2. Richard Stockton, a humble lawyer, endured torturous conditions in British captivity for refusing to accept a conditional pardon demanding his acquiescence during the Revolutionary War.
Richard Stockton was an American lawyer elected to the Second Continental Congress, whereupon, in this capacity, he acted as the first signatory to the Declaration of Independence from the New Jersey delegation. During efforts to evacuate the family of John Covenhoven, on November 30, 1776, Stockton was captured along with his friend. Dragged from his bed in the middle of the night and transported to Perth Amboy by Loyalist bounty hunters, Stockton refused to accept the conditional pardon offered by General Howe and was instead imprisoned. Incarcerated at Provost Prison in New York, Stockton was subjected to brutal and intolerable conditions causing lasting health problems.
Suffering from starvation and exposure, Stockton endured the additional indignity of having much of his property, including furniture and livestock, seized or destroyed. His library, among the most extensive in the Americas, was burned by the British in an act of deliberate malice. In total, 4,435 soldiers died in battle in New York during the Revolutionary War, in contrast to more than 12,000 in prisons. After weeks in captivity, Washington himself petitioned Howe for the release of political prisoners including Stockton. Offered freedom on condition he would abstain from further involvement in the rebellion, Stockton, in immeasurably poor health, was eventually freed to return to what remained of his estate.