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 Bold Privateering of Adam Hyler by Michael Adelberg In whaleboats that could be rowed or sailed, Adam Hyler, New Jersey’s greatest privateer, led small parties in more than a dozen actions against enemy ships in Raritan Bay and near Sandy Hook. - April 1781 - Adam Hyler was born in Germany. A newspaper account claims he served on a British or Loyalist vessel early in the Revolutionary War. Besides this, there is little reliable biographical information about him. He likely participated in the privateer activities of William Marriner, who was captured by the British in August 1780; Hyler would soon fill the void left by Marriner’s capture. In Hyler’s first action, he was mistaken for Marriner. On April 4, 1781, the New York Gazette reported: "Last Sunday evening a sloop from New York to Lloyd's Neck was captured on Coney Island by two rebel whaleboats." Marriner was credited with the attack, but Marriner wrote that it was "Hyler & Dickey" who led the action; Marriner, still imprisoned at the time, disavowed any role in the action. April 1781: Hyler Leads Raids on New York Hyler’s exploits would soon overshadow Marriner ’s or any other New Jersey privateer. He raided Brooklyn four times and Staten Island once over five months (see table 14 ). Captures two Loyalists, two slaves, and family goods Hyler’s “ manstealing” raids " against Brooklyn mirrored the raids launched against the New Jersey shore by Loyalist irregulars . His actions worried Colonel John Taylor of Middlesex County who wrote Governor William Livingston that "the whaleboat men from this place are daily robbing the inhabitants of Long Island and Staten Island, and in their last cruise they have murdered an old man because he defended his property in his own house." Taylor worried that Hyler’s actions would draw Loyalist retaliation . Fall 1781: Hyler Targets Sandy Hook Perhaps for this reason, Hyler pivoted away from attacking New York and started targeting Sandy Hook. While others had successfully raided Sandy Hook before Hyler, Hyler’s activity level greatly surpassed any other individual . On October 7, the New Jersey Gazette reported on Hyler’s first action there: Captain Hyler of this place with one gunboat and two whale ditto, within a quarter mile of the guard ship at Sandy Hook, attacked five vessels; and after a smart conflict of fifteen minutes carried them. Two of them were armed, one of them mounting four six pounders, and the other had six swivels and one three pounder. The hands escaped in a longboat and took refuge in a small fort, in which twelve swivel guns were mounted, and from whence they kept a constant firing, notwithstanding which he boarded them all without the loss of a single man. Hyler’s haul included 350 bushels of wheat, cheese, and a cask of gunpowder. Due to “contrary wind & tide,” he was unable to bring the boats up the Raritan River, so he "stripped the vessels of the sails and rigging” and “burnt them all except one, on board of which was a woman & four small children." Hyler’s next action was on October 13. The New Jersey Gazette reported that, "with one gun-boat and two whale boats,” Hyler and his men: Boarded one sloop and two schooners, which all the hands except two had previously left, and which lay under cover the Light House fort at Sandy Hook, and brought them off; but the sloop being such a dull sailor, and being much annoyed from a galley lying near Sandy Hook, was set on fire about three miles from the fort. One of the schooners, running aground by accident, was stripped and left; the other, a remarkably fine and fast sailing Virginia-built pilot boat mounted with one four pounder, was brought in with four prisoners. Hyler raided Sandy Hook again on October 24, this time landing at Refugeetown , the Loyalist settlement. The New Jersey Gazette reported: Capt. Hyler went down with one gun-boat to surprise Refugeetown near Sandy Hook where the horse thieves resort. He landed within three quarters of a mile of the light-house, but found they were out in the county of Monmouth stealing horses. The Captain however fell in with six other noted villains, whom he brought off. Hyler’s next action was the capture of a vessel that was part of a convoy heading for Sandy Hook from New York. The Pennsylvania Evening Post reported that Hyler "and a small party of men went into the Narrows, where he captured a ship with 14 or 15 hands.” Hyler chased another vessel, the sloop Father’s Desire , across Raritan Bay until it grounded near Keyport. Colonel Samuel Forman wrote: "Capt. Hyler captured a brig that belonged to the outward bound fleet last Saturday night - was pursued & was obliged to burn her after getting 25 h.h. [hogshead] of rum out of her & some other things." On December 15, Hyler took two more London Trading sloops. The New Jersey Gazette reported: Capt. Hyler of Brunswick (who now commands seven or eight stout whaleboats manned with near 100 men) fell in at the Narrows with two refugee sloops trading to Shrewsbury; one of them was commanded by the noted villain Shore Stevens [Stevenson], and had on board £600 in specie, besides a considerable quantity of dry goods; the other also had a parcel of similar articles, sugar & rum & c., they were both conducted to Brunswick. Hyler’s successes gave him access to several whale and gunboats, as well as a small sloop, Revenge . Maritime historian Donald Shomette wrote that Hyler’s preferred vessel was a "lightly armed sloop-rigged whaleboat." Hyler’s crew of strong rowers could sprint into and out of creeks. Whaleboats sat high in the water and passed over sand bars that scuttled sailing vessels. Whaleboats were also quiet, allowing Hyler’s parties to surprise larger vessels at night. Samuel Forman, Jr., brother of one of Hyler’s men, recalled: “These gunboats were all propelled by muffled oars that dipped in and out of the water so as to make no noise; nor did any of them speak above their breath.” 1782 started ominously for Hyler. An attack on Sandy Hook on January 4 was unsuccessful. Hyler was driven off by fire from the shore battery. Then the British launched a punitive raid against New Brunswick on January 9, in which 200 British soldiers in six boats landed and burned every boat they found in the Raritan River. The Loyalist New York Gazette took note of him on January 12: "this Hyler is a deserter from the Royal service, and ever since his defection has proved too successful an enterpriser in his various descents upon our vicinities." 1782: Hyler Raids Again Hyler apparently took the winter off. Sea traffic slowed—rivers and shallow bays froze. An antiquarian source reports his next action occurred on March 25. He apparently landed on Sandy Hook with a 25-man party and dispersed a Loyalist party camped there. Details on this action are unknown. Hyler’s next action was April 20, documented by Loyalist publisher Hugh Gaine: The cutter Alert (at Sandy Hook) of 16 nine pounders, Captain White, lay under the Highlands about 2 o'clock was boarded by three boats under command of Hyler, at the same time [that] 12 sail of man of war were not a mile off [the Hook], and taken, but the rebels finding it impracticable, got her away, took out the crew and blew her up. John Bray of New Brunswick wrote Governor Livingston on the same incident. Bray noted that Hyler attacked with a gunboat and 35 men. He first “boarded a trading sloop commanded by Capt. James Corlies, but finding nothing of consequence on board, thought it was most advisable to suffer her to be ransomed” (for $400). Hyler then spotted the sloop-of-war, Alert : Capt. Hyler and his brave crew, with the greatest spirit, boarded her, and after a few minutes of conflict, in which Capt. White was sounded, she struck [surrendered]. The Alert had 46 men on board, which so far exceeded Hyler in number that he was under the necessity of tying them to himself. This being done, he made sail, but after running about two miles, the wind being not favorable... He ran her aground. This being done, he took out a quantity of, and together with the prisoners, he blew her up. Hyler took out the “arms, powder, and chest of medicine” and fired the vessel. The prisoners were sent to Middletown Point and the white sailor prisoners were then sent to Elizabethtown. The black sailors (many of whom were likely runaway slaves ) were kept. Bray noted that “the eleven Negroes [are] detained for trial.” They were presumably treated as prizes of war and sold with the ship’s cargo. The capture of the Alert apparently was not reported locally, but was reported in the Maryland Gazette : The celebrated Captain Hyler of New Brunswick… in an open boat, boarded and took a large cutter lying near Sandy Hook almost at sea in sight of the Lion man of war and her 64 guns. The vessel mounted twelve 18 pounders and was commanded by one White... She [Alert] was designed to cruize in Delaware Bay. Captain Hyler, in coming off with his prize, was pursued by several armed vessels, and finding it impracticable to save her, blew her up, but brought off said White and about forty prisoners. The humiliation of losing a well-armed ship exasperated leading Loyalists. This prompted the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists , on April 23, to consult with Monmouth County Loyalists and propose a joint expedition with the New Jersey Volunteers to catch Hyler and burn his gunboat: The Board, having consulted some intelligent refugees from Monmouth County on the practicability of destroying the boat of one Hyler, a rebel partisan, which infest the bay of New York -- they proposed in a letter that day to the Adjutant General the Lt Colonel Buskirk and Taylor of the New Jersey Volunteers, should be authorized to take about one hundred men of that corps and when joined by the Refugees and some boatmen, endeavor to accomplish this desirable purpose. This raid never occurred. The next day, General Henry Clinton drydocked the Associated Loyalists amidst the building furor over Richard Lippincott’s brazen hanging of Monmouth County’s Joshua Huddy. Hyler was at sea again in early May. A Loyalist newspaper reported on May 7 that "Hyler's playing devil at Rockaway"; the results of that trip are unknown. On this or another excursion, Hyler took the schooner, Speedwell . Interestingly, Speedwell was not brought to New Brunswick or Middletown Point, but was taken down the Atlantic shore to Toms River (one of Hyler’s men recalled going as far as Cape May on a different trip). The New Jersey government passed a law on June 20 to permit issuing official privateer commissions to “boats” (versus ships). It is probable that Hyler made this necessary. Hyler’s next descent on Sandy Hook was reported in the New York Gazette on May 29: Mr. Hyler paid a visit to our fishing boats last Saturday and took three boats and a prize, inward bound, without [the Hook]; he was pursued by an armed vessel dispatched from one of his Majesty's ships, which obliged him to run the prizes ashore. This action climaxed with Hyler capturing a party of British regulars sent from Sandy Hook (the subject of another article ). The New Jersey Gazette on May 25: Capt. Hyler with his armed boat, being in the Shrewsbury River, a party of twenty-five men, a party of British troops, under Capt. Schanck, was detached to intercept them. Hyler discovered them and landed thirteen men with orders to charge; when four of the enemy were killed and wounded, and the Capt. and eight men taken prisoners. A month later, Hyler preyed on the fishing boats off Sandy Hook again. The New York Gazette reported on June 19: "A number of fishing boats were just on the eve of being captured on the bank's by Hyler's boats; but luckily the Lark , privateer, inward bound, saved them from being convoyed to Middletown." Perhaps frustrated by not taking the boats, Hyler attempted what might have been his boldest action. An anonymous letter details his attempt to kidnap Loyalist partisan Richard Lippincott from Manhattan: Capt. Hyler was determined to take Lippincott, on inquiry he found that the man resided in a well known house on Broad Street, New York. Dressed and equipped like a press gang of a man of war, he left the kills with one boat, landing after dusk... He then passed the residence of Lippincott where he inquired for him and found that he was absent, gone to the cock-pit. Thus failing in his object, he returned to his boat... but finding a boat from the West Indies laden with rum, he took her, cut her from her cable and sailed to Elizabethtown Point; and before daylight had landed from her 40 hogshead of rum. He then burned the sloop to prevent her recapture. Hyler was, by now, a hero. The Freeman's Journal (of Philadelphia) exulted “the celebrated paritizan” who captures ships “by surprise or strategem." The report called Hyler “a considerable annoyance to the wood shallops, trading vessels and plundering parties of the enemy about Sandy Hook” and asked “the whaleboat men in Delaware Bay… to copy his conduct." And the report called Hyler's crew “particularly expert at the oars” and they “row with such silence and dexterity as to not be heard at the smallest distance, even though they go three or four boats together and go at a rate of twelve miles an hour." The Freeman's Journal also reported that British vessels were now in the Raritan Bay to check Hyler: The enemy have a stout galley stationed near the mouth of the Raritan, and gun boat or two cruizing about the bay, who appear to do little more else then firing now and then upon such rebel oystermen and fishermen as venture too near them... It is further said that it is expected in New York that Brunswick will be shortly burnt on account of the whaleboat depredations. The report was defiant: “If the town is destroyed, every whaleboat, like the Hydra's head, will speedily multiply into ten and make the masters of Sandy Hook bay more uneasy.” On July 2, Hyler returned to Sandy Hook. The New Jersey Gazette reported that Hyler and John Storer, (another whaleboat privateer): "boarded and took the schooner Skipjack , carrying six guns and swivels, and burned her at noon, in sight of the guard ship.” Hyler also “took the Captain and nine or ten men prisoners. About the same time, he also took three or four trading vessels loaded with calves, sheep, etc." A July 10 admiralty court announcement noted that Skipjack was sold with two slaves as part of the cargo. Other prizes taken were an unnamed sloop with two cannon and a sloop, Providence . On or about July 10, according to the New Jersey Gazette , "Mr. Hyler took two fishing boats near the Narrows and ransomed them for $100 each. One of them has been twice before captured." Hyler’s last documented action occurred a few days later, on July 15. The New Jersey Gazette reported that “a little before sunset, Mr. Hyler, with three large oar boats, made an attack on a galley stationed at Prince's Bay, south side of Staten Island." While attacking the galley, a second British vessel under Captain Cashman fired and landed an 18 lb. ball on one of Hyler's boats. The heavy ball crippled Hyler’s boat and forced it to land on Staten Island. The other two boats landed and picked up their stranded comrades while taking fire. Hyler’s party narrowly escaped, but Hyler was fatally wounded in the action. One of his men, Job Compton, recalled that Hyler “was wounded, of which wound he died.” On September 6, the New Jersey Gazette reported that Adam Hyler died "after a long and tedious illness." A few days later, the Loyalist New York Gazette reported “that the famous partisan, Hyler, lately died in New Jersey of a wound in the knee, accidentally given himself some time ago." Antiquarian sources note that Hyler’s boats became the property of colleagues who continued attacking British interests—but without Hyler’s boldness or track record. Historian Robert Schiena wrote about these men: Alexander Dickey, John Bordwine, John Storer and retired Continental Navy officer Luke Matthewson. Appendix 1 excerpts newspaper reports of the actions of Hyler’s successors. The danger of whaleboat privateering was best summed up by John Riddle, who served under Hyler: On two occasions, we narrowly escaped being taken prisoners by two different frigates; once in coming up from Sandy Hook to Amboy, with two gun boats and a whale boat, Capt. Hyler commanding, being in chase of a British gunboat, we run in between an enemy's brig and a galley, that carried an eighteen pounder in the bow. The gun boat had struck [her colors (surrendered)]; but before we were able to board her, an eighteen pound ball passed through one of our gun boats, which obliged us to make the best of our way to the Jersey Shore; and getting everything out of the boat, under a continual fire of cannon and small arms. While Hyler’s bravery and success as a privateer is abundantly documented, it cannot be forgotten that he also engaged in kidnapping and selling captured black sailors as part of a prize ship’s cargo. A militia colonel from Hyler’s home county suggested that he was involved in a murder. Hyler was not from Monmouth County. But he very much belongs in this compendium because most of his actions occurred on the shores of Monmouth County. He often used Middletown Point as his point of departure and point of return. Most importantly, a large portion of Hyler’s men were Monmouth Countians. Of the nine men who wrote narratives about serving under Hyler, four (Job Compton, Lewis Compton, Denice Forman, Benjamin Wilson) were from Monmouth County. So, Hyler’s remarkable exploits were, in large part, enabled by the strong backs of Monmouth Countians. Excerpts of these nine accounts are in Appendix 2 of this article. Related Historic Site : American War of Independence Privateer Museum Appendix 1: Newspaper Accounts of Raritan Bay Privateers after Adam Hyler’s Death New York Royal Gazette, September 11, 1782: "The privateer Jack , Capt. Marsh, took and sent a New Jersey whale boat commanded by Peter Nephew [Neafie]; the whale boat had first taken two fishing boats and had one killed and one wounded." New York Gazette, October 9, 1782: Loyalist Capt. Peter Laurens arrives in New York, "He was taken at the Hook some days ago by John Bordwine, who commands the whaleboats lately commanded by Capt. Hyler….after his capture, he was not only stripped of his clothes and money, but also beat and abused in such an unmerciful manner that he has for the present lost use of his right arm, and is most shockingly bruised; he hopes to soon return to them, quid pro quo." New Jersey Gazette , November 13, 1782: "We hear that the brave Capt. Storer, commissioned as a private boat of war under this State, and who promises to be the fair successor of the late Capt. Hyler, has given a recent instance of his velour in capturing one of the Enemy's vessels… He embarked with two boats under his command at Point Comfort" and went to the Narrows, "after a fruitless search for detached vessels, he bore away for Middletown"...on the Staten Island side of the bay "discovered a vessel lying under the flag staff fort, within a half pistol shot of a fourteen gun battery. This vessel he immediately boarded, and carried away without any alarm." Prize is a sloop under the command of the British Army's Engineer Dept. "He had the good fortune to get her safe into port in spite of the Enemy's armed vessels lying in Prince's Bay." New York Gazette, December 1782: "On Wednesday last, as Morford Taylor, William Salter, Robert Patterson and James Lippincott were passing Sandy Hook shore in a skiff, a party under Capt. Storey rose behind a hill and fired on the boat without first hailing them. Mr. Taylor was shot through the head and died instantly; the other three were made prisoners and stripped of their apparel. Mr. Salter was taken on shore, Messrs. Patterson and Lippincott, with a sentry to over them, were ordered to row the skiff to the cove where Storey had his boats concealed; but Patterson and Lippincott seized a favorable moment to throw the sentry overboard and made their escape. The sentry swam to shore and Mr. Salter was immediately compelled to exchange his dry clothes for those of the wet, half-drowned sentry. He has since ransomed himself for $200 and is now in town." Appendix 2: Post-War Accounts of Service under Adam Hyler Job Compton of Middletown veteran's pension application excerpted: As a privateer, "he was in several affairs with Captain Hyler... in the year 1782, [when] he entered under Captain Hyler on board a gun bote [sic]. He remained with him until he [Hyler] was wounded, of which wound he died... The Captain has a commission and what they took, the prize money was divided amongst them." Lewis Compton of Middletown veteran’s pension application excerpted: "at Brown's Point on the Bay Shore under Capt. Walton, in which engagement he was partially blinded by a swivel ball striking immediately before him; in the same skirmish, Capt. Hyler was also present, about which time Capt. Hyler landed and took a British man-o-war lying in the bay near the Sandy Hook Light House." Samuel Forman of Freehold Township , a boy during the Revolution, recalls his brother, Denice Forman serving under Privateer Captain Adam Hyler: "Denice Forman engaged in a boat under Captain Hyler, who had charge of a few gunboats that coasted along the Jersey shore to annoy and oppose the enemy. When the British fleet lay at anchor at Sandy Hook, Captain Hyler went in the night