The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > Loyalist "Manstealing" Peaks and the Rise of Colonel Tye by Michael Adelberg In 1780, Loyalist raiding parties began “manstealing” Monmouth County’s patriots, including 16 militia officers. Captured Americans were confined in dismal prisons and prison ships. - May 1780 - As noted in a prior article, " manstealing " in Monmouth County started in early 1780 when small parties of Loyalist raiders, outside the control of the British Army, began kidnapping Monmouth County local leaders. While militia officers were not the only men captured, Loyalist parties often targeted militia officers. Through the spring and summer of 1780, man-stealings, at minimum, resulted in the capture of ten militia officers—Lt. Colonel John Smock, Maj. Hendrick Van Brunt (taken a second time), Captains James Green, Barnes Smock, Jacob Covenhoven, Thomas Wainwright, and Lieutenants Thomas Cook (taken a third time), Thomas Little (taken a second time), James Walling, and James Wall. The manstealings were so pervasive and feared that militia officers started resigning. On May 11, Thomas Wainwright, one of Shrewsbury Township’s captains, wrote Governor William Livingston: My living here is uncertain and I find it is not in my power any longer to make my commission, I am threatened of being taken and carried to New York and can't rest quietly in my bed, I should be glad [if] your Excellency would favor me, as it is difficult for me to be active [while] living on the lines. I am not only in danger of being taken off any night by the Tories, but am in so poor a state of health that I am not able to undergo the hardships of being a soldier. If your Excellency would please to excuse me from serving, I shall take kindly… Our fighting men are most of them killed or taken prisoner. I shall, if not excused from serving, be under the necessity of leaving my family and retiring into the country, for if I should be taken and put in prison under my present state of health, I should not live long, and I have served my country at every call, whenever we had any prospect of dealing with them I took it upon a hardship to be enlisted, as I am the only officer left on the lines. Wainwright’s resignation did not protect him; he was captured several weeks later. In hindsight, it is apparent that the primary driver of manstealing was the rise of irregular Loyalist raiding parties that adopted kidnapping as their default activity. But, in the moment, some Monmouth County leaders blamed prisoner exchanges , and officers who arranged them (such as Colonel Asher Holmes), as the cause of manstealing. Exemplifying this point of view, David Forman called exchanges “replete with evil.” He argued that “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." In August, 1780, manstealing climaxed. Middletown’s most important Whig family, the Smocks, were particularly targeted. The New York Royal Gazette reported on August 23: “Yesterday were brought into this town a Colonel and Major Smock, of the Monmouth County militia, one of these was of the community of Associated Retaliators upon the Tories." The New Jersey Gazette reported on the same incident, "Hendrick Smock, Esquire, and Lieut. Col. John Smock of Monmouth County, were lately made prisoners by a party of the enemy from Sandy Hook and carried to New York." The third senior member of the Smock family, Captain Barnes Smock, was taken two months earlier. Colonel Tye: The Greatest Manstealer As discussed in another article, Colonel Tye, likely the former Shrewsbury slave, Titus, was the most successful Loyalist irregular in Monmouth County’s local war. In summer of 1780, he led a group of African-American Loyalist irregulars based on Sandy Hook called the Black Brigade. Tye was their honorific Colonel. They conducted a string of raids into Monmouth County that included at least sixteen captures. The raids are summarized in table 10 . In five documented raids over three months, Tye’s parties captured at least sixteen men. The captives included two men who served in the New Jersey Legislature (James Mott and Hendrick Smock), four militia officers (Lt. Col. John Smock, Capt. Barnes Smock, Lt. James Walling, Lt. James Wall) and Middletown’s Overseer of the Highways, Joseph Dorsett. Other Loyalist parties were concurrently taking captives, but no Loyalist irregular led as many raids or took as many prisoners as Tye. Tacit British Approval of Manstealing No surviving British document authorized manstealing. The British relationship with the Associated Loyalists (who conducted manstealing raids) was strained. The British relationship with Colonel Tye and his Black Brigade is undocumented and was likely never formalized. However, British officers saw the Loyalist raiding parties at Sandy Hook, and saw raiders selling their plunder in New York. British officers read the newspapers that reported the manstealing raids. There is no reason to believe the British restrained manstealing; they likely tacitly endorsed it. Indeed, there is scattered