The Freehold-Middletown Loyalist Insurrection

In late November 1776, Colonel David Forman led his regiment of Flying Camp into Freehold and Middletown townships to expose and subdue a Loyalist association led by William Taylor. The campaign was successful, capturing roughly one hundred Loyalists. They were sent to Philadelphia and far-off Frederick, Maryland. The enlistments of Forman’s men expired on December 1 and the regiment immediately dissolved. This coincided with the British invasion of New Jersey and a Loyalist insurrection that immediately turned the tables on Forman.

According to a Supreme Court indictment, two disaffected Freehold residents, Robert James and Edmund Harris, led a gang in a riot at David Forman’s farm on December 1. James and Harris, "with force and arms, to wit, guns, bayonets and swords… did break and enter" Forman’s house and farm. They took from him: one mare, one gelding, a plow, 4 1/2 barrels of pork, 4 gammons, salt meat, 800 lbs. of flours, 100 bushels of oats, 8 bushels of buckwheat, one chaise wagon, 2 looking glasses, 5 dozen pots, 18 knives and forks, 3 brass kettles, kitchen andirons, blankets and rugs.

But it was on December 3 that the Freehold-Middletown Loyalist insurrection actually began. Samuel Mount, a militiaman, recalled that this way the day that "Monmouth was overrun by the British and Refugees & the militia were compelled to lay down their arms.” That same day, Mount left Monmouth County and “joined Genl. Washington's Army." This was likely motivated by a need to escape what became known as the “Tory Ascendancy.” Other militiamen corroborate Mount's account: John Reid recalled “the British and Tories gained the ascendancy and they were obliged to lay down their arms.” John Davison recalled, “the Tories obtaining the ascendancy in their hands, the militia of said county disbanded.”

Also on December 3, Sheriff Asher Holmes emptied out the county prison at Freehold, sending most of the prisoners under guard to Easton, Pennsylvania. Five captured sailors, who requested a hearing before Governor William Livingston, were allowed to go on parole to Trenton. A few days earlier, the newly-elected County Clerk, Kenneth Anderson, demanded that former County Clerk, Joseph Leonard, turn over the county’s records to him. But Leonard "refused to give over an order of delivery of sd records.” Anderson wrote the New Jersey Legislature that “he cannot with posterity execute sd office unless the records & c. are lodged with him.” The county government at Freehold ceased operating.

By December 9, Loyalists felt secure talking about the downfall of the Continental movement in Freehold, the county seat and the most strongly Whig village in the county. On that day, according to a Supreme Court indictment, Jonathan Bowne “with a loud voice” said:

I would rather a thousand times serve the British troops than the rebels, and if I was an able-bodied man, I would go over and drive their wagons... When the British troops come through, they will be offended and will plunder us, but if we keep our grain, they will know that we have not furnished the rebels, and then we shall get hard money.

By mid-month, John Taylor, Monmouth County’s sheriff in the 1760s and the father of William Taylor, who led a prior Loyalist association, began administering British loyalty oaths from his home in Middletown. Meanwhile, some Freehold Loyalists, including Edmund Harris on December 16, travelled to the British camp at Raritan Landing to take the British Loyalty oath directly from Lt. Colonel Elisha Lawrence of the New Jersey Volunteers (comprised of Monmouth County Loyalists), who was camped there.

Two days later, a Loyalist gang led by Thomas Parker and “diverse other persons” confiscated property from the homes of John Covert and Samuel Parent. From Covert, they “did break open and enter, one gun belonging to Alexander Dodd... did take & carry away the said gun.” From Parent, they took “one gun belonging to Samuel Burke in said dwelling house, did take & carry away.”

Two days after that, on December 18, William Grandin of Freehold Township led six other Loyalists in confiscating property from two Whigs. From Tunis Vanderveer they “did break open & enter, and one sword, one gun, and gun-powder and shot... did take and carry away." At the house of Timothy Lloyd they "did break open & enter and a certain black horse... did take and lead away, and other wrongs.” A few days later, Grandin, with a gang of sixteen men, re-visited David Forman’s house. There they “did break open and enter, and sundry tables, chairs, pots and other household goods & furniture belonging to the said David Forman did take and carry away.”

Another Loyalist gang with Joseph Covenhoven, Isaac Covenhoven, Edmund Harris, and four others went to the house of John Craig on December 18 where they “did break open and enter one chest containing gun powder and balls belonging the township of Shrewsbury... and did take it and carry away.” On December 20, this gang went to the home of John Schenck of Freehold where they “did break open & enter one pipe of Madeira wine belonging to David Forman, Esq., in the said dwelling house.”

