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 > William Clark and the Raritan Bay Horse Thieves by Michael Adelberg Horse theft was a capital crime during the Revolutionary War. This sketch from Pennsylvania shows a posse chasing a horse thief. William Clark led a gang that took dozens of horses. - May 1781 - There is little known about William Clark’s early life. While an antiquarian source claims he was from Dover Township, his father (Dr. William Clark) was a physician in Middletown Township. So, William Clark (Jr.) likely grew up in Middletown. Perhaps he lived in Dover Township before the war—but he is not listed as owning land in the 1773 tax list for that township. His wife and children were in Middletown by the middle years of the war. The Clarks of Middletown were disaffected from the Revolution (another Clark family from Freehold Township solidly supported the Revolution). Dr. Clark was accused of illegally trading with the British in early 1777 and jailed in Freehold until November when he petitioned for his release. Dr. Clark’s 1779 estate was only 13 acres and one head of livestock—a very modest estate. Dr. Clark was likely a physician to prominent disaffected families along the Raritan Bayshore, such as Kearney’s of Keyport and Amboy. As their fortunes dropped, so did Dr. Clark’s. William Clark (Jr.) was also disaffected. His wife, Mary Tilton, was from a disaffected family that included Clayton Tilton, an active Loyalist raider, and other Loyalists. William Clark was arrested for high treason in January 1778 and convicted at the 2nd Court of Oyer and Terminer in June. But in an act of mercy afforded to a young man from a “good” family, he was permitted to sign a pledge of good behavior, post a bond, and was released. The Raritan Bay Horse Thieves The earliest documentation of robberies committed by Clark is a January 1782, New Jersey Supreme Court record that discusses a robbery committed by four Clark family members in January 1780. Elizabeth Pritchard was robbed of £29 of household goods and livestock by a gang consisting Nicholas Clark, Robert Clark, Andrew Clark, and James Clark. Two years later, the gang was convicted of trespass and breaking & entering "for taking away and conveying her goods & chattels to very great damage." The Raritan Bay Horse Thieves are discussed in a June 1780 report printed in a New York newspaper. The New York Packet reported: On the 19th instant, three spies and horse thieves were hanged at Headquarters near Morristown; they were taken in Monmouth County by some of our militia. The gang consisted of five, one was killed, and another made his escape. They were harbored by a Quaker, who is now in custody, and it is expected that he will in a few days receive the reward his conduct deserves. The prisoners were William Hutchinson, John Clawson, and Lewis Lacey. Lacey was from a modest Middletown family. Hutchinson and Lacey were from families that included other Loyalists. Horse thieves were particularly detested in agrarian America because horses were essential to working the farm and transporting people. The New Jersey Legislature specifically enumerated horse theft as a capital offense; the theft of other animals was not. Unlike other Loyalist raiders, such as the Black Brigade , the Raritan Bay horse thieves were not linked to “man-stealing” or arson—though stealing horses was a capital crime in its own right. By this time, William Clark was associated with these and other Loyalist irregulars based on Sandy Hook. Clark’s growing infamy prompted Middletown’s magistrate, Peter Schenck, to move against Mary (still residing in Middletown) in May 1781. Schenck wrote Governor William Livingston: I beg leave to request a favor of your Excellency - A certain Mary Clark, with two children, resides in sd township, her husband, William Clark, is on Staten Island. Said woman and children are very good [but] have no means of support to subsist on. She makes an application to the town for support. She may be willing to go to her husband, provided your Excellency permits her passing there; sd Township being overburdened with poor, seek her passage from sd Township over to Staten Island, with her children and what small matter of effects she might have. Schenck noted that people in Middletown wanted to remove Mary Clark for their own safety: We would not trouble your Excellency with sd request did we not conceive it would save the town from great cost and also may be a means of preventing sd [William] Clark, in a great measure, from coming amongst us, as he is a great villain - and has kept many in fear of being taken off by him, amongst which I include myself. While Mary Clark followed a trickle of Loyalist women from Monmouth County into British lines, Dr. Clark, William’s father, remained in Middletown. Deprived of family, he apparently suffered on his undersized estate. In September, the Loyalist New York Gazette reported that Dr. William Clark had died "from rebel cruelty." The specifics of Dr. Clark’s demise are not stated. On June 21, 1781, a massive raiding party of at least 1,000 men marched through Middletown. As the local militia left their posts to resist the incursion, horse thieves on Staten Island took advantage. Asher Holmes, commanding the Middletown militia, reported on June 22 that the prior day: "a party of refugees from Staten Island in boats landed at Shoal Harbor and took eight or ten horses" while the militia was diverted. In July 1781, Silas Condit of the New Jersey Legislature wrote Governor Livingston: We have direct information from N. York and Staten Island, the trade of horse stealing flourishes amazingly, and I think it advisable and for the good of the State to offer a pretty handsome reward for apprehending Caleb Sweezey, Isaac Sweezey, Nathan Horton, junior, James O'Hara, John Moody and there is one Giberson from Monmouth whose Christian name I am not certain of... a number may be carrying on this business with too great success, and I think we ought to give encouragement to such as may take pains to apprehend them, for without it, they are not likely to be taken. Livingston acted on August 8 when he placed bounties on the head’s of four dangerous robbers. On August 15, the New Jersey Journal advertised Livingston’s bounties: $200 on the heads of Caleb Sweezey, O'Hara, Moody, and Guisebert Giberson for their "atrocious offenses, diverse robberies, thefts and other felonies." A bounty was not put on Clark’s head. Perhaps this was because Clark was not tied to a specific violent act or because of the higher social status of his family. But his father was “suffering” in Middletown at this time—probably from extra-legal retaliation . The precise crimes of the men with bounties are not listed in surviving documents, but, for some, it may have been a combination of robberies committed along the Atlantic shore (as part of Pine Robert gangs ) and activity as a Raritan Bay horse thief. It is easy to imagine that a Pine Robber, while delivering taken goods to Sandy Hook and Staten Island, joining a group of thieves forming to raid Middletown and taking horses. Clark’s Dover Township ties make this that much more likely. The bounties coincided with quick actions against three Loyalists: Caleb Sweezey was promptly caught and convicted of counterfeiting, but escaped from the Monmouth County jail on September 4. He was indicted for murder in 1782 but never caught. James O’Hara was killed by a posse on August 8 (the same day that Livingston signed the bounty order). John Moody was the brother of the famous Loyalist partisan, James Moody. He was caught and jailed; he was hanged November 21. Interestingly, the bounty on Guisebert Giberson was a mistake. On October 9, the bounty on his head was rescinded and placed on the head of his nephew, the Pine Robber leader, William Giberson. Other horse thieves penetrated deep into Monmouth County. On November 2, Major Elisha Walton (a leading Retaliator and the antagonist to disaffected residents in the landmark Holmes v Walton litigation) was robbed of a horse, taken from his farm near Freehold. He offered a £3 reward for the return of the horse and an £10 reward "for the horse & thief." The thieves were likely John Thomson and Joshua Pierce. The New Jersey Gazette reported on December 19: John Thomson and Joshua Pierce were convicted of horse stealing and robbery, Richard Bell of Robbery, and were all sentenced to be hanged on Saturday last, -- We hear that Thomson and Pierce were executed accordingly, but that Bell was respited for a few days. Prior to their hanging, Chief Justice David Brearley (of Upper Freehold) recommended a pardon for Pierce “on account of his youth.” But the recommendation was apparently not acted upon. The Raritan Bay horse thieves likely participated in two February 1782 raids into northern Monmouth County—one against Pleasant Valley and the other against Colts Neck. The first of these raids resulted in the capture of several men, nineteen horses and five sleighs of plunder. The second raid featured, according to the New Jersey Gazette , “sundry sorties upon the sheep and the calves, making great numbers of them prisoner.” It is unknown if Clark, himself, participated in either raid. As is so often the case with outlaws, William Clark was finally caught. On July 3, 1782, the New York Gazette , printed a June 20 letter: William Clarke, the noted horse thief, is no more. He was shot somewhere in the vicinity of Woodbridge on one of his customary excursions. This man was an early refugee from Jersey, and has since the Fall of 1776 taken off upwards of one hundred valuable horses from the County of Monmouth, and other counties, for which he found ready sale on Long Island and New York. He had eluded the strictest vigilance of our guards and scouts for upwards of five years, although it is pretty certain he passed at least half that time within our lines. According to the letter, Clark was lured into an ambush by a "friend" who informed him that two horses were available for easy taking, while a militia party laid in wait. Clark was killed with an associate "one Miers, of the same profession." An antiquarian source claims that Clark led at least a dozen raids from Sandy Hook and Staten Island and "stole upwards of one hundred valuable horses which he sold to the Royal Army." Another antiquarian source discussed the “Raritan Cowboys” (a gang of Loyalist horse thieves) without specifically naming Clark. Perspective Surviving documents do not well detail the Staten Island-based Loyalists who raided Monmouth and Middlesex Counties for horses. A direct connection between these men and other Loyalist irregulars—including the Pine Robber gangs of the Jersey shore—is undocumented. While Clark focused on the Raritan Bayshore of Monmouth and Middlesex counties while the Pine Robber gangs of 1781-1782 laired fifty miles south, they may have had links. William Clark had contacts in Dover Townships (a center of Pine Robber activity) and the August 1781 bounties put out by Governor Livingston include men who were probably associated with both Raritan Bay horse thieves and the Pine Robbers. Only a handful of the specific horse robberies of the Raritan Bay horse thieves are documented. The sad reality is that there was so much violence and kidnapping in Monmouth County in 1781 and 1782 that the robbery of a horse, of itself, was not newsworthy. As such, the activities of Clark and his associates weew vastly under-reported. While the claim that Clark was involved in the theft of “upwards of one hundred” horses is likely exaggerated, it is probable that he was involved in the theft of at least few dozen or more. This would have made Clark and his colleagues a very real threat to the people of northern Monmouth County and coastal Middlesex County. Related Historic Site : Kearney Cottage Sources : Summons Clark and John Schenck (role unknown), NJ State Archives, NJ Supreme Court Collection, Case # 29412; New York Packet article printed in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 407; William Nelson, Austin Scott, et al., ed., New Jersey Archives (Newark, Somerville, and Trenton, New Jersey: 1901-1917) vol. 4, p 465; Peter Schenck to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 14, May 22, 1781; Silas Condict to Willaim Livingston, Susan Burgess Shenston, So Obstinately Loyal, James Moody (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000) p 119; David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 203; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Asher Holmes to William Livingston, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 224-5; Kenneth Scott, Rivington's New York Newspaper: Excerpts from a Loyalist Press, 1773-1783 (New York: New York Historical Society, 1973) p 273; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Thomas Wilson, Notices from New Jersey Newspapers, 1781-1790 (Hunterdon House, 1820) p 17; David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 214; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Information on Clark and other horse thieves is in Michael Adelberg, Biographical File, unpublished at the Monmouth County Historical Association. 