nation." At this point he was twenty. [1] Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey (17681794; now Princeton University) became an influential figure in the development of the United States' national character. Her parents are still legally married, although they separated in 1996. John Hart died of kidney stones after a long and very painful suffering. He was a moderate with regard to Colonial autonomy. As the College's primary occupation at the time was training ministers, Witherspoon became a leader of the early Presbyterian church in America. Two important ones included the Committee on Secret Correspondence and the Board of War. Behind that fleet were all the wealth and power of the British Empire. John Witherspoon The Howe Brothers and the American Revolution; Ira D. Gruber; W.S. . Witherspoon owned slaves during his time as Princeton's president. Once persuaded otherwise, however, Morton signed the Declaration and stood by his decision, though he was ostracized by his family and friends, many of whom were Tories. Richard Stockton the signer of the Declaration of Independence was born October 1, 1730, the eldest of eight children born to John and Abigail Stockton. His 1776 sermon "The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men" was published in many editions, and he was elected to the Continental Congress as part of the New Jersey delegation. In answer to an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence, according to tradition he replied that it "was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it.". (2.) In 1776, the New Jersey delegates to the Congress were holding out against Independence. This Commonwealth approach was not acceptable to the King, had it been the British could have avoided the war that freed the colonies and deprived the King of the fairest jewel in his crown. New York still abstained, but New Jersey and Pennsylvania voted in the affirmative. He was in private practice as an otolaryngologist until 2012. In John Trumbull's famous painting Declaration of Independence, Witherspoon is among those shown in the background facing the large table, the second seated figure from the viewer's right. He first took a moderate stance in the troubles between the colonies and Great Britain. Williamsburg, Virginia, Omohundro Institute of American History and Culture and Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Since 2001, a statue of John Witherspoon (1723-1794 . Col. Daytons Regiment is moved from Fort Stanwix to Tyconderoga the Col and Major Barber came here last evening and the Regiment is now a few miles of this place, marching with cheerfulness, but a great part of the men barefooted and barelegged. He paid the supreme price for placing his signature on the Declaration and pledging his life, his fortune and his Sacred Honor. His aim as a minister was to defend and articulate traditional Scottish Presbyterian theology, without altering or disguising it. At the age of 45, he became the sixth president of the college, later known as Princeton University. John is 15 degrees from Margaret Atwood, 18 degrees from Jim Carrey, 16 degrees from Elsie Knott, 19 degrees from Gordon Lightfoot, 20 degrees from Alton Parker, 22 degrees from Beatrice Tillman, 18 degrees from Jenny Trout, 18 degrees from Justin Trudeau, 19 degrees from Edwin Boyd, 16 degrees from Barbara Hanley, 25 degrees from Fanny Rosenfeld and 17 degrees from Cathryn Hondros on our single family tree. He was an affectionate husband, a tender parent and a cordial friend. He also signed the 1774 Petition to the King. They were moral men, and all men of integrity who had been welded together in a common purpose. Although none of the Leaders, nor principal Instigators and Abettors of the Rebellion, thought fit to avail themselves of the opportunity given them to return to their Duty, we have some satisfaction in observing that so considerable a number of His Majesty's deluded Subjects, of inferior Rank, in those Provinces where the Proclamation could be expect to have Effect, were disposed to relinquish the unjust Cause they had been once induced to support. His son Richard "The Builder" bought 5,500 acres of land from William Penn in Princeton, New Jersey and settled there with his wife Susannah (nee Witham) Robinson. In August 1767, he boarded a ship in London and 26 days later arrived in New York. Whatever their status that August, the 56 men who eventually signed the Declaration of Independence were under no illusions. Princeton University Press, 1948. Dr. The gallery was crowded; the floor was reserved for members of Congress; and on the wall hung the empty frame of the portrait of George II, which Alexander Hamiltons cannon ball had destroyed in the fighting of January 3rd at the battle of Princeton six years before. [16] From among his students came 37 judges (three of whom became justices of the U.S. Supreme Court); 10 Cabinet officers; 12 members of the Continental Congress, 28 U.S. Herbert Foster has identified five points of political Calvinism that appear to apply to Witherspoon: fundamental law, natural rights, contract and consent of people, popular sovereignty, resistance to tyranny through responsible representatives (Quoted in Morrison 2005: 81). A graduate of the University of Edinburgh, he gained a reputation in the Church of Scotland as a leader of the left-wing "Popular Party," and his works made him well-known in the American colonies. His estate, Morven, in Princeton was occupied by General Cornwallis during Stockton's imprisonment; his furniture, all household belongings, crops and livestock were taken or destroyed by the British. Miss Montgomery, at an early age, and at the time of his immigration had three sons and two daughters. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 2 daughters. He brought many of the better elements of the Scottish Enlightenment to Princeton and was interested in science as well as in government, moral philosophy, religion, and other subjects; notes of his lectures, which stressed the moral sense, were widely distributed in early America. He is one of only six signers to be honored. Died: November 15, 1794 at 71. He became a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) minister at Beith, Ayrshire (17451758), where he married Elizabeth Montgomery of Craighouse. View Transcript The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. One of the most active members of the Continental Congress, Witherspoon advocated independence, served on a large number of committees, and authored a number of Resolutions of Prayer and Thanksgiving. Witherspoon worked with fellow Presbyterians and Congregationalists to ensure that the Anglican Church did not become the established church of the new nation as it had been in some of the states, but he believed that members of the clergy had the same right to participate in politics as others did. "The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country, but he that stands it now deserves the thanks of man and woman. Then, on June 7th, Richard Henry Lee put this resolution before the Congress: "RESOLVED, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.". "[5], Howe's Document that Stockton signed giving his word of honor not to meddle in the American affairs during the war was the parole Benjamin Rush said Richard Stockton was given when he was released from prison in New York.