Loyalist Kin Gain Pieces of Confiscated Estates

By late 1778, the New Jersey government had established a process to confiscate and sell Loyalist estates. Selling Loyalist estates, however, was complicated by an important question: What should be done with the families of Loyalists who were living on those estates? In December 1778, a law was passed to empower the Governor to exile Loyalist wives still living in New Jersey but, realistically, the Governor was only capable of exiling a small percentage of Loyalist families. Many wives of Loyalists were the sisters and daughters of leaders in the new government, and some severed ties with their Loyalist husbands and fathers. Local authorities were tempted to break rules to help these women.

The “Red House” Controversy

The first and best documented case of the estate confiscation process being manipulated on behalf of a Loyalist’s family concerned the sale of “Red House.” It was one of the best houses in the village of Freehold and formerly the home of John Longstreet (who left in 1776 to become a captain in the Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers). Longstreet’s family stayed in Freehold and apparently earned the favor of local authorities. When Longstreet’s house went up for auction on March 17, a plot was implemented to keep the house in the hands of the Longstreet family. That plot ran afoul of David Rhea, the Quartermaster agent for Monmouth County, living in Allentown but raised in Freehold. He wanted the house for himself.

Depositions were taken by the New Jersey Legislature about what transpired on March 17. David Gordon, a captain in the State Troops, testified to the unusual conduct of the auction:

When he asked Mr. Rhea what he was buying, he said Longstreet's house, after hearing Mr. Rhea bid near a dozen times without hearing another person bid, the crier [Daniel Harbert] turned round to Mrs. Jane Forman and asked if she bid five pounds [more], which she did, and [then the crier] immediately stopped everything.

Wiliam Schenck further testified that “the crier advised Mr. Rhea to let Mrs. Forman have it, as she wanted it for Longstreet's child.” Rhea also testified:

Mrs. Forman [Jane Forman] and he bid against each other some time, at length, he [Rhea] bid five pounds [more] at a bid, several times against himself & then seeing that the time was out, and it [the Red House] must be his, upon which the crier turned his watch [hourglass] upside down and kept on crying, that he [Rhea] then bid several more times afterward upon himself & stop'd, when the crier asked Mrs. Forman if he should cry £5 more for her, to which she nodded, & he [Rhea] immediately bid £5 more, when the crier told him it was too late.

A fourth witness, Garrett Covenhoven, testified that he heard the auction crier tell him that Longstreet’s house “was going up for sale & wish'd the people would have pity on the child [of John Longstreet]." A fifth witness, Stophel Logan, corroborated Rhea’s and Covenhoven’s accounts.

Joseph Throckmorton gave a deposition partially to the contrary: “The crier took the last bid from Mr. Rhea, the crier [then] took another bid from Mrs. Forman by a nod… and then struck it off, looking in Mr. Rhea's face and saying 'once, twice, three times'.” There was “enough time for Mr. Rhea to bid” one last time. However, Throckmorton was kin to a Loyalist officer and had a confiscated estate in his extended family. He may have had a vested interest in the outcome of the auction.

The investigation into the sale of the Red House produced a reversal. The final records of the Forfeiture Commissioners record David Rhea as the purchaser of John Longstreet’s “house lot.” Jane Forman’s charitable intentions did not carry the day against the biased auction. However, there is no evidence that auction crier, Harbert, was punished for rigging the auction. Monmouth County’s four estate Forfeiture Commissioners—Kenneth Hankinson, Samuel Forman, Joseph Lawrence, Jacob Wikoff—were rebuked by the New Jersey Legislature for this and other irregularities, but the legislature stopped short of removing them from office.

Other Ways Loyalists Sought to Keep Land in the Family

There are several other examples of Loyalist kin keeping some of their family estates. The data below summarizes seven other cases in which special accommodations were made for the families of Loyalists—although some accommodations were temporary or subject to litigation that reversed the accommodation. There were special accommodations made for additional Loyalist wives and families, but incomplete documentation makes it impossible to know the full extent of these practices. The data is structured as follows:

Loyalist

Kin Left with Land

Confiscated Property

Land Kept in Family

Rev. Samuel Cooke

Mary Cooke, daughter

Multiple plots of land

220-acre farm

Barzilla Grover

William Grover, brother

Family estate

Family estate**

Thomas McKnight*

Robert McKnight, brother

Family estate

Family estate

Samuel Osborne

Osborne’s widow

Osborne’s estate

1/3 of estate

James Stillwell

James Stillwell, Jr., son

300-acre estate

300-acre farm

Peter Stout

Stout’s mother

unknown

unknown**

Hendrick Van Mater

John, Joseph Van Mater, brothers

1/3 of 480-acre estate

1/3 of estate**

John Williams

Deborah Williams, wife

Mill and farm

Mill

* Family estate sold and kept in family prior to confiscation

** Outcome contested and potentially reversed

Deborah Williams is a good example of a wife permitted to hold onto some of her husband’s estate. Per genealogical and antiquarian sources, Deborah’s husband, John Wiliams, became an officer in the New Jersey Volunteers; she stayed in New Jersey. Deborah’s daughter married a Continental soldier, Thomas Barclay, and the family apparently severed relations with John. When the Loyalist estate confiscation auctions were held, John’s plots of land were sold separately. Deborah was allowed to purchase the most valuable family property—the Turtle Mill at Eatontown. Other plots were purchased by other bidders.

