Stratton was born in
Mount Holly, New Jersey, on November 27, 1817. He attended private schools at Mount Holly, prepared for college at Mendham, and graduated from
Princeton College in 1836. He was a lawyer in private practice. In 1842, he married Caroline Elizabeth Newbold, a distant cousin. In 1845, they had a son, James; in 1850, they had a daughter, Louisa. James would follow in his father's footsteps and attend Princeton, graduating in 1865, before entering law as a commissioner for the New Jersey Third Circuit Court and eventually entering military service, dying in 1886 as a colonel. ==Congress==