[6]. Reverend Samuel Smith succeeded Dr. Witherspoon as president of Princeton in 1775. In March 1777, only two months after Stocktons release, in a letter to British Parliament General Howe wrote at no time had a leading rebel sought pardon. The book His Sacred Honor comes to Stocktons defense against these revisionist writers using rumors and innuendo to spread this false claim against a founding father. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. Handkerchief in hand they lashed at the hungry pests to no avail.". Witherspoon instituted numerous reforms, including modeling the syllabus and university structure after that used at the University of Edinburgh and other Scottish universities. John Witherspoon, son of James Witherspoon and Anne Walker was baptised in the parish of Yester, East Lothian on 10 February 1723. From 1758 to 1768, he was minister of the Laigh Kirk, Paisley (Low Kirk). When other members of Congress heard of the plight of the Clark sons, they ordered George Washington to take a British prisoner, preferably an officer, and starve him to death in a dark hole. The two remaining sons were bred to professions, and arose to distinction. Witherspoon is not quite the hick she makes herself out to be, at least offscreen. "Well," said Jefferson, "if you are decided, I will do as well as I can. He was hunted by soldiers and dogs and was forced to hide in the woods and caves of the Sourland Mountains during icy December weather. Witherspoon and his wife, Elizabeth Montgomery, had a total of 10 children, only five of whom survived to accompany their parents to America. John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 - November 15, 1794) was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. John Witherspoon was born at Gifford, a parish of Yester, at East Lothian, Scotland, as the eldest child of the Reverend James Alexander Witherspoon and Anne Walker, a descendant of John Welsh of Ayr and John Knox. On March 25, 1777, General Howe and his brother Lord Howe wrote to Lord George Germain (Secretary of State for the Colonies)in England "My Lord, We have the honor to enclose to your Lordship a state of the Declarations subscribed in consequence of our Proclamation of the 30th of November. He fought against the flood of paper money and opposed the issuance of bonds without provision for their amortization. He died October 24, 1821. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. : Rowman and Littlefield, 200&a. Frances, the youngest daughter, married Dr. David Ramsay, a delegate from South Carolina to the Continental Congress, on March 18, 1763. Conditions were horrific in prison where over 12,000 men died in prison ships and prisons in New York compared with 4,435 battle casualties during the entire war. Two weeks later, on August 2, 1776, the Congress met again at the State House in Philadelphia to formalize with their legislatures what they had adopted a month before. Francis Lewis was away when the British ransacked his home, so they seized his wife, treated her brutally, and threw her into prison under foul conditions. He became a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and purchased 2000 acres of land in Burlington, New Jersey. One of her poems about General Washington, on the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, shows how highly Washington esteemed these complimentary writings by the letter he wrote Annis. He who sustained the debate, and by the force of reasoning demonstrated not only the justice, but the expediency of the measure.. Geni requires JavaScript! The servant therefore retains all his other natural rights. He was turned over to the British and jailed in Perth Amboy first, then sent on to prison in New York. War Timeline | Stockton was admitted to the bar in 1754, to the grade of counselor in 1758, and in 1763, he received the degree of Sergeant-at-Law the highest degree of law attainable. Stockton returned to America in August 1767. The map below shows the places where the ancestors of the famous person lived. Doctor Samuel Smith, vice president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University)and son-in-law of Rev. At the urging of Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, whom he met in Paisley,[14] Witherspoon finally accepted their renewed invitation (having turned one down in 1766) to become president and head professor of the small Presbyterian College of New Jersey in Princeton. John Witherspoon would die on his farm near Princeton in 1794 at the age of 71. Witherspoon became the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. One lost all 13 of his children; and the wives, sons, and daughters of others were killed, imprisoned, harassed, or deprived of all material possessions. Stockton had the honor of personally presenting to King George III an address of the trustees of the College of New Jersey, acknowledging the repeal of the Stamp Act, and his address was favorably received by the king. Because of the parole document Stockton signed with General Howe to gain his freedom, and giving his word of honor not to meddle in the war (required to be given a parole), Stockton resigned from Congress. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856The Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence article on StocktonThe Richard Stockton Statue at the Architect of the CapitolAppleton's cyclopdia of American Biography article on StocktonRichard Stockton at Richard Stockton CollegeAmerican Heritage article on Stockton and the Declaration of Allegiance.Richard Stockton at Find a Grave. Home which stands today as a minister was to defend and articulate traditional Scottish Presbyterian theology, without altering disguising... A statue of john Witherspoon, son of James Witherspoon and Anne Walker was baptised in the of. Least 4 sons and 2 daughters the affirmative john later became a professor of at... 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