Rockingham (house)
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Rockingham
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Back of house in 2007
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| Location | Rockingham section of Franklin Township, New Jersey, United States |
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| Coordinates | 40°23′3.15″N 74°37′8.25″W / 40.3842083°N 74.6189583°WCoordinates: 40°23′3.15″N 74°37′8.25″W / 40.3842083°N 74.6189583°W |
| Area | 27 acres (110,000 m2) |
| Built | c. 1710/1764 |
| NRHP Reference # | 70000394 |
| NJRHP # | 2499 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 18, 1970 |
| Designated NJRHP | September 28, 2009 |
Rockingham House was the home of John Berrien I (1712–1772) and George Washington's final headquarters of the Revolutionary War, located in the Rockingham section of Franklin Township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The house has been moved within southern Franklin Township several times, and is now closer to the Franklin portion of Kingston than to Rocky Hill. The residence is a featured part of the Millstone River Valley Scenic Byway. The oldest portion of the house was built as a two-room, two-story saltbox style house between 1702 and 1710; a kitchen and additional rooms were added on in the early 1760s, expanding with the Berrien family. The first reference to the house as "Rockingham" does not appear until a 1783 newspaper advertisement to sell the house, a name given most likely in honor of the Marquess of Rockingham.
John Berrien I was a surveyor and land agent from Long Island whose business brought him into the Millstone River valley in the 1730s. In 1735, he purchased the small house that overlooked the river. Berrien eventually became a judge, first in Somerset County before eventually being named to the Supreme Court of New Jersey. His first wife, Mary Leonard of Perth Amboy died in 1758 without bearing children; the next year, he married Margaret Eaton, whose father founded Eatontown, New Jersey. Together John and Margaret had six children, four boys and two girls. John Berrien drowned in the Millstone River in 1772, leaving his estate in the hands of his wife. He is buried in Princeton Cemetery.
General George Washington stayed at Rockingham from August 23, 1783 to November 10, 1783. He was invited to the area by Congress, who were headquartered in Nassau Hall in Princeton while awaiting the news of the signing of the Treaty of Paris to officially end the Revolutionary War. Washington was accompanied by three aides-de-camp, a troop of between twelve and twenty-four life guards, his servants and, until early October, his wife Martha Washington. He spent his time at Rockingham entertaining Congress and other local figures until word of the end of the War reached him on October 31. Washington composed his Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States at Rockingham, a document dismissing his troops and announcing his retirement from the Army.
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