Daniel Hendrickson and Other Militia Officers as Privateer Captains

As noted in prior articles, privateering flourished on the Jersey shore in summer 1778. The arrival of the French fleet and weakening of the British fleet opened up the waters near Sandy Hook to daring American sea captains. Privateers from Philadelphia and New England began taking British merchant vessels, and bringing them into Little Egg Harbor (called Egg Harbor at the time). New Jerseyans living on the shore had been taking wounded British ships since 1776; in 1778, they also took to the sea as privateers.

Daniel Hendrickson Moves into Privateering

Colonel Daniel Hendrickson lived at Tinton Falls, a few miles inland from the Shrewsbury River (which connected to the Atlantic Ocean in the 1700s). Hendrickson’s first prize vessel was taken in November 1776. General Hugh Mercer wrote:

A ship loaded with rum, wine and sugar, and other stores belonging to the enemy is drove on shore at Deal beach, near Shrewsbury; the Colonel [Daniel] Hendrickson of the militia have taken care of her and the cargo.

Hendrickson was appointed the colonel of the dysfunctional Shrewsbury Township militia in late 1776, but due to the disaffection in the region, Hendrickson lived in Upper Freehold Township in late 1776 and into 1777. He returned home in 1777 after the Loyalist associations at Shrewsbury were broken up by Pennsylvania soldiers. Some companies of the Shrewsbury militia remained dysfunctional, but Hendrickson was able to raise a hundred men on alarm in June 1778—when the British Army marched across the county in the days prior to the Battle of Monmouth.

Sometime in July 1778, the Shrewsbury militia seized a Loyalist vessel, Indian Delaware, and it was condemned to Hendrickson at an admiralty court at Allentown on August 13. Taken vessels were commonly sold, but Hendrickson chose to keep the vessel and try his hand at privateering. On September 11, Hendrickson and the Indian Delaware were at Egg Harbor, where he signed up a nine-man crew. The contract read:

We those under written, parties concerned in the Schooner Indian Delaware, taken by the militia… do each ourselves agree with Col Hendrickson… paying each of us our equal proportion of five hundred pound after deducting and paying all costs and accounts of the same.

One of the signees, Jacob Dennis, was a minor. So his mother, Rebecca Dennis, signed for him. John Stokes, the Port Marshal at Egg Harbor, also signed. The Indian Delaware put to sea under Hendrickson.

Four days later, Hendrickson was at Tinton Falls where he sold 400 lbs. of flour for £6 S14 to two buyers; this suggests that the Indian Delaware captured a small Loyalist vessel along the Monmouth shore and brought it into Shrewsbury Inlet (a channel that connected the Shrewsbury River to the ocean at present-day Seabright). The next day, Hendrickson purchased supplies to outfit Indian Delaware: £4 S15; £1 S10 for cartridges and fuses; £1 S10 for a sheep; £8 for two barrels of cider; £8 for rum. He also paid for "carting sails from Freehold", S15; "carting 2 3 lb. cannon from Tinton Falls", £1 S10, and he paid "Jeremiah Chadwick for piloting" his ship.

Ten days later, the Indian Delaware had been out to sea, and returned. John Van Emburgh, a Middlesex County militia major and investor in privateers, wrote Hendrickson from Freehold. Van Emburgh was seeking to purchase a vessel at Egg Harbor that might have been deposited as a prize by Hendrickson, "In consequence of our determination at Squan, I have been to Egg Harbor but found on my arrival that the vessel we proposed [to buy] could not be sold until the next Admiralty Court.” Van Emburgh had also been to Tinton Falls:

Was yesterday at the Falls to consult with your Captain Green [James Green], what more guns would be needed for us than he had purchased on our account... but was informed that you was under an engagement for that day & returned.

