Named for a mythical Gaelic kingdom, your Morven Museum & Garden anchors historic Princeton. For nearly four decades in the 20th century it served as the governor's mansion, and today it bears a National Historic Landmark designation for its association with Richard Stockton (1730–1781), a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The story here reaches back: in 1701 Richard Stockton was granted 5,500 acres by William Penn that included the land where Morven now stands.
In the 1750s his grandson, also Richard Stockton, held 150 acres and built the house that his wife, Annis Boudinot Stockton, named "Morven" after a mythical Gaelic kingdom in Ireland. Later occupants link generations: Commodore Robert Stockton (1795–1866) lived here, and after Bayard Stockton died in 1932 the home was leased by Robert Wood Johnson II, chairman of Johnson & Johnson. The house remained in Stockton family ownership until 1944, when New Jersey Governor Walter E. Edge purchased it under the condition that Morven be given to the state within two years of Edge's death; Edge transferred ownership of Morven.
Notice the weight of those names and dates in the timber and brick, then picture the façade and the museum gardens beyond it.