and surprised a large sloop at anchor, and got her out from the fleet, and took her up Middletown Creek, all without any fighting." More on Hyler: "These gunboats were all propelled by muffled oars, that dipped in and out of the water so as to make no noise; nor did any of them speak above their breath. On the gunwale of the boat a strip of heavy canvas was nailed, the inner having been left unfastened, under which were concealed their swords, guns and other implements for use in combat, and so placed so that any could, at a moment's notice, lay his hand upon his weapon." Richard Nixon of Morris County veteran's pension application: "in the summer or Fall of 1782 [7/82] Deponent again entered on board of Captain Hyler’s Gunboat in which Deponent served six weeks, during the cruise off Sandy Hook we Captured in the night by Boarding the British Cutter Alert Carrying eighteen 9 & 12 pounders, Commanded by Captain White, Deponent received an additional share of Prize money for having been the first on board in boarding." Marsh Noe of Middlesex County veteran’s pension application: recalls serving 2 years "on the water" under Captains Adam Hyler and John Storer "both of which commanded gunboats." From bases at Amboy and New Brunswick, "cruised into the bay of New York, the Narrows and Sandy Hook; owing to the superiority of the enemy, we had to go mostly at night." Recalls three missions with Hyler - 1. "boarded & took a British cutter in the night-time near Sandy Hook" with 18 carriage guns, Hyler has 32 men and the cutter 50, then they "ran the cutter aground near Sandy Hook and blew her up", 2. took an "armed schooner, Jack , mounting 6 carriage guns with a crew of about 40, taken near Sandy Hook, was run ashore near the Highlands, stores and ammunition taken out & the vessel burnt up - a seventy four gun ship firing on them most of the time", 3. "landed with 14 or 15 men on Sandy Hook... engaged a party of British (about 30 men) commanded by a Captain & after a smart action, took them prisoners & sent them to Headquarters." John Riddle ’s autobiography of his service under Adam Hyler: Recalls that they coasted from Brooklyn to Sandy Hook, and sometimes down the Jersey Shore as far as Cape May - usually two boats, a gunboat and whaleboat, 30 men: * "The first vessel we captured was a sloop of war carrying two guns; having boarded her in the night and ransomed her for $400. Same night boarded and took a 16 gun cutter, mounting 18 pounders and six 6 pounders, having captured her in the midst of the British fleet, then lying at Sandy Hook; after running the prize past the guard ship up the bay towards Amboy, we run aground on a sandbar in the night. the next morning, took out of her fifty prisoners, and everything else we could, then set fire to her with provisions, ammunitions & c." * "On another night, the Captain and fourteen of us (who had volunteered our services) sailed up the narrows in York bay, in a whale boat, and on our return boarded a schooner, (which we ransomed for $400) returned to our gunboats in the Sosbury [Shrewsbury] River, without injury or the loss of a single life. " * "On another occasion, Capt. Story, from Woodbridge, with a gun and whale boat, fell in with us in Sosbury river - Captains Hyler and story ascending the heights [Middletown Highlands], observed four vessels at a distance, moored close to the Highlands, termed London traders. One of them, However, being an armed schooner, carrying eight guns, used as a guard ship to protect the other three; there being a calm tide against them, we run out on them, within a short distance of the British fleet, a severe cannonading commenced on both sides; at last, the schooner having struck [her colors, surrendered], we captured the other two without much difficulty. The guard ship by this time coming up, poured her shot on us like hail, one shot cutting off the mast of our whale boat just above our heads; but at last we succeeded in running the [prize] schooner on a sand bar, where we burnt her in view of the fleet; the others were bilged and driven on the beach." * “On hard combat and narrow escapes, "In fact, every day while off Sandy Hook afforded a skirmish of some kind or another, either with small arms or cannon. At Toms River inlet we were twice nearly cast away; once [more] at Hogg island inlet, on two occasions we narrowly escaped being taken prisoners by two different frigates, one the fair American; once in coming up from Sandy Hook to Amboy, with two gun boats and a whale boat, Capt. Hyler commanding, being in chase of a British gunboat, we run in between an enemy's brig and a galley, that carried an eighteen pounder in the bow. the gun boat had struck; but before we were able to board her, an eighteen pound ball passed through one of our gun boats, which obliged us to make the best of our way to the Jersey Shore: and getting every thing out of the boat, under a continual fire of cannon and small arms (which lasted until 9 O’clock at night), we left her to the British, our ammunition being all spent." * Final term under Hyler and his successor: "About the first of April 1782, the applicant volunteered on board a gunboat at New Brunswick, under the command of Captain Adam Hyler, for the term of eight months as a privateersman, and served out said term... the said Captain Hyler commanded forty-five men, who occupied said gunboat and a whaleboat... after said eight months had ended, and the Spring of 1783 (Captain Hyler having died), the applicant again volunteered as a privateersman at New Brunswick under the command of Capt. John Bordwine, for a term of two weeks, and served out said term coasting from Sandy Hook around to the New Jersey shore and performed nothing of note, except the taking of a British barge and crew." John Sutphin of South Amboy veteran's pension application: "He shipped himself aboard a Gun Boat called the White Bottom Nancy as a Privateer under the command of Edmund Hiler in this Boat. He sailed from New Brunswick on a cruize round Sandy Hook in company with three other boats for the purpose of surprising and taking a British gunboat then lying in Princes Bay near Staten Island. In this attempt we were unsuccessful in consequence of the Nancy’s being wholly disabled in a combat with a British Row Galley then lying in the same bay... The ensuing season during his service as a Privateersman under Capt. Hiler he assisted in taking from the British two sloops & three schooners then lying in a place called the Horse Shoe [Bay]. After this he assisted in cutting out from the British at the Narrows a three decked British vessel called Father’s Desire which we ran aground & burnt at Sandy Hook. He was in an engagement with a British Cutter. This Cutter was boarded by the crew of our boat and after an action of 15 or 20 minutes in which we killed and threw overboard 8 or 10 of the crew of the Cutter we succeeded in Capturing her with near 300 prisoners, nearly all Blacks. We burnt the cutter took the negroes which were called Dunmore’s Army, into the country and sold them. After this, we took an English vessel in Prince’s Bay loaded with arms and ammunition took out what we could and being closely pursued by the enemy we blew up the vessel and made good on our retreat and returned to New Brunswick." Abraham Van Tine's of Middlesex County veteran's pension application. On his time as whaleboat privateer: "He afterwards continued in the same service under Captain Peter Begins who had the command of a whale boat called the General Green & served under him for the period of five months, when they were taken prisoners by a privateer in the British service called The Jack o Lantern commanded by Captain Thomas Marsh a Tory and were sent to New York & confined as prisoners in what was then called the Provost prisoner where he lay for seven months and was discharged precisely at the expiration of 7 months imprisonment and when peace was proclaimed – During his service under Captains Adam Hyler and Nevins they took several vessels engaged in the enemy’s service. They went out to take the schooners or privateers commanded by Marsh & made an attack upon her in the night but were overpowered by numbers & taken prisoners themselves... That the engagement in which he was taken prisoner took place between Sandy Hook and the Great Kilns – That his whole Term of service during the war together with the term of his imprisonment as aforesaid amounted to at least two years." Benjamin Wilson of Middletown veteran's pension application excerpted: 1782, serves on a whaleboat privateer, in an action "was engaged under Capt. Hyler at Point Comfort, Captain Hyler was cruising off the shore & was chased by the British boats & was obliged to land: the British also landed, a sharp engagement ensued in which the applicant was engaged"; also in 1782, he was in "a skirmish under Capt. Neafie, who was chased ashore by a British gunboat." Sources : Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gaze reel 2906; John J. Clute, Annals of Staten Island: From Its Discovery to the Present Time (New York: Press of Charles Vogt, 1877), pp. 111-3; J.A. McManemin, Captains of Privateers. (Spring Lake, N.J. : Ho-Ho-Kus Pub. Co., 1994), pp. 467-77; New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 14, April 17, 1781; Alfred Heston, South Jersey: A History 1664-1923 (Lewis Historical Publishing, 1923) p 228; Contained in: National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Darby Oram of RI, www.fold3.com/image/# 25326993; John Taylor to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 223-4; Certificate, Rutgers University Special Collections, AC 2889; Stephen Conway, The War of American Independence 1775–1783 (London: Edward Arnold, 1995), pp. 392-3; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post; New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930, October 10, 1781; New Jersey Gazette report contained in Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 124; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; National Archives, revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey – Lewis Compton; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post; Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 124-5; Erna Risch, Supplying Washington's Army (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 1981), p 113; Samuel Forman to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 16, November 13, 1781; Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 125; Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 34-6; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Robert L. Scheina, "A Matter of Definition: A New Jersey Navy, 1777-1783," American Neptune, vol. 39 (1979), p 216; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Benjamin Wilson; J.A. McManemin, Captains of Privateers. (Spring Lake, N.J. : Ho-Ho-Kus Pub. Co., 1994), pp. 467-77; Donald Shomette, Privateers of the Revolution: War on the New Jersey Coast (Shiffer: Atglen, PA, 2015); Narrative of Lieut. Luke Matthewman, Magazine of American History, vol 2, 1878, p184; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Joseph Van Note of Ohio, S.1133; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Marsh Noe of NJ, National Archives, p4-5; Royal Gazette excerpted in Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 127; Hyler’s attack at 25-man party in Howard Peckham, The Toll of Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) p 95; John Bray to William Livingston in J.A. McManemin, Captains of Privateers. (Spring Lake, N.J. : Ho-Ho-Kus Pub. Co., 1994), pp. 467-77; Paul Leicester Ford, ed., The Journals of Hugh Gaine, Volume I (New York: Dodd, Mead 81 Company, 1902), vol. 2, pp. 147-9, 153; Princeton University Library, Microfilms Collection, #1081.133, Board of Associated Loyalists, April 23, 1782; Maryland Gazette, May 2, 1782; John Bray to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, p 173, 182-4; Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 37; Edwin Salter and George C. Beekman, Old Times in Old Monmouth: Historical Reminiscences of Old Monmouth County, New Jersey (Freehold, N.J.: Moreau Brothers, 1887) p 125; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Freeman's Journal, June 26, 1782; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Anonymous letter printed in John Barber, Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey (New Haven, Conn., J. W. Barber, 1868) pp 316-7; Freeman's Journal, June 26, 1782; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, June 20-21, 1782, p 39-45; Prisoner receipt, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #3853; National Archives, Richard Nixon, W.5423, State of New York, City and County of New York; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; New Jersey Gazette report in Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 125-6; Howard H. Peckham, ed, The Toll of Independence: Engagements and Battle Casualties of the American Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) p 96; John J. Clute, Annals of Staten Island: From Its Discovery to the Present Time (New York: Press of Charles Vogt, 1877), pp. 111-3; Royal Gazette report printed in John Neafie, "Captain Peter Neafie and His Whaleboat Crew in the American Revolution," Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. 13, 1928, pp 422-3; Riddle, John, The Memoir of Colonel John Riddle, pp. 1-4. Personal photocopy. Correspondence from Jack Fulmer; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post and New Jersey Gazette, November 13, 1782; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Applications, John Riddle of New Jersey; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Job Clayton; Forman, Samuel S. Narrative of a Journey down the Ohio and Mississippi in 1789-90 (Cincinnati, R. Clarke and Co., 1888) p 7-8; National Archives, John Sutphin, S.29489, State of New York, Wayne County. Previous Next

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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 Battle of Conkaskunk by Michael Adelberg This Loyalist map details the Middletown shoreline without identifying Conkaskunk. Yet several militiamen name the point as the site of a battle with Loyalist raiders in their postwar narratives. - May 1780 - In general, the larger Loyalist raids into Monmouth County were well documented in newspapers. These include the raids against Manasquan/Shark River and Middletown Point in 1778, and Shoal Harbor/Tinton Falls and Shrewsbury/Tinton Falls in 1779, each of which were documented in one or more newspapers. These raids were printed in newspapers because the raiders were not turned away and, as a result, carried off captives or considerable plunder. This fired local witnesses to document the raid and send their accounts to newspaper publishers. By 1780, however, the Monmouth militia, particularly along the Raritan Bayshore, was more formidable than prior years, and state troops provided a core of full-time soldiers camped on the military frontier. In June 1780, a large Loyalist party came off Sandy Hook and landed at Conkaskunk (present-day Union Beach) on the Raritan Bayshore. While they initially gathered up a considerable number of livestock, they soon met stiff resistance. Three militiamen and one state troop who participated in the “Battle of Conkaskunk” recalled the engagement in their post-war pension applications. Adam Stricker was serving in the state troops under Captain Moses Shepherd in 1780. He recalled being in an engagement near Sandy Hook “in which he and his company took 48 prisoners, 14 horses and a large quantity of household provisions which the enemy had plundered.” (The number of prisoners is likely exaggerated.) Stricker’s company “lost but one man, named Thomson, who was shot through the brains while standing close to the deponent.” He further described: In a skirmish at Conkaskunk with a party of British & Tories who came over for the purpose of carrying off cattle & horses, at which time he received a musket ball in the shoulder, by which he was stunned & thus mowed down - that Daniel Walling was near him at the time & assisted him to rise, the British party had got four wagons of household goods & had collected five hundred head of cattle [likely exaggerated], the whole of which we recovered from them, with the exception of a calf they killed. A comrade, Joseph Dorsey, claimed to have seen ten Loyalists "lying in a heap on board their vessel." Solomon Ketchum (arrested a year earlier for illegally trading with Loyalists) served with the Middletown militia that day. He wrote that: He was at a skirmish at Conkaskunk in Middletown with the refugees from New York, thinks under Captain Shepherd [Moses Shepherd] when one Strickland [Adam Stricker] was wounded and one Walling was wounded with a ball in the throat, which injured him but slightly, the ball being spread in its force. Daniel Hendrickson of Middletown (not the militia colonel of the same name) was also with the militia that day. He wrote that he was "in a battle at Conkaskunk in which a considerable body of British & refugees who had been out stealing cattle & were defeated and drove off, and the cattle with which they had taken were rescued." David Hall, living in Middletown Township at the time, wrote the most revealing recollection of the “Battle of Conkaskunk” which, he noted, “perhaps may be regarded as a skirmish.” He further wrote: The enemy were estimated to be 1,500 in force. They landed at Conkaskunk Point... they marched up to a place called Hedges' farm where they were met by our troops, the company of Captain Walling being the first to attack them. The enemy had a company of Negroes with them commanded by a black fellow whom they called Colonel Tye. The fight with the enemy was severe and they long and obstinately contested the field. The blacks in particular were very fierce and determined, many were killed on both sides. The sergeant of his, Captain Walling's company, Vanderhoff, was shot thru the body but survived. The enemy had to pass a long causeway with thick woods on either side. In those woods, our militia was posted and they cut the enemy down by scores and finally succeeded in driving them off. The enemy came from their shipping and from Staten Island on a plundering party but they failed in their purpose. The militia rallied from all parts of the adjacent country and did their duty like veterans. Hall exaggerated the size of the Loyalist party, but other details from his account are likely accurate and revealing. By writing that the party came from Staten Island, Hall was indicating that the raiding party included New Jersey Volunteers (Loyalist regulars), who were based on that island. Hall also noted that militia and state troops were able to hold off the larger enemy party because of their placement in the woods with the enemy vulnerable on a “long causeway.” This presumably negated the enemy’s superior number of men. Most interesting is Hall’s discussion of Colonel Tye and his irregulars who would soon earn the nickname, “the Black Brigade .” Hall described the African Americans as a “company” (a unit of roughly 50 men) who were “very fierce and determined” during the fight. Prior articles have mentioned small numbers of African Americans participating in Loyalist raids, but the Battle of Conkaskunk is the earliest mention of either Tye or a large number of African American Loyalists acting as a unit. After the Battle of Conkaskunk, Tye and his men continued raiding on their own, while the increasingly dispirited New Jersey Volunteers, generally, stayed in camp on Staten Island and Sandy Hook. There is only one Loyalist reference to the Battle of Conkaskunk. Predictably, it casts the battle in a very different light. On May 16, the prominent Loyalist, William Smith, recorded that "the rebels yesterday, noon, [were] near the Light House, 500 strong, but went off [when] the armed vessels prepared to fire on them." From New York, Smith learned about the Battle of Conkaskunk as a defensive action that turned away an attack on the increasingly permeable British defenses at Sandy Hook. At the Battle of Conkaskunk, the enemy was turned away without captures and the raider’s plunder was recovered. So, the engagement was never reported in newspapers. Pension accounts are prone to exaggerations and they are often murky on dates and commanding officers—that is the case here. But because five participants (in four pension applications submitted in two states) recorded aspects of the Battle of Conkaskunk, there should be little doubt that the event occurred even if the details in particular accounts are open to debate. Thoughtful compilations of the battles and skirmishes of the Revolutionary War, including those of David Munn and Howard Peckham, do not include the Battle of Conkaskunk. But those compilations are newspaper-centric and many local events went unreported in newspapers. Perhaps the most important lesson learned from the Battle of Conkaskunk is that many local events are knowable only when reviewing the widest variety of surviving sources. Other Revolutionary War events in Monmouth County certainly occurred that are lost to history. Related Historical Site: Sandy Hook Lighthouse Sources: National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Solomon Ketchum of NY, www.fold3.com/image/#25013139; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Daniel Hendrickson of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#23340856; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Adam Stricker; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, David Hall of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#21865954; William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971) p 265; Howard H. Peckham, ed, The Toll of Independence: Engagements and Battle Casualties of the American Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974); Munn, David, “The Revolutionary War Casualties,” The Jersey Genealogical Record, vol. 55, (September 1982). 