Controversy Surrounds Local Prisoner Exchanges

As noted in prior articles, prisoner exchanges were contentious not just with the enemy, but within the leadership ranks in Monmouth County. They were made more contentious by the “manstealing” (kidnapping) of a dozen militia officers in summer 1780. Advocates of locally-negotiated exchanges, such as Colonel Asher Holmes (commanding the county’s state troop regiment and largest militia regiment) saw exchanges as the only means of rescuing captured comrades from dismal British prisons. Opponents of local exchanges, including Colonel David Forman (Chairman of the vigilante Association for Retaliation) believed that exchanges enticed a ruthless enemy to conduct additional manstealings. This issue, as much as any, split Monmouth County’s leaders into antagonistic factions, the leaders of which (literally) came to blows at the county’s October 1780 election.

George Washington Stops First Attempted Local Prisoner Exchange

The first discussions of prisoner exchanges for captured Monmouth Countian came after the Battle of the Navesink, during which 73 Monmouth militiamen were captured. Two captured officers, Captain Thomas McKnight and Lieutenant Thomas Little, were offered in an exchange on April 30:

Richard McKnight & Thomas Little, taken prisoner in Monmouth County, New Jersey, have the [British] Commander in Chief's favor to be exchanged for Peter Campbell and Charles Harrison. The bearer, Wm. Taylor, has the Commander in Chief's leave to pass with a flag of truce in Monmouth County for the above purposes. The abovementioned William Taylor is permitted to pass to Sandy Hook in any boat or vessel duly authorized.

Taylor was an attorney who led a Loyalist association that was broken up by Colonel David Forman and his regiment of Flying Camp in November 1776. Taylor arrived in Monmouth County in May 1777 and presented the exchange to Forman, then commanding the militia and Continental Army in the county. On May 11, Forman wrote George Washington, apparently requesting approval to conduct the exchange. Washington promptly disapproved:

The proposition of exchanging Capt. Campbell and Harrison for Messrs Richard McKnight & Thomas Little, this I can by no means ascent to, as it would be establishing a precedent of a dangerous nature in its consequences. For then, whenever any of their Provincial Officers fell into our hands, they would send out parties to pick up our inhabitants of reputation in order to procure their release by exchange.

At the same time, Washington approved of Forman’s decision to detain captured Middletown Loyalist, Richard Reading “who certainly forfeited any protection he might plead from Genl. Howe's permit” and directed that another Loyalist, George Rapalje, "should be sent immediately to the Governor to be tried by the laws of the land -- none but prisoners of war & spies are proper for military jurisdiction." The exact offenses of these men are unknown.

Having disapproved the proposed exchange, Washington pledged to ask Elias Boudinot, Commissary of Prisoners, to contact his British counterpart in order “to bring about the exchange in some other manner." Washington further warned Forman not to accept visits from Loyalists under a flag of truce:

I have no doubt of your vigilance & care, but I would beg your bear in mind that one intent of their sending those flags is to obtain intelligence which is clearly the case from their always sending people who know the country well. I therefore desire that such persons may never be permitted to come on shore.

Washington’s criticism of local prisoner exchanges likely made an impression on Forman; he would carry forward Washington’s 1777 position when local exchanges became contentious again in 1780.

Pressure Builds to Conduct Local Exchanges

While Washington’s position had merit, local leaders faced great pressure to conduct exchanges that would bring home suffering loved ones. In June 1777, four captured New Jersey militia officers, including Capt. Stephen Fleming and Lt. Little of Monmouth County—wrote of their difficult imprisonment. They then asked the New Jersey Legislature to exchange them for captured Loyalists:

Your petitioners lay our situation before you in hopes of redress, being melicia [sic] under your Government… As there are a number of people taken by our melicia going to join the King's Army, who no doubt would be as fond of exchanges as we, we beg you to use your influence to have [exchanges] effected as soon as possible.

