He suffered much in loss of property, which was wantonly destroyed by the conquering foe. Not satisfied with this, the British seized the unprotected wife of Mr. Lewis and placed her in close confinement, without even a bed on which to repose her delicate frame—without a change of clothes, almost without food, and exposed to the unmanly and disgraceful insults of more than barbarian wretches. In this painful situation she remained for several months, when she was finally exchanged through the exertions of General Washington, under the direction of Congress, for a Mrs. Barrow, the wife of a British pay-master. The consequence of this base imprisonment, was the premature death of Mrs. Lewis. At the close of the war, Mr. Lewis was reduced from affluence to poverty. He had devoted his talents and property in the cause of liberty, and what was more, the partner of his youth, the mother of his children, had been sacrificed at the shrine of oppression. Notwithstanding these misfortunes, the evening of his life was made comfortable by his enterprising children, and on the 30th day of December, 1803, calm and resigned, he closed his eventful and useful life in the 90th year of his age. He left a well earned fame that will survive, unimpaired, the revolutions of time. His private character was a fair unsullied sheet, as pure and amiable as his public career was useful and illustrious. As a man of business he stood in the foremost rank, and was the first merchant who made a shipment of wheat to Europe, he was indeed a pioneer in the transporting trade. His examples in private and public life are worthy of imitation, and justly deserve our high admiration. RICHARD STOCKTON. Among the great variety of characters who signed that master piece of composition, the Declaration of Independence, were men of the highest literary attainments, ornamented by the most refined manners, the strictest virtue, and the noblest patriotism. Amidst these stars, the man of whom I now write, shone with peculiar lustre and brightness. He was the son of John Stockton, born in October, 1730, near Princeton, in New Jersey. His great grandfather, of the same name, came from England in 1670, purchased near 7000 acres of land within two miles of Princeton, and, in 1682, effected the first European settlement made in that part of the State. On this estate, the Stockton family continued to reside and prosper, until driven off by the British army under Lord Howe, forming the nucleus to a large circle of the most worthy and valuable citizens.