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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 > John Van Kirk Infiltrates Pine Robber Gang by Michael Adelberg Quartermaster officer Moore Furman was asked to hire John Van Kirk after he infiltrated a Pine Robber gang and relocated inland for safety. Furman declined to do so and Van Kirk fell into debt. - January 1779 - As discussed in a prior article, the first notorious Pine Robber gang, led by Jacob Fagan, came together in the summer of 1778. From a lair in the swamps of Shrewsbury Township, they committed a number of robberies, most famously that of Captain Benjamin Dennis’ family. They nearly hanged Mrs. Dennis. Fagan’s return to the Dennis house (to search for stashed money) was spoiled when an informer alerted Dennis. Dennis and the militia laid in wait and shot Fagan. But while Fagan met a bloody end, his outlaw gang remained at large. John Van Kirk Infiltrates Pine Robber Gang On February 3, 1779, the New Jersey Gazette printed “A Letter from Monmouth” dated January 29. The letter discussed how Captain Dennis and his militia “went in pursuit of three of the most noted of the Pine Banditti, and was so fortunate as to fall in with them and killed them on the spot.—Their names are Stephen Emmons, alias Burke, Stephen West and Ezekiel Williams.” As with the hated Fagan, the bodies of the dead outlaws would suffer, “two of them, it is said, will be hanged in chains.” According to the letter, the Pine Robbers were infiltrated by John Van Kirk who informed the militia of the Pine Robbers’ intended journey to New York “to make sale of their plunder.” Of Van Kirk, the report read: He conducted himself with so much address that the robbers, and especially the three above named, who were the leading villains, looked upon him as one of their body, kept him constantly with him and entrusted him with all of their designs. Van Kirk's identity was revealed. The letter discussed his need to flee: The secret is out and of course he must fly the county, for the Tories are so highly exasperated against him that death will certainly be his fate if he does not speedily leave Monmouth. The Whigs are soliciting contributions on his behalf and from what I have already seen have no doubt that they will present him with a handsome sum. The demise of the Pine Robbers was big news and reported as far away as Maryland, where the state’s Journal , reported on February 16: A desperate gang of marauders, chiefly refugees, deserters from New York, were lately brought to condign punishment in a most striking manner. For months past, these miscreants had plundered Monmouth County with impunity, all measured to curb their excesses by their vigilance & sudden retreats into the Pine forests. The shootings of Emmons, West, and Williams effectively ended Fagan’s gang. This was celebrated. The New Jersey Gazette reported: “I question whether the destruction of the British fleet could diffuse more universal joy through the inhabitants of Monmouth than has the death of the above three egregious villains.” The New Jersey Gazette reports were printed as far away as New Hampshire. The complete letter is in Appendix 1 of this article. Another perspective on the death of the Pine Robbers was offered by Wiliam Corlies. Corlies was a Shrewsbury Quaker who had been captured, presumably while illegally trading with the British at Sandy Hook. He was jailed in Freehold when the bodies of the Pine Robbers were brought in; Corlies was asked to identify the bodies. He would testify about the incident three years later: He saw a Captain Dennis of the Rebel Service bring to Freehold Court House three dead bodies; that Captain Dennis being a Neighbor of his (the Deponent), he asked where those Men were killed; he replied they were killed on the Shore. Corlies testified on the brutal death of the Pine Robbers: That on coming to the spot, he (Dennis) surrounded them [the Pine Robbers] with his party; that the Men...begged for quarter, and claimed the benefit of being prisoners of War; he ordered them to be fired on, and one of them by the Name of Williams fell; that they were all Bayonetted by the Party and brought to Monmouth, and that he (Dennis) received a sum of Money for that Action. In a related incident, the Pine Robber, John Giberson, was killed a few weeks earlier: “John Giberson of the same group of villains, was killed about three weeks ago by a party of the militia near Toms River." A discussion of Giberson’s infamous career is in Appendix 2 of this article. The Pine Robbers outlasted these defeats. Lewis Fenton, a likely associate of Fagan, would soon prove far more dangerous than Fagan, at least until his death in 1779 . Jacob Van Note, “a noted Tory and horse thief” was killed by militia in 1780 after having a bounty on his head for more than two years. Another member of the gang, Jonathan West (brother of Stephen) would lose his arm, but remain an infamous partisan until he was finally killed near the end of the war. Other Pine Robber gangs—including those of William Davenport, and John Bacon would rise up in 1781. Their gangs would prove more prolific than Fagan’s. Van Kirk’s Difficulties after Gaining Notoriety On February 7, Governor William Livingston wrote Deputy Quartermaster Moore Furman, a senior officer charged with raising provisions for the Continental Army, about the death of the Pine Robbers: Sometime last month, Captain Dennis, who lately killed the infamous robber Fagan, with a party of militia, went in pursuit of the three of the most noted Pine-Banditti, and was so fortunate as to fall in with them and kill them on the spot. The Governor noted the role of Van Kirk in setting up the event: "The robbers looked upon him as one of their party... kept him constantly with him, and entrusted him with all of their designs." But Van Kirk was now exposed, "He must flee the country. The Tories are so exasperated against him that death will certainly be his fate unless he speedily quits Monmouth." Livingston asked Furman to employ Van Kirk as a teamster for the Army because "he has formerly been in the forage & wagon department... I take the liberty to recommend him to you." It appears that Van Kirk was not hired. On April 23, Van Kirk petitioned the New Jersey Legislature for assistance. He described why he was needed to bring down the Pine Robbers: Robberies committed by the miscreants being so frequent and their outrages against persons and property of many respectable lives of this county, became so insupportable that the petitioner determined to have the said Tory banditti extracted, or lose his life in the attempt - he accordingly consulted with Colonel Hendrickson [Daniel Hendrickson] of the Shrewsbury militia, who greatly approved and offered all assistance. Van Kirk then described infiltrating the outlaw gang: [He] put his scheme so effectually into execution that three of the principal ring leaders were shot dead & a list of 15 or 16 names of others given to the grand jury at Monmouth court house. In all this petitioner has done little more than any true friend and lover of his country - but has by his action rendered himself obnoxious to the disaffected citizens of Monmouth County, so that his life is in danger by residing among them, & not only so obliged for his personal safety to relinquish his property at the salt works which was to him considerable. As noted in a prior article , dozens of Monmouth County Whigs (supporters of the Revolution) from the shore moved inland for safety during the war. The actions that forced Van Kirk’s move were unique, but the decision to move inland was fairly common. Finally, Van Kirk noted splitting the $500 bounty for the death of Emmons with Captain Dennis, but it was inadequate: This contribution of 500 dollars which were equally divided between Captain Dennis and your petitioner will be far from indemnifying your petitioner for what he has suffered already in his property & absence from his father's family.... - he therefore humbly prays your Honorable board to take this case under consideration & make such further provision. Van Kirk was allowed to present himself before the legislature’s upper house, the Legislative Council, on May 24. The Council’s minutes recorded hearing "from John Van Kirk praying a consideration for assisting in destroying the Monmouth robbers." Van Kirk’s status continued to be a concern to Governor Livingston. On May 1, Livingston proposed a plan to George Washington in which twenty deserters of Count Kasimir Pulaski’s Legion would be embodied and turned into a posse to hunt down Pine Robbers: They [the deserters] offer to surrender themselves on condition of being under the Major [former commanding officer Burchardt] & serving in New Jersey... They are well-acquainted with the County of Monmouth and would be of great use in taking the Robbers of the Pines, especially with the guidance of Mr. Van Kirk, who with great address lately took a party of them, & has deserved public notice. Washington denied the request and the deserters were forced to return to the Continental Army. Likely with the help of the New Jersey government, Van Kirk was finally set up with a job. On August 11, the New Jersey Gazette advertised that John Van Kirk, at Cranbury, will "carry the papers from the printing office [in Trenton] on every Wednesday for the following terms" which included a nominal fee for delivery to nearby and safe Allentown and a large fee for delivery to far off and dangerous Middletown and Shrewsbury. Van Kirk was likely unsuccessful in this venture. That same month, William Barton, a Lieutenant in the Continental Army, wrote his father, Gilbert Barton, the influential tavern owner at Allentown: “I should be glad if you inquire to know what Van Kirk did with all of the money I sent in a letter directed to you for Able Ivins’ wife, was twenty dollars.” The following year, on August 22, Van Kirk, still at Cranbury, advertised for the return of a set of silver spoons taken from him in June. In February 1782, Van Kirk enlisted for one year in the New Jersey State Troops under Captain John Walton. He was one of 33 privates—a low status, low pay position for someone who had been a hero three years earlier. While serving, the Middlesex County Sheriff seized his farm outside of Cranbury. The 150-acre estate was advertised for sale on June 5, 1782. The Sheriff would use the sale to settle Van Kirk’s debts on June 24. Van Kirk was still living at Cranbury in 1789. That year he submitted a claim to the state for goods taken from him by Loyalists in January 1777. He claimed that he lost: 1 1/2 bushels of corn, 150 "sheaves of rye," and 2 barrels of cider. The value of the taken goods was less than L3. Van Kirk noted that "he never received any satisfaction" for these losses. He probably would have offered similar sentiments regarding his service in breaking up the Pine Robber gang. Related Historic Site : Shark River Park Appendix 1: New Jersey Gazette Report on the Death of Pine Robbers Extract of a Letter from Monmouth dated January 29, 1779 "The Tory freebooters who have their haunts and caves in this place, and have for some past been a terror to the inhabitants of this county, have, in the present week, met with a very eminent disaster. On Tuesday evening last, Captain Benjamin Dennis who late killed the infamous robber Fagan, with a party of militia, went in pursuit of three of the most noted of the Pine Banditti, and was so fortunate as to fall in with them and killed them on the spot.—Their names are Stephen Emmons, alias Emmons, Stephen West and Ezekiel Williams. Yesterday they were brought up to this place and two of them, it is said, will be hanged in chains. This signal piece of service was effected through the instrumentality of one John Van Kirk, who was prevailed upon to associate with them on purpose to discover their practices and to lead them into our hands. He conducted himself with so much address that the robbers, and especially the three above named, who were the leading villains, looked upon him as one of their body, kept him constantly with him and entrusted him with all of their designs. Van Kirk, of proper reasons, gave intelligence of their movements to Capt. Dennis, who conducted himself accordingly.—They were on the eve of setting off for New York to make sale of their plunder, when Van Kirk informed Capt. Dennis of the time of their intended departure, (which was to have been on Tuesday night last) and of the course they would take to their boats in consequence of which, and agreeable to the directions of Van Kirk, the Captain and a small party of militia planted themselves at Rock Pond near the shore, and shot Burke, West, and Williams in the manner above related. We were in hopes at first of keeping Van Kirk under the rose, but the secret is out and of course he must fly the county, for the Tories are so highly exasperated against him that death will certainly be his fate if he does not speedily leave Monmouth. The Whigs are soliciting contributions on his behalf and from what I have already seen have no doubt that they will present him with a handsome sum.—I question whether the destruction of the British fleet could diffuse more universal joy through the inhabitants of Monmouth than has the death of the above three egregious villains.—A certain John Giberson of the same group of villains, was killed about three weeks ago by a party of the militia near Toms River." Appendix 2: The Pine Robbers John and William Giberson Historian David Fowler researched the Giberson family of Upper Freehold. John and William Giberson, and many in their family, were Loyalists. John Giberson joined New Jersey Volunteers but, as with Jacob Fagan, he apparently deserted. John and William Giberson were apparently leading a Pine Robber gang along the Jersey shore by late 1778. John Giberson was killed near Toms River in early 1779. The New Jersey Gazette reported: “A certain John Giberson of the same group of villains, was killed about three weeks ago by a party of the militia near Toms River." William Giberson became infamous in December 1780 when he led twelve Loyalists across the state in an attempt to capture a New Jersey leader, likely William Livingston or Chief Justice David Brearley (also of Upper Freehold). He was indicted for horse stealing (a capital offense) shortly thereafter, but apparently remained an active horse thief through the first half of 1781 and he may have worked with William Clark and the Raritan Bay horse thieves. In August 1781, Silas Deane of the Continental Congress complained that "the trade of horse stealing flourishes amazingly" and called for a bounty on the head of "one Giberson of Monmouth." Governor Livingston responded on August 31 by placing a $200 bounty on the head of Giberson for "diverse thefts, robberies and felonies." By now, Giberson was operating from Clamtown (Tuckerton) in Burlington County, just south of Monmouth County. He was indicted in the Burlington County Courts that December for "waging war against the State." Antiquarian sources offer colorful stories of Giberson clashing with militia and narrowly escaping capture in two separate incidents in 1781. In July 1782, Giberson robbed the Burlington County collector, prompting another militia campaign to capture him. Militiaman Benjamin Bates described the capture of Giberson in his postwar veteran’s pension application. He also described Giberson’s remarkable escape in December: I found a villain by the name of Giberson, who was a noted refugee. He made his escape from the house and got into the woods. After searching a long time for him, I gave up and returned to our quarters. When I told Captain Davis that I had seen Giberson, he sent me back again to look for him, whilst engaged in searching for him, he suddenly jumped from behind a large black oak, he presented his gun and fired at me. As he presented, I drop down upon my knees and the load passed over me without hurting me. He then ran, I fired upon him and wounded him so that he fell and then went up to him and took him prisoner. He was afterwards taken to Burlington County Gaol where effected his escape, his sister having been permitted to visit him, they exchanged clothes. He went out and she remained in prison and the plot was not discovered until he had got too far to be overtaken. Bates’s story is corroborated by two other militiamen who remembered taking Giberson. John Pease recalled skirmishing "with a party of Tories at Clam Town, Little Egg Harbor, in Burlington County, when his party captured a Tory, one William Giberson, who was badly wounded in the skirmish, and was shot through his hip, and was carried and lodged in Burlington jail." Enoch Young recalled that he “was engaged with a party of refugees at Little Egg Harbor near Tuckerton in which the enemy was beaten and in which they broke the thigh of their captain, William Giberson, of the refugee company, took him prisoner, together with three of his men, and took the prisoners to Burlington jail.” Sources : Damages by British, Middlesex County Ledger, p 237, New Jersey State Archives Damages by British, Middlesex County Ledger, p 237, New Jersey State Archives; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Maryland Journal, February 16, 1779; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p197; New Hampshire Gazette report in Frank Moore, Diary of the American Revolution (New York: Charles Scribner, 1865) v2, p125; Transcript of the Court Martial of Richard Lippincott, http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/halew/Lippincott.html; Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 37; William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, pp. 30-1; Petition, Monmouth County Historical Association, Haskell Collection, folder 22, document B; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, April 23, 1779, p 72; William Livingston to George Washington, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, pp. 80-1; Journals of the Legislative Council of New Jersey (Isaac Collins: State of New Jersey, 1779) p56; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Letters of Lt. William Barton, son of Gilbert Barton, 1777-1779, American Revolution Institute, Society of the Cincinnati, 13 A.LL.S., Washington, DC; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Muster Roll, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, Coll. 89, p2, 6, 9, 11; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 169; Edwin Salter and George C. Beekman, Old Times in Old Monmouth ( Freehold, NJ: Monmouth Democrat, 1887) p 38; Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, 2 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1864) vol 2 p 413; E. Alfred Jones, The Loyalists of New Jersey (Coll. of New Jersey Historical Society, Vol. X, 1927) p 264; Van Note’s death discussed in Nathaniel Scudder to John Scudder, New Jersey Historical Society, Letters: Nathaniel Scudder. Appendix 2 Sources : David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 120-135 and note 27; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, February 3, 1779, reel 1930; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 174-80; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Benjamin Bates of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# NJ 11027010; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John Pease; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Enoch Young of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# 24155756. 