The Signer Who Paid the Price

When the 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence, they pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.

For Richard Stockton of New Jersey, that pledge became painfully real.

Stockton arrived in Philadelphia on July 1, 1776, and soon became the first New Jersey delegate to sign the Declaration. Five months later, British troops were advancing through New Jersey, and Stockton hurried home to protect his family.

He was later captured by Loyalists, turned over to the British, and imprisoned in New York’s Provost Prison, where conditions were harsh and often deadly.

Stockton was released on parole in January 1777, but historians still debate whether he was forced to promise not to take part in American affairs during the war. He later signed a New Jersey oath of allegiance, but his life never recovered.

His estate near Princeton had been occupied and stripped by British forces. His library was burned. His health failed, and he died in 1781, before the war ended.

Stockton’s story shows that the Declaration’s famous pledge was not symbolic. For some signers, independence costs almost everything.