| Chapter 1: | Educating Stockton |
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Unfortunately, in this family of powerful firstborn sons and lawyers, Robert was not a firstborn son. Another Richard Stockton, his older brother, was the heir to the family's power, land, and privilege, and like his uncle, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, Richard was also a lawyer. As a second-born son of nine children, Robert could see what his lot in life might become by observing his father's younger brother, Lucius. Uncle Lucius was also a lawyer and had once been nominated for secretary of war by President John Adams.19 However, Uncle Lucius drank and was such a physical and financial wreck that Robert's father had to support him for twenty years.20 In Uncle Lucius’ later years, Robert himself continued helping him out of money troubles.21 Avoiding such a second-born son's fate must surely have become one of Robert's goals.
Robert attended Basking Ridge Classical School in New Jersey, where the Reverend Robert Finley was master as his cousin had been for Stockton's grandfather.22 A glimpse of what life was like at this academy can be seen in this excerpt from Finley's 1819 memoir:
Robert must have crossed the “dark and menacing” reverend once too often, because in 1803, at age eight, he was dismissed from the academy “for brawling” and sent home.24 Robert did not seem to suffer much of a punishment upon his arrival home, because his father always sided with his children against their tutors.25 From 1803 to 1806, Robert stayed at