Documentation on the Indian Delaware and Hendrickson’s time as a privateer is scant after this. Philip Freneau, the privateer sailor and poet, recorded sailing out of Shrewsbury inlet in the Indian Delaware on October 25 bound for the Caribbean (Shrewsbury Inlet connected the Shrewsbury River to the Atlantic Ocean at present-day Sea Bright). Egg Harbor’s Port Marshal, John Stokes, recorded the arrival of the Indian Delaware on November 21. There is no additional documentation related to the vessel or Hendrickson as a privateer—he was captured on land, during a raid against Tinton Falls in June 1779.

Other Monmouth Militia Officers Dabble in Privateering

Privateering was risky. Colonel Richard Somers of Gloucester County, who became involved with a double-dealing privateer, complained of his privateering investments that he "have lost my interest many times and received little for my share of prizes." But the profits from a successful voyage seemed to outweigh the risks (a small captured vessel with a cargo was often valued about £10,000, about equal to the cost of five yeoman estates). Besides Hendrickson, at least eleven other Monmouth Militia officers took to the sea as privateers or took vessels that grounded off the Monmouth shore.

Captain Thomas Anderson of Freehold Township took a vessel on the Monmouth shore in May 1778. The New Jersey Gazette reported: "Friday last, a prize vessel laden with beef and pork, bound to New York, was taken by Capt. Anderson and 16 men in an armed boat and brought into Toms River.”

Samuel Bigelow was a Dover Township militia captain. In December 1780, he led a militia party in the capture of the stranded Loyalist sloop Betsy off Cranberry Inlet; shortly after that, Bigelow took the stranded brig, Dove, off Long Beach, and brought the prize into Toms River.

James Brewer, a militia captain from inland Upper Freehold, tried his hand at privateering. Wilson Hunt, one of his militiamen, recalled that in early 1778, Brewer’s company took a small vessel off Sandy Hook:

We spied a sloop of war under sail, it appeared as tho' it would land where we immediately hid ourselves in ambush but she did not land. She tacked about and sailed near the British fleet and cast anchor. We marked her position, in course of the evening, we procured a vessel and after dark sailed to the aforesaid sloop, seized her and boarded her immediately and found only the captain and mate on board. The captain surrendered to us at discretion but the mate threatened to alarm the British fleet which lay close at hand, but there was a file of men with fixed bayonets quickly around him - if he opened his mouth they would quickly run him through, upon which he made no further resistance, and we hoisted anchor and bore away for the mouth of the Shrewsbury River which we fortunately struck and ascended our way up river. The next day we were hailed by two men and asked if we did want to buy provisions, having the British colors hoisted they took us to be British, we decoyed them on board and made them prisoners. They were both Tories. We carried the above sloop up to Shrewsbury Town and anchored as near the town as we could, where she was declared a lawful prize.

Captain Samuel Brown of the Dover township militia led the 30-man militia company that mustered at Forked River. In late 1776, according to Samuel’s son, Thomas, "they immediately commenced building a gunboat on said river... intended to be used for the annoyance of the Enemy: boat kept 1 mile from the Brown homestead and guarded nightly.” By 1777, Thomas Brown recalled the Forked River militia manning the row galley, Civil Usage (with one 6-pound cannon, 4 swivel guns, and 36 men serving on board). Their mission was to "guard Barnegat Inlet and prevent, as far as practicable, aggressions of the enemy." In July 1778, the militia "succeeded in capturing a boat of the enemy engaged in trading with the Tory residents at the then called Clam Town (now Tuckerton)." Later that year, Brown captained a privateer sloop out of Toms River, during which he attempted to keep his true identify incognito. In 1779, Brown again captained Civil Usage "engaged and captured a gunboat belonging to the Refugees… armed with four swivels and a whale piece and with a crew of twenty-five to thirty-five men."