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 Pardons of Purgatory on Ezekiel Forman by Michael Adelberg The Black Pioneers were officered by white Loyalists, including Ezekiel Forman. Unpleasant assignments like this compelled Forman to quit New York and resettle Freehold at war’s end. - October 1778 - Ezekiel Forman was born into one of the most prominent families in Monmouth County. As protests against British policies built and Americans formed committees to oppose them, his kinsmen—John Forman, Peter Forman and particularly, David Forman, played leading roles in the local Continental government. For whatever reason, Ezekiel Forman did not join them and, in fact, on July 1, 1776—the day before New Jersey adopted its first Constitution outside British control—Ezekiel Forman was arrested and brought before the New Jersey Provincial Congress. He was treated leniently—he posted a bond for his future good behavior and was released. Ezekiel Forman apparently laid low for a while, but when the British Army swept across New Jersey in late 1776 and Loyalists rose up, Ezekiel Forman participated in the Loyalist insurrection . He was again arrested and detained. Along with dozens of other captured Monmouth County Loyalists, he was sent to far off Maryland for detention. Ezekiel Forman returned to New Jersey in early 1777, with several other Monmouth Loyalists, but ahead of the many who remained in detention. Ezekiel Forman as a Loyalist Criminal In June 1777, Ezekiel Forman became an active Loyalist again. As the British Army prepared to quit its small New Jersey perimeter around New Brunswick and Amboy, Forman joined them. He wrote that he became a partisan for the British Army and was active in "taking rebel stores and taking up the most violent [Whigs] in that faction." He was again captured and detained in early 1778 and was tried for treason at the 2nd Monmouth Court of Oyer Terminer in June 1778. He was one of a dozen Loyalists sentenced to death. He wrote: After suffering every insult, indignity and abuse, he was brought to tryal -- and condemned for his loyalty to suffer death -- that his own numerous and family connections, as well as those of his wife, were all (one brother excepted, who was also tried and condemned to death for his attachment the King's cause) adherents to Congress, and to avoid the disgrace of having one of their family executed (and not for compassion for your memorialist) made use of their influence with the rebel government and procured a mitigation of his sentence to banishment, on pain of his being executed if he was ever afterward found in any of the States of America. Ezekiel Forman’s death sentence pardon is well documented. The New Jersey Legislative Council, the legislature’s upper house, considered Forman’s fate on August 10, 1778. It recorded: A representation… in behalf of Ezekiel Forman who was condemned for High Treason at the said Court. Also a petition from the Grand Jury and sundry inhabitants of the said County and some other papers in behalf of the said Ezekiel Forman and on deliberation, the Council advised his Excellency [Governor William Livingston] to respite the execution to Friday, the fifth day of September next. The respite became a pardon. The New Jersey Gazette further reported on September 28: "Ezekiel Forman, who was under sentence of death on a conviction of High Treason, is pardoned on condition of his leaving the State in two months, and the United States in six months, from the date of this pardon, never to return again to any of them." Ezekiel Forman as a Loyalist Refugee Forman left New Jersey in October and went into British lines in New York, but he did not leave the country. A British Colonel, A. Emmerick, recalled Forman’s role in saving four captured British soldiers in 1779: Ezekiel Forman, a Loyalist from New Jersey, at the risk of his life, came to the lines and informed me that four men belonging to my corps, who were prisoners of the rebels, were under sentence of death and that by this timely and useful information, I was enabled to dispatch a flag of truce to General MacDougall, so as to save their lives. Emmerick further noted that Forman "resided in the garrison of New York, and that he always appeared firmly attached to his Majesty." Perhaps because of this service, Forman was noticed by the British high command. An aide-de-camp of General Henry Clinton, leading British forces in America, wrote to Colonel Roger Morris, Superintendent of Refugees, on April 15, 1779: "I am desired by the Commander in Chief to request that you will order rations to be issued to the bearer, Mr. Ezekiel Forman. It is wished that he and others in his situation will find out some services for rendering themselves useful." Forman wrote that he became an officer in “the King’s militia” in New York City, but he did not stay in the city. He was captured again in New Jersey in 1781. He wrote: "was a second time thrown in prison, where he remained a long time & suffered much." The New Jersey Legislative Council again considered his fate on October 15, 1781. It recorded receiving "a petition from Ezekiel Forman, who was convicted of High Treason and received a sentence of death at a Court of Oyer and Terminer in the County of Monmouth in the year of 1778, praying to be pardoned of the offence." The Council again recommended a pardon and it was presumably granted. Forman returned to New York and was put in a supervisory role over a unit of African American Loyalists called the Black Pioneers. He was granted "an allowance of four shillings per diem until something better could be done for him." At times, the pioneers were employed digging trenches, at other times they performed even less glamorous tasks. One of their orders was to "assist in cleaning the streets & removing all Nuisances being thrown into the streets." It is safe to assume that Forman was unhappy with the role. Ezekiel Forman at War’s End It appears that Ezekiel Forman returned to New Jersey toward the end of the war to settle his estate. An Ezekiel Forman co-owned property in Princeton with Richard Stockton. Stockton was a signer of the Declaration of Independence who was captured by Loyalists in Freehold in late 1776 and compelled to sign a British loyalty oath. He died during the war. The fate of the Princeton property remained in limbo until April 1782 when Forman signed over the land to Alexander McDonald. In conveying this land, it was noted that Forman was in Philadelphia. A year later, Forman was still in Philadelphia with his wife. He requested that he and, his wife, Margaret Forman, be allowed to go now with "the liberty of bringing out such monies or effects as he may be able to discharge." With the war ending, Ezekiel Forman apparently planned to settle in New Jersey. He owned and paid taxes on a small 20-acre farm in Freehold in 1784. On this small farm, Forman lived far more modestly than he would have if not a Loyalist. It is probable that he suffered harassments or worse. Forman did not stay in New Jersey very long. On July 4, 1788, twelve years after his first arrest, Forman was in England, where he petitioned the British government for compensation for his lost pre-war estate . He recalled his service to the King and the poor state of his family: "he has been deserted and abandoned by all his relations and connections, and is reduced with a wife and a numerous family of children to extreme indigence." While Ezekiel Forman suffered for his Loyalism during the war, he also received two pardons and was repeatedly shown greater leniency by the government of New Jersey than poor men who committed the same deeds. He was allowed to move around and resettle in New Jersey at war’s end. This contrasts with the dozen or so Loyalists who were put to death in Revolutionary Monmouth County by local courts and to violence from Whig vigilantes later in the war. Ezekiel Forman’s family connections, however strained they might have been, spared him the rough treatment endured by other Loyalists and likely saved his life. Related Historic Site : Morris-Jumel Mansion (New York) Sources : Rutgers University, Special Collections, Loyalist Compensation Applications, Coll., Ezerkiel Forman, D96, PRO AO 13/109, reel 8; David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 83-4; The Library Company, New Jersey Gazette and Pennsylvania Evening Post, September-October 1778; Testimony of Col. Emmerick, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Audit Office, Class 13, volume 109, folio 296-7; Certificate regarding Ezekiel Forman, Great Britain Public Record Office, British Headquarters Papers, 30/55, #1919; The order to the Black Pioneers is in Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People ( https://blackloyalist.com/cdc/story/revolution/pioneers.htm ); David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 206; Princeton University Library, Stockton Family Papers, box 2, folder 4, Release of Land near Princeton, Ezekiel Forman to Alexander MacDonald. April 12 1782; Petition, Ezekiel Forman, David Library, Records of the Pennsylvania Revolutionary Government, film 24, reel 30, frames 477-9; David Forman to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 91, March 23, 1783; Ezekiel Forman compensation claim, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Audit Office, Class 13, Volume 109, folios 296-297 and 302. 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 > Preparations Made for the Return of the French Fleet by Michael Adelberg Captain William Dobbs was the resident pilot at Sandy Hook before the war. Gen. Washington ordered his return to Sandy Hook in July 1778, October 1779, and June 1780 to help the French fleet. - May 1780 - In July 1778, a large French fleet anchored just south of Sandy Hook. The French outgunned the British fleet inside Sandy Hook, but their largest ships—when loaded for battle—sat too deep in the water to cross the channel into lower New York Harbor. Continental and state authorities attempted to supply the French, but provisions arrived slowly. After a two-week stand-off, the French sailed for Rhode Island. In October 1779, the French fleet was again expected to anchor off Sandy Hook and new preparations were made to provision the French, but the French steered for Savannah, Georgia instead. In April 1780, there were new rumors about the French fleet’s arrival at Sandy Hook. The French officer, Francois Louis de Fleury, wrote John Adams on May 1, 1780, that his fleet was headed for New York, but might not attack. The fleet "will in the mean time cruise before Sandy Hook to starve the British in their inexpungible lines." British Moves to Defend Sandy Hook As they had in July 1778 and October 1779, the British moved to defend the entrance of New York Harbor and block the channel above Sandy Hook . On April 27, the prominent Loyalist, William Smith, wrote about preparations for the French arrival: "The project of sinking 20 hulks in the channel at the Hook, which is about 800 yards wide. The expense of the hulks about £1000, not to be sunk until the moment of the enemy's approach." A few weeks later, Governor General James Robertson wrote of preparations to defend New York against the French Fleet: "twenty five vessels lye loaded with stones at the Hook, ready to occupy their places on the bar at the approach of the enemy's fleet." Also in May, General James Pattison wrote Lord George Germain about the expected French fleet and the defense of New York: Everything is preparing a vigorous defence on both the land and sea sides. Batteries are made and guns placed on them where ever they can most effectually damage the enemy's ships, but these can only annoy, a fleet with a favorable wind & tide can't be prevented by any number of cannon from coming up to our wharfs, to prevent this, twenty five small vessels are ready loaded with stones, they lye at the hook [Sandy Hook], and on notice will be taken out to the bar and sunk there according to a plan formed with exactness, a few anchors are sufficient to render the inner channel impracticable even for frigates. The bar will not be spoiled nor the vessels be sunk till the enemy's approach makes it absolutely necessary. Pattison noted that fortifying Sandy Hook was not a priority: No part of Sandy Hook is within three miles of the bar, guns placed there could not annoy a fleet in passing so well as they could on places nearer at hand and which we can better support, there is no time to make a work that could stand a siege—a fascine work that can contain one hundred men is all that is constructed, and this is round the light house. British moves in New York Harbor and at Sandy Hook were known within Continental lines. On May 25, the Connecticut Journal , reported: "They [New York Loyalists] are under so much fear of a visit from our allies [the French navy] that they have laden large ships with stones, ready to sink in the channel way at Sandy Hook, on the shortest notice of a fleet appearing." On June 17, two privateer sailors, prisoners in New York, escaped and landed on the Monmouth shore. They were examined by David Forman and provided a detailed report on the small British squadron in New York Harbor: Naval forces at New York and cruising about Sandy Hook -- Iris, frigate, a mere wreck now docked; two frigates, the names they had forgot; Galatea -- twenty gun ship; Delight -- sloop, 18 guns; Sloop - 14 guns; 30 sail of old vessels, brigs, schooners and sloops lay at Sandy Hook loaded with stone for the purpose of stopping the channel on the appearance of a French fleet. Lt. James Home, an officer on one of those frigates, the Europe , wrote about the British squadron on June 28. He wrote that his vessel and others were expected to sail but were detained at Sandy Hook because of the expected French fleet. Horne "was disappointed.” He noted, “We had heard of a French fleet sailed for this coast, which I believe was the cause of our not leaving." He concluded: "There is now nothing new going on here, for we are waiting for the French fleet, which I dare say will not come here." Continental and Local Authorities Prepare for French Fleet George Washington was well aware of the French fleet’s potential to attack on the weakened British fleet at New York. On May 16, he wrote the Marquis de Lafayette: I observed that the French Squadron would find no difficulty in entering the Port of New York, with the present naval force of the enemy there. The only possible obstacle to this is the obstructions the enemy are preparing; but I am inclined to hope these will be ineffectual and will be easily removed. They last fall made an attempt of the kind on the expectation of Count D'Estaing, but it failed from the depth of the water and rapidity of the current. Pilots for the harbor can be ready at Black Point from which they can go on Board the fleet at its first appearance. A week later, Washington wrote General William Maxwell, commanding the New Jersey Line, about the need to verify rumors that the French fleet had anchored on the Monmouth shoreline: “We have had repeated accounts that a considerable Fleet has been seen off the Coast of Monmouth, but as none of them have been sufficiently accurate to determine whether it is really so.” Washington was sending a French officer to the shore and ordered Maxwell to send a New Jersey officer with local knowledge: You will therefore be pleased to make a choice of an intelligent Officer of your Brigade, well acquainted in the County of Monmouth, to meet and accompany Colo. Jimat, and that they may be secure against the disaffected , you will be pleased to order a party of eight or ten Dragoons from Bedkins Corps, if he can mount so many, and if not, to take some of the Militia Horse to make up the number. Washington enclosed an order to the selected officer: You are to accompany Colo. Jimat to the County of Monmouth and to such parts of the coast as he may find occasion to visit. You are, I imagine, well apprized of the disaffection of many of the inhabitants in that Quarter and of the necessity which there will be of guarding against any attempts of theirs to take you off. It may perhaps add to your security if you can prevail upon some of the well affected Gentlemen of the Country to accompany you whenever you ride towards the shore. While Washington was not convinced that the French fleet was on the Monmouth shore, others were. On May 24, the New Jersey Journal reported that the French fleet was on the Monmouth shore and several "officers have been ashore." The next day, Robert Morris, the former Chief Justice of New Jersey, wrote of the arrival of the French fleet. He wrote Colonel Asher Holmes: “I congratulate you on the arrival of a fleet that I hear is off Toms River… this we heard yesterday, & I believe is true.” Morris was mostly incorrect. The French fleet had not arrived off Toms River—though a single French frigate had. On June 6, the 36-gun Hermione cruised the Jersey shore and mauled the British frigate, Iris , outside of Sandy Hook, killing seven and wounding nine more British sailors. On June 11, Washington made preparations for the arrival of the French fleet. He wrote Captain William Dobbs, the resident pilot at Sandy Hook before the Revolution: The French fleet have been in route and hourly expected. You will be pleased to repair to this place with all practical dispatch and bringing with you such pilots as may be acquainted with the navigation into the Harbour of New York. If these are not at hand or in perfect readiness, you will not delay on their account but direct them to follow up. A month later, Washington was still seeking pilots. He wrote Captain Patrick Dennis on July 11: Upon receipt, you will repair to the station of rendezvous for the pilots in Monmouth, to which place Major Lee [Henry Lee] is ordered with his horse. Perhaps you may fall in with him. It is essential that no time be lost, as it comes from New-York, from tolerable authority, that the French fleet is near the coast. You will take with you the pilots which are near you. David Forman Provides Intelligence In 1777, David Forman was a Brigadier General of the New Jersey Militia and the Colonel of the Regiment of Continentals defending Monmouth County. However, a string of scandals pressured him to resign his militia commission and Washington stripped him of his regiment. Afterward, Forman largely receded from public life, but the French fleet’s expected arrival was Forman’s opportunity to again raise his profile. As noted above, Forman interrogated two privateer sailors who escaped from New York, gathered intelligence from them on the strength of the British squadron, and sent it forward to Washington. Forman sent another report on June 30 after interrogating a British deserter. Forman discussed British plans to sink hulls off Sandy Hook: "They should sink their store vessels in the place they now lay, which will, I apprehend, for a time render the passage of large ships up to the Narrows impracticable." Forman wrote Washington again on July 9. He was receiving reports from Captain Joseph Stillwell, watching British movements from the Highlands. Forman worried that the British might block the French from entering New York Harbor "by interrupting the channel way at the point of the Hook [by sinking hulls] & at the same time taking possession of the Hook with a body of troops and heavy cannon, they would make the passage almost impossible.” Forman wanted to attack Sandy Hook. If the Army could "take possession of the Hook, every difficulty would be removed in a very short time - by landing a few pieces of heavy cannon, the troops could cover the French ships while they drew the sunk vessels out of the channel or until they could wrap their ships through them.” Forman believed that Sandy Hook was weak, guarded by only “a Lieut and twenty of the new raised troops at the Light House - in the cedars are about 60 or 70 refugees, white and black.” He wrote about the battery built for the French in 1778, “The enemy erected a battery at the point of the Hook... the works are now entirely out of repair, the cannon has long since been removed.” Forman also complained about the lack of men to menace Sandy Hook and the lack of horses to carry intelligence: "There is so few militia horse ordered out and so much use for them that in many instance I cannot be furnished with one in twenty horses, and never until I send 15 or 20 miles for them." The next day, a frustrated Forman wrote Washington again. On the expected French fleet, he wrote: “It would give me great pleasure to give our allies assistance - [but] in the present situation of officers in the county I fear little will be in my power.” Forman was referring to the “mansteaing” raids that took a dozen militia officers out of Monmouth County that spring and drove other militia officers into inactivity. He also spoke of seizing provisions from the largely disaffected Monmouth shoreline: I imagine that a very pointed order from your Excellency to impress provisions and teams will be abundantly necessary - when Count D'Estaing lay off Shrewsbury, he was exceedingly imposed on in point of price & could draw but little supply - the disaffection in Shrewsbury is since that time greatly increased... yet I am convinced that several hundred sheep and some cattle might be taken from some people who at several times withheld supplies from the American army & are strongly suspected of sending supplies to the enemy. That same day Washington wrote Forman. He acknowledged Forman’s report and request for men. In consequence, "Major Henry Lee moved down yesterday to Monmouth with his corps of horse to protect the pilots and keep open the communication between me and the French Admiral and the General [Forman] upon their arrival. This will render the hiring of the persons you mention unnecessary." The French Fleet Does Not Arrive Just as Washington was sending in Lee, the need to do so was fading. On July 12, Nathaniel Scudder, Monmouth County’s top political leader, wrote his son about British moves at: “Something troubles them much - it is supposed they have sunk their vessels to obstruct the channel - we presume it probable that the French fleet is near.” But just five days later, Scudder doubted the French arrival: We have been for some days past, amused with accounts of the appearance of the French fleet near Sandy Hook - indeed the day before yesterday the account seemed to be so well authenticated that for a few hours we believed it - but they prove to be a British squadron. That same day, Washington wrote Forman: "We have an account of the arrival of the French Fleet at Rhode Island, which may render the collection of any considerable quantity of stock unnecessary." On July 21, the Loyalist, Wiliam Smith, wrote that the hulks brought to Sandy Hook (to be sunk