To punish the people of Boston for their “Tea Party” and other defiant acts, the British Parliament passed the so-called Intolerable Acts in early 1774. Colonists across the Thirteen Colonies reacted by boycotting British goods. Americans started forming committees to enforce the boycott and coordinate dissent across localities. 

The citizens of Freehold Township met at Monmouth Court House on June 6, 1774 to consider the state of affairs. According to minutes of the meeting, they agreed “that the cause for which the inhabitants of Boston are now suffering is the common cause of the whole Continent.” They also endorsed "an entire stoppage of importation and exportation from and to Great Britain and the West Indies.” Finally, they appointed a standing committee to “join an association with the several other counties in this province in any measures that may appear best to the weal and safety of North America." 

The Committee would be comprised of John Anderson, Hendrick Smock, Asher Holmes, Peter Forman, John Forman, John Covenhoven, Nathaniel Scudder – each of whom would go on to hold important leadership positions in the fledgling American government. While the committees that would soon form in other Monmouth townships contained a mix of men who would support and oppose the Revolution, the Freehold committee was full of ardent patriots (they called themselves Whigs). This would distinguish Freehold from the other Monmouth County townships in the years to come.

A week later, on June 13, Josiah Holmes, one of Shrewsbury’s leading citizens, received a letter from the Essex County Committee. He responded by meeting with some other leading citizens in Shrewsbury and putting up a public notice which began: 

The deplorable state of the inhabitants of the great and (until now) flourishing town of Boston is reduced to by means of the late cruel and inhumane act of the British Parliament, for the blocking up their port, is the fatal occasion that thousands are now destitute of employment, and are also destitute of bread; now they have only to depend on the charity of well-disposed Christians. It is therefore proposed to load a vessel with grain and other provisions from this County of Monmouth, to be sent immediately for their relief.  

Meanwhile, the people of Monmouth County were called on to participate in the selection of delegates for a Provincial Congress, a state body that would operate outside the influence of New Jersey’s Royal Governor. On July 19, citizens from four of Monmouth County’s six townships met at Freehold to establish a county committee (attending: Freehold, Upper Freehold, Middletown, and Dover; Shrewsbury and Stafford did not attend). In addition to selecting delegates to this new Congress, the attendees agreed to raise foodstuffs for the suffering in Boston and establish a county committee. 

The new Monmouth County committee declared that British taxes were “altogether unprecedented and unconstitutional” but they also declared loyalty to the King: “they do highly esteem and prize the happiness of being governed by so excellent a system of laws as that of Great Britain, doubtless the best in the universe.” The County Committee quickly became the quasi-government of Monmouth County—with help from the township committees of Freehold, Upper Freehold, Middletown and Dover. Shrewsbury and Stafford townships did not establish township committees until 1775. 

Over the next few months, the committees of Monmouth County enforced the boycott of British goods by advertising boycott violators. They also raised and shipped “1200 bushels of rye, and 50 barrels of rye flour” for the suffering people in Boston. And they resolved to establish a new militia outside of the control of the Royal Governor. Soon, the County Committee would take action against some of the county’s most public Loyalists. All of this was set in motion before the first Continental Congress established the Continental Association in October 1774—calling on all Americans to take the actions that had already occurred in Monmouth County.

Caption: The Continental Association, October 1774, created a national template for resisting British policies—county and township committees were responsible for enforcing it.

Related Historical Sites: Monmouth County Historical Association

Sources: Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 43-50; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and Council of Safety, 1775-1770 (Trenton: Naar, Day and Naar, 1879) pp. 4-5; Allan Nevins, The American States During and After the Revolution, 1775-1 789 (New York: MacMillan Company, 1 922), p 44; Monmouth County Historical Association, Genealogical Files, folder - Revolutionary War Records of Monmouth County Soldiers; Proceedings of the Committees of Freehold and Shrewsbury, Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, First Series, 1846, pp. 186-8; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p119-20; Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 301-2; Pennsylvania Gazette, November 2, 1774