Part of The Emergence of Princeton Extravagance.

Mansgrove began as a tenant farm on Stockton land, where Emley Olden was a renter for many years. As the story goes, Thomas Leonard acquired the land after he married Susannah Stockton (widow of Richard “The Settler,” see The Barracks), then turned that original house into a mansion as a gift to his new wife. Supposedly, Susannah died shortly after they moved in, and the house was named “Mansgrove” in tribute to his solitude. This story does not seem entirely plausible, however, given that Leonard built the house in 1722 and Susannah died in 1749. After she passed, Leonard moved to his Princeton property Grove Hill and rented out Mansgrove. Leonard then passed on the property to his nephew, also named Thomas Leonard. Eventually the property returned to Stockton owners, who in 1795 sold it to a French Huegenot by the name of Antoine Jean Bonnet.

The elder Thomas Leonard was one of the wealthiest Princetonians in this period. He had significant political influence and possessed at least a few enslaved people, though we know little about them. Leonard, however, was a poor manager of his money, and died in debt in 1759.

Original Sections: side kitchen wing

Present Use: private residence