Rate My Professor Richard Stockton Field

Richard Stockton Field (1803–1870) served as a professor in the law department at Princeton University from 1847 to 1855. Born on December 31, 1803, in Burlington County, New Jersey, he graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1821 and read law in 1825. He was admitted to the bar and maintained a private law practice in Salem and later Princeton, New Jersey, while also serving in the New Jersey General Assembly in 1833–1834 and 1837. Field was Attorney General of New Jersey from 1838 to 1841 and participated in the New Jersey constitutional convention of 1844. Following his time at Princeton, he resumed private practice in Princeton from 1855 to 1862. In 1862, he was appointed as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy, serving from November 1862 until January 1863. President Abraham Lincoln nominated him to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey in January 1863; he was confirmed and commissioned the same day and served until his resignation in April 1870. Princeton University awarded him an honorary LL.D. degree in 1859. Field was a founder and president of the New Jersey Historical Society, a founder of the State Normal School (now The College of New Jersey), and served as president of its board of trustees. He also founded the Farnham School in Beverly, New Jersey. Field died on May 25, 1870, in Princeton and was interred in Princeton Cemetery.