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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 Capture and Murder of Philip White by Michael Adelberg In March 1782, a party of Loyalist raiders were captured by mounted State Troops. One prisoner, Philip White, was provoked into trying an escape. His guards hunted and killed him. - March 1782 - Before the war, Philip White lived near Long Branch with his wife, Jane Miers, whom he married in 1773. Like many Quakers on the Monmouth shore, White did not support the Revolution. In late 1776, he participated in Samuel Wright’s Loyalist association and in June 1778 he was convicted of guiding a British officer to Philadelphia while the British held the city. Two of Philip’s three brothers, Vincent White and Aaron White, were also active Loyalists. The third brother, Wiliam White, went behind British lines as well—but he did not take up arms. Philip White is listed in the 1779 Shrewsbury Township tax rolls as a “householder” owning no livestock—meaning he lived in a small house with no appreciable amount of land. White was listed as “unfit” or delinquent on militia returns into 1780. Sometime in 1780, White went behind British lines. He served on a Loyalist privateer—a genealogical source claims it was Hero’s Revenge , a three-swivel boat later captained by the Pine Robber leader, John Bacon. White guided the Loyalist party that killed John Russell, Sr., in April 1780. White also participated in the so-called London Trade . On March 28, 1782, White smuggled goods to New York and then returned to Sandy Hook where he joined with a small party of Loyalist partisans. They landed at Long Branch on March 30 and skirmished with militia. It would be his last action. The Death of Philip White The New Jersey Gazette reported on the death of Philip White on April 15: On the 30th of March last, he [White] was surprised by a party of our people, and after he had laid down his arms in a token of surrendering himself a prisoner, he again took up his musket and killed a son of Coll. [Daniel] Hendrickson; he was however taken again by our Light Horse, and on his way from Colts Neck to Freehold, he again attempted to make his escape from the guard, who called on him several times to surrender, but he continued running, often crossed and re-crossed by the Light Horse, and finally, when leading into a bog impassable by the horse, he received a stroke in the head from the sword, which killed him instantly. The above facts have not only been proved by the affidavits of our friends who were present, but by the voluntary and candid testimony of Aaron White, who was taken prisoner with said Philip White. Fifteen leading Monmouth Countians, including rivals such as Colonel David Forman and Colonel Asher Holmes, attested to the accuracy of the account: Colonel David Forman, Assemblyman John Covenhoven, Assemblyman Thomas Seabrook, Judge Peter Forman, Magistrate Richard Cox, Captain Joseph Stillwell, Captain Barnes Smock, Captain John Schenck, Colonel Samuel Forman, Attorney William Wilcocks, Colonel Asher Holmes, Major Elisha Walton, Captain Stephen Fleming, Lt. Colonel John Smock, Captain Thomas Chadwick Philip White’s brother, Aaron, was taken prisoner with Philip, but the two men were separated. Aaron White, while a prisoner in the Monmouth County jail, was visited by David Forman and gave a deposition. Aaron White recalled landing with “Philip White, John Fennimore, Jeremiah Bell, Robert Howell & Negro Moses.” (A second document claimed the party consisted of “Aaron White, John Fennimore, Negro Moses, John Worthly and one [Negro] Isaac.") Aaron White claimed the Loyalists scattered a small militia guard at Long Branch, after which "they pursued one Thomas Berkeley, with whom they had been engaged.” While pursuing Berkley, “the Light Horse [state troops under Captain John Walton] came down and the deponent and the said Philip White were made prisoners." Aaron White deposed that he was separated from Phillip and sent toward Freehold. He then stated: The deponent was told by one of the guards that Philip White was running away; that the deponent looked back and saw the Light Horsemen in pursuit of something... that Lt. Rhea and George Brindley left the deponent under guard of two men, and ran their horses back toward the place the others were pursuing; that the deponent afterwards understood that it was Philip White they were pursuing, and that he was killed. An April 14 petition from Monmouth County, protesting the murder of retaliatory execution of Joshua Huddy, asserted that White was killed because he ran away: "As a guard was conducting White to the gaol, the said White, while attempting to make an escape, was killed by his guards." Depositions were taken from Philip White’s three mounted guards—John Russell, John North, William Borden. The guards claimed that they crossed in front of White to block his escape. Borden further deposed that White continued to run even after taking several blows: Said Philip White jumped off his horse and on passing a fence next to the woods, the deponent fired and shot him through the body, the said Philip White fell, but recovered and attempted to get into the woods, upon which he turned and threw himself into a bog, where the said John North gave him a stroke with his sword; the deponent struck him with the butt end of his carbine, and he still continued to run until he was struck again by the said John North. John North agreed and added, he "left his horse and dropped his gun and pursued with a drawn sword... gave him a stroke across the face with the sword, upon which he [White] fell, cried that he was a dead man, [but] he continued to run to the last moment." Russell added that he "gave him [White] a slight wound in the forehead." This might have been the provocation that started White running. Forman submitted his own statement on White's death: The subscriber was present at the village of Freehold when the body of the refugee named Philip White was brought up - That I went to the wagon and saw the corpse. The guard attending it showed me the gunshot in his breast, also the cuts from a sword on his face. At the time the corpse appeared to be laid with as much decency as could be. Forman disputed charges of excessive violence. He saw no “wounds to his arms or legs --neither did I ever hear that his arms had been cut off or legs broken.” The Murder of Philip White Philip White's brother, Aaron, escaped jail in Freehold and made it to New York. He gave a deposition on his brother’s death as evidence in the court martial of Richard Lippincott (tried for the murder of Joshua Huddy). Aaron White “was laying off Long Branch in a Schooner, waiting for Philip White & [Negro] Moses, that were landed there the day before.” Aaron came ashore. He recalled that Philip and Moses killed “one of the Rebel Horse” (the son of Colonel Hendrickson). But his brother and Moses “made their escape by getting into Swamps.” Aaron White then recalled his and Philip’s capture: [He] was the first taken prisoner, when George Brinley, one of the Rebel Horse came up to him and swore they would put him to Death unless they caught Philip White or Moses, they soon after took Phil. White, when the said George Brindley came up to him and told him he would be damned if he should go alive to Freehold—Moses fortunately escaped. Aaron White was put “in the Waggon with Hendrickson’s corpse” and Philip White was put on a horse and separated. The guards “threatened and abused” Philip and said they “wou’d murder him before they got to Freehold.” Three new guards, “John North John Russel and William Burden took charge of him, and kept him far in the Rear.” Aaron White heard “George Brinley’s declaring he [Philip] shou’d not go alive to Freehold” as the distance grew between them. Aaron then heard his guards exclaim “that P. White was making his escape” and “that after several of these declarations, they run their Horses back to the Guard in the Rear—soon returned and said P. White was killed.” Aaron White stated that while he was “confined in Freehold Gaol,” Philip White’s first guard, Robert Clayton, told him “if they had not removed him [Philip] from out of his charge, he would have brought him safe to Freehold.” Another guard, Moses Mount, said “that if Hendrickson had not been killed, White would not have been murdered.” Aaron White recalled being visited by David Forman, who “wanted him to make Oath that Philip White was making his escape when killed.” Forman pressured Aaron White to state that Philip White attempted an escape. Aaron replied: He never saw him [Philip] endeavor to make his escape, and that he wou’d suffer death before he would make such an oath—Forman than asked him if he had not confessed to the Guard, that he saw him [Philip] running when killed—he replyed that he had acknowledged it, from apprehension that he would have been Murdered himself did he not acknowledge it. Aaron White claimed the statement he gave Forman was void because Aaron never had a chance to “read the affidavit” and only a part of it was “read back to him.” After Aaron White escaped, “he saw several of his friends who all informed him that Philip White was designedly most inhumanly and savagely murdered which this deponent verily believes to be true." (The deposition is in the appendix.) Captain Clayton Tilton was an Associated Loyalist taken separately from the White brothers. He testified at Richard Lippincott’s court martial about his capture and White’s murder: The rebels, in carrying him to Freehold gaol made a stop at Colts Neck, where Aaron and Philip White were then prisoners; that from the frequent whispers & behavior of the Rebels, it was the deponent's opinion that they intended to murder some of the prisoners. That sometime after the deponent was at Freehold, he was informed that Philip White was put to death, the Rebels alleging he attempted to make an escape. Tilton further testified about Philip White’s mistreatment by the guards. They "plundered Philip White of his stock, shoes & buckles, that they sent Aaron White with a party ahead, and kept Philip White in the rear, and they cruelly & wantonly murdered him." A genealogical source claims that Philip White was “thrown in a pig pen, bound hand and foot, and attempting to crawl away from the pigs, he was beaten and hacked until, through the loss of blood, he died." It is unknown if these details are true. Perspective The key question when considering Philip White’s death is which sources to believe. According to Whig sources (Whigs were people who supported the Revolution), White attempted an escape and refused to break off the attempt even after warnings and woundings. But Whig sources disagree on whether White was killed quickly or first sustained several blows. While the three guards admitted to striking White several times, the petition from Monmouth County leaders two weeks later stated that White “received a stroke in the head from the sword, which killed him instantly.” Loyalist sources state that the guards intended to murder White. They harassed him until he attempted an escape and wounded him several times before ultimately killing him. One of those guards, John Russell, would later admit exacting vigilante justice on Loyalists, stating that he "aided in visiting merited retribution on the refugees for their doings.” The circumstances of White’s death strongly suggest that he was murdered. Philip White’s guards were switched to North, Russel, and Borden; these new guards were all members of the Association for Retaliation —a vigilante society led by David Forman that practiced eye-for-an-eye retaliation . Russell’s father had been murdered two years earlier by a Loyalist party that included White--making White an ideal object for deadly retaliation. If White previously faked a surrender and then shot young Hendrickson, that further antagonized his guards. When White ran, he was unarmed and shot soon after. His guards could have tackled and tied him, but they continued to strike him with swords and gunstocks as he ran. A few days after Philip White’s death, Aaron White escaped from the Monmouth County jail and made it to New York. He told of his brother’s murder. Enraged, the Associated Loyalists, who by now also believed in eye-for-an-eye retaliation , took Joshua Huddy out of prison. Huddy had been captured two weeks earlier at Toms River . They brought Huddy to the Navesink Highlands and hanged him. A note was pinned to Huddy. It proclaimed: “Up goes Huddy for Phil White.” Related Historic Site : National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey Appendix: The Deposition of Aaron White Regarding the Death of Philip White Aaron White a Loyalist from Monmouth, deposeth and saith—That on Saturday the 30th day of March he was laying [too] off Long Branch in a Schooner, waiting for Philip White & Moses, that were landed there the day before. That this deponent saw them engaged with a party of the Rebel horse, that he instantly landed and went to their assistance. That Hendrickson, one of the Rebel Horse was killed, and that they were in pursuit of the others—when the Rebels were Reinforced by a considerable party of Horse, that this deponent with the others fled in their turn and endeavoured to make their escape by getting into Swamps, that this deponent was the first taken prisoner, when George Brinley one of the Rebel Horse came up to him and swore they would put him to Death unless they caught Philip White or Moses. They soon after took Phil. White, when the said George Brindley came up to him and told him he wou’d be damned if he should go alive to Freehold—Moses Foe fortunately escaped being taken, that they were carried under Guard to Colts neck, (this deponent in the Waggon with Hendricksons Corps—and P. White on Horse back at the tail of the Waggon) about 12 Miles from the place they were first taken at—and there halted untill the Commanding Officer with the remainder of the Horse came up. That they were here, threatened and abused, and Philip White frequently observed to this deponent that the Rebels wou’d murder him, before they got to Freehold, that this deponent was hurried in the Waggon, That Philip White’s Guard was changed and that John North John Russel and Willm Burden took charge of him, and kept him far in the Rear—That this deponent then verily believed from the Rebels changing P. White’s Guard—from George Brinleys declaring he shou’d not go alive to Freehold from their frequent other declarations to this purport, and from their keeping him at such a distance in the Rear, that they intended murdering him—This deponent further saith that David Rhea and George Brinley stopt with the Waggons in which he was a Prisoner when the main body of the Horse passed the Waggon—That they frequently looked back and exclaimed that P. White was making his escape—That after several of these declarations they run their Horses back to the Guard in the Rear—soon Returned and said P. White was killed—This deponent reply’d you are Joaking—they replied no by God he was Killed—And asked this deponent if he did not see him endeavor to make his escape, his own safety occasioned his acquiesing—That this deponent was confined in Freehold Goal—That Robert Clayton one of the Rebel horse, and the very person who first had charge of Philip White, told this deponent if they had not Removed him from out of his charge, he would have brought him safe to Freehold—that Moses Mount, another of the Rebel horse informed this deponent, that if Hendrickson had not been killed, White would not have been Murdered and this deponent further saith, that during his confinement Genl David Forman came to him and wanted him to make Oath that Philip White was making his escape when Killed—That he told Genl Forman that he never saw him endeavor to make his escape, and that he wou’d suffer death before he would make such an oath—Forman than asked him if he had not confessed to the Guard, that he saw him running when killed—he replyed that he had acknowledged it, from apprehension that he would have been Murdered himself did he not acknowledge it—And this deponent further saith that General Forman Qualified him relative to the time they left new York, when & when they landed, the Circumstances of the Engagement with the Horse—and the manner of their being taken—That he never Read the affidavit—and that no more of it was Read, to this deponent than what Related to the above circumstances And this deponent further saith that after his escape from Freehold Goal—he saw several of his Friends who all informed him that Philip White was designedly most inhumanly and Savagely Murdered which this deponent verily believes to be true." Sources : Dorothy Martin, Kathleen McIntosh, The History of the White Family (New Brunswick: Lancelot Press, 1977); James Green’s Company Muster Roll, New Jersey Historical Society, Holmes Family Papers, box 5, folder 4; Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Rnolution, 2 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1864), vol. 2, pp. 421-2; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v5, p322-5; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v5, p322-5; To George Washington from James Robertson, 1 May 1782,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-08307 ; Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 61; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 171, item 152, vol. 10, #479-84 and #485-509; Library of Congress, Richard Lippincott Court Martial, reel 1, #158-65; Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 62-3; New Jersey Gazette excerpted in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 420; Affidavits printed in Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 63-4; James E. White, History of the White Family (St. John, New Brunswick: Barnes & Co., 1906), p4-7. 