In early 1776, American leaders learned that the British were preparing to invade New York. The lighthouse at Sandy Hook, including its keeper, Adam Dobbs, and its pilot, William Dobbs (brothers), played important roles in guiding British ships into New York Harbor. They had already stopped at least one British ship from reaching New York. While the Sandy Hook lighthouse was a great source of pride for Americans, sober leaders understood that it now had to be disabled.  

On March 4, the New York Provincial Congress dispatched Major William Malcolm to New Jersey to disable the lighthouse. His orders read:

You will endeavor to take the glass out of the lantern, and save it if possible; but if you find it impracticable, you will break the glass. You will endeavor to pump the oil out of the cisterns into the casks and bring it off; if you should be obstructed in your task by the enemy, you will pump it on the ground. In short, you will use your best discretion to render the Light House entirely useless.

Malcolm landed at Middletown on March 6 and met with Middletown’s Committee of Observation. He was soon joined by Colonel George Taylor, the township’s senior militia officer. Malcolm and Taylor reached the lighthouse on March 10 and acted.

On March 12, the New York Provincial Congress reported to George Washington about the Malcolm-Taylor mission: 

Major Malcolm, who was sent to dismantle the Light-House, he was returned and had executed the matter effectively, with the assistance of Col. George Taylor and some of his men; that Maj. Malcolm found it impossible to take out and save the glass, for want of tools and by reason of the time necessary for that purpose, and was therefore obliged to break it; that Major Malcolm had delivered the lamps and oil, two tackle falls and blocks, removed from the Light House, to Col. George Taylor and taken receipt of the same.

A week later, the New York Provincial Congress asked Taylor to deliver the oil to Malcolm, which was presumably done. But Taylor remained in possession of the hardware taken from the light house. Curiously, no surviving document about this action mentions Sandy Hook’s resident pilot, William Dobbs, his brother and lighthouse keeper, Adam Dobbs, their servant, or the boats at Sandy Hook maintained to row out to ocean-going vessels in need of his guidance.

At first blush, the Malcolm-Taylor expedition achieved its objective without any difficulties.  But, based on future events, the expedition can only be regarded as a failure. While they had the chance to truly cripple the light house, Malcolm and Taylor only removed a handful of replaceable parts and supplies, and they apparently did nothing to the pilot house, outbuildings, or boats that were all necessary to stationing men on Sandy Hook. Perhaps the timidness was because the Americans envisioned using Sandy Hook for their own purposes soon again or perhaps they were reluctant to destroy American property. Either way, the Malcolm-Taylor mission was not sufficiently destructive.

Only one month later, the British Navy landed on Sandy Hook and occupied it for the rest of the war—the British would hold Sandy Hook into 1784, longer than any other piece of the rebelling Thirteen Colonies. The light house remained unusable at least through the end of April. The British constructed a beacon 1,000 yards from the light house and burned fires nightly until the light house was repaired. A naval officer at Sandy Hook wrote on April 29 that "the lantern was totally destroyed by the Rebels on the 10th of March, which rendered the Light House useless to navigation."

The lighthouse was in reasonable repair by the time the British invasion fleet arrived at the end of June. An attempt to drive the British from Sandy Hook failed. George Taylor, who would turn Loyalist toward the end of 1776, returned the taken hardware to Sandy Hook later that year.

Related Historic Site: Sandy Hook Lighthouse

Sources: Anonymous, "Sandy Hook Light-House," American Historical Record, vol. 3, 1874, p 510-1; William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 4, pp. 194-5; William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 4, pp. 307-8; Lopez, John. “Sandy Hook Lighthouse.” The Keeper's Log, Winter, 1986, p 5; Peter Force, American Archives, v6: 1416.