evidence that the British countenanced manstealing. A September 10, 1781, order from the British Commander in Chief, Henry Clinton, to Lt. Thomas Okerson of the New Jersey Volunteers (formerly of Tinton Falls) appears to authorize the kidnapping of a Continental leader: You are to proceed to Pennsylvania with the men under your Command and there carry into execution the plan proposed, after which you will return to this place by the most convenient route. Should there be a necessity for you to detail your men, you will give them direction [illegible words] you shall think they can stay with them till you return. Clinton also apparently approved of a plan to send James Moody, also a junior officer in the New Jersey Volunteers , into New Jersey to kidnap Governor Livingston. Moody and a few thirty men landed in a disaffected neighborhood near the southern tip of Monmouth County. But Moody’s party was discovered, a few of his men were arrested, and the plot fell apart. While British commanders kept a distance from manstealing and left this dirty work for others, the best evidence suggests that they winked at the practice. Tye was shot in the wrist during his late August raid and died shortly thereafter . Manstealing continued after Tye’s death, but tapered off in quantity. Monmouth County’s militia and state troops became steadier and a number of Loyalist raids—including the so-called Negro Hill Massacre —went badly for the Loyalists later in the war. Yet, even as the number of kidnappings ebbed, the practice stoked resentments in Monmouth County and pushed the county’s Whigs toward vigilante retaliation . Related Historic Site : Prison Ship Martyr Monument Sources : William S. Stryker, Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War (Trenton: Naar, Day & Naar, 1872); Thomas Wainwright to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 11, May 11, 1780; William Livingston to Joseph Reed, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, p 433; David Forman to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 68, July 12, 1780; New York Royal Gazette excerpted in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 137; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Henry Clinton to Thomas Okerson, University of Michigan, William L. Clements Library, Sir Henry Clinton Papers, Volume 174, item 11; Richard Peters to William Livingston, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 327; Information on the captured Monmouth Countians is in Michael Adelberg, Biographical File, unpublished at the Monmouth County Historical Association Library. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > The London Trading Case of Elisha Walton v William Laird by Michael Adelberg - October 1781 - By late 1781, disaffected Monmouth Countians had become skilled at trading illegally with the British. As discussed in prior articles, so-called “London Traders ” served as middlemen between disaffected Monmouth Countians and British assets at Sandy Hook and New York. The trade commonly consisted of an exchange of finished goods and specie from New York in exchange for food and lumber from New Jersey. London Traders insulated disaffected farmers from direct contact with the enemy, making it more difficult to prosecute farmers fueling the illegal trade. The London Trade was so pervasive and profitable that disaffected Monmouth Countians gained wealth at a faster rate than the county at large during the Revolutionary War (demonstrated by the author’s prior research). Despite the ostracism, property confiscations, and legal punishments associated with trading with the enemy, the hard cash paid by the British was exponentially more valuable than Continental money. An array of Whigs (people who supported Revolution) took steps to curb the illegal trade—privateers intercepted trading vessels; military parties impounded the goods of farmers living in disaffected neighborhoods; vigilante Whigs harassed and robbed disaffected families. But none of these efforts impacted the illegal trade very much. Based on surviving documentation, it appears that Elisha Walton, a major in the militia and sometime legislator, had a particular passion for interdicting illegal trade. In spring 1779, Walton’s men took a wagon of expensive and rare silks from John Holmes and Solomon Ketchum, setting up the landmark litigation of Holmes v Walton in which the seizure of the silks was invalidated because the Holmes and Ketchum were denied their constitutional right to a full jury trial. Undeterred, Walton was called upon by the New Jersey Legislature in November 1780 to call up 100 militia in order to impound the livestock of disaffected shore residents. Walton would take action against illegal trading again in September 1781. The Case of Walton v Laird According to depositions taken on September 24, in early September, William Laird went to the house of Benjamin Covenhoven where an uncomfortable conversation between three men occurred. John Alward testified that Laird told him he was “bringing out some traders