Richard Stockton was born on October 1, 1730, in Princeton, New Jersey. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, completed a legal apprenticeship, and was admitted to the bar in 1754.

In 1755, Stockton married the poet Annis Boudinot, with whom he had six children. His son Richard would go on to become a Representative and Senator, and he was father-in-law to Benjamin Rush.  

Stockton achieved prominence as a lawyer, and was appointed to the New Jersey Executive Council in 1768, and later to the colony’s Supreme Court in 1774. Stockton served as a trustee of the college for 24 years and helped secure the Princeton presidency of the Rev. John Witherspoon.

The Stamp Act crisis of 1765 led him to question Parliament's control over the colonies, and by 1774, he advocated for colonial self-rule under the Crown. Though known as a moderate, his dedication to the cause of American independence intensified, and he was elected to the Second Continental Congress in 1776. 

In November 1776, while attempting to evacuate his family from Princeton, he was captured by British forces at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and imprisoned in New York. Treated with inhumane severity, he was released in the early days of 1777 in poor health to discover British troops had occupied and partially burned his home. He died of cancer on February 28, 1781, at the age of 50.