The
History of The earliest record of the land on which
the house originally stood shows the owners to be Benjamin and Thomas Marchon who owned a
large amount of land which they sold to Thomas Stockton. Stockton then divided his
purchase and on June 1, 1779, sold a piece of it to Jonathan (Jona) Deare (also spelled
Deer, Deere and Deane). Mr. Deare was a prominent member of the Princeton community
who attended the Provincial Congress of New Jersey in 1775-1776 along with John
Witherspoon, Jonathan Sargeant, Jonathan Dickerson, Jonathan Baldwin and W. Churchill
Houston. He was an Englishman, a lawyer by profession, who played an active role in
the American struggle for independence. At this conference, he was selected to
represent Middlesex County which included half of Princeton at that time and
Jonathan Deare was also a member of the
Continental Congress of 1783. Since there was a shortage of housing for the members
of the Congress, he offered his house as lodging for other members of the Continental
Congress. According to Hageman's Princeton, he offered members of the
Continental Congress two rooms with fireplaces, two beds with bedding, breakfast and tea
for two and dinner for four. On March 19, 1794, Jonathan Deare sold his
house to Elizabeth Henry, a rich widow who owned a lot of furniture, silver and other
valuables. In the 1797 tax ratable booklet, she is listed as having four horses and
six cattle which implies that she probably added a stable or barn to the property.
In December 1803, Mrs. Henry died, bequeathing her house and much of her estate to her
granddaughter, Rosetta Henry. A few days later, on December 31, 1803, Rosetta Henry sold
The house which has become The Peacock Inn became one of four houses owned by Dr. Van Cleves who was a Princeton University graduate as well as a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. He was the corresponding secretary of the New Jersey Medical Society from 1810-1812, the Society's president in 1815, and the recording secretary from 1820-1823. On December 24, 1826, he died and the house passed into the hands of Robert Voorhees, the executor of Van Cleves' will. On December 26, 1832, Mr. Voorhees sold the house to Margaret Gibson for $4,250. At this time, she also took out a mortgage payable to Mr. Vorhees. In 1842, she defaulted on her mortgage and the house was repossessed by Sheriff George T. Brown. The sheriff then sold the house to George Brown for $3,475.
Mr. Brown occupied the house until April 1, 1847, when he sold the house to Sarah Quay for $3,000. Sarah Quay owned the house for 17 years until March 10, 1864, when she sold the house to her sister Eleanor Forman for $50. Eleanor Forman and her husband, William Forman, MD were upstanding citizens in the Princeton community. Dr. Forman graduated from the Medical University at New York and moved to Allentown New Jersey to start his medical practice. When Dr. Samuel Howard died, Dr. Forman was asked to take over Howard's practice in Princeton. Forman came to Princeton with his wife, joined the New Jersey State Medical Society and lived in Princeton until he died of typhoid fever, contracted from a patient, on February 22, 1848. His wife continued to live in the house until 1867. On February 27th she sold the house to N. Norris Halstead.
General Halstead sold the house to Edward
Stockton on October 1, 1870 for $7,000. On April 14, 1871, Mr. Stockton took out a
mortgage payable to N. N. Halstead for $3,500. In 1875, there was a minor boundary dispute
between the Stocktons and the geology Professor Arnold Guyot. The very edge of the
Stockton's house was on Guyot's land. This was resolved by redefining the boundaries
between the two houses: the Guyots got a few feet of the Stockton's land while the
Stocktons got the land along the edge of their house. The house at the time of the
dispute was a two story house, possibly with a porch in the back.
Edward Stockton died on September 15, 1871. He bequeathed the house and its contents to his children
and wife. At this time, the house had a parlor, hall and a dining room on the first floor.
The house also had a second floor with a hall as well as a portico, a basement and an
attic. According to Edward Stockton's will, the parlor contained a carpet, six sofa chairs,
a rocking chair, a fancy chair, six window shades and fixtures and a drum stove. In the
hall, there was the stairway with a carpet and a table. In the dining room, there were a
carpet, a heater, a sofa, a table, a looking glass, four sofa chairs, a rocking chair and
a book stand. In the second story, there were cottage furniture, carpets, a wash stand, a
looking glass and three or four beds. The attic held two bureaus, a few beds, a wash
stand, a looking glass, a wardrobe, a table, carpet, a table and two chairs. The portico
had a lot of furniture; the basement had tables, chairs, two stoves, two closets, a sofa
and lamps.
After her husband's death, Caroline Stockton lived in the house until
July 21, 1875, when she and the other heirs of Edward Stockton were offered $16,000 for
the house and land by William Harris. Mrs. Stockton, her children and their spouses (J.
Green Stockton, Albert S. Leigh and his wife, William M. Leigh and wife, George D. Murphy
and wife and John A. Schwenger and wife) sold the house to Mr. Harris.
Mr. Harris was a member of the Princeton
Hotel Company, a company which aspired to build a hotel on the corner of Railroad Avenue
and Nassau Street where the Stockton house was located. To avoid tearing down the Stockton
house, Mr. Harris purchased a piece of land on June 22, 1875, from Samuel Stockton on
Bayard Lane for $2,500. On October 19, 1875, he sold both the Stockton land and the
Bayard Lane land to the Princeton Hotel Company for $7,000. The hotel company moved
the house to its present location at 20 Bayard Lane. After the house was moved, the
University Hotel was erected in its place. The land where the house was moved to can be
traced through John Richard and Robert Stockton to a tract of land purchased by Robert
Stockton from William Penn in 1701. On December 17, 1883, Charles Sexton of
Staten Island bought the house from the hotel company and sold it four days later to
William Libbey, President and primary financier of The Princeton Hotel Company.