on the arrival of the French fleet) were returned to New York. The British had apparently learned that the French fleet was not bound for New York. On July 31, Washington wrote Forman that he “desired Capt. Dobbs to assemble at Capt. Dennis's at Basken Ridge as soon as possible.” Washington gave Forman the ability to summon the pilots back to Black Point if the French came: “You will please to give order to the Pilots to repair down, where they [the French] may be at hand.” July 1780 would be the last time that Monmouth County leaders scrambled to accommodate a French fleet that would disappoint them. But the false alarm was still consequential because it returned David Forman to an active role in local affairs. This, combined with the crisis posed by Loyalist manstealing raids, enabled Forman establish the Association for Retaliation , a vigilante group that Forman and allies likely promoted while traversing the county on behalf of the French fleet. Related Historic Site : Sandy Hook Lighthouse Sources: William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971) p 257; Francois Louis DeFluery to John Adams, Massachusetts Historical Society, Online Collections, John Adams Papers; Robert Morris to Asher Holmes, Monmouth County Historical Association, Cherry Hall Papers, box 5, folder 9; James Robertson, The Twilight of British Rule in Revolutionary America: The New York Letter Book of General James Robertson, 1780-1783 (New York: New York State Historical Association, 1983) p 113; The attack on the HMS Iris is discussed in The Remembrancer or Impartial Repository of Public Events, 1780, p148; George Washington to William Dobbs, July 11, 1780, https://www.sethkaller.com/slideshow.php?id=1983&t=t-1983-001-21195_p1_w.jpg ; George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw180426)) ; James Pattison to George Germain, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York (Albany: John R. Broadhead, 1857), vol. 8, p791-2; Connecticut Journal, May 25, 1780; George Washington to William Maxwell, 23 May 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-01839, ver. 2013-09-28; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, pp. 386, 395; American Journal (Providence), June 7, 178; Monmouth County Historical Association, Diaries Collection, box 2, John Stillwell's Diary (photocopy); James Home, letter, June 28, 1780; NYHS, Gilder-Lehrman Collection; David Forman to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 67, June 30, 1780; David Forman to George Washington, Monmouth County Historical Association, Diaries Collection, box 2, John Stillwell's Diary (photocopy); George Washington to Patrick Dennis, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw190184)) ; David Forman to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 68, July 12, 1780.; Nathaniel Scudder to John Scudder, New Jersey Historical Society, Letters: Nathaniel Scudder; George Washington to David Forman, in John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 19, p 183; George Washington to David Forman, Monmouth County Historical Association, Collections Alphabetical, Letters 1770-1780; George Washington to David Forman, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 68, July 12, 1780; Nathaniel Scudder to Henry Laurens, Pennsylvania History Society, Dreer Collection, Nathaniel Scudder, August 17, 1780; George Washington to David Forman, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw220484)) . 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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 > Monmouth County's Jail and the Jailbreak of February 1781 by Michael Adelberg The jail in York, PA. was one of a few buildings in America built to be a prison. The Monmouth County jail was in the basement of the court house. It suffered a jail break and many irregularities. - February 1781 - The Monmouth County jail was in the basement of the county courthouse in Freehold. While no surviving document describes it in detail, it can be assumed that the prison consisted of few rough rooms that were neither designed nor expected to house dozens of dangerous prisoners at a time. Even early in the war, it was understood that Monmouth County was incapable of handling all of its prisoners. For example, in late 1776, roughly 200 Loyalist insurrectionists were taken during the campaigns of Colonels David Forman and Charles Read. Most of these men were sent to jail in Philadelphia—and then further west in Pennsylvania and to Fredericktown, Maryland . Back in Freehold, there was apparently a string of prisoner escapes in early 1777 as Colonel Francis Gurney brought in new prisoners . The escapes promoted a petition to New Jersey Assembly in March: The gaol of said County has been frequently broken out, and prisoners rescued; and praying that their Magistrates may be empowered, in extra-ordinary cases, to send disaffected persons out of the County to be confined. William Perrine, a Loyalist, was one of those escaped men. After the war, he wrote: He was applied to by agents of Congress to sign a paper called the Association, and on refusal of the same was deemed an enemy to my country and committed to close confinement, from thence I found means to break prison & escape to the British Army and left my house and family to the mercy of my enemies. Dangerous prisoners, such as Jesse Woodward and Richard Robins, a few other leaders of the Loyalist insurrections were jailed in distant Sussex County . Far off confinement was harsh punishment in an era when travel was difficult—it made regular family visitation impossible. Men confined far from home appealed to come home which, in turn, created a need to better secure the county prison. In 1777, Upper Freehold militia companies served as prison guards. Josiah Dey wrote of this service: [He] was a considerable time stationed at Monmouth Court House to guard the prisoners confined in jail and prevent their being liberated by the enemy, and served as one of the guards to remove the prisoners thereupon to the jail in Burlington County. In June 1778, Monmouth County’s 2nd Court of Oyer and Terminer sentenced twelve men to death, though six were quickly pardoned by Governor William Livingston. On June 22, Baptist Minister Abel Morgan, ministered to the men on death row. He noted afterward, "At the request of some prisoners, I preached to 8 under sentence of death. A moving sight." However, on June 25, Sheriff Nicholas Van Brunt took the condemned men to Morristown. But another felon housed in the jail, the Loyalist partisan Chrineyonce Van Mater, stayed in jail until he was freed by the British on June 27. The Pennsylvania Gazette reported: The court sentenced him to pay a fine of £300 and to suffer six months imprisonment. We hear that the enemy in their late passage through that country released Van Mater; who, after having piloted them through his neighborhood, went off with them to New York. Mistreatment of prisoners began after the British Army razed a neighborhood near Freehold, a hostile, gratuitous act that stoked local resentments. This may have led to two Loyalist deaths at the county jail in the months that followed. The Loyalist, Joseph Williams wrote that his brother, Obadiah Williams "was taken prisoner & confined in the dungeon in Freehold gaol, until he was emaciated & soon after died.” James Pew, of Middletown before the war, left for New York and then was captured in late 1778 while visiting his family. Pew was jailed and murdered by the prison sentry, James Tilley, who shot him in his prison cell. In late 1779, as Loyalist arrests trended up, Monmouth Countians started worrying again about the security of the county jail. In October, Sheriff Van Brunt again transported prisoners out of the county, to Burlington. And militiaman, John G. Holmes, when describing his service in later 1779 noted that his company was “stationed at Monmouth [Court House] to guard the prisoners then in jail, as the jail was not thought sufficiently strong." The security of the Monmouth County jail worsened in early 1780. In March, the jailkeeper, William Lawrence complained to the New Jersey Assembly about Major Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee taking his quarters at the Court House. He also claimed that Lee “had also taken charge of and maintained a number of different prisoners confined for different crimes and misdemeanors” in the jail. This glut of prisoners may have led Kenneth Anderson, the county clerk, to write Governor Livingston in April: There now being confined in Monmouth County several prisoners, committed for sundry most atrocious robberies perpetrated in this county, and many persons out of the gaol who expect their trials, and we being apprehensive that the prisoners may effect an escape. In August, as Loyalist irregulars penetrated all the way to Colts Neck (five miles from Freehold), Chief Justice David Brearley, worried "there is a design to rescue them [Loyalist prisoners] by a party from the Pines." This, again, prompted a cohort of prisoners to be moved out of the county. In September, the jailkeeper compiled "A List of Prisoners of War in Monmouth Gaol to be Sent to Philadelphia by order of the Governor and Council of the State in New Jersey." The list included six British sailors, five British soldiers, and five Monmouth County Loyalists (Obadiah Parker, Nathaniel Tyron, Elijah Curtis, Richard Freeman, and Aaron Brewer). The Prison Break of February 1781 As noted in a prior article, a crackdown on illegally trading shore residents swelled the dockets of Monmouth County’s courts in late 1780, which in turn, swelled the number of prisoners in the county jail. The county’s leaders worried about the jail’s vulnerability. In October 1780, at the start of the crackdown, David Rhea, the quartermaster officer responsible for purchasing foodstuffs in the county wrote that a food shortage at the county jail was causing problems "as there are a number of prisoners, very impudent, in the gaol now." That same month, David Forman worried about the security of the county jail: We now have some atrocious villains in gaol & they would have made their escape had I not providentially discovered them and had them secured in irons - no guard having been kept at the court house since the elections. The decision to put prisoners in irons sparked the Loyalist, Thomas Crowell, to do the same with captured Whigs. While Forman may have foiled this attempted prison break, he was not in position to stop the next one a few months later. In February 1781, the New Jersey Gazette reported: On the night of the 4th instant, the prisoners in the gaol of the County of Monmouth made their escape by sawing off their irons and some of the window grates; it is thought that the sentry was remiss in his duty. Among those who escaped were Humphrey Wade and Joel Parker, both under sentence of death for horse stealing. There were several others who were charged with capital offenses; one of whom, of the name DeNight (together with a Negro man) was retaken. The Monmouth County prisoners may have been inspired by a group of five Monmouth County prisoners who escaped from the Continental jail in Philadelphia on January 10. The Loyalist New York Gazette reported on January 20 that: The following persons arrived in this city, they have been made prisoners by the Rebels and confined in Philadelphia gaol, from whence they fortunately escaped on the 10th inst., a reward of $2000 was published for apprehending them. The five Philadelphia escapees included Chrineyonce Van Mater, who had been freed from jail in Freehold in June 1778 only to be retaken in the summer of 1780. The prisoners who escaped the Monmouth County jail likely committed a robbery in Upper Freehold on February 5, the day after their escape. The New Jersey Gazette reported on February 6 that the prior day, "at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, a certain Samuel Read of Philadelphia, being on his way to Freehold in Monmouth County, was robbed by three villains, disguised in frocks and trousers, of sixty guineas, twenty half Joes and nine hundred Continental dollars." They may have been seeking to link up with Pine Robbers who dwelled in the county’s pine forests. The escape of the death row convicts likely prompted an inquiry to Chief Justice Brearley about the men who were now on the run. Brearley wrote Governor Livingston on February 6: The following persons were capitally convicted and sentenced to be hanged on Friday next, Robert James for High Treason… Humphrey Wade and John Parker for Horse Stealing, their cases are very clear -- they were in the company of stolen horses, and taken together at a place called Squankum in Shrewsbury. They acknowledged that they stole the horses out of the pasture of John Coward of Upper Freehold. Wade is an elderly man, Parker is a youth about seventeen. James would be pardoned by Livingston on March 20. Three other Loyalists (who apparently were quickly retaken) were hanged. On February 8, the Royal Gazette reported: "On Thursday last, three Loyalists were put to death, on a gibbet in Monmouth County, New Jersey, their crime being an attachment to the old Constitution." Problems at the County Jail Continue There is no evidence that the February 1781 prison break led to any substantial changes at the Monmouth County jail. In April 1782, Richard Lippincott, a captain in the Associated Loyalists (who would soon be scandalized for hanging Captain Joshua Huddy) proposed a raid against Freehold to free Clayton Tilton, another Associated Loyalist jailed there. Samuel Blowers of the Board of Associated Loyalists, testified that: Captain Lippincott then proposed to make an expedition against the Jerseys with a view to force the gaol in Monmouth County, with a party of about thirty Loyalists, and to rescue Clayton Tilton, or if that was found impracticable, to make an attempt to seize General Forman. If a party of twenty might force open the county jail, it could not have been heavily guarded. While Tilton was not freed by Lippincott, he did escape. He wrote in his post-war Loyalist compensation application: He had the great misfortune of being made a prisoner by the rebels, who tried him by their own laws for High Treason against the State & condemned him to be hanged for his loyalty, but he had the good fortune to be rescued, and got safe again to British lines in New York. Clayton Tilton’s brother, Ezekiel Tilton, was jailed in Freehold just three months later. According to his wife, Elizabeth Tilton, Ezekiel “endeavored to gain an occupation of fisherman to support his family” until he was “taken by a row boat fitted out in the Jersies.” She continued: He is carried to Monmouth Gaol and confined, and it is reported as a State prisoner -- So much oppressed with close and heavy irons that his flesh is in a state of mortification, in which apartment [cell] one of his neighbors [James Pew] has been shot & murdered without provocation, and others led to the gallows for their loyalty. She appealed to British authorities for a prisoner exchange to free her husband. Another Loyalist taken that summer, Peter Stout, claimed that he was extorted into forfeiting his estate after being confined as a prisoner in the Monmouth County jail. He wrote: He was about the month of August 1782 taken prisoner by the Americans & confined in Freehold gaol for near four months, after which he was exchanged upon giving bond & security in £1000 that he would not leave the county, but should return to gaol when called for. However, after Stout agitated for permission to return to New York, he ran into problems with John Burrowes, Jr., the new sheriff, and David Forman: Who absolutely refused suffering the deponent to come within British lines and discharging his security bonds -- upon which the deponent's mother conveyed her right to the deponent's confiscated estate unto Mr. John Burrowes, the purchaser thereof, upon which being done, the deponent was retrieved from irons, and discharged from the dungeon by John Burrowes, Jr. Historian David Fowler noted that captured pine robber leaders raised fears of Loyalist attacks to liberate prisoners. When John Bacon, for example, was captured in 1782, David Forman, now a judge, secured a writ to put him in irons at a secret location. The writ states "safely keep him close, confined in irons to answer charges of High Treason, murder and horse stealing, whereof he stands accused." Despite the special treatment, Bacon escaped. Meanwhile, other dangerous prisoners continued to be shuttled outside the county, and not returned until trial. In November 1782, Sheriff Burrowes, hired and paid Captain John Walton for “bringing Edward Price, Peter Patton, Joseph Sheldon, John Okerson, Ezekiel Tilton, William Horner, Fuller Horner & others from Burlington to Monmouth gaol.” A Court of Oyer and Terminer was held in early 1783, but there were no capital convictions at that court. The insecure Monmouth County jail was never greatly improved, but hostilities did wind down. The retrieval of prisoners in 1782 may have been the last time that the Monmouth County jail needed to be emptied of dangerous prisoners. Perspective The difficulties and permeability of the Monmouth County jail were not unique. The Burlington County jail, for example had a number of problems during the Revolutionary War. Historian David Fowler notes that in April 1780 Governor Livingston admonished the Burlington County sheriff for allowing the counterfeiter, Thomas Burney, and two others to escape. The jailkeeper may have been complicit in escape. In June 1781, the Burlington County sheriff requested funds to strengthen the jail “to prevent the escape of prisoners” and called for “a proper guard” for the insecure jail. No matter, a year later the Pine Robber leader, William Giberson, escaped the jail by exchanging clothes and places with his sister and walking out. Fowler notes that other jails had problems too. The Sussex County jail, for example, had a number of prison breaks, prompting Justice John Cleve Symmes to write that prisoners “escape almost when they please.” October 1780, eight Loyalists escaped from the Cumberland County jail. Another article discusses the near-continuous trickle of British prisoners of war escaping inland jails as far away as Frederick, Maryland and journeying back to the British Army in New York via the Jersey shore. Related Historic Site : National Prisoner of War Museum (Andersonville, Georgia) Sources : Joseph Holmes to Asher Holmes, Monmouth County Historical Association, Cherry Hall Papers, box 5, folder 9; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, March 3, 1777, p 90; Jones, E. Alfred. The Loyalists of New Jersey, (Newark, N. J. Historical Society, 1927) p 171. Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn. and London, 1984), pp. 682-3. Rutgers University Special Collections, Great Britain Public Record Office, Loyalist Compensation Claims, D96, AO 13/19, reel 6 and AO 13/111, reel 10; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Josiah Dey; R.T. Middleditch, "Abel Morgan of Middletown", The Baptist Quarterly, 1874, vol. 8, p332; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 90; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p196-7; Pennsylvania Gazette, July 14, 1778 (CD-ROM at the David Library, #24982); Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 276-277; Journals of the Legislative Council of New Jersey (Isaac Collins: State of New Jersey, 1779) p104; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John G. Holmes; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, March 1, 1780, p 132; New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 11, April 27, 1780; David Fowler, egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 242; David Library of the American Revolution, Prisoners of War, #66, “A List of the Prisoners of War in Monmouth Gaol to be Sent to Philadelphia by order of the Governor and Council of the State of New Jersey”; David Forman to William Livingston, New York Public Library, William Livingston Papers, vol. 3, pp. 55-58; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 163; William Nelson, Austin Scott, et al., ed., New Jersey Archives (Newark, Trenton, Somerville, 1901-1917) vol. 5, p 194; David Brearley to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 139-40; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 162; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906, January 20, 1781; Royal Gazette (Georgia), February 8, 1781; Howard Peckham, Sources of American Independence: Selected Manuscripts from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) p 562; David Fowler, egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 252; Elizabeth Tilton to Guy Carleton, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #5097; Peter Stout, Affidavit, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #9154, 9177; Rutgers University, Special Collections, Loyalist Compensation Applications, Joseph Williams, Coll. D96, PRO AO 10/20, reel 7; Rutgers University, Special Collections, Loyalist Compensation Applications, Clayton Tilton, Coll. D96, PRO AO 10/20, reel 7 and AO 13/112, reel 10; New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #4100; David J. Fowler, The State of New Jersey versus Joseph Mulliner, 1781 (unpublished manuscript). Previous Next

