While the posted coordinates are historically significant, nothing in this cache requires you to go to the posted coordinates to obtain the log. If you do go, know there is not much to see today, and please be respectful of the area, as it is in a residential neighborhood.
Meet Richard Stockton
Stockton
Richard Stockton was born in 1730 in Princeton. He was elected to the New Jersey Provincial Council in 1768, and was appointed to the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1774. In 1776, he was elected to the Second Continental Congress. That August, as states elected their new government, he received the same number of votes on the first ballot for Governor of New Jersey as William Livingston. Livingston later won by one vote, as Stockton was elected to be Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, a position he turned down to remain in Congress.
Stockton took a moderate stance in the debate over secession from England, arguing for Commonwealth status that would allow self-government for the colonies without renouncing the crown, but he eventually supported independence and was the first New Jerseyan to sign the Declaration of Independence.
Few signers of the Declaration paid as heavy a price in the Revolution as Stockton. On November 30, 1776, he was dragged from his bed in the middle of the night by Loyalists, stripped of his property, and marched to Perth Amboy for imprisonment, where he was placed in irons. He was then moved to Provost Prison in New York, where he was starved and subjected to the freezing cold--it would take him years to recover his health. While imprisoned, General Cornwallis occupied Stockton's estate in Princeton, which was "denuded of its library and furniture."
At some point in this torture, Stockton took an oath to support the crown--making him the only signer of the Declaration to ever do so. Stockton was paroled on March 25, 1777. Part of his parole required him to sign an oath that he would not meddle in the war, so Stockton resigned his office in Congress. He never regained his health. He developed a cancer of the lip that spread to his throat, and lived in constant pain until his death in 1781.
Stockton has a statue of his image in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, DC. Each state is allowed only two statues.
National Statuary Hall Statue
Now, meet his cousin, Richard Witham Stockton
Witham Stockton was described by John Witherspoon as "an obnoxious Tory." He joined a Loyalist regiment at the outbreak of the war, the New Jersey Volunteers, attaining the rank of Major. He played a significant role in the capture of Major General Charles Lee in 1776.
Witham Stockton was captured by colonial militia led by Colonel John Neilson on February 18, 1777, at the Battle of Bennett's Island. That battle resulted in the colonials capturing the area, allowing them to harass British supply ships from the banks of the Raritan as they sailed towards Corwallis' troops in Brunswick.
Witham Stockton was held prisoner for 18 months in Phildelphia, and was also treated harshly. He was subject to freezing temperatures and ridiculed to the point that George Washington objected. Freed in 1779, Stockton was tried and convicted in 1780 of the murder of Private Derrick Ammerman, a colonial soldier and miller from Long Island, and sentenced to hang. For reasons that are unclear, the sentence was remitted. In 1783, he was part of a group of Loyalists that were granted land by the crown and took part in the founding of New Brunswick, Canada.
The posted coordinates get you as close as you can get to the location of the Battle of Bennett's Island. Because this is New Jersey, the location is now a landfill. But it is reflective of the deep divides over the conflict in this area. Because of New Jersey's unique geographical location in the war, competing cultural and religious influences, and sustained presence of troops from both sides, New Jersey was a hotbed of conflict between those loyal to the crown and those loyal to the cause of indpendence.
This is embodied perfectly within the Stockton family: one cousin is a signer of the Declaration, active in the rebel Congress, captured and tortured by the British to the point that he never regains his health. Another cousin takes up arms in a Loyalist militia regiment, is captured and tortured by the colonials, and then given land in British Canada as compensation.
Assume N 40 28.ABC and W 74 25.DEF. Answer the questions below to obtain the final coordinates
A. Which Stockton was captured at the Battle of Bennett’s Island?
Stockton the Patriot = 4 Stockton the Loyalist = 7
B. Which Stockton was imprisoned in New York?
Stockton the Patriot = 9 Stockton the Loyalist = 8
C. Which Stockton died in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia?
Stockton the Patriot = 8 Stockton the Loyalist = 0
D. Which Stockton was imprisoned in Philadelphia?
Stockton the Patriot = 9 Stockton the Loyalist = 8
E. Which Stockton died in 1781?
Stockton the Patriot = 1 Stockton the Loyalist = 4
F. Which Stockton was convicted of murder?
Stockton the Patriot = 3 Stockton the Loyalist = 5