Although Mr. Libbey did not own the house before, he probably lived in the house prior to
purchasing it due to his position as President of the Princeton Hotel Company. Mr.
Libbey was a very prominent figure in Princeton. Not only was he a Princeton
graduate and professor, but he was also the person who introduced orange and black as the
University colors.
William Libbey also made numerous changes
in the house. He increased the main part of the house from two to two and a half stories
and changed the pitch of the roof as well as placed shingles on the new part of the room
(the rest remained either tin or slate). In the rear part of the house, it appears
he knocked out a wall. According to local legend, during his
years as owner of the house, numerous famous people came to stay with him. Dr.
Nassau, a fellow Princeton graduate, a professor at Lawrenceville School for Boys and a
missionary in Africa stayed with William Libbey in his house. Dr. Hoskins of Syria
as well as Samuel and Henry Jessup were also rumored to have stayed there. Henry
Jessup was a Syrian pastor at the Syrian church in Beirut and in 1883 was appointed as the
U.S. Minister to Persia. Commodore Perry, the Arctic explorer, was said to have
stayed with Libbey's family at the house and it is believed that two relief expeditions
were planned at the house as well as a trip to Mount St. Elias in Alaska, a trip sponsored
by the New York Tribune. William Libbey owned the house until June 19, 1906, when he
and his wife Mary sold the house to Edward J. Aledo and moved into the Libbey mansion
which was Ms. Mason's School and is now the Lewis School. On the same day, Mr.
Aledo, acting as a middle man sold the house to Bayard Henry. Mr. Henry sold the house to Joseph and
Helen O'Conner on June 28, 1911. By the end of the year, the O'Conners were
operating the house as The Peacock Inn according to the 1911 Sandborn Fire Insurance map.
This contradicts the myth that the Inn was opened in 1912. According to local
legend, Mrs. O'Conner named the Inn after an Inn in Midland England which used the peacock
as a symbol of good food, royalty and good luck. In 1916, when the University hotel
which was then being used as a dormitory was torn down, many students came to live at The
Peacock Inn. Although Mr. O'Conner died on October 17, 1918, Mrs. O'Conner continued
to operate the Peacock Inn for another decade. On June 30, 1928, she sold the house
to Robert and Adelia Benham. In 1936, Mr. and Mrs. Benham decided to transfer
ownership of the house solely to Adelia Benham. They did this on May 6, 1936, by selling the house to Mr. Walter J. Scott and then having
Adelia buy the house back from him on the same day. She remained the sole owner of
thehouse until June 15, 1954, when Frank G. Evatt and his wife bought the house. During the time the Evatt's owned the Inn,
it served as a local hang out for Princeton University students. According to Mrs.
Evatt, one year the entire Princeton football team came to the Inn and happened to be
standing outside on the porch. Due to the weight of the team, the porch collapsed along
with the football team. A quick photographer snapped a shot of this incident and later
that year the photograph won a prize and was featured in Sports Illustrated. The popularity of The Peacock Inn did
cause some problems for the Evatts. The Inn was closed down numerous times due to underage
students who would find a way to be served alcohol at the Peacock Inn. Mrs. Evatt
remembered the length that teams would go to to be able to drink with their friends: one
girl went to the Peacock Inn, ordered a coke and proceeded to pour rum hidden in her
pocketbook into the coke. During the time the Evatts ran the Inn,
the Inn was divided into separate floors. The upper or third floor was for use by
visitors; the second floor was for use by permanent residents who were a group of older
ladies. Downstairs, in the present location of Peacock Alley, visiting young ladies
would take rooms. During the Evatt's time, the exterior of the house was
characterized by green, not orange, shutters. On April 2, 1965, the Evatts sold the
Inn to The Peacock Inn, Inc. which was owned by Francis and Agnes Swain. According to a
previous owner, Mrs. Evatt, it was the Swains who added the bar area onto the house. According to Mr. Swain, the Swains owned
and operated the Inn until January, 1985, when they sold the house to Michael Walker and
Canice Lindsay. Mr. Walker and Ms. Lindsay have made substantive improvements to the
property over the last 15 years. Today The Peacock Inn houses Le Plumet Royal at The
Peacock Inn, one of the finest four star French restaurants in the Northeast, in the late
Georgian colonial revival house. The main dining room of the restaurant seats 125
guests: in addition, there are private dining rooms which are very popular with the
local business community and a bar. For those inclined to seek lodging in the
Princeton area, The Peacock Inn is the only bed and breakfast located in the heart of
Princeton, within walking distance of all the local attractions. The Inn boasts 17
comfortable guest rooms, each decorated in a unique style. All rooms are currently named for previous
owners cited in this history. We feel this is a fitting tribute to those people who have cared for
The Peacock Inn and contributed to its unique status in Princeton's history.
This is a far cry from the Peacock Inn's
origins when the house was located on what is today known as the corner of Nassau Street
and University Place. |