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 > First Skirmish at Sandy Hook by Michael Adelberg Caption: The HMS Asia was among the first British warships to anchor off Sandy Hook. A party of men from the ship were surprised and captured on the peninsula in April 1776. - April 1776 - On April 7, the British Navy disembarked and subsequently occupied the undefended Sandy Hook peninsula. In retrospect, it seems a grave oversight that Continental and New Jersey authorities had not sought to garrison the strategically important peninsula. Those same authorities quickly sought to lessen that error by harassing the British. With large British warships anchored toward the northern end of Sandy Hook, the British must have felt secure in their ownership of the Hook. An April 16 letter from New York’s Royal Governor William Tryon, now at Sandy Hook, suggested as much. But on April 23, a party of sailors from the Asia was attacked while inside the Sandy Hook lighthouse. A New Jersey militia detachment surprised the sailors and captured them. While one source suggests that the militia captured 35 men, that seems to be an exaggeration. A more sober narrative of the event published in the New York Journal numbered the British party at sixteen. A report published in the Pennsylvania Evening Post on April 27 was more complete: We hear from Sandy Hook that sixteen men from one of the ships of war, having landed there in order to get some water, had all got into the upper room of the Light House where they were carousing; when a party of the New Jersey militia surprised them, and taking away the lower part of the stairs, made all them prisoners, burnt their boat and filled up the well. A Swedish officer, Hans Fredrick Wachmeister, serving aboard the Phoenix, recorded the attack on the British sailors and the efforts to relieve them, in his journal: “We sent our boats to assist the Asia 's watering boat, which the enemy with a swarm of boats, was attempting to attack, but which they ceased once we arrived." Captain George Vandeput of the Asia , probably embarrassed by the incident, provided only a minimal mention of the incident: "The rebels attacked our watering sloop." Wachmeister provided an additional detail on the attacking militia that would foreshadow the coming maritime warfare around Sandy Hook. He noted the militia attacked via oar-powered whaleboats: These boats are called whaleboats, are armed in the bow with a rather long gun of an inch and a half in caliber [swivel gun] and carry eight or ten men with muskets. They are rowed with ease, are built of good timber, but are not very strong. Whaleboats had been used by Lord Stirling during the capture of the Blue MountainValley three months earlier; they would remain the favorite vessel of sheltered-water privateers and local militia parties. The identity of the militia party that surprised the British sailors is unknown. However, there is no documentation that indicates that the Monmouth militia took this bold action. As noted elsewhere, the Monmouth militia, at this time, was largely dysfunctional due to disloyalty and many of its militia companies probably would have refused to instigate combat with the Royal Navy. It seems more likely that the militia involved were from Essex County. Four months earlier, Essex militia, in whale boats, had captured the British vessel, Blue Mountain Valley just south of Sandy Hook. The Essex militia had the whaleboats, experience, and bravado to land on Sandy Hook and capture the British sailors. The capture of the British party at the lighthouse embarrassed the British and this forced a reaction. Captain Hyde Parker of the frigate, Phoenix , on guard at Sandy Hook, immediately took steps to better protect Sandy Hook. This included permanently stationing an armed party in the light house. He reported to his superior, Vice Admiral to Molyneux Shuldham, on April 29, that he had "put the Light House in a state of defense." Parker’s defensive measures would soon be tested by a Continental Army attack on the lighthouse. Related Historic Site : Sandy Hook Lighthouse Sources : Howard Peckham, The Toll of Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) p 16; The Library Company, Pennsylvania Evening Post; William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 4, p 1253; William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 4, pp. 1310-3; Gustav Johnson, "Two Swedes under the Union Jack," Swedish-American Historical Quarterly, vol. 7 (1956), pp. 100-1; William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 5, p 203. 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 > British and Loyalist Raid of Tinton Falls and Shoal Harbor by Michael Adelberg On April 26, 1779, a 750-men British-Loyalist raiding party landed at Red Bank and Leonardo. They came from Sandy Hook in flat-bottom boats that landed large numbers of men onto beaches. - April 1779 - On April 12, 1779, thirty Shrewsbury Township Loyalist estates were confiscated and sold at a public auction. As discussed in prior articles, this ensured permanent enmity with Loyalists behind British lines. In addition, a regiment of Maryland Continentals sat exposed in Shrewsbury Township. The confluence of rising Loyalist anger and an attractive military target set the stage for a large and punishing raid. Newspaper Accounts of the Raid The first newspaper of this raid was printed in the Loyalist New York Gazette on April 28. It reported: 650 of the Royal Army under the command of Col. Hyde [West Hyde], fell down to Sandy Hook, the next morning [April 26] at 2 o'clock, the Colonel with one division landing at Shoal Harbor, four miles east of Middletown, pushed to that place, in which a rebel detachment was supposed to be posted, but had been withdrawn the evening before. The other under Capt. Ferguson [Patrick Ferguson] landed the same morning six miles on the opposite side of Middletown, and advanced to Shrewsbury where a battalion of Continental troops were quartered, but from the difficulty of navigation could not land before day, [so] the rebel battalion escaped with the loss of between 20 & 30 prisoners. The report went on to note that provisions were taken by both raiding parties. "In the afternoon, the whole assembled” and marched back to their boats “during which the enemy effected to follow & harass their rear.” The raiders took with them “several deserters…and some obnoxious persecutors of the Loyal subjects.” Casualties were light: one dead, one wounded. On May 5, the New Jersey Gazette printed its version of the raid. It generally corroborated the Loyalist account but offered additional important details. For example, it noted that “Colonel Ford with the Continental troops retired to Colts Neck.” It also described “the constant fire upon” the raiders maintained by Colonel Asher Holmes (with 60 Monmouth militia) and a 12-man party of New Jersey Continentals under Captain John Burrowes. The report also discussed robberies and arson: “they plundered the inhabitants and burnt several houses and barns.” The New Jersey Gazette disagreed with the New York Gazette on the size of the raiding party (800 men vs. 650 men) and the British/Loyalist casualty count (three dead and fifteen wounded vs. one dead and one wounded). The New Jersey Gazette omitted mention of New Jersians going off with the raiders. Versions of the New Jersey Gazette report were re-printed in newspapers as far off as New Hampshire. The complete New Jersey Gazette report is in the appendix of this article. Interestingly, the Maryland Gazette provided a more detailed account of the raid (probably informed by one of Ford’s officers). It noted that Ferguson’s men were discovered landing at Red Bank “by a scouting party of Col. Ford's” who alarmed Tinton Falls in time for Ford to narrowly escape by getting out “about four hundred yards ahead of them [the raiders].” The Maryland account also noted that Ferguson sent a 40-man party into the village of Shrewsbury and listed the owners of the burnt houses at Tinton Falls: Sheriff Nicholas Van Brunt, Colonel Daniel Hendrickson, Captain Richard McKnight, and Magistrate John Little, but McKnight’s and Little’s houses were saved "by the activity of our people." It was also noted: That the enemy plundered all the way to Col. Breeze's [Samuel Breese] whom they robbed of all his money and most of his plate, and at Justice Holmes's [Josiah Holmes] they robbed and plundered everything. The report also mentioned that “the enemy carried off with them Justice Covenhoven [Peter Covenhoven] and son, likewise several others” and “some cattle and horses." Finally, this Maryland account said Asher Holmes resisted with “140 militia who drove them to their boats,” rather than 60, suggested by the New Jersey Gazette . British/Loyalist Accounts of the Raid West Hyde's report on the raid to General Henry Clinton provides important additional details. His party, consisting of 200 Highlanders and 120 New Jersey Volunteers , landed at Shoal Harbor (present-day Leonardo) while “Capt. Ferguson [Patrick Ferguson] with 450 of the detachment… proceeded with utmost expedition for Shrewsbury.” While acknowledging that Ford’s Continentals “made their escape,” Ferguson “came up with their rear guard of which he took between 20 & 30 prisoners & some baggage.” Hyde admitted to burning homes but said his men only “destroyed several houses used as public stores”—it is doubtful that every burned home was a public store. Hyde discussed his march on Middletown. He “landed between 2 and 3 in the morning at Shoal Harbor, 4 miles from Middletown & marched directly hither” in the incorrect belief that a Continental regiment was camped there. He “remained there until one in the afternoon when Capt. Ferguson joined the detachment.” They marched for their boats at the Navesink Highlands “after allowing the men to refresh themselves.” By this time, the parties of Captain Burrowes and Colonel Holmes had arrived: A few of the rebel militia had assembled during our stay in Middletown & followed us on our return & effected to harass our rear, but from the judicious disposition of our rear guard, under Capt. Ferguson, he kept them at so respectful a distance that only one man of the Royal Highland Regiment was killed & one of Barton's Jersey Volunteers wounded. General Clinton summarized the raid on May 5. He wrote that the “exposed position” of Ford’s men prompted the raid and that “a change in the weather” slowed the raid and allowed Ford to escape—a detail not reported elsewhere and probably not fully true. Clinton praised Colonel Hyde for leading the raid "tho' he had the King's permission to return to Europe.” He also praised Ferguson as “a very active & zealous officer." William Smith, a prominent Loyalist attorney in New York, also wrote of the raid: 750 men under Col. Hyde of the guards landed in Monmouth near Middletown, took between 20 and 30 prisoners, and burnt a mill and two or three houses… it was said that they were to take a party of 300 troops posted to prevent access to Monmouth farmers with this town. Continental and New Jersey Accounts of the Raid Two officers, Ford and Burrowes (stationed at Middletown Point with twelve men), wrote accounts of the raid. As might be expected, Ford acquitted himself of any blame. He noted that at 4:30 a.m. “a body of the enemy effected a landing at red bank, about one mile from Shrewsbury, my patrol fired on them but being small did little or no execution.” On learning of the raid, "I immediately detached Capt Beale with 30 men to observe their movements & retard them in their march towards Tinton Falls.” Ford wrote that he planned to make a stand at Tinton Falls: We guarded the bridge before them, where I intended to have made a stand, but for the superiority of their numbers, which was as near as I could judge three to one, and on apprehension of their sending a party on my left flank which was by no means secure, I judged it expedient to retreat till a body of militia could be collected. After falling back six miles to Colts Neck, Ford blamed low militia turnout for not counterattacking. He wrote: “the militia have by no means answered my hopes or wishes, not more than 150 if so many has collected.” So, he stayed at Tinton Falls even while detailing considerable destruction: They burnt two dwelling houses belonging to officers of the militia, destroyed everything they could in others, not leaving a single pane of glass in any windows belonging to the people, after committing every wanton act they could, plundered and destroying all the furniture they found. The raiders also drove “all the stock of horses, sheep and cattle they could collect before them.” Ford noted that resistance was offered by a party of his men under Captain Beale and “a few of the militia” which limited the loss of livestock “as the principal part was again retaken.” He acknowledged that Colonel Holmes “collected a party and is hanging on their flanks.” Ford “estimated at 1000 men” as the raiding party’s size. He incorrectly reported that the party was commanded by Courtland Skinner, General of the New Jersey Volunteers. He also suggested that “the party at Shrewsbury amounted to 6 or 700 [under Ferguson],” more than twice the size reported in other sources. Ford downplayed his losses which “does not amount to more than a dozen men missing” – he would later admit to losing 25 men. He picked up two British deserters. John Burrowes wrote Lord Stirling (General William Alexander) of the raid: They got in the village of Middletown at daybreak - another party of them landed at Shrewsbury, near the same time, which went to surprise Coll Ford's command of Continental troops, but he happily got off. I mustered twelve men at 8 o'clock & gave them to understand we were about them - they continued in the village till 3 o'clock, when they began their retreat. Burrowes wrote that he “kept a constant fire for two miles, when Coll Holmes