So where did I leave off last post, thats right after we had left The Stony Brook Meeting House without seeing the grave of Richard Stockton. We drove past the Clark House and the Princeton Battlefield, along Mercer Street. We passed by the little non-descript house that was Albert Einstein's home when he lived in Princeton, and then drove into Princeton proper. My destination was the Princeton Cemetery, the final resting place of a President's (both of the United States and of Princeton University), a Vice President, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence as well as numerous other notable figures. This cemetery is open all day long, however it too was covered in snow and so I really could not visit the graves I wanted to, so I picked up a map from the front gate and got ready to leave.
According to the map/brochure Princeton Cemetery was established in 1757 and is still a active cemetery, that is not restricted to members of the Nassau Presbyterian Church. The cemetery is the final resting place for everyone from soldiers, professors, politicians, musicians, scientists, writers and many more. In latter posts I will talk about the other people buried here, however, my focus for this trip was to visit my second Declaration Signer, John Witherspoon. John Witherspoon is the only clergyman and college president to have signed the Declaration as well as one of the few men who were not even born in the colonies. Born in Scotland in 1723 he was the son of a clergyman (this pretty much settled his career choice), he studied at the University of St Andrews (home of golf though no record shows he ever played, haha) and the University of Edinburgh where he studied divinity. He was a staunch defender of republicanism and in he was imprisoned in 1746 in Doune Castle because of this belief. It was because of two other Declaration signers Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton that Witherspoon travelled to the colonies in 1768, he had accepted the post of President and head professor of the small Presbyterian College of New Jersey (now the huge Princeton University). Witherspoon was an outstanding fund-raiser and used this talent to purchase books and scientific equipment for the school.
Skip forward many years and Witherspoon transformed that little school into a college that taught some of the countries future leaders, men like Aaron Burr (more about this scoundrel in a few moments), future president James Madison just to name a few. Witherspoon supported the revolution first by joining the Committee of Correspondence and Safety in early 1774, and then the Continental Congress as part of the New Jersey delegation where he served until 1782, during this time he helped draft the Articles of Confederation and after the war helped support the adoption of the U.S Constitution. After many years of public service to his adopted country Witherspoon passed away in 1794. On the grounds of Princeton University is a statue to this great man, and his final resting place among other Presidents of the college is in as I said, Princeton Cemetery.
So Witherspoon would have to be visited another time, and so would Aaron Burr. I don't want to go into Burr too much right here, I plan on doing a post solely on him one day, but lets just say that he is probably the most interesting man in the cemetery! I turned the car around without getting out and drove on, this time out of Princeton, heading west along the road, my next destination..... Hopewell!
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