Peter Stout provides an example of special accommodation that went bad. Stout was a Loyalist. According to a memorial written in 1783, he initially stayed in Middletown, which "enabled him to maintain his wife & seven children in decency." He then fled when the Loyalist insurrections collapsed. Before doing so, he apparently transferred his estate to his mother and she remained in control of the family estate after Stout left. In August 1782, Stout was captured while visiting his family:

He was about the month of August 1782 taken prisoner by the Americans & confined in Freehold gaol for near four months, after which he was exchanged upon giving bond & security in £1,000 that he would not leave the county, but should return to gaol when called for.

In 1783, with hostilities cooled, Stout sought permission from Colonel Asher Holmes (the Middletown militia colonel) and John Stillwell (“the magistrate who took the bond of security”) to return to New York, “which was always refused.” He went to Colonel W. Smith (the Continental Commissary of Prisoners) for help, and Smith “wrote a letter to Genl. David Forman on the subject -- who absolutely refused suffering the deponent to come within British lines or discharging his security bonds.” Stout was then jailed and loaded in irons. A deal was apparently worked out between Stout’s mother and John Burrowes, the Monmouth County Sheriff:

The deponent's mother conveyed her right to the deponent's confiscated estate unto Mr. John Burrowes, the purchaser thereof, upon which being done, the deponent was retrieved from irons, and discharged from the dungeon by John Burrowes, Jr.

Like Stout, Samuel Osborne, the tax collector for Monmouth County under the Royal Government, also attempted to protect his estate. He transferred it to his sister, who then became the custodian for a mentally-disabled second sister who lived on the estate. The Forfeiture Commissioners were unsympathetic. They confiscated and sold Osborne’s estate anyway. This prompted a petition to the Legislature from Richard Van Mater, Osborne’s brother-in-law. Van Mater complained:

That Samuel Osborne, who some time ago did join the enemy, did, in consequence of a previous agreement between him [Osborne] and his sister, wife of said petitioner, for the maintenance of an idiot sister of the said Osborne, leave all his moveable estate in the hands of the petitioner, for the support of Osborne's wife and the said idiot sister, and for payment of all his lawful debts; which estate was afterwards sold by the Commissioners of Forfeited Estates.

The Legislature was unmoved. It referred Van Mater to the courts. Six years later, the disposition of Osborne’s estate remained in contention. There was a second challenge from Osborne’s widow. In March 1786, the New Jersey Gazette recorded a petition to the Legislature from Richard Rogers, who purchased Osborne’s estate:

He had purchased a plantation at the sale of the commissioners of forfeited estates, and is in danger of losing one-third part of the usable part of the plantation during the life of the widow, whose husband [Samuel Osborne] formerly owned the same, and praying the legislature will protect him in the said purchase.

The Legislature declined to consider the issue.

Other potential Loyalists stayed home to avoid confiscation. Edward Taylor of Middletown endured arrests and harassments to hold onto his estate. His oldest son, George Taylor, Colonel of Monmouth County’s illusory Loyalist militia, was written out his will despite being on “affectionate terms” with his father. If Edward left any land to George, it would have been confiscated. Edward died at the end of the war and his estate was transferred to a younger son who never left Monmouth County.

The sale of Loyalist estates was tainted by scandals and complications, not the least of which involved the families of those Loyalists. At times, the Forfeiture Commissioners bent the rules to protect the interest of families that severed ties with Loyalist husbands and fathers. At other times, authorities bent the rules to confiscate Loyalist estates that were lawfully transferred prior to confiscation. In either case, the willingness to bend rules is conspicuous.

Related Historic Site: Marlpit Hall

Sources: Jones, E. Alfred. The Loyalists of New Jersey, (Newark, N. J. Historical Society, 1927) p 49; Peter W. Coldham, comp., American Loyalist Claims (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1980), p 465.  Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn. and London, 1984) pp. 830-1; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p 889; Thomas McKnight in Jones, E. Alfred. The Loyalists of New Jersey, (Newark, N. J. Historical Society, 1927) p 49.  Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn. and London, 1984), p 564; George Taylor discussed in Peter W. Coldham, comp., American Loyalist Claims (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1980), p 477; Monmouth County Historical Association, The Grover Taylor House, (Freehold: MCHA)  p 22-4; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, March 9, 1780, p 149; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, June 1, 1780, p 214; Peter Stout, Affidavit, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #9154, 9177; New Jersey State Archives, NJ Supreme Court Collection, Case # 13541; Peter Stout to Guy Carleton, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #9154, 9177; New Jersey Gazette, March 6, 1786.