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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 > British Plundering and Arson at Freehold, June 27-28, 1778 by Michael Adelberg British Commander Henry Clinton quartered at the house of Elizabeth Covenhoven near Freehold. She was plundered of livestock and family goods, and forced to sleep in her milk shed. - June 1778 - On the morning of June 26, the British Army left Allentown burdened by a massive baggage train and thousands of non-combatants. They skirmished as they left Allentown and skirmished through the day. German Officer Heinrich von Feilitsch wrote that "the enemy harassed us the entire day... the place we halted is called Upper Freehold. During a marauding expedition, the [German] corps lost twenty men." Another German officer, Major von Wilmowsky, wrote that the enemy had "blocked up the road a considerable distance with barriers of trees in order to delay us & harass our march." The day was miserably hot. Lt. William Hale wrote: We proceeded five miles in a road composed of nothing but sand which scorched through the soles of our shoes with intolerable heat; the sun beating on our heads with a force scarcely to be conceived in Europe, and not a drop of water to assuage our parching thirst; a number of soldiers were unable to support the fatigue, and died on the spot... and the whole road strewed with miserable wretches wishing for death, exhibited the most shocking scene I ever saw. Johann Ewald, a German officer, concurred: "Many lose their lives miserably because of the intense heat... no water to be found the entire march.” Heavy storms came in the afternoon and, amidst the storms, the British camped at Robbins Tavern, a few miles before Freehold. But the storms produced new problems. A German officer, Lt. Weidenholdt, recorded: "The horse of Lt. Schaffer was struck by lightning and killed, another got lamed for several days, a soldier and a man servant were also struck at the same time and not able to speak for some days, and the tent in which they laid caught fire.” British Army Enters Freehold The British awoke on June 27 and, amidst new harassments, completed the march to Freehold. With frustrations peaking, the British Army entered Freehold. British General James Pattison was among the first to arrive: "The greater part of the village of Freehold was abandoned but some arms were found, supposed to belong to the militia." Lt. John Von Krafft, a German officer, wrote of his arrival in Freehold a few hours later. We entered this place, almost all the inhabitants had fled, evidently a short time before our arrival, because I found fresh milk in the house where I was sent to go for fresh water. Every place broken into and plundered by the British soldiers. The church, which was made from wood and had a steeple, was miserably demolished. Von Krafft visited the recently-evacuated county courthouse. It “contained in the lowest story some strong prison cells, in front of which were still bread, beverage, ham and lettuce... prisoners had been moved in great haste... The English soldiers had been destroying everything in the city-hall house, even tearing down the little bell in the steeple." Von Krafft’s account is corroborated by Benjamin Van Cleave, Jr., a six-year-old at the time of the Battle of Monmouth, who later recalled the people of Freehold fleeing in advance of the British Army: I remember the confusion of the women and children and their flight to the pine swamps. When we had got a mile from home, the British Army were in sight at a mile and a half distant. We proceeded a short distance further and a consultation was held about the course to pursue, the men having gone in search of the army. I gave them the slip & aimed to return home, got within a short distance of the British right flank and the sound of the bugles drove me back, where, in the confusion, I had not been missed. Rachel Covenhoven recalled her family taking in refugee families on June 27: "The night before the battle, her father's house was used as a shelter for the women and children of the neighborhood." The Plundering of Freehold The British camp spread four miles across Freehold and Manalapan. Captain Caleb Jones of the Maryland Loyalist regiment recorded that the men were to draw two days rations —proof that the British intended to rest the Army in Freehold. Orders were given to post sentries to curb plundering by soldiers and women camp followers: [Sentries] will report to the Commanding officers any disorderly people who attempt to force the safe guards into plunder where they are posted, the guard is to immediately make them prisoners and fire on them if they should make any resistance. All women following the army and other stragglers who attempt coming on the rear of ye army houses, barns or other buildings will be secured for leaving the line of march, whether they commit any disorders or not. Orders were also given to purchase cattle, "The inhabitants must be desired to drive their cattle to a popular enclosure fit for the use of the Army” from which officers “will pay a reasonable price for them." Despite these orders, the men behaved badly. This prompted a court martial for Michael Pepperly and Adam Derry (wagon drivers for the Army). They were "accused of setting fire to and burning a house" but found not guilty. Key to the acquittal was testimony from Ensign William Bowles: Upon seeing house on fire, he went up to it & upon going into the barn, which stood about fifty yards from the dwelling house, he found two prisoners and another man standing by a fire which had been made in a trough; that upon asking them what they were doing there, they said they were looking for some forage. Bowles said that Derry and Pepperly arrived after "the house was on fire." He claimed that a British soldier took “a lighted board to the house, which was burning, and set fire to the barn." Whether Bowles and other witnesses were covering for Pepperly and Derry is unknown. A second court martial on June 27 concerned two Mary Colethrate and Elizabeth Clarke, "followers of the Army" for "plundering." Colethrate was acquitted, but Clarke was found guilty and sentenced "to receive 100 lashes on her bare back... and then drummed out of the Army in the most public manner." Major John Antill of 2nd Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers (from Shrewsbury Township) testified: The day before yesterday, a farmer came and begged for protection, as some women were plundering and destroying his house; that upon going into the house, he saw everything in the greatest confusion, the feather bed being cut open and many other things destroyed; that there were about twenty or thirty women in the house. Antill asked the farmer which women led the riot and “he pointed out prisoner Colethrate & the woman of the house pointed out prisoner Clarke and another woman.” Antill arrested the three women but the third “was released by order of Genl. Knyphausen [William Knyphausen].” Antill discovered that “both had loaded some things in their aprons; he himself saw the prisoner Clarke was very busy turning over some things in the closet." The farmer's wife stated that Clarke "beat and abused her, carried off one load of plunder and returned for another." Clarke was caught with stolen shoes, proving her guilt. Similarly, an antiquarian account describes a Loyalist group breaking into the home of Joseph Bowne (a militia corporal) outside of Freehold. The family fled into the woods and stayed there for two days. The family’s slave stayed in the house and brought them food. Similarly, Elizabeth Burke, wife of militia private Samuel Burke, recalled that on the morning of the Battle of Monmouth "her home was robbed by the British and Hessians." Historian Randall Gabrielan wrote of the family of John Craig, who owned a house near the battlefield. Craig was a militia officer who was likely with the militia and away from his family when the British entered Freehold. He wrote: “As Mrs. Craig fled that day in a westerly direction, she took two wagonloads of possessions with her, although silver hidden in a well was lost to British who occupied the place.” That same day, William Wilcocks, an attorney in the Continental Army, wrote Lord Stirling (General William Alexander) from the house of John Anderson near Freehold. Wilcocks was sent "to observe the motions of the enemy" with a small mounted party. He noted two arsons (“They have burnt Col Henderson's [Thomas Henderson] & Benjamin Covenhoven's house & barn.”) and a few desertions ("I have made prisoner of four Hessians & a British pioneer, and am now in pursuit of an English officer & three soldiers, inquiring their way through the country."). He also detailed the British line of march which extended into Manalapan and described it as “a country very friendly to our cause." Disorders increased through the day. Two German officers wrote about efforts to raise fresh provisions for the soldiers also about the arsons and plundering of British troops. Von Krafft wrote: "Today, the Hessians got permission from the commander of the Regts. to take cattle whenever they should find any, and kill and slaughter it” and also that “the English soldiers set fire to a house outside of town and ransacked it because, it was said to be the property of a prominent rebel." Major Bernhard Bauermeister, wrote that “although the men were never in need of salt or fresh provisions, there was much plundering… It has made the country people all the more embittered rebels." British or Loyalist parties targeted the homes of leading Revolutionaries. One group traveled to Marlboro to sack the home of Colonel Asher Holmes (who was out with the militia). According to an inventory compiled by Holmes, the looters took several items stored for the militia: 73 pairs of stockings, 25 blankets, 12 caps. They also took the family’s silver, fabrics, some clothes, muskets, and pistols. The total value of the plundered items was a substantial £1677. Three other local leaders, Colonel David Forman, John Cox, and Captain Hendrick Smock, were robbed of financial notes issued by the State and Continental governments. Three weeks later, Forman and Cox advertised for the return of the stolen notes in the New Jersey Gazette : The public is requested to be cautious about purchasing or receiving bank notes or tickets from strangers, disaffected or straggling persons... The public are desired to detain them until it can be made to appear that they [persons with such notes] lawfully came by them. Forman, acting as a purchasing agent for the Continental Army deposed that a British party “entered and plundered the house of the deponent, carrying off, among other things, he believes, the said vouchers… purchases made for clothing, cloth and blankets." Militiamen Moses Estey recalled: [He] volunteered with others to go in pursuit of a detachment of the enemy of about 200 men at General Forman’s, who had plundered his house of all valuables, destroyed all his furniture & taken off his plantation all his cattle which they were driving off the British Army then near. They succeeded in re-taking the cattle which were brought back, but the detachment of the enemy got back to the camp of their main army. Captain Hendrick Smock was pilfered of £1,000 in Continental loan notes. Smock wrote that the British “plundered and destroyed to a considerable amount, and among other things carried off the certificates.” Nellie Smock, his wife, testified that when “the enemy was in their march through the County, came to the house of the deponent and, among other things, took the deponents pocket book in which was the above mentioned bills." As late as 1780, the Smocks were still seeking compensation for the stolen notes. While leaders were deliberately targeted, families of modest means were victimized also—particularly with respect to seized livestock. Rhoda Sutphin recalled that her father in law "was robbed of almost everything" by the British before the battle. After the Battle of Monmouth, Thomas Wiggins of Freehold and James Stout of Englishtown advertised rewards for horses stolen on the day of the battle. After the battle, General William Maxwell wrote George Washington wrote about "a number of applications made to me by the distressed inhabitants to have leave to go to the enemy to endeavor to get their horses & cattle, first their horses in particular.” Permission was not granted. However, the worst actions of the day were the arsons. Benjamin Van Cleave, Jr., remembered: On the retreat of the enemy the inhabitants returned and found, with some exceptions, the buildings around our neighborhood burnt, the naked chimneys standing, a great part of the trees in some orchards cut down, the woods burnt and property that had been hid [was] destroyed or carried away. The earth was strewn with dead carcasses, sufficient to have produced a pestilence. My father had neither a shelter for his family, nor bread for them, nor clothes to cover them, save what they had on. A detailed account of the "devastation” at Freehold was printed in the New Jersey Gazette in July. The author, likely Thomas Henderson, detailed the arson of his home and seven other homes “above the court house” (the homes belonged to Benjamin Covenhoven, George Walker, Hannah Solomon, Benjamin Van Cleave, David Covenhoven, Garrett Vanderveer, and John Benham). The British burned four more homes on the morning of the 28th (Mathias Lane, Cornelius Covenhoven, John Antonidas, and [?] Emmons) as the Battle of Monmouth began. British officers were "seen to exult at the sight of the flames” and stated that the rebels deserved it. The British spared the homes of disaffected families, demonstrating that these arsons were not random. (See Appendix for article.} Henderson’s account was likely incomplete. John Vanderbelt claimed that his home was "burnt down by British soldiers on the day of the Battle of Monmouth.” Before that, the British “plundered it of our property, burnt the house, and drove off our cattle." There may have been additional victims. Historian Garry Wheeler Stone mapped the arsons and noted that all of the burned homes were close to the Burlington Road (the main east-west road through the village) and less than two miles from each other. The arson and plundering occurred in defiance of orders from the British Commander in Chief, Henry Clinton. Lt Col Alerud Clarke recorded general orders from Clinton: If any disorderly people attempt to force the guards or plunder where they are posted, the guard is to make them prisoners, and fire at them if they should attempt to resist. All women followers of the Army and other stragglers who shall come in the rear of a house, barn or building will be immediately secured and punished for leaving the line of march, whether they commit any disorder or not. Yet Clarke also wrote that he was "mortified on observing the great irregularity and excesses that have been committed within these last few days." And Henry Clinton, himself, turned a blind eye to looting in the very house in which he was staying, the home of Elizabeth Covenhoven and William Covenhoven. The Covenhovens owned a large house immediately west of Freehold and Clinton claimed it as his headquarters. According to Elizabeth’s deposition, Clinton “promised on his honor that everything she had should be protected and nothing injured." Despite this, the Covenhovens lost their horses and cattle in separate incidents. She was pressured to return her "concealed" furniture under promises of protection, and then "she found almost everything of value was taken out of the wagon.” The remaining items “were scattered on the ground." When she asked for help, an officer insulted her as a “damned old rebel with one foot in the grave." She was forced to sleep in her milkshed as officers took all of the beds in her house. She estimated losses at £3,000. (See appendix for her deposition.) New Jersey’s Chief Justice, Robert Morris, visited Freehold the day after the battle and concluded: "The enemy have done much mischief, burnt several houses and left many families without food, clothes, bedding and stock, besides the unavoidable mischief incidental to the movement of such an army." Historian Mark Lender noted that while plundering occurred throughout the British march across New Jersey, the arson and looting at Freehold far exceeded anything else on the march. This was partly due to mounting British frustrations accumulated from earlier in the march. Beyond that, the British, informed by the Monmouth Loyalists , understood they were among strident Whigs who had hanged a Loyalist and pronounced death sentences on a dozen others. In British eyes, the people of Freehold were deserving of rough treatment. The British also knew that storm clouds—figurative and literal—were building around them. Continental forces were gathering four miles away at Englishtown and an attack was imminent. Massive storms came again on the night of June 27. A Loyalist cavalryman, George Hanger, recorded: I shall never forget the night before the battle of Monmouth Court-House. It was uncommonly dark, with frequent thunderstorms and rain. It fell to my lot, that night, to have the outermost picket. Never could man pass a more anxious time; the fires all put out, the enemy's patrols feeling us and firing every half hour and oftener at the advanced sentries; our men on sentry firing sometimes at the enemy's patrols and sometimes at cattle in the woods, as soldiers will do when they hear a noise in the bushes, challenge, and gain no reply; the night so dark as not to be able to perceive our own men until we came close upon them and in danger of being fired at by our own men. Such a night of anxiety and danger I never since passed, and blessed by God when the day began to dawn. After this terrible night, the Battle of Monmouth began at dawn on June 28, 1778. Related Historic Site : Covenhoven House Appendix: Selected Sources on Plundering around Freehold, June 26-28 Extract of a letter from Monmouth (July 14) I have been waiting from the time the enemy passed through this country to the present, in expectation that some of your correspondents would, thro’ the channel of your paper, have given an account of their conduct to the inhabitants—but not having seen any yet, and as has been such as every honest person out to despise, I take this opportunity of giving a short sketch of it; which, if you think it will be of any satisfaction to your readers, you may insert in your paper. The devastation they have made of some parts of Freehold exceeds perhaps any they have made for the distance in their route thro’ this state, having in the neighborhood above the court-house burnt and destroyed eight dwelling houses, all on farms adjoining each other, besides barns and out-houses—The first they burnt was my own, then Benjamin Covenhoven’s, George Walker’s, Hannah Solomon’s, Benjamin VanCleve’s, David Covenhoven’s and Garret Vanderveer’s; John Benham’s house and barn they wantonly tore and broke down so as to render it useless.