It does not appear that the New Jersey government acted on the petition, instead deferring to the Continental government which was seeking a general agreement (“cartel”) for exchanging prisoners with the British. A draft “Cartel for Prisoner of War Exchanges" was produced ten months later on April 10, 1778. It proposed an exchange schedule by which prisoners were valued by rank. Interestingly, the draft lists the last names of eleven officers held by the British, two of which were "Smock" and "Whitlock". These are Barnes Smock and John Whitlock, taken at the Battle of the Navesink fourteen months earlier. The draft cartel prioritized these officers as “objects of particular exception”—the first to be exchanged:

We do hereby specially stipulate and declare, that the aforesaid officers shall be immediately exchanged on the terms of this cartel, for any officers of equal rank, or others by way of equivalent or composition; which have been or shall be delivered in lieu of them.

It is unclear why Smock and Whitlock were prioritized over other Monmouth militia officers taken at the same time and still imprisoned. This cartel was not finalized. Smock stayed in jail until August (at that time, he was paroled home, not exchanged). Whitlock died as a prisoner in New York.

The First Local Prisoner Exchanges

With a general prisoner cartel stuck, New Jerseyans began conducting their own exchanges. Historian Edward Raser, who studied the prisoners captured at the Battle of Navesink, wrote that a militiaman named Vunck was exchanged in February 1778. Five more militiamen were exchanged in May 1778, including James Morris. These men were likely prioritized due to illness. Morris would later write that, on his exchange, he was "very sick with small pox, and looked very miserable, his hair was nearly all of his head.” Samuel Forman (not the Colonel of the same name) recalled the exchange of his brother Denice Forman. He “was confined to his bed, and for several days, nearly all hope of recovery was abandoned; but he providentially recovered."

On May 27, a Loyalist party attacked Middletown Point and took John Burrowes, a leading citizen, prisoner. The next day, a mob led by Thomas Henderson (son-in-law to Burrowes) went to Middletown and took William Taylor prisoner (the same Loyalist who had sought to negotiate a prisoner exchange a year earlier). An attempt was made to conduct an exchange of Taylor for Burrowes. Burrowes was exchanged later that year, but it is unknown if he was exchanged for Taylor.

Just two weeks later, the New Jersey Council of Safety authorized an “exchange” of Edward Taylor (William Taylor’s uncle) for John Willett, held by the British. Taylor (detained in Princeton) was permitted to return to his home in Middletown in order to arrange the exchange. The order of the New Jersey Council of Safety read:

That Edward Taylor, having procured the release of John Willett… Agreed, that said Mr. Taylor be discharged from his bond & have liberty to return to his place of abode, until the said John Willett be called back into British Lines.

In September, the Council of Safety recommended an exchange of Anthony Woodward, a Loyalist insurrection leader, for Peter Imlay, a member of one of Upper Freehold’s leading families. Lacking a local intermediary to negotiate the exchange, it appears the exchange did not occur.

In June 1779, Colonel Daniel Hendrickson and four other Shrewsbury Township militia officers were taken by a Loyalist raiding party as it razed the village Tinton Falls. While confined in New York, Hendrickson nearly arranged a six-person exchange that would have freed him and two others. Governor Wiliam Livingston endorsed the plan, but the exchange fell apart. On December 11, Elias Boudinot informed Livingston, "I am very much afraid the late proposal of an exchange by Coll. Hendrickson will not take place." Hendrickson was nearly exchanged again in March 1780 (for the Loyalist Colonel Billop) but that exchange also went awry.

Exchange of James Mott Ignites Controversy

In June 1780, James Mott, one of Monmouth County’s state legislators, was captured by a Loyalist manstealing party led by Colonel Tye. While detained at Sandy Hook, Mott was allowed to send note to his ally, Colonel Asher Holmes:

My misfortune I suppose you have heard of before this reaches you. I would therefore beg of you to solicit my exchange, which can be done in lieu of Rich'd Reading, who was taken not many days ago, off the banks while afishing. I am obliged to go immediately for New York, which place I very much dread, as I am in an ill state of health. I am now promised here that James Wallen & John Wallen [James Walling, John Walling] would be exchanged for Richard Reading's two sons, who was taken with their father, I hope when you judge my case, you will use your interest to have an exchange effected and I make not the least doubt of you succeeding.