In 1781, Samuel and Thomas Brown, after two attempts to capture them, left Forked River for the relative safety of Woodbridge. They brought Civil Usage with them and took two prizes in Raritan Bay, a schooner heading for New York City, and, in concert with a second gunboat, another schooner taken in Prince's Bay off Staten Island. The prizes were brought to New Brunswick. In summer, 1782, the Browns returned to Forked River. In concert with the New England privateer, William Gray, they rowed Civil Usage to Clam Town—in order to provoke an attack from the Pine Robber gang of William Davenport. When the Loyalists attacked, Gray joined the fight: "The vessels engaged. Captain Davenport and eight or nine of his men were killed by the first broadside of the privateer... and was immediately taken possession of by Captain Gray and sunk." The Pine Robbers were turned over to the Egg Harbor militia.

John Burrowes, Jr., was commissioned a captain in the Continental Army in January 1777 and served for three years. Despite being in uniform and with the Army most of this time, Burrowes was active on the Raritan Bay while furloughed parts of 1778 and 1779. Middletown militiaman, Jemson Van Kirk recalled:

Served three months on his own account at Mount Pleasant N.J. at this place Captain Burrowes of the regulars with ten men regular troops under whom Lieutenant Schank [John Schenck] volunteered with ten militia men of whom he was one went down the Bay with three skiffs and run among five sloops where they boarded two of them and took nineteen prisoners who were called refugees or Tories, one sloop they fetched off the other ran aground.

On discharge in January 1780, Burrowes took to the water again. A February note in the papers of the Continental Congress notes a deposition of Burrowes as master of the sloop Tryal. By April, Burrowes was captain of the privateer, Rebecca. One of his sailors, Thomas Geron, wrote of his service under Burrowes: “He went to Philadelphia and enlisted as a common sailor before the mast on board the brig Rebecca, letter of marque, under one Captain John Burrowes." He sailed with Burrowes on May 1 but Rebecca had a brief tenure as a privateer:

Arrived at the Gulf Stream southeast from the capes of Philadelphia, where the brig was taken and the whole crew was taken, by the English sloop of war Delight... he [Geran] was taken immediately to New York and put on board the prison ship Scorpion on the 18th of May, and remained there as a prisoner of war for about five weeks. He was then removed to the hospital ship Hunter, and remained there as a prisoner (an invalid) for 72 days when he was exchanged.

Burrowes fared better than Geran. He was quickly exchanged, and then appointed a marshal of the New Jersey Admiralty Court. He was elected Sheriff of Monmouth County after that.

Major John Cook commanded the Dover militia, including Samuel Brown and Joshua Studson. He led the capture of two prizes: Fanny and Hope. in 1778. In early 1779, he and Captain John Price took the Loyalist sloop Success, after it grounded off Island Beach.

Samuel Forman was the militia colonel over Upper Freehold and the shore townships of Dover and Stafford. On June 25, 1781, he led a militia unit in capturing the vessel, Brunswick, which had grounded off the Monmouth shore with a cargo of lumber. On August 15, 1781, Forman wrote Governor William Livingston about using the Brunswick as a privateer, "on the fourteenth last month [7/14/81], I got a sloop or boat called Brunswick, burthen about 50 tons, condemned & since have sold her, a register [of the vessel as a privateer] is wanting, I wish to be favored with one under the name 'Monmouth'." But the vessel apparently was not condemned by the admiralty court. More than three years later, on September 13, 1784, the New Jersey Gazette advertised an admiralty court for October 22 to finally settle Forman’s claim to the vessel.

Asher Holmes was the Colonel of the Freehold and Middletown militias. He also led the regiments of state troops stationed in Monmouth County from 1779 into 1782. In 1779, he led the capture of the stranded supply ship, Britannia, near Sandy Hook. This is the subject of another article.