of the militia, with about sixty of his men, reinforced us, then their retreat was somewhat precipitate.” It is improbable that the Burrowes-Holmes party (70-80 men) would have hastened the retreat of the 750-man combined raiding party. Burrowes claimed the raiders had “three dead and fourteen wounded carried on board.” The raiders “wounded one of our men slitely [sic] and taken eight of the inhabitants of this place." Captain William Beatty, serving under Ford at Tinton Falls, wrote briefly about the raid: In the morning before sunrise, we were very near cut off by a party of the British under Major Ferguson, but having a little notice of the enemy's approach, we retreated about 7 miles toward Monmouth Court House [Colts Neck]. I lost all my clothes except what I had on, several other officers shared the same fate. Our loss in men was 22. The enemy left Shrewsbury at 9 o'clock, and the next day we took our posts again. George Washington received Ford’s and Burrowes’ reports and summarized them in two reports to Congress. Beyond facts offered by Ford and Burrowes, Washington suggested that the raiders sought “probably to cut off Colonel Ford's detachment, [and] obtain supplies and plunder the inhabitants.” But Washington also believed that northeast Monmouth County was vulnerable to British occupation: They [the British] may, however, possibly have it in mind to establish a post in that quarter for purposes of encouraging the disaffected, drawing provisions and forage from the adjacent country, and encouraging recruits to their corps of levies. Governor William Livingston also received reports on the raid. He wrote Washington that the raiders behaved “in the most dastardly manner” and retreated “to their very boats before less than one quarter of their number." Livingston continued the narrative that the Burrowes-Holme party vanquished the much larger raiding party in a letter to Anthony Bleeker a few days later: About 70 of our militia have drove between six and 800 British troops from Middletown quite to their boats, & the latter never pretended to take a stand except by just facing about on every advantageous spot & giving one volley, and prosecuting their flight. New Jersey’s Chief Justice, Robert Morris went to Tinton Falls shortly after the raid to rally the locals. He wrote Stirling on May 5 that Ferguson’s raiders were successful because they passed Black Point “under cover of darkness and thickness of fog” without detection. He also noted that Capt. Beale’s 40 men and Asher Holmes's militia did all the fighting during the raid because Ford "was unable to find any ground advantageous” for taking a stand. For his apparent timidity, Morris wrote that "Col Ford is censured by some of the inhabitants for his conduct." No doubt, Morris was understating sentiments about Ford. Morris also wrote of the incomplete damage to the village: On the one hand, "the enemy left the commissary's stores at the Falls inconsiderably injured,” on the other “they burnt every dwelling house within a few yards on each side of them, and committed the most wanton acts of destruction I ever beheld." Benjamin White, a storekeeper at Tinton Falls, wrote of the raiders’ conduct that day: So enraged that they lost their prey, they set fire to the houses and burned and plundered many on their return. I hid most of our dry goods but they broke open the store, robbed us of what they could, filled their canteens with spirits and let the rest run to waste. They had my mare out and were going with her, and while I was tussling with the soldiers, others were plundering my house. The guns left by our troops were broken on a fence, they seemed like wild or mad men. Eliza Chadwick Roberts, daughter of militia captain Thomas Chadwick also described the village: The houses that they had the preceding day left in the peaceable possession of their wives and children now displayed a column of fire... My father saw his habitation tumbling in a mass of flaming ruins... He beheld at a small distance the house of Colonel Hendrickson on fire. All through 1778, George Washington resisted requests to station a regiment of soldiers in northeast Monmouth County. He worried that the regiment might “do rather more harm than good” by serving as an attractive target to larger raiding parties without having the strength to resist them. That is exactly what happened on April 26, even if the raid was likely sparked by the Loyalist estate auctions two weeks earlier. After this raid, Ford’s men stayed in Monmouth County for another month before withdrawing on May 31. When they left, they were not replaced. This left Tinton Falls vulnerable to a smaller but even more punishing raid on June 9. Related Historic Site : Old Mill Inn Appendix New Jersey Gazette, May 5, 1779 : "On the 26th ult the enemy in two divisions landed in the county of Monmouth, one party at Shoal Harbor, which marched to Middletown and got into the village at daybreak; the other went in flat-bottomed boats into the Shrewsbury River, landed at Red Bank, and then proceeded to Tenton [Tinton] Falls. Colonel Ford with the Continental troops retired to Colts Neck. Near the middle of the day the party, which had landed at Shrewsbury, crossed the river and went to Middletown, where both divisions formed a junction. They sent their boats round the bay shore to near Harbert’s plantation, where they had thirteen sloops waiting to take them off. At eight o’clock, Captain Burrows, who had mustered twelve men, gave them to understand that they were surrounded by the militia; they continued in the village until three o’clock, when they began their retreat. Capt. Burrows was then joined by three more men, and kept a constant fire upon them for two miles, when Colonel Holmes of the militia with about 60 of his men, reinforced Capt. Burrows, and then the enemy’s retreat was precipitate; they were drove on board at sun-set and immediately set sail for New York. Their numbers were about 800, commanded by Col. Hyde. We had but two men but slightly wounded. The enemy left three dead behind them, their wounded they carried off as their rear made a stand at every hill, house, and barn in their route. One of our inhabitants says 15 wounded were carried on board. In their progress, or rather flight, they plundered the inhabitants and burnt several houses and barns. Had they landed in the day, or till our militia could be collected to half their numbers (which we reckon sufficient to drub them) they would doubtless have repented their invasion. But ever choosing, like their brother thieves, the hours of darkness, they generally land in the night and before the militia can be collected, flee to their vessels with precipitation, snatching up in their flight what plunder they can, and then blazon away in their lying Gazettes; turning one of their sheep stealing nocturnal robberies into one of the Duke of Marlborough’s victories at Flanders." Sources : Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Frank Moore, The Diary of the American Revolution, 1775-1781 (New York: Washington Square Press, 1967) pp. 356-7; Howard Peckham, The Toll of Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) p 59; William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971) pp. 97-8; John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 14, pp. 443, 456, 462, 465; Judith M. Olsen, Lippincott, Five Generations of the Descendants of Richard and Abigail Lippincott (Woodbury, N.J.: Gloucester County Historical Society, 1982) pp. 159-61; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 168, item 152, vol. 7, #275-7; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 169, item 152, vol. 7, #283-4; Henry Clinton to Lord Germain, William Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, vol. 57; George Washington to Congress, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 57, April 26, 1779; David C. Munn, comp., Battles and Skirmishes of the American Revolution in New Jersey (Trenton, N.J.: Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Geology, 1976) pp. 91-3; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 57, April 26, 1779; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 87; William Beatty, "Journal of Captain Wiliam Beatty of the Maryland Line, 1776-1781", Historical Magazine, 2nd Series, 1867, pp 117; Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion; Sir Henry Clinton's Narrative of His Campaigns, 1775-1782, with an Appendix of Original Documents (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1971) p 123; Maryland Gazette, Library of Congress, May 7, 1779; William Livingston to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 20, 8 April–31 May 1779, ed. Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, pp. 281–282; William Livingston to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 20, 8 April–31 May 1779, ed. Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, pp. 281–282; William Livingston to Anthony Bleeker, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, p 78; Henry Laurens to John Laurens, Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 12, p 428; Autobiography of Eliza Chadwick Roberts, coll. 215, Monmouth County Historical Association; Morris, Robert, “Letters of Chief Justice Morris, 1777–1779,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. 38 (1920), pp. 172-4. 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 > Salt Works Begin on the Monmouth Shore by Michael Adelberg Sketch of a saltwork shows pools for trapping salt water and drying it to brine, and a boiling house for steaming water out of brine. Saltworks needed continual re-supplies of food and wood. - May 1776 - Salt was far more than a seasoning in 18th-century America. Foods, particularly meats, were salted and dried in order to preserve them. A winter-store of food was essential to surviving the long winter and large quantities of salt were essential to creating a winter-store. Soldiers, unable to produce their own food, were particularly dependent upon salt-dried food. Prior to the American Revolution, Americans imported nearly all of their salt from England. In early 1776, a British naval blockade choked off imported salt and Americans experienced a severe salt shortage. For example, in Philadelphia, the price of salt jumped from £2 to £7 a bushel as the boycott of British goods became complete. The Reverend Muhlenberg noted "the people push and jostle each other whenever there is a small quantity of salt to be found." In 1776, American leaders started actively promoting domestic salt making. The Continental Congress passed a resolve encouraging American salt production and one of its delegates authored a booklet on salt-making. Shallow bays, from which salt water could be trapped in drying pans at high tide, were ideal for salt-making. The Monmouth shore was dotted with such bays. On May 28, the New Jersey Provincial Congress passed an act to encourage salt production, putting "a bounty of 1/3 a dollar per bushel upon all such salt... manufactured within one year of the date hereof.” It also granted militia-service exemptions to salt work owners with "500 gallons of boiling vessels" or more. But it was neighboring Pennsylvania that was first to establish a large salt making project on the Jersey shore. Establishing the Pennsylvania Salt Works On May 31, the Pennsylvania Convention (its new legislature), considered a proposal from an entrepreneur, Thomas Savadge, to establish a large salt works on the Jersey shore. On June 12, the committee charged with considering the proposal reported favorably: The Committee appointed to take into consideration the proposals of Thomas Savadge regarding the making of salt, &c., reported that they had examined the plan of said Thomas Savadge for making annual on the sea-coast about sixty thousand bushels, and are of the opinion that the said works may be completed in a short time, at an expense to exceeding two thousand five hundred pounds. The committee recommended that the project go forward but noted that private investment would be needed to supplement any public investment. On July 19, the Pennsylvania Council of Safety provided Savadge with a L400 advance to begin work. Interestingly, Savadge was already in New Jersey, and he had already spent more than his advance on the purchase of land near Toms River. Historian Harry Weiss wrote that the Pennsylvania Salt Works were "located at Coates Point on the north bank of the Toms River about one-half mile from its junction with Barnegat Bay, and six hundred yards inland." Savadge proceeded to purchase the materials necessary to build a large salt works. He hired laborers and purchased supplies on credit with little regard for his limited funding. In October, he optimistically reported on his progress: “I have nearly completed a boiling house… two drying houses, [and] a mill for the pump." But he also reported a litany of problems that included a lack of funds, laborers leaving every second month for militia service, and the non-delivery of purchased boiling pans. Savadge also noted that the salt works were vulnerable to British attack. The Pennsylvania Council of Safety resolved to advance Savadge more funds and protect the salt works: That an officer and twenty-five men be sent to the Salt Works at Toms River as a guard, and twenty-five spare muskets and two howitzers, and sufficient amount of ammunition to defend in case of attack. The Council of Safety also wrote the Continental Congress to ask the government of New Jersey to help protect the Pennsylvania Salt Works. Dr. Samuel Bard’s and Other Monmouth County Salt Works By August, New Jersey was actively promoting its own salt works. The New Jersey Assembly rolled out a plan to support a salt works owned by Dr. Samuel Bard of Shrewsbury. Bard would receive a L500 loan "for the term of two years without interest." The legislature further agreed to buy all salt produced at $1 a bushel. And the legislature agreed that "if any of the works shall be destroyed by the enemy" the legislature would reimburse Bard for half of his losses. Finally, it offered ten militia exemptions for Bard’s laborers. The plan was approved on September 11. Later that month, the New Jersey Assembly considered the salt works project of William Parker (also of Shrewsbury) and his partners. They requested a loan from the state “on easy terms.” On October 5, the legislature passed "An Act to Encourage William Parker & Others to Erect Salt Works." Loan terms included a provision that the loan would convert to a grant if the salt works were producing three bushels of salt a day within 90 days, and 50% loan forgiveness if the salt works were destroyed by the enemy. Interestingly, Bard and Parker would flirt with disaffection throughout the war, and one of Parker’s partners, Richard Lippincott, would become one of New Jersey’s most notorious Loyalists. Over the next year, several other saltworks started along the present-day Monmouth and Ocean County shore. According