a „%"«*. O.-S ^,m r t .1 - . ;l-.-" > stockto: ILY ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES. COMPILED BY WILLIAM FEANOIS CEEGAB. [A Reprint from the White Ancestry, Copyright, 1888.'] PHILADELPHIA: Patterson ,t White. 607 Chestnut Street. I 0571 sins fXCHAI MESSI K I V STOCKTON. CHAPTER VII. STOCKTON FAMILY. '^33/J3^ In his History of the Stockton Family, Mr. J. W. Stockton states that Richard Stockton, the founder of the Stockton family of New Jersey, was the son of John Stockton, of Keddington, in the Parish of Malpas, County Chester, England, eldest son of Owen, of the same place, and that he was haptized in the parish church June 20, 1606.) His reasons for supposing such to be the case were that the Hon. Richard Stockton, one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, states in his Bible that " Richard Stockton emigrated from England previous to "the year 1660, and resided for a few years on Long Island, " near the City of New York, and belonged to an ancient and " highly respectable family, and possessed an opulent fortune," and that the same gentleman used the arms of the Cheshire Stocktons, which were engraved on his watch. Mr. Stockton has kindly allowed the compiler of this account of a branch of the family to have access to his notes used in the preparation of the genealogy, but after a careful examination ot those papers and a thorough and exhaustive search of the records at Flushing and Jamaica, Long Island, and at Alhany, the com- piler failed to find satisfactory authority for Mr. Stockton's statement. Richard Stockton died in 1707. His eldest son, Richard, was married in 1691, and died in 1709, when his children were all underage. His second son, John, was born in 1674; his young- est daughter, Elizabeth, was not born until the year 1680. His widow, Abigail, who is by the will of his eldest son proved to have been the mother of all his children, was living in 1714, when she divided some land between her sons, John and Job. The compiler has arrived at the conclusion that Richard Stockton, of Flushing, and Springfield Township, New Jersey, 21 22 Stockton Family. [Chap. VII. was not identical with the Richard Stockton, son of John and grandson of Owen, who is mentioned by Mr. J. W. Stockton, a conclusion led to by investigations which he made in England during his visits to that country. The Richard Stockton (son of John) previously referred to as being baptized in 1606 was not the son of John Stockton, of Keddington, it being clearly proved, by two separate visitations of the county, that in 1613 his "eldest sonue et heir'e " was Thomas, then aged 4 years. It appears, however, by the registers of the parish that a John Stockton of " higherwich in ye psh of Malpas " had a sou Richard, baptized June 20, 1606, but the compiler cannot iden- tify him with the immigrant. The Stocktons of Cheshire were undoubtedly a. very ancient family, and are proved to have been established in the Parish of Malpas, where they were at one time lords of the manor, for at least 400 years prior to the seventeenth century, when the most important branch of the family still owned lands at Stockton and Keddington, in that parish, other branches being settled in the parishes of Acton and Barrow. The compiler has made what he believes to have been a very thorough investigation ot all the sources of information in London, including the wills, etc., of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, besides examining the parish registers, local wills, aud records of marriage licenses in Cheshire, and finally, as a last resource, advertising in the news- papers for the record of marriage of Richard and Abigail Stock- ton, but unfortunately without success, as the marriage probably took place some time between the years 1640 and 1656, during the troublesome times of the Civil "War, when the parish regis- ters and records of marriage licenses were very much neglected. The names of Richard and John were great favorites with the Cheshire Stocktons long before Richard Stockton immigrated to this country and perpetuated them among his distinguished descendants. Considering this, and the fact that the arms of the Stocktons of Keddington were used by their American cousins at an early stage of their history, the compiler is able to say that he fully agrees with Mr. J. W. Stockton in claiming a connection between the English and American families. He even feels jus- tified in assuming that Richard Stockton, of Flushing, etc., wag f Chap. VII.] Stockton Family. 