The Stockton Chronicles: The Duke and the Lord
This is the fifth in a series about the Founder of Sea Girt Robert Field Stockton. This is about Robert’s childhood heroes, his father and Lord Horatio Nelson of the Royal Navy.
In 1795 Robert F. Stockton, was born the fifth child of Richard Stockton and Mary Field Stockton at their Princeton mansion Morven. Richard “The Duke of Morven” was the eldest son of “Richard the Signer” of the Declaration of Independence. He was United States Senator Stockton at the time of Robert’s birth. The Duke lived up to his rich heritage.
Head of the New Jersey Bar at 25, tops in his class at Princeton, The Duke was an imposing man and demanding father. His work would take him away from Princeton often, but his son would see a man who represented the nation as well as his community proudly. He was a man of God and of Honor. Just as his President George Washington stepped down after the war, the Duke would also not seek re-election for his Senate seat. Integrity and honor were cherished.
Richard the Duke in 1800 by Christian Gullager (Morven Museum) and Lord Horatio Nelson 1799 by L.F. Abbot (National Maritime Museum)
The Duke, a Trustee of Princeton College did not like it’s secular direction. So he donated some of his farmland for the Princeton Theological Seminary and joined their board as well. Strict when he was at home, the Duke often clashed with Robert’s older brother Richard, the heir to Morven, who would enter Princeton and then study the law, just as his father and grandfather had done.
“The Lord” was Horatio Nelson, commander of the British Royal Navy. Richard the Duke had a brother Lucius Horatio, and he named his third son, Robert's little brother, born 1797 Horatio as well.
When Robert was 10, Lord Nelson won an incredible victory at Trafalgar, destroying Napoleon's chances of taking England. The fleet commander drove his the lead ship the HMS Victory directly into the line of the combined Spanish and French Armada. Despite his 33 ships to 40 for his enemy and 17,000 to their 30,000 men, the British Royal Navy completed Nelson’s battle plan, slashing through the line and attacking the rear guard of the enemy. They captured 21 ships, 8,000 men and killed or wounded another 6,000, while only losing 458 and 1,200 wounded.
Nelson was killed in the suicidal front run at the enemy with a shot through the spine. It was a heroes death to save his country. His orders "England expects everyman will do his duty", was often repeated in the following years by officers of the British Navy. Nelson's victory established the Royal Navy as the superior force in the world and led to peace in England until 1914.
Napoleon, once defeated and being escorted to exile noted that if it was not for Nelson, he would have conquered Europe and England with it.
Nelson was a world hero before his sacrificial victory. A tactical genius, he was also unafraid to board ships directly and lead his men in hand-to-hand combat. He had given the vision in one eye to an explosion of grit, his right arm to a cannonball, and a terrible head injury for his cause.
He was known to ignore orders, once breaking his ship from the line to put it directly in the path of a retreating fleet. Another time he famously "turned a blind eye", Claiming not to see his Commodore's signal, while holding a looking glass to his bad eye so that he could use his own tactics to win a victory for England.
Through his death, Nelson was viewed as godlike. The boy idolized him. While his tutors prepared him for entry into Princeton at age 13, in three years young America was hurtling toward war with the Royal Navy. Sixteen-year-old Robert, left school and entered the Navy as a midshipman in September 1811, just before the outbreak of the War of 1812.