Majesty. On his return to New Jersey, Stockton was given a seat in the New Jersey Provincial Council by his friend, the Royal Governor; an appointment to the Colonial New Jersey Supreme Court followed in 1774. At Morven, Annis presided over a literary salon and, according to her contemporary Milcah Martha Moore, “demonstrated her affection for the British literary greats by replicating a version of Alexander Pope’s gardens at Twickenham (arguably the center of cosmopolitan literary culture).” Richard and Annis lived privileged lives and yet they joined the patriot cause. Why? Like many leading colonists, the Stocktons became increasingly disillusioned with British rule. Operatic History
Aubrey chose opera to tell Stockton’s story, he says, because its high style suits epic drama. “Yes it’s contrived, but it’s elevated and I want people to feel this story, to awaken their own imaginations and connect with it.” “As for Richard, what a dramatic life! He was put on a prison ship just off Perth Amboy; he lost everything, his health was affected,” says Aubrey. “And the more I found out about Annis, the more I discovered a deeply interesting personality filled with poetry, art, knowledge, care and hope for liberty. She’s radical but very quiet about it. As I get older I appreciate how truly radical these first patriots were. They put everything on the line for an idea.” Aubrey gets excited when he talks about the Stocktons. Having been part of the first class of students at Richard Stockton University (then College), he has long had an ear for Stockton references. During his three decades as a writer and administrator with arts and cultural organizations, he’s found no shortage of them across the state, including the rest area on the southbound New Jersey Turnpike. And of course, Aubrey adds, who wouldn’t be inspired by the romance of “Morven,” the name Annis gave their home after the fabled castle of King Fingal in James McPherson’s Ossianic saga, then all the rage. It means “wooded hill” in Gaelic. Before putting his name to the Declaration of Independence, Richard had taken a moderate rather than a revolutionary stance. In 1774 he put forward “a plan of self-government for America, independent of Parliament, without renouncing the Crown.” One wonders what might have transpired had his suggestion been acceptable to the British. Instead, the following year, Parliament resolved to raise revenue in the Colonies. In response Stockton suggested that the Colonies seek representation in the House of Commons, “or else we shall be fleeced to some purpose.” Ultimately revolution seemed the only recourse this side of the Atlantic. Stockton was one of five New Jersey signatories to the Declaration. Soon after, with the British pursuing the retreating American army down the King’s Highway, the Stocktons were forced to flee their home. Constance M. Greiff and Wanda S. Gunning’s impeccably researched history Morven: Memory, Myth and Reality describes what happened. The
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Stocktons sought refuge with a friend in Monmouth County. But the region was a loyalist stronghold and not long after their arrival, Richard was dragged from his bed in the middle of the night and turned over to the British at Perth Amboy. Morven was occupied by the British under General Cornwallis. Its contents were taken or destroyed along with all of the crops and livestock. Its library, said to be one of the finest in the Colonies, was burned. “The whole of Mr. Stockton’s furniture, apparel, and even valuable writings have been burnt,” reported his son-in-law Benjamin Rush. “All his cattle, horses and hogs, sheep, grain and forage have been carried away.” “Richard Stockton was the only signer of the Declaration of Independence to be imprisoned by the British just because he signed,” says Richard (Dick) Stockton Snedeker, a contemporary Stockton descendent and history enthusiast.
a silversmith and merchant whose ancestors were French Huguenot refugees. She married Richard circa 1757 after the family moved to Princeton in the early 1750s. The couple’s six children were born at Morven: Julia, in 1759 (married to Declaration Signer Benjamin Rush); twins Mary and Susan, in 1761; Richard, in 1764; Lucius Horatio, in 1768; and Abigail, in 1773. At the time the family left Morven, the children were aged between 3 and 17. Twelve-year old Dick, then a student at the College stayed behind with a servant, possibly to guard the house and prove that it had not been abandoned, and Annis had the presence of mind to bury the family’s silver as well as papers associated with the American Whig Society. The Society was a secret revolutionary group and the papers where a Who’s Who of Princeton patriots, so it was vital they did not fall
“ What muse can sing the hardships thou endur’d; Unarm’d, uncloth’d, undisciplin’d thy men; In winter’s cold unhospitable reign; And press’d by numerous hosts of veteran troops.” From: “Lines addressed to General Washington, in the year 1777, after the battles of Trenton and Princeton,” by Annis Boudinot Stockton, published in Columbian Magazine, January 1787
Stockton was moved from Perth Amboy to New York’s notorious Provost Prison, where he was half starved and inadequately clothed during the harsh winter weather. More prisoners died in British prisons and prison ships than on the battlefields—over 12,000 compared to 4,435 soldiers killed in combat over six years of war. Stockton endured almost five weeks before being paroled on January 13, 1777, the day after Hugh Mercer died following the Battle of Princeton. The release document called for Stockton to give his word not to participate in rebellion and it seems that he kept his word. Two years later he developed a cancer that spread from his lip to his throat. He died at Morven on February 28, 1781, at the age of 51, and was buried at the Quaker cemetery at the Stony Brook Meeting House in Princeton. In 1888, the state donated a marble statue of Stockton to the National Statuary Hall Collection at the United States Capitol. Mistress of Morven
Richard and Annis were close friends of George Washington and his wife Martha, who visited Morven on numerous occasions. Annis was among Washington’s favorite correspondents. As one of the nation’s first published female poets, she wrote in support of the patriot cause, memorializing figures like Washington in epic verse. A witty and versatile writer, Annis held her own among the intelligentsia and literati of her day. Her poems reflect a passion for gardens, history, natural philosophy, and politics, and were read far beyond the Colonies in England and France. Born on her father’s plantation in Antigua, Annis had a privileged life. Her father, Elias Boudinot, was
into the wrong hands. In gratitude, after the war, Annis was appointed as a member of the Society, a singular honor for a woman at that time. While Annis published poems in leading newspapers and magazines of the day, it was not until 1984, when a manuscript copybook with more than 120 of her poems and other writings passed from private hands (Christine Carolyn McMillan Cairnes and her husband George H. Cairnes) into the New Jersey Historical Society that the true extent of her output was known. A complete collection was published in 1995. Subsequent Generations
After Richard’s death and until 1795, Annis stayed on at Morven, which was inherited by the Stockton’s elder son, also called Richard. Like his father, Richard Stockton (1764-1828) studied law and graduated from the College of New Jersey (in 1779). He married Mary Field in 1788 and had nine children. Because he felt that the College was becoming too secular, he contributed land for the Princeton Theological Seminary. This Richard went on to represent New Jersey in the United States Senate (1796-1799) and serve in the House of Representatives (1813-1815). He was the first U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Subsequently Richard’s younger brother Lucius Horatio Stockton (1765-1835) became U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Richard and Annis’s grandson, Robert Field Stockton (1795-1866) is perhaps the most colorful character in the long line of Stocktons. Known as “The Commodore,” his life was a 19th century adventure of “derring do,” peppered with heroism,
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