Joshua Huddy was a strident supporter of the Revolution who commanded a company of state troops in 1777 and 1778 and participated in the extra-legal hanging of the Loyalist, Stephen Edwards. Huddy was nearly captured by a Loyalist raiding party on August 31. Two weeks earlier, on August 18, 1780, he received a Letter of Marque from Pennsylvania to captain the privateer, Black Snake (co-owned with James Randolph). It was a small vessel with only one swivel gun and a crew of fourteen. The letter licensed Huddy to “by force of arms to attack, subdue, seize and take all ships and other vessels, goods, wares and merchandizes, belonging to the Crown of Great Britain, or any of the subjects thereof."

Black Snake was at Toms River at the time, and sailed on September 22. Huddy sailed past Sandy Hook, where six British warships prevented him from hovering close to the Hook. He arrived in Providence, Rhode Island on October 3. The Providence Gazette recorded that: “he [Huddy] saw six British ships of the line standing for Sandy Hook." There is no evidence that Huddy took any prizes as a privateer.

Joshua Studson was a militia lieutenant from Toms River. He commanded a whaleboat that in May 1778 rowed to Sandy Hook and captured a vessel as it sat near a large warship. The prize was taken to Middletown Point where it prompted British/Loyalist retribution. In August 1780, Studson received a Letter of Marque to captain the privateer Dolphin with one cannon and a fourteen-man crew. He captured two vessels. He was out in a militia boat again on December 1 when he spotted a Loyalist boat and closed on it. As he rose to give orders, he was shot and killed at close range by the Pine Robber, John Bacon. This incident and Studson’s career at sea are detailed in another article.

John Walton was a militia captain from Freehold Township. He took a Loyalist boat and crew in 1777.

Other prizes: Monmouth militia were involved in other maritime clashes where the officer’s name is unknown. Below is a short summary of four such incidents.

• 1779 – A 16-gun brig from Jamaica to New York, with 160 barrels of rum “was drove ashore near that place [Barnegat].” It was boarded and secured by militia.

• 1780 – A Loyalist sloop ran aground on Manasquan beach. It was captured and floated by local militia; its cargo of assorted dry goods was saved. The crew was sent to Philadelphia as prisoners.

• 1781 – The Loyalist brig, Molly, grounded off Barnegat during a storm and began to break up. Local militia saved most of the crew and cargo. The crew was sent to jail in Trenton.

• 1783 - Two Loyalist trading boats on the way to New York grounded on the Monmouth shore during a storm. They were captured by a militia party.

Of course, the Monmouth County militia was not the only militia dabbling in privateering. Cape May and Gloucester County militia were also active up and down the Jersey shore. The postwar pension applications of John Ingersoll (of Cape May) and Zachariah Steelman (Gloucester County) are particularly descriptive in describing the privateering voyages of militia from other counties off the Monmouth shore. Their narratives are excerpted in the appendix of this article.

Caption: Militia privateers usually put to sea in oar-powered galleys and whaleboats. These boats were hidden on shore and rowed through the surf to take small ships and vessels grounded on sand bars.

Related Historic Site: Sultana Education Foundation (Chestertown, Maryland)

Appendix: Militiamen from Other Counties Recall Privateering on the Monmouth Shore

John Ingersoll of Cape May recalled serving under Captain Enoch Willetts of the militia on privateering voyages to Shark River in 1781 and 1782.

First voyage: The Cape May militia gunboat provisioned at Little Egg Harbor in fall 1781 before heading north. Ingersoll recalled that "we ran into Shark River… where lay a heavy ship loaded with goods... an English ship; the crew a few days earlier had mutinied. [The militia] succeeded in taking the ship and ran her into Egg Harbor.” The prize, however, grounded at the entrance of Egg Harbor, so the militia had to “float the ship & bring cargo upriver in a scow.” The successful capture took a bad turn when a gang of Pine Robbers “laid upon us, captured the scow one evening and took charge of her loads.”

Ingersoll then recalled retaking the scow and its cargo:

We went in pursuit... we came up with them at a place called Osborn's Island about six miles from where the ship lay. Said refugees had two wagons loaded with horses each, and one wagon loaded with two horses. They fired upon us and then fled, leaving their booty behind.