23 descended from John Stockton, Esquire, of Keddington (eldest son of Thomas, of the same place), who about the year 1550 married Eleanor, daughter of Vivian, grand-daughter of Owen, and sister and heiress of Daniel Claytun, of Chorleton. They had issue several daughters and five sons, viz., Owen, Thomas, Randall, William, and John. Their third son, Randall, became a merchant, and removed to London, where he died some time prior to 1657, having married his cousin, Elizabeth Clayton, of that city, who survived him, and by whom he had issue Richard, of whom hereafter, Francis, and Cecilia. Richard proved his mother's will, of which he was executor, February 16, 1658, bu1 died a few days afterwards, when his widow, Dorothy, continued the executorship. The compiler has never been able to trace the descendants of this gentleman, which is a source of great regret to him, as the evidence, though only circumstantial, seems to point to the conclusion that he was the father of Richard Stockton, of Flushing, Long Island, and afterwards of Spring- field Township, Burlington County, New Jersey. [The pedigree on the two succeeding pages will serve to illus- trate the compiler's remarks about the English Stocktons, and is inserted with the hope that it may prove of interest to the American family.] I. Richard Stockton, of Flushing, Long Island, Esquire, and afterwards of Oneanickon, Springfield Township, Burlington County, West Jersey (who is presumed to have been a descend- ant of John Stockton, Esquire, of Keddington, in the Parish of Malpas and County of Chester, wdio about the year 1550 married Eleanor Clayton), arrived at Flushing, from England, some time prior to November 8, 1656, when his name appears in a petition of some of the inhabitants of that town requesting the release of William Wickendom, who had been fined and imprisoned for preaching without a license. In 1685 he was one of the free- holders of Flushing, as appears by a deed of that date* confirm- ing the old Dutch patent of 1645. In 1675 his estate at Flushing consisted of 12 acres of land, one negro slave, five horses, five cows, and five swiue, and in * Original petition at the Department of Archives, Albany, N. T. Abstracts of Patents, Vol. Ill, Secretary of State's office, f- p. 65, Albany, N. Y. 24 Stockton Family. [Chap. VII. ii as s-g -"Ilia ., I 2 »t~ -3 ]S s a m • -I I %° I il§ill S S Sa mm i a 1-3 -Sa-i- -7- ; c .- « 5 h1 p,p= S r"l'3jd 2 So 3 a j5<-a So s '|S8||gn oil &,» Irfill 2, his to His es- A and who be- Ked-= Alice, lega- children Novem- relatives. c He real etc., m a -§ of cember when * son, mas, and g" , sue. els, . is J: ^ 1 d, r f ' C £ p i-s-e ™i 'iiigfiiiU' i 1 ' 2 — Chap, V1L] Stockton Family. 25 !.S2 ! "~ >a iS m «5 . K~X II 5& S *1 d o '2 ^ J ?•%, te; tej Sj £ O 0? « -Sgg-§3 s 1 s 1 s H O P=h S £ g §3 ^3 g.S gill* S 5 Q IS £2 S §Sm3 b£^ g^ §M ^ ti 3 H a a H II P,'E £ P<T3 H ™ 26 Stockton Family. [Chap. VII. 1683 of 10 acres of upland, the same slave, two horses, four oxen, seven cows, four swine, and twenty sheep.* This did not, how- ever, represent the full amount of his landed estate, as will be " seen by the following : 10 mo. (December) 15, 1690, Richard " Stockton's proposal for all his housing, lands and conveniences " belonging thereunto, being about 70 acres or more at home "and 2 ten acre lotts and 2 twenty acre lotts at a mile or two " distance, with so much medow as may yield 20 or 25 loads of " hay a year, price £300." This proposal is entt red in an account- book kept by John Bowne, of Flushing, who acted as his agent in this matter.f Mr. Stockton must have been in easy circum- stances at that time, as on the 30th of the next month, January, 1690, O. S., he purchased of George Hutchinson his house and plantation called Oneanickon, which consisted of about 2000 acres,! though he did not succeed in disposing of his property at Flushing until March 12, 1694, when, " in consideration of three " hundred pounds good and lawful money of the Province of " New York, Richard Stockton, formerly of fflushing, with the " consent of his wife Abigail," conveys to John Rodman " his " messuages or tenaments Situate lying and being by coast on " the Bay commonly called Mattagaresou bay, within the bounds " of fflushing, being about eighty acres of land more or less, wth " all ye Privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging, as " also apiece of Salt medow commonly called y e Lumkill, which " was belonging to Richard Stockton by virtue of his interest in " the s'd towne of fflushing."§ April 22, 1665, he was com- missioned, by Governor Nieolls, lieutenant of the Horse Com- pany of Flushing, and in 1669 elected lieutenant of the Foot Company of the same place, which office the Governor allowed him to decline, as he had previously been engaged in the horse service.