History
The Forgotten Declaration of Independence Signers Who Lost Everything for Signing
July 4th celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Yet these men lost most everything for signing and defying the British Crown.
Richard Stockton
Wikicommons Richard Stockton was a trustee of the nascent Princeton college and was a crucial influence in Rev. Witherspoon’s decision to accept the presidency of the college. Prior to the Declaration of Independence, Stockton spent time abroad, most notably in England, trying to change minds to support the colonies cause for independence. When that didn’t work, Stockton returned to New Jersey and active rebellion.
Not long after signing, Stockton was captured, beaten, and turned over to the British by Loyalists while staying at the house of a friend. When he refused an offer of freedom by the British requiring pledging amenability to the Crown, Stockton was placed in irons at Perth Amboy and tortured.
Stockton’s captors next moved him to Provost Prison, New York, starving and exposing him to extreme winter weather. After five weeks, he was released on parole following the the intervention of Gen. George Washington. Stockton’s health never recovered.
What’s more, Stockton’s estate in New Jersey, Morven, was occupied by General Charles Cornwallis. The British stripped all the properties resources and finery upon decamping. However not before, with distinct malice, burning the Morven library. The Morven library was among the most acclaimed in all the colonies.
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Francis Lewis
Public Domain For Francis Lewis, hardships preceded his revolutionary activities. Indeed they may have inspired Lewis’s turning to politics in the first place. Born in Wales and educated in Scotland, Lewis emigrated to New York in 1734.
During his tenure as a British mercantile agent, Lewis was captured and enprisoned in France. Upon his release and return to New York, Lewis immediately took up politics, beginning as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress of 1765.
Once the Declaration of Independence was signed, his home in Queens, New York was destroyed by the British. His wife Elizabeth was also imprisoned, torturing her by means of starvation, and even denying her a change of clothes. Mrs. Lewis’s experiences in British captivity lead to her death in 1779.