On December 20, with the Loyalists in control of Freehold and Middletown, the brothers, John Lloyd (Freehold) and Thomas Lloyd (Middletown) started recruiting for the British. According to Supreme Court indictments, John Lloyd “a person of a turbulent mind & seditious disposition… intending to disunite the good subjects of this State… had discourse with a certain Joseph Morford, David Drum and Solomon Ketchum...[and] did maliciously, unlawfully and seditiously ask the said Morford, Drum and Ketchum to enlist as soldiers in the service of the King." Thomas Lloyed went to the house of John Smock, the Lt. Colonel of the Middletown militia, and demanded his horses. When Smock refused, Lloyd threatened, "if you do not share some of your horses it will be worse for you."

Meanwhile, Thomas Kearney, a wealthy merchant from Middletown Point (present-day Matawan), actively supported the insurrection. According to William Sands, Kearney “abused Mr. Burrowes [County Committee Chair, John Burrowes] with abusive language and called him a rebel.”  Kearney also said:

The Congress were a damned set of rebels, that they did not aim at the liberty of the state, but only to aggrandize themselves, that they wanted to become great Dukes, Earls, Lords & Demigods. The people of the state were deluded and infatuated, that they were also aiming to establish a Presbyterian government.

Kearney claimed that if he were not so old, he would join the New Jersey Volunteers as a Captain "and enlist all those refugees who have gone from Cheesequake, Matawan & Conkaskunk to Staten Island... He ordered his sons never to make peace, but to shoot them [rebels] whenever they found them.” Finally, Kearney said “General Howe should give orders to cut & slash without distinction of age or sect, that he would never conquer the damned rebels until he killed all the damned rebels."

Sands was taken by Kearney’s Loyalists to the British camp at Perth Amboy. Sands was told he would be hanged if he did not enlist in the New Jersey Volunteers. Sands saw Kearney and two other Middletown Loyalists on Staten Island “where they had brought over three quarters of a stall-fed bull, together with a good deal of poultry, potatoes, & c.”

Sands accused Kearney of running an illegal trading ring "concerned with supplying the Enemy on Staten Island with various kinds of fresh provisions.” And, Kearney “keeps signals to hoist to inform any of the refugees that should be going over whether any of our guards or light horse are near."  Sands detailed another trading incident: “William Henry came over from Staten Island to said Thomas Kearney's armed with two pistols, brought with him from New York newspapers of the 13 of March." In return, Kearney gave Henry "a number of turkeys, ducks and fowls.”

Thomas Kearney also concealed two Loyalists, Shore Stevenson and Gershom Stillwell “in his store house & there treated them with as much cyder as they could drink.” He then “provided them with a boat in which they went to Staten Island." And he hosted the notorious Chrineyonce Van Mater who played a key role in the capture of Richard Stockton and John Covenhoven.

Meanwhile, Chrineyonce’s brother, Daniel Van Mater, led a gang of six men to the home of Tunis Vanderveer on December 22. Van Mater, according to Vanderveer, took him “prisoner on purpose of having him exchanged for his brother, John Van Mater, who was prisoner." One of David Forman’s soldiers, Daniel Dey, also recalled being taken by the Loyalists in December: “I was a prisoner for the time of about five weeks, with the British & Tories bearing rule at the time in the State of New Jersey and particularly at Monmouth."

On December 23 and 24, a number of Loyalty oaths were administered in Middletown by John Taylor and James Grover, a former committeeman, who was now Justice of the Peace in the embryonic Loyalist government. At least one Middletown resident, Solomon Ketchum, recalled “taking protections from the British Colonel Morris [John Morris], a British officer being then in Monmouth." Morris was in Shrewsbury at this time.

During the insurrection, David Forman was plundered twice; by Christmas he was in Maryland, where he started recruiting for a new “Additional Regiment” of the Continental Army that would exist to defend the county. Militia officers John Craig, Tunis Vanderveer, and John Schenck suffered property confiscations. Two Freehold Whigs leaders, John Covenhoven and Tunis Vanderveer were captured. Others cozied up to the ascendant Loyalists. Peter Talman, while jailed in Philadelphia on December 15, recalled seeing committeeman, Dr. Nathaniel Scudder, “obtained the releasement” of a “Mr. Taylor” from the Continental prison In Philadelphia. For this, he earned Taylor’s promise to “use his utmost influence to protect Mr. Scudder from insult and injury.” Talman quipped, “Doctor Scudder, you have two strings to your boe [sic].”