to one study that attempted to locate them all, there were nine salt works in total: 1. the mouth of the Shrewsbury River (The River Works, likely owner Samuel Bard); 2. Shark River (name unknown, likely owner William Parker); 3. Brielle bank of the Manasquan River (Union Salt Works , co-owned by David Forman); 4. Squan Inlet (name and owner unknown); 5. Mosquito Cove, north of Toms River (Randolph's Works owned by James Randolph); 6. Toms River (Pennsylvania Salt Works managed by Thomas Savadge); 7. Forked River (name unknown, owned by Samuel Brown); 8. Waretown (name unknown, owned by Trevor Newland); and 9. Tuckerton (name and owner unknown). There were also ten other salt works south of Monmouth County along the New Jersey shore. The two largest salt works, the Pennsylvania Salt Works and the Union Salt Works, would be marred by scandal and destruction from Loyalist attacks. But a number of the smaller salt works steadily produced small quantities of salt. Related Historic Site : Historic Salt Park (Saltville, VA) Sources : Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 225-6; The Library Company, Pennsylvania Ledger, vol. 1, Jan. 1775-Nov. 1776; Peter Force, American Archives, v6: 856; K. Braddock-Rogers, "Salt Works of New Jersey during the American Revolution," Journal of Chemical Education, vol. 15 (December, 1938), p 586; Samuel Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives (Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1902) First Series, vol. 4, p 771; Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the Colony of Pennsylvania, 1767-1776 (Philadelphia: Henry Miller, 1776) p735, 739; Peter Force, American Archives, v1:1297; Library of Congress, J. Turner Coll., Folder - John Hart; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, September 2, 1776, p 3.; Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 235; Samuel Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives (Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1902) First Series, vol. 5, p 55; Weiss cited in Thomas Foster, The Coastal War in Monmouth County, 1778-1782 (MA Thesis, U. of Pennsylvania, 1961), p13-14; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 419; Peter Force, American Archives, 4th series, vol. 3, pp. 182-183; Journals of the Continental Congress, p925-6 ( www.ammem/amlaw/lwdg.html ); Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 6, p 925; C.C. Smith, "Scarcity of Salt During the Revolutionary War", Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc., 1856-7, vol. 15, p224; New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Manuscript Collection, Manuscripts, box 14, #23; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, September 11, 1776, p 8; Journals of the Legislative Council of New Jersey (Isaac Collins: State of New Jersey, 1776) p29-30; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, September 20, 1776, p 17 and September 27, p 23; The Library Company, Acts of the General Assembly of New Jersey, pp. 6-7, 47; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, November 22, 1776, p 42; Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, p 173, 182-4; J. Reuben Clark, Emergency Legislation Passed Before December 1917 Dealing with the Control and Taking of Private Property for the Public Use and Benefit to which is Added a Reprint of Analagous Legislation Since 1775 (Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1918), p501-2; K. Braddock-Rogers, "Salt Works of New Jersey during the American Revolution," Journal of Chemical Education, vol. 15 (December, 1938), p 590. Harold Wilson, The Jersey Shore: A Social and Economic History of the Counties of Atlantic, Cape May, Monmouth, and Ocean (Lewis, 1953) vol. 1, p 171; K. Braddock-Rogers, "Salt Works of New Jersey during the American Revolution," Journal of Chemical Education, vol. 15 (December, 1938), pp. 586-7, 591; Journals of the Continental Congress, American Memory, Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hlawquery.html ; Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 232. 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 > 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 > New Jersey Legislature Investigates the Retaliators by Michael Adelberg In summer 1780, vigilante “Retaliators” seized furniture from the house of John Hartshorne, a leading Shrewsbury Quaker. The Retaliators victimized many other Quakers over the next two years. - September 1780 - On July 1, 1780, a public meeting was held at the Monmouth County Courthouse to officially establish the Association for Retaliation . 435 men signed the articles that established the group—more signatures than compiled on any other Revolutionary Era Monmouth County document. The Retaliators established a nine-man board of directors chaired by Colonel David Forman—a man who was already known for 1.) being a zealous supporter of the Revolution based on senior-level military commissions and civil offices, and 2.) exceeding the authority of those offices. The Retaliators promised eye-for-an-eye retaliation for every act committed against a member. Largely unable to strike at their real enemies (Loyalist raiders sheltered behind lines), the Retaliators looked at the kin of Loyalists within Monmouth County as befitting targets of retaliation. From the moment of their founding, the clique of Freehold leaders who led the group—including Forman, Nathaniel Scudder, and Thomas Henderson—faced accusations that the group’s extra-legal punishments were illegal. They sought to insulate themselves with a law that would authorize their activity. Monmouth Countians Petition the New Jersey Legislature On September 23, 1780, Scudder and Henderson petitioned the New Jersey Legislature for the opportunity to address the Assembly "on matters of the moment in the County of Monmouth." They were admitted and presented a memorial, "praying that a law may be passed to authorize the well-affected inhabitants to retaliate upon the property of the disaffected of said county; and also a copy of an association lately formed and entered into by a number of inhabitants of said county." The Assembly established a committee to consider their request and investigate the Retaliators. However, just two days later, Joseph Salter, a squire from Dover Township, petitioned the Assembly: Setting forth that Captain Green [James Green], with a number of armed men under his command, had forcibly seized and carried away sundry articles of furniture belonging to the said petitioner and John Hartshorne of the same county, under pretense of retaliation; that he had sought redress through the medium of the law without effect, and praying relief. Joseph Salter had participated in the December 1776 Loyalist insurrections . For this, he was brought before General Israel Putnam who decided not to punish him. Later, Salter was brought before the New Jersey Council of Safety —he took a loyalty oath to the New Jersey government and was released. Salter sold off tracts of land along the shore to start saltworks , and was a creditor to the ill-fated Pennsylvania Salt Works . His son, William Salter, however, was a Loyalist living in New York. John Hartshorne was one of the leading Quakers in Monmouth County; as a pacifist, he played no role in the war. He freed his slaves in 1776 and hosted the French Admiral, Charles Henri D’Estaing, when he came ashore in July 1778. Members of his large family were supporters of the Revolution (Richard Hartshorne was the Monmouth Militia’s Paymaster), but other family members were Loyalists (Lawrence Hartshorne was a merchant in New York) or disaffected (Esek Hartshorne refused loyalty oaths to the New Jersey government). There is no evidence that either Joseph Salter or John Hartshorne had committed any crimes; rather, their “crime” in the eyes of the Retaliators was having Loyalist kin. Salter’s petition demonstrated that the Retaliators were practicing extra-legal property confiscations while concurrently petitioning the legislature for a law that would authorize acts already taken. Committee Report on the Retaliators On September 29, the committee established to study the Retaliators presented a scathing report about the group. The report offered six findings. The first four concerned Monmouth County’s defenses. First, the committee expressed sympathy for the people of Monmouth County: The exposed and dangerous situation on the frontiers of Monmouth County, liable to the continual depredations of the enemy, and the great numbers of well affected inhabitants lately captured by them in that quarter are matters highly worthy of the attention of government. Second, the Committee observed that Monmouth County’s best defense was the county’s own militia supplemented by militia from other counties : A prudent disposition of militia force, together with the occasional aid of militia adjoining the frontiers would, with proper and spirited execution, in a great measure, if not entirely, have afforded protection & security to that part of the country. Third, the Committee singled out the need to prevent militia delinquency to strengthen the county’s defenses (Monmouth County was in the midst of a crackdown on militia delinquency): Delinquency of the officers and classes in some of the counties in procuring and forwarding men for that directed service has greatly contravened the good intentions of the legislature, and burdened the militia in that quarter with an over-proportion of the duty. Fourth, the committee called on Governor William Livingston to call out militia from other counties to assist Monmouth County when necessary. The report’s last two findings focused specifically on the Retaliators. Fifth, the Committee declared that: The Association for Retaliation, referred to in the said memorial, is an illegal and dangerous combination, utterly subversive to the law, highly dangerous to the government, immediately tending to create disunion among the inhabitants, directly leading toward anarchy and confusion, and tending to the dissolution of the constitution and government. And, finally, the committee suggested that: The exertions of the associators regularly to enforce laws in that county, and to defend the frontiers against the predatory incursions of the enemy's parties, would have had a much more evident tendency to have produced security for the said county, and safety to the well-affected inhabitants, than any illegal combination whatever. The report was a stinging rebuke of the vigilante acts of the Retaliators. However, the report never explicitly banned the Retaliators. For this reason, James Mott, a Monmouth County Assemblyman (recently exchanged home from capture and an in-law to Joseph Salter) offered an amendment to the report on October 2. Mott sought to add the following sentence: "that the association referred to in the memorial ought to be discountenanced by the legislature as illegal and contrary to the laws of this state." The Assembly declined to add Mott’s language by an 11-14 vote. Monmouth County’s other two Assemblymen, Hendrick Smock and Thomas Seabrook, voted against the new language. Both men had signed the Articles of Association for Retaliation. Had Smock and Seabrook voted with Mott, the resolution would have passed 13-12. The defeat of Mott’s amendment allowed the Retaliators to maintain that the Assembly had only frowned on their group. Their vigilante acts would grow bolder in 1781. Related Historic Site : Shrewsbury Quaker Meeting House Sources : Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, September 23 - October 2, 1780, pp. 270-282; The New Jersey Legislature’s rebuke of the Retaliators is in Larry Gerlach, New Jersey in the American Revolution 1763-1783 A Documentary History (Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1975) p. 399 note 4; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File, unpublished, Monmouth County Historical Association. 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 Disaffection of Edward Taylor by Michael Adelberg With the exception of six months of confinement in Princeton, Edward Taylor lived at his home, Marlpit Hall, throughout the Revolution. Taylor was often punished for opposing the Revolution. - April 1777 - In 1774 and 1775, Edward Taylor was a leader in resisting British policies in Monmouth County. He was a committeeman who was so important to the county’s drive to raise food for the suffering people of Boston that when a thank you note came back from Boston it was addressed to him. In early 1776, Taylor concurrently served in the New Jersey Assembly (aligned with the British government) and the Provincial Congress (aligned with the Continental Congress). Taylor was one of several pre-Revolutionary leaders who historian William Benton labeled “Whig-Loyalists” – men who, like the Whigs of England, who believed the British government needed reform, but remained loyal to the British government and crown. Taylor was a key member of committees that took actions against Loyalists . When his neighbors moved toward supporting a New Jersey Constitution separate from British authority, Edward Taylor broke from them. On June 26, the week before the New Provincial Congress voted to adopt a new constitution, Colonel Abraham Ten Eyck was ordered to apprehend Edward Taylor, his brother, John Taylor, and 24 other New Jerseyans of suspect loyalty. Ten Eyck was further ordered to “keep them under strong guard, and bring before this Congress" and further "deliver them to the keeper of the common gaol at Trenton." At this time, Edward’s nephew, William Taylor, was getting signatures for a petition opposing independence, and Edward’s son, George Taylor, was commanding the militia opposite the British base at Sandy Hook. Edward Taylor laid low for the next several months. There is no evidence that he supported the new Revolutionary government, but also no evidence that he participated in the Loyalist insurrections (though he apparently did not sign a British loyalty oath). When George Taylor switched sides and became the Colonel of Monmouth County’s Loyalist militia and started raiding the county, it became impossible for Edward to lay low. In April, 1777, David Forman, the highest-ranking officer in Monmouth County (concurrently a colonel in the Continental Army and a Brigadier General of the New Jersey Militia) took an interest in Edward Taylor. He visited Taylor in early April and offered him a Loyalty oath to the New Jersey government. Forman gave a deposition on April 14 detailing Taylor’s response: Heard said Edward Taylor say that he had, at two different times, taken the oath of allegiance to the King of Great Britain and he still thinks himself bound by them, and absolutely refused to take on the oaths to the State of New Jersey. That same day, Zephaniah Morris gave a deposition against Edward Taylor regarding a £50 debt: Said deponent, being at work at Edward Taylor 's house in the month of December last, he [Morris] pulled out a sum of