Holmes apparently received Mott’s note and shared it. Mott’s father, James Mott, Sr., who had warm pre-war relationships in New York City, acted. Not content to let his son sit in a horrible British jail, he wrote, on June 22: "I am obliged to go to New York" to seek the release of his son “taken many days ago.” In so doing, Mott was plainly breaking the law by traveling behind British lines without a pass.

Holmes and Mott’s decision to pursue an exchange drew the ire of David Forman, who complained in a July 12 letter to George Washington:

The militia here [under Col Holmes] have lately gone into the exchange of prisoners taken when on duty, that the refugee parties take from their own houses or whilst about their usual business. The measure appears to me so replete with evil that I would be wanting in my duty should I pass it unnoticed... with every exchange made, we give encouragement to that British mode of manstealing, once gone into, will always enable them to hold a large ball of prisoners against us.

Mott was exchanged that summer. In September, Forman and his allies again rebuked Holmes for seeking an exchange, this time for the captured Hendrick Smock. Forman and allies, on behalf of the extra-legal Association for Retaliation, summoned Holmes to answer for his conduct (sending a captured Loyalist, John Williams, to New York, offering himself in exchange for Smock). Holmes did not respond to their entreaty. Smock was not exchanged until January 1781.

Complaints about Holmes’s locally-negotiated exchanges continued. This led to Governor Livingston inquiring if Holmes was improperly negotiating exchanges locally. Holmes responded stiffly on December 12:

When I was last at Trenton, I informed your Excellency that one of our Commissaries of Prisoners had authorized me to exchange such prisoners of war, as are taken here; your reply then was that every commanding officer had a right to exchange their own prisoners. If any exchange going through my hands had been deemed not advisable, I think it would have been consistent with those professions you are pleased to make in your letter, to have mentioned to me at that time.

Though controversial, local exchanges continued. Holmes continued conducting them even when it included frustrating negotiations with the hated Associated Loyalists. The table below shows that at least thirteen additional Monmouth County Whigs were exchanged home after Mott’s capture; the exchange of seven Loyalists is in a table in the appendix of this article. (Other attempted exchanges failed.)

Monmouth Whig

Date

Additional Information

Samuel Bowne

June 1780

Re-taken three days after he exchanged home

Lt. Joseph Wolcott

July 1780

Provides intelligence on British ships at Sandy Hook

Lt. Tunis Vanderveer

July 1780

Retaken days later

Lt. Tunis Vanderveer

Dec. 1780

Second time exchanged

Maj. James Whitlock

Dec. 1780

Confined since February 1777

Capt. Barnes Smock

Dec. 1780

Second time captured.

Capt. Hendrick Smock

Jan. 1781

Exchanged after four months of negotiation.

Joseph Johnson

Jan. 1781

9 ½ months in jail; sick with smallpox when exchanged

Daniel Covenhoven

Feb. 1781

Taken April 1779, fined for militia delinquency on return

Lt. Britton Mount

Feb. 1782

Taken in Jan. 1781, exchanged for Jacob Wooley

John McLean

Spring 1781

Taken, paroled home at Sandy Hook by family friend

John Lane

June 1782

Exchanged for Joel Wooley, Associated Loyalist

William Everingham

June 1782

Exchanged for Benjamin Dunham, Associated Loyalist

Exchanged home, Mott finished his term in the New Jersey Legislature. In October 1780, he stood for re-election at the annual county election. Controversy erupted when election judges refused to hold the polls open a second day (to allow militia serving on the shore to come to Freehold and vote). When Mott protested, David Forman stepped forward and beat him in front of a crowd. This is the subject of another article.

Caption: In 1777, George Washington blocked Monmouth County officers from conducting a local prisoner exchange. However, local leaders conducted several local prisoner exchanges later in the war.