—It may not be improper to observe that the first two mentioned houses that were burnt adjoined the farm and were in full view of the place where General Clinton quartered. In the neighborhood below the court house they burn the houses of Mathias Lane, Cornelius Covenhoven, John Antoniadas, and one Emmons; these were burn the morning before their defeat. Some have the effrontery to say that the British officers by no means countenance or allow of burning; did not the wanton burning of Charlestown or Kingston, besides many other instances, sufficiently evidence to the contrary? Their conduct in Freehold I think may—the officers having been seen to exult as the sight of the flames, and heard to declare that they never could conquer America until they burnt every rebel’s house, and murdered man, woman and child. Besides, this consideration has great weight with me towards confirming the above, that after their defeat, thro’ their retreat of twenty-five miles, in which they passes the houses of numerous well affected to their [Great Britain] country, they never attempted to destroy one.” Deposition of Elizabeth Covenhoven Mrs. Elizabeth Covenhoven, who having been solely sworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, deposeth and sayeth, That on the 26th of June last, when the enemy came into the county, General Henry Clinton, with his suite, made his quarters at her house, and promised on his honour that everything she had should be protected and nothing injured; that some time after they had been there she saw a soldier driving her horses away, upon which she applied to them to perform their orders, and one of the General’s aides said she should be paid for them; she enjoined that she could not spare them and he declared they should be returned, and she heard no more of them. Some little time after she perceived all of her cattle, including her milk cows, driving by in the same manner and she then made application in a like manner and said they must go without milk if their cows were taken away; they then gave orders to have them stopped; but before they went, they killed and took every one of them, not leaving her a single hoof. This deponent further sayeth that the General and his aides, finding her furniture and goods, were exceedingly urgent to have them sent for, declaring it exceedingly likely they would be destroyed where they were concealed, but if they were in the house they would be safe; she told him she had no way to send for them; under which they ordered a wagon and guard to go for them and Negro wench to bring the goods; and they brought one wagon load home and placed a guard over it: That the next evening she found almost everything of value was taken out of the wagon, and only a Bible and some books, with a few trifles, were left, which were scattered on the ground; she then applied to the General himself to have liberty to take the few remaining things his Honour had left her—he ordered one of his aides to go to the guards and suffer her to have them—she followed him and he said, here you damned old rebel with one foot in the grave, take them. This deponent also saith, that though a very old woman, she was obliged to sleep on a cellar door in her milk room for two nights, and when she applied for only a coverlet, it was refused her: That by the time they went away, her house was stripped of her beds, bedding, the clothes of her whole family, and anything of any value. The farm was also left in the same situation; and that at a moderate computation, her loss amounted to 3000L and that she lost this in trusting the honour of Sir Henry Clinton, which threw her off guard and made her perfectly easy, having solemnly engaged to protect or pay for everything they used; and this deponent declares that the sum of 3L 2s, which one of the officer gave her for 50 lbs. of butter he had, was all the money or satisfaction she received for any thing she lost. And further saith not. Sources : Heinrich von Feilitsch is in Bruce Burgoyne, Diaries of Two Ansbach Jaegers (NY: Heritage Books, 1997) p41-2; Hale’s letter is John Rees, 'What is this You have been about Today?': The New Jersey Brigade at the Battle of Monmouth, www.revwar75/library/rees/monmouth/Monmouth.htm, p20; Johann Ewald, Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979) pp. 132-7; Diary of Lt. [?] Weidenholdt, New Jersey State Archives, Revolutionary War, Manuscripts Coll., box 2, #11; Willhelm Wilmostky to William Knyhausen, Copy: David Library, Battle of Monmouth Collection, #106; General Pattison’s letter is in Ritchie, Carson I. A. “A New York Diary of the Revolutionary War.” in Narratives of the Revolution in New York (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1975) pp. 239-41; British Army Court Martials - Great Britain, Public Record Office, War Office, Class 71, Volume 87, pages 179-181; Philip Katcher, The American Provincial Corps, 1775-1784 (Reading, England: Osprey, 1973), p 16; Court Martial Papers, Great Britain Public Record Office, War Office, 71/86, #151-8. (Photocopies from Don Hagist.); John Peebles' American War, 1776-1782 (Stackpole Books) p192; John Von Krafft, Journal of John Charles Philip Von Krafft, 1776-1784 (New York: Privately Printed, 1888) pp. 45-6; Jones, Caleb, Orderly Book of the Maryland Loyalist Regiment, June 18th 1778 to October 12th 1778. Edited by Paul Leicester Ford, (Brooklyn, N. Y.: Historical Printing Club, 1891) pp. 23-5; Court Martial Records, Great Britain Public Record Office, War Office, 71/86, #151-8. (Photocopies from Don Hagist.); Rachel Covenhoven’s account is in Albert Vanderveer, Sesquicentennial of the Battle of Monmouth, Quarterly Journal of the New York State Historical Association, vol. 9, n. 3, July 1928, p 279-285; William Willcox to Lord Stilring, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 50, June 26, 1778; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v3, 70, 74, 82, 86-7; Randall Gabrielan, Monmouth County Revolutionary War Sites (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2025), p 50; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 2, p 313; Bernard Uhlendorf, Confidential Letter and Journals, 1776-1784, of Adjutant General Major Bauermeister of the Hessian Forces (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1957) p 185; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 183; Lt. Col. Alerud Clarke quoted in William Stryker, The Battle of Monmouth (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1927) p 54; Lt. Col. Alerud Clarke quoted in Monmouth County Historical Association, Articles File: "Relic of the Revolution"; Asher Holmes, Monmouth County Historical Association, Articles File: "An Old Document"; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Moses Estey of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# NJ 18309690; Hendrick Smock to Congress, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 52, item 41, vol. 9, #96-101; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930mi; Garry Wheeler Stone, "The Burning of Upper Monmouth Court House", Monmouth Battlefield State Park (map); Thomas Harrison Montgomery, A Genealogical History of the Family Montgomery (Phila: Privately Printed, 1863); Lyman Horace Weeks, A Journal of American Ancestry (New York: William Clemens, 1912), p58-9; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Samuel Burke; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John Vanderbelt; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 2, p 314; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I41, Memorials to Congress, v9, p100; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v5, 50-9; Mary Hyde, Retreat after the Battle of Monmouth, Spirit of '76, vol. 5, 1899, p253; John C. Paterson, The Pine Robbers of Monmouth County, unpublished manuscript in the collection of the Monmouth County Historical Association, 1834, p 1-2; William Maxwell to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 50, July 1, 1778; Court Martial Papers, Great Britain, Public Record Office, War Office, Class 71, Volume 87, pp 176-178; Stephen Kemble, The Kemble Papers (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Library, 2009) vol. 1, pp. 601-2; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Thomas Henderson (W426), Forman’s Regiment and Monmouth County militia, Supplementary deposition of Daniel Applegate, 21 April 1837, transcribed by John U. Rees; David Forman, Affidavit, Princeton University, Firestone Library, CO140, Misc. MSS, David Forman; Robert Morris to [?] Cooper, Monmouth County Historical Association, J. Amory Haskell Collection, folder "Battle of Monmouth"; George Hanger, Colonel George Hanger, to All Sportsmen (London: Printed for the author, 1814), pp 217-8; re-printed: http://home.golden.net/~marg/bansite/friends/hanger.html#n4 . 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 > Prominent Loyalists Captured and Scandal Ensues by Michael Adelberg George Taylor, Colonel of an illusory Loyalist militia, led several incursions into Monmouth County. He was taken in August 1780; after months in jail, he was exchanged back to New York. - August 1780 - Prior articles demonstrate that summer of 1780 was a particularly desperate time in Monmouth County. Colonel Tye and other Loyalist irregulars kidnapped more than a dozen county leaders. In response, hundreds of county residents formed an extra-legal vigilante association, the Retaliators . Disaffected county residents trying to weather the war at home had livestock impounded by Continental soldiers and were subject to shockingly high fines for missing militia duty. But it was an equally desperate time for Monmouth County Loyalists behind British lines in New York. The New Jersey Volunteers , which hundreds of Monmouth Loyalists joined in 1776-1777, were largely dispirited —and original recruits drifted into new military units or left the Army for irregular Loyalist paramilitaries such as the Associated Loyalists . Amidst this desperation, a party of prominent Monmouth Loyalists was tempted to land in Monmouth County on an ill-fated mission. Monmouth Militia Captures Loyalist Party The New Jersey Gazette reported that on August 2: Eight of the infamous refugees, five of whom pretended to be officers in the Tyrant's service, were brought to the Commissary of Prisoners at Elizabethtown from Monmouth. When they were captured, they pleaded they came over with a flag , and produced their orders; but their frivolous pretensions would not answer their ends, and they were sent to Philadelphia to occupy a corner of the new gaol until exchanged. The New Jersey Journal reported on the same incident: Yesterday, were brought to this town under guard, being on their way to Philadelphia, Col. George Taylor, Lt. Samuel Leonard, Lt. John Thomson, Ensign John Lawrence and Chrineyonce Van Mater, late inhabitants of Monmouth County, and three others -- they were made prisoners on Wednesday last by a party of militia." Five of the eight captured men were well-known Loyalists from prominent families: George Taylor was the colonel of the illusory Loyalist Monmouth County militia . In 1777, he led raids into Monmouth County and remained active in recruiting Loyalists from the county afterward. Samuel Leonard was a lieutenant in the (Loyalist) New Jersey Volunteers. He often commanded the troops at the Sandy Hook Lighthouse . He was kin to Thomas Leonard (a major in the Volunteers) and Joseph Leonard (the former county clerk who took the county’s records .). John Thomson was a former lieutenant in the New Jersey Volunteers who became an Associated Loyalist. He was involved in raids into Monmouth County. While others in the party were exchanged, Thomson remained in jail. He was convicted of two felonies and hanged. John Lawrence was an ensign in the New Jersey Volunteers. His kin co-led the Upper Freehold Loyalist insurrection of December 1776. Chrineyonce Van Mater was the first of Monmouth’s Loyalist partisans. He helped capture two leading Whigs in late 1776 and participated in the December Loyalist Insurrection. His daring escape on horseback gave birth to the place-name “Jumping Point” in present-day Rumson. The other men in the party—Timothy Scoby, Richard Freeman, and Adam Brewer—were from poor families. Scoby was a private in the New Jersey Volunteers early in the war before becoming an Associated Loyalist. In 1782, he was convicted of treason in the Monmouth County courts, but was pardoned by Governor William Livingston. Less is known about Freeman and Brewer. The purpose of the landing is not explicitly stated in any surviving document. It is known that George Taylor paroled home a captured Middletown militiaman, Daniel Covenhoven. Another militiaman, Cornelius Swart, testified that the Commanding Officer at Sandy Hook told Taylor “he could discharge them if he thought proper - at which time Taylor told them he paroled them both to return home and remain peaceable subjects until called upon.” Perhaps Taylor landed to conduct a prisoner exchange . However, as noted below, the Loyalists brought a large quantity of counterfeit money with them—and the discovery of this money likely ended any chance of the flag of truce being honored. Counterfeiting was a nagging problem throughout the war; various pre- and post-independence currencies and notes traded freely. Continental money was particularly prone to counterfeiting and rampant inflation. As early as April 1777, Thomas Clark, from a disaffected Middletown family, was brought before the New Jersey Supreme Court “for suspicion of receiving and passing counterfeit paper 30 dollar bills, in imitation of the 30 dollar Continental bills.” In January 1780, a bold raid against Sandy Hook resulted in the capture of counterfeit money by Continental soldiers. Major Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee reported on the raid, noting that “the counterfeit money I sent to be burnt." No doubt, counterfeit money was circulated via London Traders and other disaffected New Jerseyans. On August 4, the Pennsylvania Packet reported that the Monmouth Loyalists had reached Philadelphia: Yesterday was brought to town, under guard, being on their way to Philadelphia, Col. George Taylor, Lt. Samuel Leonard, Lt. John Thomson, Ens. John Lawrence and Chrineyonce Van Mater, late inhabitants of Monmouth, and three others. They were made prisoners on Wednesday last by a party of militia. On reaching Philadelphia, the Loyalists apparently complained about the legality of their capture. If they had arrived under a flag of truce, with a British passport, they should have been permitted to present themselves to an officer and explain their purpose. After that, they could have been allowed to stay or sent back to their boats by that officer. If their credentials were appropriate, they should not have been taken. Hearing the Loyalists’ plea, the Board of War of the Continental Congress inquired to George Washington about the capture. Washington, perhaps not wanting to involve himself in a sordid local affair, claimed minimum knowledge of the incident. He wrote on August 14: I have not yet been fully informed of the circumstances attending the capture of Lieut. Leonard and the others sent to Phila. with him. I only know that they came out under the sanction of a Flag, but there being something irregular in the conduct of it, the Militia of Monmouth thought proper to apprehend and secure them. The Fate of the Captured Loyalists and Capturing Militia Officers The Loyalists remained in jail in Philadelphia until January 1781. On January 9, Colonel David Forman wrote to Governor William Livingston about them: The Grand Jury would esteem it a particular favor if your Excellency would take the earliest opportunity of ordering Chrineyonce Van Mater, Samuel Leonard, John Thomson, John Lawrence, Timothy Scoby, Aaron Brewer and other late inhabitants of Monmouth County, and now confined in Philadelphia to be sent to this place to stand for tryal. Forman was serving as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Monmouth County and was apparently eager to try the Monmouth Loyalists. Forman was also leading the vigilante Retaliators , raising questions about the impartiality of the justice he might administer. The impending transfer to Monmouth County seems to have tempted at least some of the Monmouth Loyalists to attempt an escape. The Loyalist New York Gazette reported on January 21: The following persons arrived in this city, they have been made prisoners by the Rebels and confined in Philadelphia goal, from whence they fortunately escaped the 10th inst., a reward of $2000 was published for apprehending them. The escapees were Chrineyonce Van Mater, Timothy Scoby, Nathan Tyson, Aaron Brewer, and Richard Freeman. Van Mater, Scoby, and Brewer were Monmouth Countians taken in August. Tyson’s biography and reason for arrest are unknown. Thomson was tried in Monmouth County in November 1781, found guilty of horse stealing and “felony” and hanged. The others were probably exchanged for captured Whigs (supporters of the Revolution). Scoby would be captured again in 1782, convicted of high treason, and sentenced to death. He was pardoned by Governor Livingston at the request of Guy Carleton, the conciliatory British commander in chief at war’s end. The investigation of the Loyalists led to inquiries into the conduct of the militia that took the Loyalists despite their arrival under a Flag of Truce. This led to the court martial of several officers, reported in the New Jersey Gazette on February 21. The gravity of the trials is underscored by the fact that they were presided over by General Philemon Dickinson, the commander of the New Jersey militia. The results of the courts-martial are below: Major Thomas Hunn was charged with "cowardice and unofficerlike behavior, and acquitted of the first charge buy unanimously found guilty of the last, and judged to be cashiered"; Ensign Peter Vanderhoff was charged on the same charges with the same results. However, he was fined 200 Continental dollars and permitted to continue serving; Ensign Barnes Bennett was charged with "disobeying orders with respect to the trunks brought from Staten Island with George Taylor and others under the sanction of a Flag.” He was further charged with "suffering those goods to be embezzled" and "for passing the counterfeit money which came over." He was found guilty on all charges and cashiered; Lt. Jacob Tice was charged with "not turning out upon his tour of duty, and adjudged to be guilty." He was fined 200 Continental dollars; Capt. Samuel Dennis was charged with "cowardice and disobedience of orders.” He was “acquitted on both charges"; Quartermaster Richard Hartshorne was charged with "neglect of duty in not supplying the men with provisions.” He was “unanimously acquitted." Surviving documents do not reveal if there were legitimate questions about the documents the Loyalists brought into Monmouth County, but the courts-martial results reveal that, whatever the official purpose of their landing, another purpose was to return with materials purchased with counterfeit money. On this alone, the Loyalists deserved to be detained, though the scandalous conduct of certain Monmouth militia—passing the counterfeit money into circulation—surpassed whatever “irregularity” might have existed with the flag of truce carried by the Loyalists. Related Historic Site : Jumping Point Park Sources : Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 137; William Nelson, Austin Scott, et al., ed., New Jersey Archives (Newark, Trenton, Somerville, 1901-1917) vol. 4, pp. 551-552; State vs. Thomas Clark of Middletown. New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #34610; Henry Lee to George Washington, January 16, 1780, Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post; Pennsylvania Packet, August 4, 1780; Goerge Washington to Congress, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw190446)) ; David Forman to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 14, January 9, 1781; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, January 21, 1781, reel 2906; The New Jersey Gazette report on the court martial is in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 162; William Nelson, Austin Scott, et al., ed., New Jersey Archives (Newark, Trenton, Somerville, 1901-1917) vol. 5, p 200; Daniel Covenhoven to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 14, February 15, 1781; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File , unpublished, 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 > Associated Loyalists Embrace Policy of Retaliation by Michael Adelberg Gen. Henry Clinton restrained Loyalists from murdering American prisoners in retaliation for abuses against captured Loyalists. Loyalist mistreatment in Monmouth County was a major flashpoint. - January 1782 - As noted in a prior article, in October 1781, the Continental Congress issued a manifesto promising eye-for-an-eye retaliation against captured British and Loyalists for atrocities committed against citizens of the United States. Emboldened by this manifesto, Monmouth County’s Association for Retaliation , a vigilante society, increased the quantity and severity of its acts against its real and perceived enemies. The movement toward more severe retaliation—through which a prisoner would be punished for abuses unrelated to his own acts—progressed on both sides. From New York, the Associated Loyalists were a body of embittered Loyalist refugees who raided into the American countryside in order to punish rebels and bring much-needed farm goods into New York (for which they were paid good prices from British commissary officers). But British commanders never liked the Associated Loyalists—resenting their independence and indifference to the rules of war. Henry Clinton, commanding British forces in America, called the Associated Loyalists "over sanguine refugees whose zeal has but too often outrun their prudence." British Leaders Restrain Retaliation The Associated Loyalists embraced retaliation largely due to events in Monmouth County. In January 1781, Loyalists were loaded in irons in the Monmouth County jail. Thomas Crowell (formerly of Middletown) of the Associated Loyalists loaded rebel prisoners in his custody in irons as an act of retaliation. But Crowell did not undertake more violent retaliation. Loyalist leaders understood that extra-legal murders were a step beyond what the British would tolerate, and an act that could ruin the reputation of men associated with it. The conversation about retaliation, however, continued. James Robertson, the Governor-General at New York wrote to Clinton on January 23. Robertson alluded to Clinton asking him if the civil government headed by Robertson might embrace a policy of retaliation. He acknowledged that Clinton "did not think it expedient to threaten military retaliation." Robertson noted Loyalist requests for retaliation but declined to embrace it himself, writing that Clinton "had already fallen upon a better expedient to recover the confidence of the Loyalists." The next day, Clinton wrote Lord George Germain, the British Foreign Secretary, about his discussions with Robertson and William Franklin (Chairman of the Associated Loyalists) about retaliation: In the cause of debate upon this subject, General Robertson having expressed himself of the opinion that it might be necessary for me to issue a proclamation threatening the rebels with retaliation for any injury they should inflict upon the Loyalists for having joined the King's Army; I told him that I thought punishments of that nature operated more properly in the civil jurisdiction and that a threat of retaliation from the Army would be altogether nugatory to the present hour. Clinton avoided taking a stand on the policy of retaliation; he simply stated that it was not a military matter. Germain had a warm relationship with Franklin and was likely lobbied by Franklin on the