in Shrewsbury." Alward cautioned Laird, "if they be with you it will be bad for you.” But Laird told him that “Benjamin Covenhoven said he wanted some hard money and did not know how to get it.” Alward recalled that Laird told Covenhoven: If you can or will sell oxen or cattle to me, I will take them to Joseph Thomson and then they will be in the Pines... The deponent understood that they was cattle to bring Joseph Thomson for the purpose of putting them in the way of getting to the enemy. Alward also remembered Laird’s anger at Covenhoven for speaking about the traders out loud: “Mr. Laird attacked him pretty rashly about his bringing out the traders." Peter Wikoff, a former Continental Army officer who distinguished himself at the Battle of Monmouth , testified a few days later that cattle intended for the Continental Commissary (John Lloyd) were driven away by Laird for Joseph Thomson instead: Joseph Thomson came to said deponent and bought of this deponent, 5 fat cattle… for John Lloyd, and expected that the abovesaid John Lloyd would be at his house when he came home and that two of the cattle would kill'd that day, and this deponent further saith that William Laird helped the said Thomson drive the cattle away. Lloyd never received the cattle because it went to Thomson. Elisha Walton led a posse that captured the cattle and arrested Thomson, Laird, and David Cook (assisting Laird in driving the cattle to Thomson). The case of Elisha Walton v William Laird and David Cook was heard at Freehold on October 5, 1781. Depositions, including the ones excerpted above, were presented by Freehold Township Magistrate Denice Denice. Court papers document that Laird would not cooperate: "he did not intend to have anything to do in the case & would make no defense." Joseph Thomson, the London Trader who received the cattle, implausibly testified that "he knew nothing of the cattle in question, he does not know how they came to his pasture and had nothing to do with them.” Thomson also said, “He never agreed with Mr. Laird for them [the cattle], Mr. Laird never sold to him.” On cross-examination, Thomson acknowledged that “Mr. Laird told him that he might expect them, and that he [Laird] came to his house very late at night." Thomson inferred that he was receiving cattle for the Army. But John Lloyd testified that "he never gave Joseph Thomson authority to purchase cattle for him.” Other men corroborated details on behalf of the prosecution. James Harbert testified about Cook’s role in the plot: "David Cook asked the defendant whether he drawn any oxen for Mr. Thomson, the defendant answered that he had not, he was then told [by Cook] that Major [Elisha] Walton had seized them and said 'If Thomson will not own them, I will.’” William Johnston testified that "the general character of Mr. Thomson is that of one who carries on commercial intercourse with the enemy." The Freehold jury condemned the oxen to Walton as a valid seizure. William Laird appealed the verdict to the New Jersey Supreme Court based on two arguments: First, because "it does not appear from the evidence of said Justice that any evidence was given to a jury that William Laird or any person acting on his behalf attempted to carry or convey said oxen within the enemy's lines." By working through Thomson, Laird asserted plausible deniability about the intention to trade with the British. Second, "because the capricious conversation of a certain Joseph Thomson were admitted to be given as evidence." Thomson, as a convicted London Trader, was presumably known as a man of bad character whose testimony should have been disregarded by the court and not used against Laird. In the Supreme Court trial, Joseph Thomson, James Harbert, and David Cook testified. Burlington County attorney Bowes Reed represented Laird; William Wilcocks represented Walton. Interestingly, Wilcocks represented John Holmes against Walton in Holmes v Walton in 1779-1780. But in 1781, Wilcocks co-founded the Monmouth County Whig Society —an association devoted to preserving the value of paper currency and combating the London Trade. So, Walton was now a logical client. The New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision is not known. The case of Walton v Laird serves as an excellent lens for understanding the dozens of cases like it related to the London Trade—but lacking documentation. Fortunately, because Walton v Laird was escalated to the Supreme Court, the court papers and depositions related to the original trial in Freehold have survived. London trading, and attempts to corral the disaffected farmers who participated in it, would remain a problem through the end of the war. Related Historic Site : Allen House Sources : New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Cases, microfilm reel 24707, Laird v. Walton; Michael Adelberg, “Destitute of Almost Everything to Support Life: The Acquisition and Loss of Wealth in Revolutionary Monmouth County” in The American Revolution in New Jersey (Rutgers University Press: 2015). Previous Next