Related Historic Site: Marlpit Hall

Appendix: Exchanged Monmouth County Loyalists

Date

Loyalist

Description

Dec 1777

Capt. John Longstreet

Captured in August 1777, Longstreet paroled in Burlington, New Jersey, but in December he “dishonorably broke parole” by returning to be “among his friends” in Monmouth County. Ordered to be arrested.

Dec 1777

Lt. Col. Elisha Lawrence

His exchange is held up until he pays debt, “I doubt not that you will have honor enough to pay the balance due.”

Sep 1781

George Johnson

Associated Loyalists captures and jails Lt. Britton Mount and George John. Releases Johnson, “to go to Monmouth County on parole for 15 days, to effect his exchange for Mr. Raymond of Capt. Tilton's Company”

Feb 1782

Jacob Wooley, Associated Loyalist

Taken in Jan. 1781, exchanged for Lt. Britton Mount

Jun 1782

Joel Wooley, Associated Loyalist

Exchanged for John Lane

Jun 1782

Benjamin Dunham, Associated Loyalist

Exchanged for William Everingham

Aug 1782

Peter Stout

Monmouth Loyalist captured and jailed in Freedhold; “exchanged” but required to stay in Monmouth County; pressured to give up claim to family estate

Sources: George Washington to David Forman, Neilson Family Papers, box 1, folder: Rutgersania, Rutgers University Special Collections; Joseph Loring, passport, April 30, 1777; George Johnson [for George Washington] to David Forman, Neilson Family Papers, box 1, folder: Rutgersania, Rutgers University Special Collections, May 9, 1777; NYHS Gilder-Lehrman Collection; New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #4120. The draft cartel is in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 1, 1768–1778, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 466–472; Edward Roser, "American Prisoners Taken at the Battle of the Navesink," Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, vol. 45, n 2, May 1970, p50-2; Forman, Samuel S. Narrative of a Journey down the Ohio and Mississippi in 1789-90 (Cincinnati, R. Clarke and Co., 1888) p 11; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), pp. 830-1; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p202-3; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 253; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 7; William Livingston to Elias Boudinot, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, pp. 248-9; William Livingston to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 24, 1 January–9 March 1780, ed. Benjamin L. Huggins. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016, pp. 672–674; James Mott to ?, Monmouth County Historical Association, Cherry Hall Papers, box 5, folder 9; James Mott to Asher Holmes, John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, 4 vols, Genealogical Publishing Co, 1970, v4, p90, 117; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Joseph Johnson; Information on Bowne’s exchange and recapture is in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 406; David Forman to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 68, July 12, 1780; George Washington from David Forman, 21 July 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-02593, ver. 2013-09-28; Edward Roser, "American Prisoners Taken at the Battle of the Navesink," Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, vol. 45, n 2, May 1970, p57; David Forman, Nathaniel Scudder, Thomas Seabrook to Asher Holmes, Monmouth County Historical Association, Cherry Hall Papers, box 5, folder 9; Asher Holmes to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 13, December 12, 1780; William S. Stryker, Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War (Trenton: Naar, Day & Naar, 1872); Records of Prisoners in New York, National Archives, Collection 881, R 593; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John McLean of Middletown, www.fold3.com/image/#27289028; Daniel Covenhoven to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 14, February 15, 1781; The Mount for Wooley exchange is in Clements Library, Proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists, February 1782 p. 4; Elias Boudinot, The Elias Boudinot Letterbook (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 2002) p42, 52-3; Elias Boudinot Letterbook, Wisconsin Historical Society, p42; Peter Stout, Affidavit, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #9154, 9177; Johnson’s parole documented in Clements Library, Proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists, September 1781 p. 13; The Mount for Wooley exchange is in Clements Library, Proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists, February 1782 p. 4; The Wooley for Lane exchange and the Dunham for Everingham exchange are in Princeton University Library, Microfilms Collection, #1081.133, Board of Associated Loyalists, June 6, June 24, 1782; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File, on file at the Monmouth County Historical Association.