Thomas Henderson Selected to Continental Congress

Dr. Thomas Henderson was an important supporter of the Revolution in Monmouth County. Before the Declaration of Independence, he served on the Freehold committee and was second-in-command to Colonel David Forman in the regiment of Flying Camp raised to join the Continental Army in spring 1776. He served under George Washington during the disastrous New York Campaign that summer and then came home to capture local Loyalist insurrectionists in November. In early 1777, Henderson helped raise troops for David Forman’s Continental Army Additional Regiment. Later in the year, Henderson was one of three election judges who biased the election against the county’s incumbent legislators. The New Jersey legislature voided the election.

Despite the rebuke, Henderson continued as an ardent patriot. In June 1778, following the razing of Middletown Point by Loyalists, Henderson led a mob that captured the Loyalist, William Taylor. He apparently hoped to conduct a prisoner exchange of Taylor for his captured father-in-law, John Burrowes, Sr., who was taken in the attack. A few weeks later, prior to the Battle of Monmouth, Henderson led a mounted militia party that gathered and delivered intelligence on British positions to George Washington. It was Henderson who likely was the first person to tell Washington of the Continental Army’s disorganized initial attack on the morning of the battle. Following the battle, Henderson took a leading role in compiling information on the British plundering of Freehold.

Henderson was also a practicing physician and appears to have practiced as a protégé to Dr. Nathaniel Scudder, Freehold’s other practicing physician. Scudder was selected as one of New Jersey’s delegates to the Continental Congress in November 1777. In November 1778, the New Jersey Assembly selected Colonel John Neilson of New Brunswick for the Congressional delegation, but Neilson declined the seat. Scudder and Governor William Livingston lobbied for Thomas Henderson’s selection for the vacant seat. Livingston wrote on November 24, "I heartily wish he may be elected," but the legislature selected Colonel Elias Dayton instead of Henderson.

Thomas Henderson Selected to Continental Congress

In November 1779, it was widely rumored that Nathaniel Scudder would decline to serve another year in Congress. He had complained that serving in Congress had harmed his family and personal estate. Henderson, as Scudder’s protégé, was an obvious replacement. On November 7, the New Jersey Assembly selected Henderson, William Churchill Houston and John Fell as the state’s delegates to the Congress. On November 19, the credentials of Henderson and the others were presented to Congress. Scudder wrote Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress about Henderson: “Colo. Henderson, who if he accepts, shall be a very good man [in Congress]." On November 30, Philadelphia’s leading newspaper, the Pennsylvania Evening Post, noted Henderson’s selection to Congress.

It was likely assumed that Henderson would naturally accept Scudder’s seat, but there is no evidence that Henderson ever indicated that he wanted the job. Even before his selection, Abraham Clark (one of New Jersey’s previous delegates in Congress) wrote Rev. John Caldwell, that, "if I am rightly informed… Dr. Scudder, Mr. [Elias] Boudinot, Dr. Henderson and Colo. [Frederick] Frelinghuysen will decline if chosen." Indeed, Henderson did decline to serve, though he was not immediately replaced. There were probably months of discussion between Henderson and those who wanted him to serve. Finally, on March 1, 1780, more than four months after this selection to Congress, the New Jersey Legislature selected Clark to replace Henderson "who declined taking his seat."

Henderson’s reasons for declining to serve in Congress are not stated in surviving documents. But it is known that by 1779: 1.) Monmouth County was understood to be among the most distressed localities in the new nation and Henderson probably felt needed at home; and 2.) Henderson held important local offices in the county that were not easily given up.

Among his leadership roles, Henderson was the county’s loan commissioner and was likely the Freehold Township magistrate. He would later serve five years in the New Jersey Assembly (1780-1784), the longest consecutive tenure of any of the county’s Revolutionary Era delegates. He also became a proponent of extra-legal retaliation against Loyalists—serving on the Board of Directors of the vigilante group known as the Retaliators. While a delegate in the Assembly, he authored a scathing report on the Associated Loyalists, a Loyalist vigilante group that rivaled the Retaliators.

At war’s end, Henderson became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (1783) and the county commissioner to settle the accounts of veterans owed money by the state (1783). Later in life, he served in the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature (the Legislative Council). Henderson ran for the United State Congress in the first election under the Constitution (1788), but was defeated. He did, however, win a seat to Congress in 1794 and served for two years.

Related Historic Site: Independence Hall (Philadelphia, PA)

Sources: William Livingston to Thomas Henderson, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 2, pp. 484; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 15, p 1324 and vol. 16, p 84; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, November 17, 1779, p 28; William Livingston to Nathaniel Scudder, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, pp. 225, 281 note; Nathaniel Scudder to Henry Laurens, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Charles Jenkins Collection, ALS: Nathaniel Scudder; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post; Abraham Clark to John Caldwell, Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 18, p 110; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File, in the collection of the Monmouth County Historical Association.