Continental money (more than sufficient to have paid the debt to sd Edward Taylor) and this deponent asked said Taylor if he would take the money due to him, to which said Taylor replied he would take the money in the month of March. When Morris returned in March to again pay off the debt in Continental money, "said Taylor replied that he would only take money that would pass in [British occupied] New York." The next day, William Bostwick gave a deposition against Taylor. Bostwick heard Taylor complain in the fall of 1776 "that the mortgage is daily increasing on his estate because two persons from morning to night [are employed] to print Continental money, and he should have only a penny to give his sons.” Henry Segollets also gave a deposition with respect to a debt owed to Taylor: On or about the beginning of December last, this deponent did proffer to Edward Taylor for the full sum owed above, executed by the said Henry Segollets Jr., in Continental currency, and that the said Edward Taylor did refuse to take said money, and that this deponent did a few days after, in the presence of two witnesses, again proffer to said Edward Taylor the money due to said Taylor on the aforesaid note, who still refused to take the money due. Taylor was brought before the New Jersey Council of Safety on April 19 and the evidence against him was heard. Two friends posted £300 bonds for his good conduct and he was released; Taylor also posted bonds for the release of others brought before the New Jersey Council of Safety. He was the lone vote against “purging” Loyalists from the Middletown Baptist meeting . All of these actions demonstrate that Edward Taylor was disaffected from the new government, but not necessarily hostile. However, Taylor would edge closer to participating in hostilities. On May 25, Thomas Seabrook, a major in the militia, learned that Edward Taylor was removing the fence rails from part of his land near the shore. Seabrook presumed that this was being done to allow raiding parties led by his son, George Taylor to penetrate Middletown and escape via Taylor’s land. Thomas Seabrook's son, Stephen Seabrook, confronted Edward Taylor. He reported: I went in company with James Kelsey & we came upon the fence Edward Taylor had cut with the axe [still] in his hand. Upon our coming to him, a conversation began, me & sd Taylor, about the fence and land. I told him it was poor business. Taylor acknowledged he had cut 20 or 30 panel & he would be damned to put it up again. George Taylor's Loyalist party attacked Seabrook's home two weeks later hoping to capture Thomas Seabrook; during the raid, the Loyalists bayoneted Stephen by mistake. For this and perhaps other actions, David Forman moved against Edward Taylor on July 2: Several complaints having been made to me respecting your conduct, particularly acting as a spy amongst us… giving aid to a party of Tories and British, commanded by your son, the late militia Coll. in this county, now a refugee, by which means the party escaped the pursuit of a party of militia sent to attack them. I do therefore enjoin you for the future to confine yourself to your farm at Middletown, and do not attempt re-attempt to travel the road more than crossing it to go to your land on the north side of said town. It is unclear if Forman, who held only military commissions, had authority to impose house-arrest on Edward Taylor, especially when the New Jersey Council of Safety was actively trying and punishing New Jerseyans for similar offenses. Perhaps Forman, who had battled George Taylor’s raiding parties at least twice, was seeking revenge on the Taylor family. Aggrieved, Edward Taylor protested his treatment to the New Jersey Legislative Council (the Upper House of Legislature) later that July: I was sent for to appear before the commanding officer, Mr. Forman, and made a prisoner, which charges made against are entirely unjust. I am as innocent as an unborn child.... Tho' innocent I strictly obey the orders of confinement which is a considerable damage to me in my business, having a grist mill two or three miles from where I live, and nobody but the servants of my own house to attend her, who I cannot trust without being there, which occasions my mills to stand idle the chief part of the time. There is no evidence that the New Jersey Legislative Council acted on Taylor’s petition. Meanwhile, Taylor suffered harassment from neighbors. In 1778, he testified that in November, 1777: Daniel Bray, John Bray and George Johnson came to my house… to take the horse, which Daniel Bray broke the lock and not finding the horse in the stable, went to the field and took the horse from the Negro, where he was at work. When Taylor protested the confiscation of his horse, "said George Johnson abused me very much.” That same month, the New Jersey Council considered Taylor’s disaffection and compelled him to post a £1,000 bond and accept confinement in Princeton until the Monmouth County courts could convene and consider his offenses (the county courts had stopped meeting in 1776): Edward Taylor shall continue within one mile of the City of Princeton & not to go beyond the said limits without leave of the Council of Safety, therein (excepting that sd Edward Taylor shall have leave to appear at the next Court of Oyer & Terminer to be held in the County of Monmouth) and shall during sd time, neither do nor say anything to the prejudice of American liberty, nor give any intelligence to the elements of America. Taylor’s confinement was as much an act of political retribution as a punishment for his own actions. The order placing him under confinement in Princeton noted Taylor “shall be set at liberty when Thomas Canfield, a prisoner in New York, shall be discharged by the enemy.” With the exception of a brief return to Monmouth County in January 1778 to appear in court, Taylor remained in Princeton for five months. On May 27, Council of Safety, let him return home to seek a prisoner exchange: Agreed, that Edward Taylor be discharged from bond… and have leave to return home for 3 weeks upon entering into another bond, to return within that time to this place & remain there until further order of this Council of Safety, unless he shall in the mean time procure the releasement of John Willett, now a prisoner in New York. Taylor was successful in procuring Willett’s release on June 13. He was allowed to remain at his home in Middletown upon “pledging his faith and honor not to do or say anything contrary to the interest of the state or United States." The remaining war years were hard on him. He was indicted for trespass, two misdemeanors, and perjury in the county courts and his estate shrunk from 1200 acres of land, two slaves, and 42 head of livestock to 420 acres of land, no slaves, and 20 head of livestock at war’s end. He also signed a petition claiming that he was subject to abuses from the vigilante pro-Revolution group, the Retaliators . With his health in decline, Edward Taylor finalized his will. He disinherited his son, George. Any assets given to George would have been confiscated by the New Jersey government. Edward Taylor died shortly before the end of the war. Related Historical Site : Marlpit Hall Sources : Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009) p 478; Deposition of David Forman, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, box 1, document #39; Deposition of William Bostwick, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, box 1, document #19; William H. Richardson's "Washington and the New Jersey Campaign of 1776," Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. 50, no. 2 (1952) p 144. Peter Force, American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress Clerk's Office, 1853), 5th Series, vol. 2, pp. 1093, 1192; New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, Henry Segollets; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, 4 vols, Genealogical Publishing Co, 1970, v4, p237; Deposition, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, box 1, document #21; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 29; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 37; Jones, E. Alfred. The Loyalists of New Jersey, Daniel Hendrickson of Middletown, (Newark, N. J. Historical Society, 1927); Deposition, Edward Taylor, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, box 1, document #39; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p202-3; Monmouth County Historical Association, The Grover Taylor House, (Freehold: MCHA) p 22-4; Order/Bond, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 6, November 6, 1777; Monmouth County Archives, Loose Common Pleas, box: CP 1776-1777, folder: 1777; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 164, 168; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 242; Monmouth County Historical Association, The Grover Taylor House, (Freehold: MCHA) p 22-4; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File , Edward Taylor, on file at the Monmouth County Historical Association. 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 > New Jersey Volunteers Drift into Other Loyalist Units by Michael Adelberg Robert Rogers raised a Loyalist corps in 1779 that included many Monmouth Loyalists who left the New Jersey Volunteers. They were likely the first Monmouth Loyalists to settle in Canada. - September 1779 - As discussed in prior articles and the author’s prior research, approximately six hundred Monmouth County Loyalists joined the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the New Jersey Volunteers in 1776 and 1777. The trajectories of these battalions were mostly unhappy. The 1st battalion was surprised and routed by Continental Troops at their camp on Staten Island in fall 1777 and the 2nd battalion suffered through a difficult march across New Jersey 1778 and gradual decline after that. Both battalion commanders—Elisha Lawrence and John Morris—became mired in controversies and lost their commands. As they lost men, both battalions consolidated into battalions originating from northern New Jersey. Monmouth Countians in the King’s Rangers One of the reasons that the ranks of the New Jersey Volunteers thinned was that their original recruits became dispirited and moved to other Loyalist units. The movement of Monmouth County Loyalists out of the New Jersey Volunteers and into other Loyalist units began in 1779. The earliest surviving record of Monmouth County Loyalists serving elsewhere appears to be a September 28, 1779, troop return of Major Robert Rogers’ Rangers. Rogers was a frontier fighter during the Seven Years War. In 1776, he offered his services to George Washington but was turned down. Offended, he raised a Loyalist corps from New York that became the Queen’s Rangers, but he left that unit. While in Nova Scotia in 1779, he received permission to raise a new Loyalist corps, the King’s Rangers. He recruited Loyalists from other units who were dispirited or denied their preferred rank as units consolidated. At least four Monmouth County officers (Captain John Longstreet, Lieutenant John Throckmorton, Ensign John Robins, and Ensign Joseph Beers) joined Rogers. The Monmouth men were first stationed with Rogers at Fort St. John in Quebec but would soon return to New York. Captain Samuel Hayden of the New Jersey Volunteers was not from Monmouth County, but there were many Monmouth Loyalists serving with him when he co-led the punishing raid of Tinton Falls in June 1779. By fall 1780, Hayden left the New Jersey Volunteers to command a company in the King's Rangers. Hayden’s August and December returns at New York include several Monmouth Countians (or probable Monmouth Countians): Lt. Throckmorton, Ens. Robins, Ens. Beers, Sgt. Alexander Campbell, and privates: Joel Bedell, Peter Crawford, Jonathan Bailey, John Williams, James Cottrell, Francis Bailey, Alexander Scoby, and John Gibbons. The enlistment dates of these men were as early as June 1, 1779, but May 26, 1780 was the most common date of enlistment. A 1782 return of Loyalist forces lists the King’s Rangers with two companies, one of which had a significant Monmouth County contingent. The officers are all Monmouth Countians: Capt. John Longstreet, Lt. Thomas Okerson, and Ens. Eleanor Taylor. Longstreet’s listing as a company captain this late in the war is curious because, in his own postwar Loyalist compensation application, he wrote of needing to retire from active service in the King’s Rangers because he was unable to raise enough men to lead a company. Irregularities like this one followed Longstreet throughout the war. Prior to the war, he straddled sides, commanding a company of New Jersey militia nominally loyal to the New Jersey Provincial Congress but known as the ”Tory Company .” He led his company to Sandy Hook and joined the British Army in July 1776, Longstreet apparently left his men and stayed in Monmouth County in 1777 to sell off much of his estate. When he left again for New York, his wife stayed home on a 25-acre estate in Freehold. She became the center of the ”Red House Controversy ” in which local officials sought to keep Mrs. Longstreet on the estate despite it being forfeited to the state and sold at auction. Longstreet joined the King’s Rangers in 1779 but left before the end of the war due to an insufficient number of recruits. William Taylor, an attorney in New Jersey’s illusory Loyalist government, testified against Longstreet at war’s end. Taylor asserted that Longstreet "is not of good character." While most of the rank and file from the King’s Rangers were from New England, about ten Monmouth Countians were enlisted men in the King’s Rangers. In addition to the nine men in Hayden’s company, Sergeant John Horner of Upper Freehold, according to his postwar Loyalist compensation of application, went into Roger’s Rangers in 1779. Private John Martin is noted in a genealogical source as being from Monmouth County. Stephen Davidson, a historian of the Loyalists who settled in Canada at war’s end, wrote that “when the N.J.V. consolidated the number of battalions from six to four, a number of officers found themselves without companies.” He further noted that “Hayden's Company [in the King’s Rangers] was formed from men of Old Monmouth County, New Jersey.” Davidson noted that Hayden’s company of Rangers went to Canada in the middle of 1782. They were likely the first Monmouth County Loyalists to relocate to Canada . There, the Loyalists “guarded rebel prisoners on a prison ship in Halifax Harbour.” They remained in Canada until the Rangers were disbanded at the end of 1783. Monmouth Countians in Other Loyalist Units As discussed in another article, about twenty Monmouth County Loyalists, led by John Taylor and William Stevenson, left the New Jersey Volunteers to join Patrick Ferguson’s American Volunteers in the Carolina Campaign in 1780. They suffered terrible defeat at the Battle of King’s Mountain. There is no reason to think these men returned to the New Jersey Volunteers. Dozens of Monmouth County African Americans agitated for freedom before the war and then left Monmouth County to join the British. Loyalist combat units were segregated, but the Black Pioneers were a corps of laborers that included many New Jersey African Americans. The “Black Brigade ” was an unofficial partisan corps based at Sandy Hook to illegally trade with and raid Monmouth County. It was led by a man known as Colonel Tye, who was likely a slave from Shrewsbury Township before the war. The Black Brigade is discussed in another article. Still other Monmouth County Loyalists left the New Jersey Volunteers for a British-tolerated vigilante group, the Associated Loyalists . Three companies of Associated Loyalists were commanded by Monmouth Countians, at least one of whom, Captain Thomas Crowell, had been an officer in the New Jersey Volunteers. Not every Monmouth Countian quit the New Jersey Volunteers. A cohort of Monmouth County Loyalists stayed in the New Jersey Volunteers through the end of the war. 1782 troop returns show several Monmouth County officers stayed in the unit, anchored by 68-year old Major Thomas Leonard. Lt. Colonels Lawrence and Morris continued to be listed in troop returns even though they had both been stripped of their commands. They were likely listed because they were drawing provisions and pensions. Lawrence, as documented by historian Tood Braisted, remained an active Loyalist, even without a formal command. Related Historic Site : Fort St. John (Quebec) Sources : Offer List, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Headquarters Papers of the British Army in America, PRO 30/55/2335; Mary Beacock Fryer, Rolls of the Provincial Corps, Canadian Command, American Revolutionary Period, (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1981) pp. 99-105; New York Public Library, Collection: Great Britain-Army-Provincial Forces, 1783, item 1044; United Empire Loyalists, Loyal Directory: http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Info ; Jones, E. Alfred. The Loyalists of New Jersey, (Newark, N. J. Historical Society, 1927) p 101. Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn. and London, 1984), p 401. Rutgers University Special Collections, Great Britain Public Record Office, Loyalist Compensation Claims, D96, AO 13/18, reel 5. 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 First Loyalist Raids Against Monmouth County by Michael Adelberg Thomas Seabrook’s home on Raritan Bay was vulnerable to attack. One of the first Loyalist raids against Monmouth County was an attempt to take him. His son was bayoneted in the raid. - March 1777 - December 1776 was the highwater mark for Monmouth’s Loyalists. The British Army had pushed Washington’s Continentals out of New Jersey into Pennsylvania and victoriously set up camp in Trenton. Across the interior of New Jersey, but especially in Monmouth County, Loyalists rose up. In three coordinated insurrections in Upper Freehold , Freehold-Middletown , and from Shrewsbury down the shore, Loyalists gained control of most of the county. The Monmouth militia melted away; hundreds signed British “protection” papers. But the tables turned quickly. Monmouth County was opened up to an advancing Continental Army after the Battle of Trenton, and a regiment of Pennsylvanians promptly routed Monmouth Loyalists at Freehold on January 2, 1777. Over the next month, the Pennsylvanians pushed east and broke up Loyalist associations in Middletown and Shrewsbury. More than 200 Loyalists were captured and jailed; hundreds more fled behind British lines as Loyalist refugees . Some joined the Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers while others sought to make a living and extract revenge on their own terms. Loyalist Raids Begin It is arguable exactly when Monmouth County’s first Loyalist raid occurred, but the first clear evidence of Loyalists plundering their former neighbors appears to be an action on March 11. In a March 12 report to Congress, General Israel Putnam, commanding the Continental Army in central New Jersey, mentioned that "a fortnight before, 17 horned cattle and 37 horses were taken in the evening by a parcel of Provincials, on the account of the troops landing in Monmouth." If the first plundering raid occurred on March 11, the first capture and arson occurred a month later. David Forman warned the Continental Army of the coming raid, prompting a response from General Israel Putnam on April 11: “Should the enemy attempt to march to Middletown, you will have it in your power to annoy them & impede their march.” That raid occurred on April 13, Forman reported, “a party of British troops were discovered making the Hook to Middletown -- I shall immediately put myself in their way & attempt to attack them -- at present I am very weak here, my numbers do not exceed 160 rank & file." But neither Putnam nor the Monmouth militia under David Forman, reeling from defeats at the Battle of the Navesink and Sandy Hook , offered any resistance. The British-Loyalist party landed on the Raritan Bayshore and marched to Mt. Pleasant, west of Middletown. There, they took Reverend Charles McKnight prisoner and burned the Presbyterian church. He was put on a prison ship and denied the parole commonly offered to “gentleman ” prisoners. Fatally ill in January 1778, McKnight was released home only to die days later. George Taylor’s Raids In June, George Taylor, the former Monmouth militia colonel who was commissioned colonel of a non-existent Loyalist militia , led a string of incursions into Monmouth County. On June 1, Taylor led a party toward Shrewsbury, but was engaged by a militia party and driven back with two dead and one captured. On June 10, Taylor led another incursion, this time near Middletown, where he was met by a party of Middletown militia; in the ensuing skirmish both parties had one man wounded. On June 16, Taylor led a party that landed on the Raritan Bayshore. Their likely target was Major Thomas Seabrook, who had signed a British loyalty oath during the December insurrection but was now leading militia against his oath. The Loyalists entered Seabrook’s house, but he was not there. According to antiquarian accounts, the Loyalists noticed a sag in the ceiling boards and surmised that Seabrook was hiding in the loft. A Loyalist thrust his bayonet into the sag and hit someone. Stephen Seabrook, a private in the militia and son of Thomas, was bayoneted. The raiders carried off 200 lbs. of pork gathered for the militia and £31 of various household items. The young Seabrook was badly wounded but survived. After this incident, the Seabrook family moved inland for safety. George Taylor returned to Middletown again on June 21 in an attempt to bring out recruits allegedly waiting to be liberated. Taylor’s party skirmished with the militia; four men were wounded. Three days later, Taylor went inland into Freehold Township, perhaps looking to capture David Forman. He skirmished with a militia party likely led by Forman—two men were captured, one was killed and one was wounded. The Pennsylvania Packet printed a report this skirmish that was likely written by Forman: I laid the bait last Saturday to break up the plundering of Coll. George Taylor; it so far succeeded that I was within an ace of taking the whole; we took one white man and one Negro. While the rest were swimming toward a boat that was coming to take them off, we fired upon them, and killed one wounded another, who were both hauled into the boat. It is noteworthy that raiding parties before and after Taylor’s incursions frequently accomplished their missions without alerting (and then fighting) the Monmouth militia. In contrast, Taylor’s parties always seemed to draw a response from the local militia. Taylor lingered at least once to visit with his father, Edward Taylor, who assisted Taylor’s party with their withdrawal another time. Also, Taylor’s parties—whatever else their objective—were continuously recruiting for the New Jersey Volunteers and Taylor’s own meager Loyalist militia. In order to do so, Taylor had to speak with people—some of whom inevitably alerted neighbors who formed the militia and clashed with Taylor. There is no reason to believe that Taylor’s June incursions yielded many recruits. While the Monmouth militia performed well against Taylor’s incursions, the succession of raids struck fear into the Whigs living near Sandy Hook. The Loyalist New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury reported: We hear that Mr. Forman, with about 400 of the Rebel Army, has abandoned Shrewsbury and is gone to Middletown, about 12 miles distant. Many of the Committeemen and other hot people have followed Mr. Forman's example, being apprehensive of a visit. The decision of vulnerable Whigs to move inland to safer environs is discussed in another article. As for Taylor, his relatively mild incursions would soon be eclipsed by the larger, punishing raids from British regulars and stealthier, crueler attacks from more desperate Loyalist partisans. Related Historic Site : Seabrook Wilson House Sources : Israel Putnam to Congress, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I159, Letters of General Officers, p 67; Israel Putnam to David Forman, Neilson Family Papers, box 1, folder: Rutgersania, Rutgers University Special Collections; Israel Putnam to Congress, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I159, Letters from General Officers, p67; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 393; Munn, David, Battles and Skirmishes of the American Revolution in New Jersey, (Trenton: Bureau of Geology and Topography, New Jersey Geological Survey, 1976) p 139; Howard Peckham, The Toll of Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) p 35; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v4, p247-8; Monmouth County Historical Association, Articles File: "Letter from Freehold"; Howard Peckham, The Toll of Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) p 35; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 1, pp. 399-400; David C. Munn, comp., Battles and Skirmishes of the American Revolution in New Jersey (Trenton, N.J.: Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Geology, 1976) p 42; Monmouth County Historical Association, Articles File: "Letter from Freehold"; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 156; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v1, p 306-14; Richard Harrison, Princetonians: 1769-1775: A Biographical Dictionary (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014) vol. 2, pp. 156-9. Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County, New Jersey (Philadelphia, 1885), pp. 522-3. 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 Capture of the Brigantine, Britannia by Michael Adelberg On December 29, 1779, Middletown-men captured the stranded British ship, Britannia. They rowed the cargo of the vessel to shore. The men profited handsomely from the capture. - December 1779 - As noted in prior articles, starting in 1779, New York-bound British/Loyalist ships with valuable cargo were vulnerable to capture from New England privateers because of the weakened British naval presence at Sandy Hook. Further, local militia officers opportunistically took vulnerable British/Loyalist vessels that grounded off the Monmouth shore. So, perhaps it was only a matter of time before local militia officers would have the opportunity to take a valuable vessel near the British base at Sandy Hook. The Capture of the Britannia The Britannia was a Loyalist privateer captained by Jonathan Stout and recently arrived from a Caribbean port with a cargo of that included coffee and sugar, high value products in short supply in New Jersey. The brigantine carried 16 cannon and 4 swivel guns. According to a number of secondary accounts, the Britannia was anchored inside of Sandy Hook when, on December 28, 1779, it broke loose from its moorings. The ship grounded in shallow water near present-day Keansburg. Ice around the guard ship at Sandy Hook prevented the British from helping the distressed ship; Britannia was quickly frozen in place and soon made helpless. On December 29, the Britannia was spotted by a company of state troops (militia on long term assignment) and Middletown Militia, both reporting to Colonel Asher Holmes. They captured the ship without a fight. The cargo and munitions of the ship were rowed to shore. The ice soon thawed enough for Holmes to the Britannia taken 20 miles east to Cheesequake Creek, where the prize would be less susceptible to British recapture. The capture of the Britannia was important enough for Colonel Lewis Nicola, at Egg Harbor, to notify the Continental Congress on January 12, 1780. He reported: A dismasted twenty gun brig called the Britannia on shore at the west bank [of Sandy Hook]. The Jersey people have got the guns and stores out of the former; it is not possible for any vessel or boat to go from New York Harbor to the relief of the vessels on shore. The Britannia was taken by a company of State Troops drawn mostly from Middletown Township. The company was officered by Captain Samuel Carhart, Lieutenant John Schenck, Ensign Peter Vanderhoff, Sergeant Jacob Allen, Corporal Burrowes Norris, Drummer Samuel Smith, and 27 privates. Additional Middletown militia under Lieutenant Barnes Smock were present (nephew of the captain of the same name). Some accounts credit Colonel Holmes with leading the capture, but, based on primary sources, it is unlikely that Holmes was there at the moment of capture. A half-dozen Monmouth militiamen mention the capture of the Britannia in their post-war veterans’ pension applications. Three participated in the capture: Cornelius Smock recalled that the Britannia “went ashore in a snowstorm at Conkaskunk, and her commander surrendered her to his brother, Lt. Barnes J. Smock, who then commanded said company." Adam Striker recalled that he "was present at the capture of the Britannia , a British brig which was driven ashore near Point Comfort... the ship capitulated." Cornelius Vanderhoff recalled being stationed "at Conkaskunk Cove" when the ship was taken. After the Capture Three other militiamen (or their widows) recalled activities after the capture. Sergeant James Wall recalled that he “was appointed one of an escort to conduct a party of British marines, taken from the British brig Britannia , that was enclosed in the ice near the Monmouth shore, to Elizabethtown, but that on my way there, my horse slipt [sic] on the ice & fell, fracturing my leg in his fall.” Derrick Sutphin's widow, Altche Sutphin, recalled that "part of her rigging & contents were kept at his house for safekeeping." Philip Freneau, who would become known as the “Poet of the American Revolution ,” recalled receiving “$800 in Continental money as his share of the British Brig Britannia – of which $120 was shortly after paid for a pair of shoes." On January 13, 1780, the New Jersey Gazette advertised the capture of the Britannia