The militia took back the vessel and its cargo, "said goods were condemned agreeably to law and sold at public sale."

Second Voyage: Ingersoll also recalled a second privateering voyage to Shark River with Captain Willets in 1782:

We set sail from Cape May and again landed Shark River. We staid [sic] at Shark River for two or three days, when we spied a refugee boat close in with the beach, steering apparently for Delaware. As they came opposite the Inlet wherein we lay, they gave [us] three cheers [mistaking them for London Traders]. We put to sea and gave chase. We kept up a steady and well directed fire for about four miles, when they endeavored to run their boat into Squan Inlet, but in their attempting to do so they ran her ashore and fled. Before we could get on shore, they had concealed themselves in the woods which were nearby. We took their boat, in which we found a six-pounder mounted on her stern, together with a quantity of dry goods, with hardware and one barrel of rum, which we took. We then made sail for Cape May.

Zephaniah Steelman of Gloucester County recalled two voyages on the Monmouth shore:

First voyage: “We took a refugee trading boat on the north end of Squan Beach with cranberries and tar in her. We saved the articles but burnt the boat… I have been on duty all along the sea coast as far as Sandy Hook and at all intermediate places.”

Second voyage: “One [John] Bacon, a notorious refugee had killed Capt. Andrew Steelman in our look-out boat and wounded Lieut. David Scull so that he never recovered from it and had done much other mischief. Capt. Snell sent a company in pursuit of Bacon. We went as far as Barnegat, obtained a pilot to bring us to his father-in-law’s house, and we surrounded it in the middle of the night. It was full of traders but Bacon was not in there not did we obtain any findings of him, so we returned.”

Sources: Peter Force, ed., American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution 1774–1776, 9 vols. (1837–53), 5th Series, vol. 3, p 892; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 2, p 363; Monmouth County Historical Association, J. Amory Haskell Collection, folder 12, Documents K and L; Monmouth County Historical Association, J. Amory Haskell Collection, folder 10, Document F; John Van Emburgh to Daniel Hendrickson, New Jersey Historical Society, Hendrickson Family Papers, box 1, folder 13; Axelrod, Jacob. Philip Freneau: Champion of Democracy, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967) pp. 96-7; Richard Somers testimony in Library of Congress, Revolutionary War Prize Cases, M162, reel 1, cases 91-2, David Forman v. Nathan Jackson; John C. Dann, The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980) pp 142-143; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Jamison Van Kirk; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 19, pp. 365-6; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 56; Koegler ,M.L. Burrowes Mansion of Matawan, New Jersey, and Notations on the History of Monmouth County (Matawan, NJ: Matawan Historical Society), pp. 47-8; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Thomas Geron of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#19729784; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 56; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Wilson Hunt of KY, www.fold3.com/image/#24273269; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, May 27, 1778, reel 1930; William Fischer, Biographical Cyclopedia of Ocean County (Philadelphia: A.D. Smith, 1899) pp. 50-1; Worthington Ford, Naval Records of the American Revolution, 1775-1788, (Washington: Govt Printing Office, 1906) pp. 241, 272; Letter of Marque, Catalog of the Exhibition: Joshua Huddy and the American Revolution, Monmouth County Library Headquarters, October 2004; Franklin Kemp, The Capture of Enemy Vessels by Ground Troops in New Jersey (-----) p 20; New Jersey Gazette, September 13, 1784; Samuel Forman to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 15, August 15, 1781; Paul Burgess, A Colonial Scrapbook; the Southern New Jersey Coast, 1675-1783 (New York, Carlton Press, 1971) pp 161; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 70; Alfred Heston, South Jersey: A History 1664-1923 (Lewis Historical Publishing, 1923) p 227; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 81; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veteran's Pension Application of John Ingersoll of New Jersey, p 6; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Zachariah Steelman of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#  NJ  19818216.