Surviving records do not document all of the actions of the insurrectionists. After the war, Richard McKnight, a Loyalist, recalled seizing cattle from neighbors and bringing them to the British, but there is no supporting documentation of cattle confiscations in Freehold. Benjamin Covenhoven claimed that he had two muskets taken during the insurrection, but no record of this confiscation exists.

The Loyalist insurrection collapsed in early January and the militia revived. John Reid recalled that “after the Battles of Trenton and Princeton, they resumed their arms.” Garrett Wikoff recalled that: "The militia of the county were commanded to lay down their arms (the British and Tories having obtained the ascendancy), but they resumed them again after the enemy were routed at Princeton."

When the insurrection crumbled, Colonel David Forman, twice victimized, quickly arrested John Taylor. In April 1777, Forman deposed that: “January last, John Taylor of the Township of Middletown was taken prisoner as Commissioner under Lord Howe.” Taylor confessed to “putting up advertisements to assemble the militia of Monmouth County under arms to support the crown.” And further, “Taylor ever had conceived himself a citizen of Great Britain, that he had freely taken oaths of allegiance to the King & always should himself be bound by that oath." Taylor and Grover were brought before the New Jersey Council of Safety, forced to post bonds for future good behavior, and then released. Taylor, though now retired from public life, would face harassment throughout the war.

At least four of the Freehold-Middletown insurrectionists were caught and jailed. In November 5, 1777, Edmund Harris, Thomas Clark, John Grover, and William Crowell wrote Governor William Livingston from jail in Freehold:

Your petitioners are now prisoners in the gaol in the County of Monmouth in close confinement on different charges, as by the copy of our Mittimus does appear - Your petitioners were in hopes of relief long before now, in expectation of a Court of General gaol of Delivery, but as we in our expectations have been disappointed as yet, and as we have not yet any account of a court thro' this fall, and our constitutions very much broke with sickness by close confinement, and our families suffering; We therefore pray that we may be admitted bail, as we are ready & willing to comply with such penalties as your Excellency may see fit to admit to bail.

Harris would remain in jail into 1778. The fate of the others is unknown.

The defeat of the insurrectionists in Upper Freehold and Shrewsbury (down the shore to Toms River) did not rid those parts of the county of significant disaffected populations. Internal disturbances would continue to bubble up in Upper Freehold, Shrewsbury, Dover and Stafford townships. However, Freehold and Middletown townships were mostly purged of active Loyalists. While Middletown would be rocked by Loyalist raids, its disaffected population was in exile or cowed at home. Inland Freehold Township, far safer than Middletown, would become the center of a radical Whig movement that morphed into an active vigilante organization known as the Retaliators.

Related Historic Site: Burrowes Mansion

Sources: David Forman v Robert James and Edmund Harris, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #13046*; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Samuel Mount; Asher Holmes to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 6, December 3, 1777; Kenneth Anderson to New Jersey Legislature, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Manuscript Collection, Manuscripts, box 14, #27; State vs. Jonathan Bowne New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #33977; Edmund Harris, Loyalty Oath, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Manuscript Collection, Manuscripts, box 35, #5; State v Thomas Parker, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #37486; State v William Grandin, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, # 35504; State v Joseph Covenhoven, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #34540; State v Isaac Covenhoven, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #34537; State vs. Edmund Harris, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, # 35904; State v John Lloyd, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #36681; State vs. Thomas Lloyd, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #36682; Depositions of Tunis Vanderveer and William Sands, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, box 1, document #18 and 20; Loyalty Oaths, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Manuscript Collection, Manuscripts, box 36, #59-61; New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Council of Safety, William Sands; State vs. James Grover of Middletown, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #35493; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Daniel Dey of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#15489356; Deposition of Peter Talman, Monmouth County Historical Association, Cherry Hall Papers, box 5, folder 9; George Washington to Israel Putnam, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw060334)); Society, 1980), p 534; Benjamin Covenhoven claim, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #5915; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Joseph Van Cleave;  National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Reid of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# 14359840; Veteran's Pension Application of John Davison of Monmouth Co: 12/76, -- National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Davison of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#16223098; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - George Taylor; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Garret Wikoff of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#  NJ 28142503; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Solomon Ketchum of NY, www.fold3.com/image/#25013139; David Forman, deposition, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, box 1, document #17; Petition of Edmund Harris, Thomas Clark, John Grover, William Crowell, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 6, November 5, 1777.