with a cargo and supplies at the home of Garret Schenk of Middletown. The cargo of beef, pork, coffee, sugar, powder, lead, muskets, and swords, and the hull of the Britannia would be offered for sale. The following week the Gazette advertised that the sale would occur on January 27 at Garret Schenck’s house in Middletown. It said: “to be sold the cargo and also the hull of the brig Britannia, now laying near Cheesequake Creek." Interestingly, the Britannia 's 16 cannon and 4 swivels would be sold at Burlington on January 31. This suggests that it was too dangerous to keep and sell these war materials on the Monmouth shore, where they could be retaken by Loyalist raiders. Indeed, Loyalists in New York were re-organizing into new groups like the Associated Loyalists and the Black Brigade precisely so that they could be nimble in raising parties for raiding opportunities. Subsequent advertisements in the New Jersey Gazette suggest that the Admiralty Court might not have condemned the Britannia before these advertised sales. A January 24 advertisement wrote of a coming Admiralty Court at Gilbert Barton’s tavern in Allentown, under Judge John Imlay, to consider claims on the vessel from Colonel Holmes and Samuel Dennis, a Shrewsbury militia captain. It is possible that Dennis was contesting rights to the prize. On March 15, the New Jersey Gazette advertised a sale on March 27 at the house of Cornelius Van Dorn in Middletown for “the sails, rigging, and small arms of the Brig Britannia… lately captured by Col. [Asher] Holmes and others." Samuel Dennis advertised the sale—suggesting that the admiralty court awarded the prize to Holmes, but that Holmes then deputized (and paid) Dennis to dispose of the vessel’s remaining items. While the vessel was condemned to Holmes, he divided the prize money with his men. On March 5, 1780, the proceeds were divided. Colonel Holmes received 11 ¼ shares of the prize. Other officers received between 3-9 shares based on rank. The enlisted men received 2/3 of one share. It appears that a share was valued at roughly £300, a huge amount of money for a small farmer (a good horse cost roughly £20, a daily wage to a laborer was about £1). It is unknown how the proceeds of the final March 27 sale were divided among the men. The New Jersey Legislature later paid Sergeant Wall an additional £10 S2 for "going to Elizabethtown with the prisoners taken on board the brig, Britannia and so forth." The Britannia was one of perhaps a dozen prizes taken by local militia and state troops. It was clearly among the more valuable and better documented of those captures. The capture shows how state troops drawn from Monmouth County and local militia operated seamlessly, in contrast to the clear delineation between Continental troops and militia. The complicated post-capture documentation includes several sales and admiralty court notices; this demonstrates that cash windfalls generated interests and intrigues that tested New Jersey’s nascent institutions. While the division of the Britannia was apparently amicable, other prizes were the subject of prolonged litigation and contested for years. Related Historic Site : Sandy Hook Lighthouse Sources : Maureen Foster, The Capture of the British Privateer Britannia by the Middletown Militia, ( https://monmouthtimeline.org/timeline/capture-of-britannia/ ); Return of State Troops, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, New Jersey, folder 58, #125; Information on the capture of the brig Britannia in Robert Van Benthuysen, "Philip Freneau: The War Years", Monmouth County Historical Association Newsletter, Spring 1978, n. 3, p1; Capture of the Brig Britannia in National Archives, Collection 881, R 593; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Adam Stricker; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Derrick Sutphin; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, pp. 136-7; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, James Wall of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# 20365301; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Cornelius Vanderhoff; National Archives, Philip Freneau, W.23069, State of New Jersey, Monmouth County; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Derrick Sutphin; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Cornelius Smock; Receipt, National Archives, Collection 881, R 593; Lewis Nicola to Congress, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 187, item 169, #191; Lewis Nicola to Congress, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I63, Letters from General & Other Officers, p 188; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, pp. 136-7.; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, p 147; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930. 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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 Continental Navy on the Monmouth Shore by Michael Adelberg The Continental Navy’s Wasp sailed the Monmouth shore in late 1776 in an attempt to protect American shipping and attack British shipping. It took at least two prizes while there. - November 1776 - In the fall of 1776, as the British Army defeated the Continental Army on land and the British Navy extended a blockade across the Atlantic Seaboard, trade with Europe and the Caribbean became increasingly dangerous. But that trade was essential to a fledgling United States dependent on foreign markets for key provisions including guns, gunpowder, textiles, salt, and sugar. The fledgling Continental Navy was unable to protect the New Jersey shore. Though it scored a few victories around Cape May in the first months of the war it could not check British patrols north of Egg Harbor. As discussed in a prior article, in the summer of 1776, the New York State Navy assigned two vessels to defend American ships along the Jersey shore. But the New York ships were an ineffective check against larger British vessels. That fall, at the prompting of New Jersey and New York delegates, the Continental Congress’s Marine Committee turned its attention to better protecting the Jersey shore. Continental Navy Sails the Monmouth Shore in 1776 On November 1, the Marine Committee ordered the captains of the Continental Navy sloops Fly and Wasp to cruise the Jersey shore. The captains were ordered to hire local pilots and stay close to shore in order to avoid a fight with British frigates. They were told that the could rely on shore residents for support: You must be careful not to let any British frigate get in between you and the land, and then there is no danger, for they cannot pursue in shore and they have no boats and tenders that can take you; besides, the country people will assist you in driving them from the shore, if they [British] should attempt to follow you in. But the Continental captains were also encouraged to be bold in determining when to attack British ships, "We should deem it more praiseworthy in an officer to lose a vessel in a bold enterprise than to lose a good prize by too timid a conduct." Ten days later, the Marine Committee wrote to Lt John Baldwin of the Continental Navy's Wasp about an agent it had placed at Shrewsbury. "We expect this letter will be sent to you by Mr. James Serle who is at Shrewsbury.” Baldwin was also reminded to "run into some inlets on the Jersey shore" in preference to facing larger British ships. Serle, the Continental Navy’s Agent, sent his first letter from the Monmouth shore from Long Branch on November 13: I have dispatched Lt [John] Cook of the militia quartered here with two letters enclosed from Toms River; the commanding officer here, immediately upon your application, gave orders to Mr. Cook to proceed down with the letters. Mr. Cook is a very careful young man & has a brother at Toms River [Major Thomas Cook] (hearty in the cause of American freedom) who will give any assistance that may be necessary. Serle also noted the movement of the British fleet at Sandy Hook but "unfortunately as I have no spy glass, I cannot as yet distinguish their motions." The next day, Serle noted receiving intelligence on the movements of the British fleet from Pennsylvania Flying Camp in the area—evidence that Pennsylvanians continued to defend the Raritan Bayshore even as the Continental Army was getting pushed out of New York and into New Jersey. The presence of Pennsylvanians and New Jersey militia impacted British attempts to take beached vessels. On November 12, Captain George Elphinstone of the HMS Perseus , recorded an attempt to take a beached vessel three miles west of the Sandy Hook on the Raritan Bayshore. “Sent our boats arm'd and manned to retake the prize, but finding them too strongly possessed, and great numbers of people on shore, made the signal with several guns for the boats to return." Unable to carry off the vessel, Elphinstone destroyed it instead: Fired many shots at the rebels; sent all our boats manned and armed to destroy the prize. At 6, our boats boarded her and set her on fire, at the same time some guns and several volleys of small arms were fired from the same shore. The British returned to Sandy Hook without any casualties. Historian Donald Shomette wrote of another British cruise down the Jersey Shore on December 7. Captain Andrew Snape Hammond ordered HMS Camilla, Pearl, Perseus , and Falcon "to proceed along the coast southward… Looking into Egg Harbor on your way." The activity of this flotilla is mostly unknown. However, on December 18, it came on Wasp bringing a prize to Egg Harbor and chased it. Wasp had to cut loose its prize in order to escape. The Fly and the Wasp continued to operate along the Jersey shore. On December 23, Robert Morris wrote John Hancock [both delegates to the Continental Congress] about two vessels taken by the Wasp and the resulting difficulties: The schooner Wasp commanded by Lt. Baldwin has brought into Egg Harbor a schooner loaded with Indian corn and oats… As there is no judge of the Admiralty in the Jersies & Judge Ross is at Lancaster, I think it advisable to send wagons to Egg Harbor for the corn & oats to feed the Continental horses of this city. Morris also wrote of the loss of a second capture: Baldwin has retaken a French schooner, he was bringing her into Egg Harbor when a fleet of 15 sail hove into sight, two of which were two deckers, one or two frigates, and an armed brig pursued him so close he was obliged to abandon his prize & get into the inlet as fast as he could. On January 1, the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress recorded that Lt. Baldwin had brought another prize into Egg Harbor. The Committee dispatched a second agent to Little Egg Harbor to support the Continental vessels: "Mr. Patterson is now going down to Egg Harbor to take care & management of your prizes in that place." Historian Shomette records that on March 21, 1777, the tender of the HMS Phoenix carried into New York the sloop Wanton , originally commanded by Loyalist, John Mount, until it was captured at Cranberry Inlet. That a small British tender was allowed to take and tow this prize halfway up the Jersey shore without opposition suggests that the Fly and Wasp were no longer operating on the Jersey shore by March. Indeed, that same month, a German officer in New York observed, "The English ships have been so active that this harbor is full of prizes. The Delaware is almost entirely blocked. Every ship that the fleet can dispense has been made ready to cruise." There are just a few documents afterward that show Continental vessels active on the Jersey shore afterward. Four examples are provided below. The Continental Navy on the Monmouth Shore in 1777 and Beyond In August 1777, the Providence , operating in concert with American privateers, participated in a six-hour battle with a large Loyalist vessel off Sandy Hook. No prize was taken. The British vessel, Hume , was captured by an unnamed Continental vessel in March 1780 "just southward of Sandy Hook." In November 1780, John Nagle, aboard the 24-gun Continental sloop Saratoga , recorded a battle off Jersey shore: We fell in with one of Gutterige's [Loyalist privateer William Goodrich] privateers. We being painted all black and our [gun] ports down, we appeared like a dull sailing merchantman... The privateer would sail all around us, thinking herself secure. [Then] we cut away our grating and the buoy [tied to the ship to slow it down and make it appear 'dull'] and was alongside of her before she could have time to make sail. We took her and brought her in. She was a beautiful brig of 16 guns. Finally, in May 1782, the Continental Navy’s frigate, Enterprise , chased three smaller vessels (probably London traders ) as they neared Sandy Hook. The small vessels beached near shore. The water was too shallow for the larger Continental ship to pursue them. The infrequent appearance of Continental Navy vessels did not mean the British were unchallenged masters of the Jersey shore. With the entry of France into the war in 1778, British warships were needed elsewhere and the blockade weakened. This corresponded with a rise of American privateers, including New England privateers who took dozens of prizes near Sandy Hook and bold Pennsylvania privateer captains such as Yelverton Taylor and Stephen Decatur. New Jerseyans William Marriner and Adam Hyler menaced British/Loyalist shipping in Raritan Bay and several Monmouth County militia officers were also opportunistic privateers. Related Historic Site : United States Navy Museum Sources : Gardner W. Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution (1912, 1940, reprinted New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962), pp. 128-9; National Archives, Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress, Marine Committee, p56; William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 7, p 120; William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 7, p 128; Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 38, November 13, 1776; Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, v10 0437http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr10-0437 American Memory Project, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collection/continental ; William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 8, p 380; Charles Paulin, Out-Letters of the Marine Committee and Board of Admiralty (New York: Navy History Society, 1914) vol. 1, p 59. Paul Smith, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789 (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1976) vol. 6, p 11; William Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1970), vol. 9, pp. 765, 853-4; John Brown to John Bradford, National Archives, Collection 332, reel 6, #247; Jacob Nagle, The Nagle Journal: A Diary of the Life of Jacob Nagle, Sailor, from the Year, 1775 to 1841, ed. John C. Dann (New York, 1988), p 26; Howard Peckham, The Toll of Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) p 127. Previous Next