Rockingham is a historic house that was the home of John Berrien(1711–1772) and George Washington's final headquarters of the Revolutionary War. It is located at 84 Laurel Avenue, Franklin Township in Somerset County, New Jersey. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 1970, for its significance in military and social history. Additional documentation was approved on January 11, 2010, after the house was moved in 2001.
SITE FEATURES
Surviving Structures
On this site...
The house was originally located on the hillside east of the Millstone River at Rocky Hill. It has been moved within southern Franklin Township several times, and is now closer to 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 c. 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.
HOME
EST. 1710
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. On November 2, 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.
HISTORIC PEOPLE
George Washington
Commander-in-Chief