New Jersey: Elected officials

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12:27

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New Jersey's politicians in 1776 were divided by the same loyalties fracturing the broader population. Richard Stockton, a Declaration signer and Princeton's most eminent citizen, was captured late in 1776 by a Loyalist unit formed from Monmouth County men who had joined the British. Imprisoned in New York, he signed an oath of allegiance to the Crown and was released. This moment was later overlooked by commemorators who remembered only the signer, not the oath. The Demarest family of Bergen County illustrated the same divided loyalty: David Demarest, a Loyalist, joined the British while his wife and son served the Patriot cause. When confiscation laws were applied, the family home was seized because it stood in the husband's name, leaving a Patriot wife and son without recourse, a stark illustration of how Revolutionary-era laws failed to protect women.

Interviewees

William Krakower
- Resource Interpretive Specialist, Princeton Battlefield State Park
Todd Braisted
- Royal Provincial Research

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