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Richard Stockton (1730–1781) was a signer of the Declaration of Independence who, like many signatories, died prematurely due to harsh treatment by the British. He was an attorney by trade, and was born and lived in the colony of New Jersey.
Stockton refused to serve as a public official "till I am convinced that by neglecting my own affairs I am doing more acceptable Service to God and Man." But in 1776 Stockton did serve in the Continental Congress.
On November 30, 1776, American loyalists betrayed Stockton, captured him in the middle of the night, and turned him over to the British. Stockton refused an offer of amnesty based on swearing allegiance to the King. The British then took Stockton to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and subjected him to cruel treatment. The British also destroyed his farm and burned his library, which was one of the best in America. Stockton was later transferred to a New York prison.
After six weeks of lack of food and freezing cold weather in prison in New York, Stockton was finally released. His health had been ruined.
On February 28, 1781, Richard Stockton died penniless at the age of 51.
New Jersey honored Stockton by donating of statue of him to the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall, where only six signers of the Declaration of Independence are so represented.
Richard Stockton's Will declared:
:As my children ... may be peculiarly impressed with the last words of their father, I think proper here, not only to subscribe to the entire belief of the great leading doctrine of the Christian religion ... but also in the heart of a father's affection, to exhort them to remember 'that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.'