Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/51

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STOCKTON


STOCKTON


pointing Colonel Fremont governor; recaptured San Diego, San Gabriel and La Mesa, and re- turned to San Diego, Jan. 17, 1847, after hav- ing successfully negotiated with Mexico for the ceding of California to the United States, which act was formerally ratified by the treaty of Feb.

3, 1848. Upon his return to New Jersey, he re- ceived the thanks of the state legislature, and was tendered a reception. He resigned from the navy, May 28, 1850; engaged in settling his father- in-law's estate; was elected U.S. senator from New Jersey to the 33d congress for the full term, 1851-57, but resigned, Jan. 10, 1853. He was president of the Delaware and Raritan canal, 1853-66; served as comptroller of New Jersey, and was a delegate to the Peace congress at Washington, D.C., Feb. 13, 1861. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from the College of New Jersey in 1851. See "Life and Speeches" (1856). He died at Princeton, N.J., Oct. 7, 1866. A memorial window, in memory of Commodore Stockton and of Admirals Sloat and Farragut, was placed in St. Peter's chapel, Mare Island navy yard, Cal., in 1902.

STOCKTON, Thomas, governor of Delaware, was born, April 1, 1781; son of John and Ann (Griffith) Stockton. He attended the College of New Jersey, and on June 2, 1804, was married to Fidelia Rogerson, daughter of Chancellor Kensey Johns (q.v.), and settled in New Castle. He was ap- pointed prothonotary of New Castle county, Jan. 4, 1810, by Gov. George Truitt, but resigned, Oct. 7, 1813, to join the Delaware volunteers. He was soon commissioned cap- tain, U.S.A., and took part in the capture of Fort George, May 27, 1813, and commanded the Amer- ican forces at Lewes in 1814, when he was pro- moted major. In 1825 he resigned his commission and returned to New Castle. He was register in chancery for New Castle county, Jan. 18, 1832- June 1, 1835. He was elected governor in 1844, and died without completing his term, March 3, 1846. STOCKTON, Thomas Hewlings, clergyman and author, was born in Mount Holley, N. J., June,

4, 1808; son of William Smith (q.v.) and Eliza- beth (Hewlings) Stockton, and half brother of Francis Richard Stockton. His mother belonged to the colonial family of Burr and also to that of Benjamin and William Hewling (Hulings), who were executed under James II for their ad- herence to the cause of the Duke of Monmouth, and whose sister married Richard Cromwell, the grandson of the Protector. Thomas Hewlings Stockton studied for the medical profession, but became a Methodist Protestant clergyman in 1829, and was assigned to the East Maryland circuit.


He was chaplain to the United States house of representatives, 1833-35 and 1869-61, and to the senate in 1862, conducting the religious services at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery, 1863; pastor and lecturer in Philadelphia, Pa., 1838-47; was in Cincinnati, Oliio, 1847-50, de- clining while there, his election to the presi- dency of Miami university; was associate- pastor of St. John's Methodist Protestant church, Bal- timore, Md., 1850-56; preached for the As- sociate Reformed Presbyterian church in Balti- more, and was pastor of the Church of the New Testament, Philadelphia, Pa., 1856-68. He was a strong a.ntislavery advocate; edited the Chris- tian World, 1840-45; the Bible Times, 1856, va- rious books of the Bible, and is the author of: Floating Floioers from a Hidden Brook (1844); Tlie Bible Alliance (1850); Ecclesiastical Oi^posi- tions to the Bible (1853); Sermons for the People (1854); The Blessing (1857); Stand up for Jesus, an illustrated musical ballad, and other poems (1858); Poems ivith Autobiographical and Other Notes (1862) , and Influence of the United States on Christendom (1862). After his death, mem- orials were published by the Rev. Alexander Clark and the Rev. John G. Wilson (1869). He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 9, 1868.

STOCKTON, William Smith, author and re- former, was born in Burlington, N. J., April, 8, 1785; son of Samuel and Hannah (Gardiner) Stockton; grandson of John and Hannah (Jones) Stockton, and a descendant of Richaxd Stockton of Cheshire, England, who settled in Flushing, Long Island, prior to 1656; in 1690 purchased the plantation, Oneanickon, Springfield Township, Burlington county, N.J., and died in 1707; and of Thomas Gardiner of London, England, who emi- grated in 1678; settled in Burlington, N.J.; was a member of the first assembly, commissioner, judge, member of the governor's council, and treasurer. William Smith Stockton was distin- guished as an ecclesiastical and social reformer, founding in 1821 (and editing until 1824) the Wesleyan Repository, a semi-monthly periodical, which, fighting for the rights of the laitj' against the most bitter opposition, began the work of re- form in the Methodist church and resulted in the establishment of the Methodist Protestant church. He was for seventeen years superintend- ent of the Philadelphia almshouses; organizing in 1835 the new buildings in Blockley township, establishing house industries, opening quarries and abolishing the treadmill, the punishments by shower-baths, the lancet and the whip, the chain- ing of the insane and a host of small, yet horrible, tj'rannies. He was married, first, April 8, 1807, to Elizabeth Sophia, daughter of Abraham Hew- lings of Burlington, N.J., mother of the Rev. Thomas Hewlings Stockton (q. v. ); and secondlj',