Rockingham - Your Passport to Adventure - Franklin Twp., NJ
N 40° 23.047 W 074° 37.154
18T E 532319 N 4470461
In 1783, while the Continental Congress was meeting at Nassau Hall in nearby Princeton, Congress rented the house from the widow of Judge John Berrien for use by General George Washington from August 23 to November 10, 1783.
Waymark Code: WM6KVF
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 06/17/2009
Views: 8
Passport Program Information
The NJ Parks and Forests Service came out with a passport book for collecting stamps for visiting a select sampling of our states parks, forests and historic sites. Many fine places did not make the list but many beautiful and culturally important sites did make the list so I suppose it all evens out in the end. The passport book is divided into 3 sections, north, central and south Jersey. This stamp and Rockingham represent the seventh listing for Central New Jersey. If it was not for the release of a puzzle cache a few years ago and my obsession at the time for first to finds, I would never have visited all 24 sites of central and southern NJ. The puzzle cache is called Passport To Adventure (Central Jersey Challenge) and can be found HERE. The stamp and the passport books are free. To find out more about our fabulous passport program please visit HERE.
Rockingham
The stamp in the passport pictures George Washington (actor) in full military regalia, standing in a fully restored Revolutionary War period room. The page reads, "Visit the final revolutionary wartime headquarters of General George Washington. It was here in the "Blue Room", that Washington wrote his Farewell Orders to the Armies of America after receiving news that the Treaty of Paris had been signed. Among its many artifacts, Rockingham has 13 strands of hair from Washington's head, his Van Horne Bible and a pewter washbowl he carried during the war."
While the Continental Congress met in Princeton, Rockingham Historic Site served as General George Washington's final Revolutionary War headquarters for almost three months in 1783. In November 1783 Washington received the long awaited news - the Treaty of Paris had been signed, and the thirteen colonies were indeed independent of Great Britain.
For eight years Washington had served his country in the American Revolution, and as one of his last official acts, at Rockingham wrote the Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States, delivered to Newburgh, New York.
Also known as the Berrien Mansion, the original two rooms of the farmhouse were built between 1702 and1710. Enlarged into a grander home in the 1760's by Judge John Berrien, the house and grounds are preserved and interpreted as the temporary residence of George and Martha Washington. Physically relocated three times since 1896, Rockingham Historic Site maintains a fine collection of 18th century furnishings, Children's Museum and Colonial kitchen garden.
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