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Note: Father of Richard "The Emigrant" Stockton (c.1635-1707), and brother of Dr. Thomas Stockton of London.
Journal of John Bowne, 1650 - 1694 "to enquyer for Richards Stoktons Ounkel his name is Thomas Stockton a docker of fisick liueing in Cole harber in or near London."
This very brief note from the Journal of John Bowne appears to be the only documented connection between the Richard Stockton family of Flushing, Long Island, New York, and the Stockton family of England.
John Bowne was a neighbor of Richard "The Emigrant" Stockton in what was then Vlissingen, Long Island, New Netherland, now Flushing, Long Island, New York. John Bowne's Journal includes information about life in Flushing, his Quaker missions to England, etc.
It appears that Richard "The Emigrant" Stockton requested John Bowne enquire about Richard's uncle Thomas Stockton who lived in "Cole harbor" in or near London. "Cole harbor" is appears to be the district of Coldharbour that is in the center of London. John Bowne shows Richard's uncle Thomas Stockton as a "docker of fisick." In the 1600's a Doctor of Medicine was known as a "Doctor of Phyic."
It appears that Richard Stockton asked John Bowne to enquirer about Thomas Stockton of London, in 1662, but that date is not proven. John Bowne, a Quaker living in Flushing, would have known that Richard Stockton was one of the 30 brave souls who signed the Flushing Remonstrance in 1657. The Flushing Remonstrance was in protest of the repressive Dutch policies toward the Quakers living in Long Island, New Netherland.
The exact numbers are not known but in 1665 and 1666 the "Black Death" killed 15% or more of the population of London. This is now known as the Great Plague of London. By July of 1666 the number of deaths from "The Black Death" was starting to subside. Then in September of 1666 fire broke out in the center of London. The 1666 Great Fire of London destroyed all of Coldharbour, the place Richard Stockton said his uncle Thomas Stockton lived.
The Stockton Family of New Jersey and Other Stocktons, by Thomas Coates Stockton, M.D., 1911, p. 2 "In 1675 his estate at Flushing consisted of twelve acres of land, one negro slave, five horses, five cows, and five swine ; and in 1683 of ten acres of upland, the same slave, two horses, four oxen, seven cows, four swine, and twenty sheep. This did not, however, represent the full amount of his landed estate, as will be seen from the following proposal entered in an account book kept by John Browne, of Flushing, who acted as his agent in the matter :
10 mo. [Dec.], 1690. Richard Stockton's proposal for [the sale of] all his housing, lands and conveniences belonging thereunto, being about seventy acres or more at home and two ten-acre lotts and two twenty-acre lotts at a mile or two distance, with so much medow as may yield 20 or 25 loads of hay a year ; price �300."
It appears that "John Browne" is John Bowne, the neighbor of Richard Stockton who was asked to look up Thomas Stockton, Doctor of Phyic, in Cole harbor (Coldharbour), London.
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