need for the British to embrace a policy of retaliation. Germain asked Clinton to offer a gesture of support for the Associated Loyalists if he would not accede to their request on retaliation. Accordingly, on March 9, Clinton wrote a public letter that was published in the Loyalist New York Gazette . Clinton (insincerely) expressed his “continued affection” for the Associated Loyalists and offered "assurances that no post, place or garrison in which Loyalists are joined with the King's troops will be surrendered on any terms which might discriminate between them." He remained silent on retaliation. Clinton’s letter was little solace for strident Loyalists who craved revenge. One such Loyalist was James Moody, who played a prominent role in the raid that razed Tinton Falls in 1779, and whose brother, John Moody, was a Loyalist horse thief killed in August 1781. Moody would write that the Associated Loyalists were "hand-in-glove with similar bodies of depredators on the American side" but were checked by the British, while American vigilantes went unchecked. Moody further wrote of the Associated Loyalists: “One of the objects of the organization was that the Associators could retaliate upon the Americans for outrages and murders committed upon the Loyalists.” And yet the British restrained them: Our Generals suffered these [rebel] executions of the Loyalists to go on, without ever attempting to put a stop to them by threatening to retaliate. Nay, they would not permit the Associated Loyalists to save their friends, by threatening to execute the Rebels, whom these Loyalists had taken prisoners, and they [the Loyalists] held in their own custody. However, Moody also understood that acts of retaliation might beget acts of retaliation from the other side, leading to a cycle of pointless escalation: “It is asserted by the enemy, I fear with good ground, that they are compelled to retaliate for the violences committed by the crews of [Loyalist] whaleboats.” This inspired Whig privateers such as Adam Hyler “that frequently land on Staten and Long Island without a pretense of authority and commit the same cruelties & depredations." Moody also noted that prisoners in the custody of hostile localities such as Monmouth County were subject to abuse. These prisoners should be put in custody of "Continental or State Commissaries of Prisoners." Associated Loyalists Embrace Retaliation There is little doubt that the leadership of the Associated Loyalists, and William Franklin in particular, wanted to kill a rebel prisoner as an act of retaliation. Thomas Leonard, formerly of Freehold, who had served as a major in the New Jersey Volunteers , recalled speaking with Franklin on April 1, 1782. He and Franklin discussed “the relief of Captain [Clayton] Tilton” (jailed in Monmouth County) and the murder of the Loyalist Philip White. Franklin said "he knew of no means to prevent the cruel & barbarous treatment but retaliation, which had been his sentiment from the first." Franklin reportedly said he would "order retaliation" were it within his authority. Two weeks later, Richard Lippincott, at the verbal direction of Franklin, murdered Joshua Huddy of Colts Neck. (The subject of another article .) Henry Clinton did not support Huddy’s execution. He called it "a very extraordinary outrage” and “an unprecedented act of barbarity." He concluded that, "I cannot too much lament the great imprudence shown by the Refugees." He accused the Associated Loyalists of showing only a "trifling" concern to Clinton's misgivings about retaliation. He ordered Lippincott's arrest and court martial to determine who was at fault. On May 1, Clinton stripped the Associated Loyalists of the power to cross enemy lines: "no expedition or excursion against the enemy shall take place from the posts under their [the Board's] charge, without his Excellency's particular orders." No such permission would be granted. The Loyalist publisher, Hugh Gaine, recorded on May 1: "Orders for this day for no farther hostilities at any of our ports, and the Refugees not to go out any more without orders." He also reported "much talk about poor Lippincott." Franklin laid low and then left for England to avoid Lippincott’s court martial and the building taint on his reputation. From England, Franklin stayed interested in the plight of Loyalists but now seemed to understand that the Associated Loyalists lacked the authority to execute a man as retaliation for an unrelated abuse. In June, he wrote Guy Carleton, Clinton’s successor, about the fate of Timothy Scoby and William Herbert, two more Monmouth County Loyalists jailed in Freehold and sentenced to death. Franklin complained: No crime is alleged against them, as we are well assured, but their Loyalty, and one of them was taken on shore going to purchase provisions, and the other within British lines. As it is not within the power of the Board to afford these poor Loyalists the relief they are entitled, especially as retaliation nor threats of retaliation, can be made by them [the Board] without the concurrence of the Commander in Chief, they must beg leave to subject the whole matter to your Excellency's determination. In Great Britain, the ethics of retaliation was debated through the end of 1782. In July, the magazine, The Political Magazine and Parliamentary, Naval, Military, and Literary Journal , printed several letters related to Lippincott’s court martial and rebel abuses. The editor claimed that retaliation, though unpleasant, was effective: This they did in two other instances previous to the death of Huddy and it produced the desired result in the quarter where it was done. Rebel murder and assassinations immediately ceased, and the Loyalists, when taken, were treated with humanity and exchanged; and their cannot be a possibility of doubt, but that had our Generals conducted the war upon the same politic and just principles, the lives of many hundreds of faithful British subjects would have been saved, and the war carried on in a manner humane and civilized. Yet, we lack evidence that American leaders were intimidated into kindness for Loyalist prisoners because of the brazen mistreatment of rebel prisoners. The march toward the ultimate expression of retaliation—murder—in April 1782 suggests the opposite was true. The Associated Loyalists’ embrace of murderous retaliation was stoked by the Association for Retaliation of Monmouth County. Historian Simon Schama labeled retaliation a "brutal vendetta.” He also observed that the escalation toward murderous retaliation was "no surprise" given that men on both sides were motivated by revenge more than any other principle. Related Historic Site : Morris-Jumel Mansion (New York City) Sources : 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 192; Alexander Lawrence Flick, Loyalism in New York During the American Revolution (NY: Columbia UP) p113-4; James Robertson to Henry Clinton, Great Britain Public Record Office, CO5/1089, p415-6; Henry Clinton to George Germain, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v93, reel 8, #413; Transcript of the Court Martial of Richard Lippincott, http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/halew/Lippincott.html ; Cynthia Eldenberg, Jonathan Odell: Loyalist Poet of the American Revolution (Durham: Duke UP, 1987) p129-32; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Thomas Jones, History of New York During the Revolutionary War: And of the Leading Events in the Other Colonies at That Period (Ulan: 2012) pp. 481-3; Susan Burgess Shenston, So Obstinately Loyal, James Moody (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000) p 138; Anonymous Account in Jared Sparks Collection, Harvard U - Houghton Library, MS Sparks, 49.2, #141; Thomas Leonard’s deposition at Richard Lippincott’s Court Martial, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v107, #240-2, 261, 268; Board of Associated Loyalists to Henry Clinon, Library of Congress, Richard Lippincott Court Martial, reel 1, #187; Henry Clinton to Board of Associated Loyalists in Edward H. Tebbenhoff, “The Associated Loyalists: An Aspect of Militant Loyalism,” New-York Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 63 (1979), pp. 142-3; Simon Schama, Rough Crossings, (NY: Harper Collins, 2006) p140-2; Francis Bazley Lee, New Jersey as a Colony and as a State (New York: The Publishing Society of New Jersey, 1902), vol 2, pp. 249-50; Paul Leicester Ford, ed., The Journals of Hugh Gaine, Volume I (New York: Dodd, Mead 81 Company, 1902), vol. 2, pp. 148, 152; Henry Clinton to George Germain, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v105, reel 8, #692-705; William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971) pp. 507, 511, 529; William Franklin to Guy Carleton, Great Britain Public Record Office, British Headquarters Papers, 30/55, #4768; The Political Magazine and Parliamentary, Naval, Military, and Literary Journal, July 1782, v 4, p 420. 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 > Pine Robbers Menace Dover and Stafford Townships by Michael Adelberg This map of Little Egg Harbor shows Osborn Island at the southern tip of Monmouth County, where 70 Loyalists camped at the end of 1781. The Loyalists worried shore leaders at Toms River. - December 1781 - In Monmouth County’s southern townships of Dover and Stafford (present-day Ocean County), the majority of inhabitants were ambivalent or opposed to the Revolution. The residents of the Little Egg Harbor, just south of Monmouth County, may have been even more disaffected. Lured to the profitable London Trade , disaffection flourished in these townships (disaffected men held several local offices ). In October 1778, snipers harassed Kasimir Pulaski’s Continentals as they marched north (after being decimated at Osburn Island ). In December 1780, Lt. Joshua Studson was killed in a boat near Toms River while intercepting a London Trading vessel. Pine Robber activity, centered in Shrewsbury Township in 1778-1779, and then moved south into Dover and Stafford Townships under new and resourceful leaders—William Giberson (originally from Upper Freehold ), William Davenport (likely from Gloucester County ), and, most notoriously, John Bacon (possibly from Arneytown on the border of Upper Freehold and Burlington County). Another Pine Robber leader, Joseph Mulliner, operated in Little Egg Harbor Township, just south of Monmouth County (see appendix for summary of Mulliner’s outlaw career). The Growing Pine Robber Threat The Pine Robber threat in southern Monmouth County and Little Egg Harbor Township (just south of Monmouth County) built through the second half of the Revolution. Job Clayton of the Monmouth Militia recalled in his postwar pension application that the Pine Robbers were "concealed through the extensive pines of the lower part of the county, and sprung out of them, plundered and robbed and murdered the inhabitants." Mary Throckmorton, wife of the militiaman, Job Throckmorton recalled her husband providing intelligence to the militia to inform an attack on a Pine Robber gang: The enemy had been to Burlington County and stole a number of horses & secured them in William Parker's Cedar Swamp, six miles off, the enemy had got information from their Tory friends that we was laying in wait for them… retook said horse and the thieves attending them. The attack, however, only aroused the Pine Robbers. Afterward, the Throckmorton family left the shore and relocated to Englishtown for its safety. An August 1780 newspaper report from Philadelphia reported the robbery of four houses just over the county line in Burlington County: John Black Jr., Clayton Newbold, William Newbold, and Caleb Shreve. The report continued, "Colonel William Shreve, with a number of inhabitants immediately set off in pursuit of the villains and overtook them at Borden's Run on the verge of the Pines.” The report continued, "one of the robbers, it is said, is taken to Monmouth Gaol." From this, it can be inferred that the captive either was from Monmouth County or was taken by Monmouth militia. Abraham Osborn, living in present-day Howell, also recorded after the war that "he was robbed by the Tories of his horses, cattle and furniture" in 1780. In March 1781, James Allen was robbed by a Pine Robber gang that included Nathan Lyon and Joseph Wood. Allen compiled a "memorandum of articles plundered from the house of James Allen" in 1784. His itemized losses demonstrate that Pine Robbers, while politically motivated, were also common thieves: cloth coat (£5 S10), one pair of buckles and breaches (£1 S10), musket, cartridge box & bayonet (£3 S10), pair of shoes (S7), pair of silver buckles (£1 S17), gold ring (£1 S4), 3 silver teaspoons (S15), 3 oz. of unwrought silver (£1 S5), one boat (£7 S2), 2nd boat (£6), pair of stockings (S6), 3 cambric stocks (S6), 2 shirts (S7 each), 2 handkerchiefs (S10), one Morocco Leather pocket book (S15), one razor (S7). Allen’s follow up note about Lyon demonstrates the familiarity that often existed between Pine Robbers and their victims: He [Lyon] lived about 1 3/4 miles from James Allen, when he was robb'd; that the robbers came to the house in the night -- that Nathaniel Lyon was with them -- he knew him afterwards and recognized that it was the same -- he was Lyon with a pair of breaches of Allen's -- that a few days afterward, he saw one Joseph Wood (as people say his name is), one of the men that was there that night with Lyon. Privateers also interacted and occasionally clashed with Pine Robbers, as when a party of Cape May militia captured a London Trading vessel at Shark River, lost it to a party of Pine Robbers at the mouth of Little Egg Harbor, and then retook it on Osborn Island. From June 1780 into 1782, a 30-man guard of state troops was posted at Toms River, the lone village in the shore townships that solidly supported the Revolution. Yet, this guard was too small to exert influence beyond the village. In May 1781, Colonel Samuel Forman, commanding the undersized militia of Dover and Stafford townships, wrote Governor William Livingston: The refugees [Loyalists], joined by a number of residents from Burlington County have drove Ensign [David] Imlay & some militia from the boundary of Little Egg Harbor to Hankins; our men have killed one & wounded two mortally. A reinforcement is demanded of me; I have ordered thirty five mounted [men] to their assistance for twelve days. Forman requested 150 Burlington County militia join him in a campaign against the Pine Robber gang that chased off the militia. He was angry that the leaders of Burlington County allowed disaffection and London Trading to fester on the shore: “The complaint lodged with me is bitter against the County of Burlington... the illicit trade is so much esteemed that their lives are endangered for it." The Loyalist attack may have been prompted by Imlay’s killing of the Pine Robber, Richard Bird. Bird was reportedly found in a cottage and was shot through a window without being given a chance to surrender. Zachariah Hankins, formerly disaffected, now serving under Imlay, would later report that Imlay’s posse "surprised and took a gang of Tories under the notorious Richard Bird, near Toms River, when Bird fell. It was always believed that Captain Imlay himself killed Bird." Pine Robber Gang Fights Off Militia and Threatens Toms River Six months later, Forman was still complaining about the disaffected living around Little Egg Harbor. On November 7, he wrote Governor Livingston about "the lower part of Monmouth” and “more particularly Burlington.” He further wrote: “The refugees come and go unmolested & repeatedly [are] joined by the inhabitants in their mischiefs under the cover of night." Forman discussed his inability to muster the disaffected into the militia, "My adjutant was beaten exceedingly last Monday night on the presumption that he had been to review that part of the regiment the preceding day; his son was also beaten shamefully on that same day." Forman called for a 40-man party to march against the disaffected neighborhood and arrest the assaulters. They would then remain as a guard. It did not happen. As Forman was lobbying the Governor, the Whigs of Dover and Stafford petitioned the state legislature. A November 1781 Stafford Township petition read: We do suffer on several accounts for want of militia or Continental guard to protect them from the ravages & devastations of the Refugees which they are committing every day by taking and treating in an inhumane and savage manner, & on the other hand they are censured by their own people for harboring and secreting them & holding a correspondence with those creatures. A Dover Township petition in December discussed: Several armed boats with a number of men are fortifying on Osburn's Island near Egg Harbor meeting house, with a view as we conceive to receive deserters from the American Army… also that a quantity of provisions is conveyed from that place to New York. - now we petitioners beg a guard to be stationed, to prevent such unlawful proceedings. At the bottom of this petition is an extraordinary unsigned statement about government inaction: I am extremely sorry so little attention is paid to the petitions of the inhabitants of this county by the legislature vizt. the legislature became immune of all human feeling for this suffering county - every year since the commencement of the war, we have paid dearly for the inattention of the legislature -- it is a most notorious faith & yet unaltered - does not this legislature know, for instance, their men in service [State Troops] expires, do they not know the difficulty & length of time it takes to recruit a number of men? March the legislature down to the lines, that they might see & feel a little of what these inhabitants have - it May be said where is the militia? - the militia is worn out. Captain Andrew Brown of Dover Township also wrote Livingston regarding “the precarious situation of the well affected inhabitants of this place.” He wrote of large Pine Robber gang at Little Egg Harbor: The refugees are this time more numerous in this quarter than has been known since the start of the war. I am well informed that they are fortifying at Little Egg Harbor where they have made a stand for a considerable time. The militia gunboat Flying Fish "was attacked by a superior force and narrowly escaped capture.” Brown continued: They have a number of boats down there now and we having nothing to oppose them but this one, whose force is not equal to them. I would wish and pray that something may be done to drive them from the shore by land or water, and that a guard may be continued at this place. Livingston wrote George Washington about the situation on the lower Monmouth shore on January 2, 1782. The Pine Robbers, he said, “have several armed boats, with a number of men, are fortifying Osborn's Island near Egg Harbor.” They “receive deserters from the American Army & for the greater convenience of conveying provisions to New York, which already go from that neighborhood in immense quantities.” Livingston was blunt about the inadequacy of the local militia: That part of the State is so disaffected or intimidated that the Refugees have reigned in it. Guards of our militia are, whether for want of pay or other cause, procured with the greatest difficulty, and when obtained are, for want of discipline & unfitness of their officers, not infrequently corrupted after being stationed on the lines by the alluring profits of illegal trade. Livingston requested a Continental guard "to prevent the well affected in those parts from deserting their habitations ... thereby extending the Enemy's lines." Livingston did not mention that Continental detachments in Monmouth County had mutinied in 1779 and traded with the enemy in 1780. A week later, three letters were sent to Governor Livingston by Brown (again), Major John Cook—the highest ranking lower shore office—and Abiel Aiken—the Dover Township magistrate. Each described the threat to Toms River. Cook wrote that “we were under arms all nite on information that about thirty refugees being on horse within 7 miles." Brown offered similar information; Aiken was more descriptive. "Our number here is small, the [State Troop] guard that was here was discharged and the militia is very slack coming to our assistance, which is very discouraging." Cook described the Pine Robber’s moated base on Osborn Island: “The main entrance is by causeway… and a bridge of 12 feet.” They had no cannon on land, but their armed boats had cannon. Cook noted that there were no regular soldiers at the base, but there was 50 to 80 armed men. Their base was formidable: “Their boats are armed: the one with a six pounder, swivels, etc., the other with 2 small carriage guns, swivels, etc. By good intelligence another large armed boat went thro' the bay last Sunday to join them.” Brown noted additional challenges with attacking Osburn’s Island: Whenever they are attacked or are apprehensive, they fly to their boats and proceed to the beach to the house of one Tucker, where the principal rendezvous is, and where we cannot come at them by water... as for the inhabitants in the neighborhood, they are no better than the refugees, as they do countenance and trade with them. Brown sized up the enemy: There [sic] numbers are forty to one hundred at times, and they have not less than five arm'd boats, some of which carry from a three to six pounder swivels and small arms, which are frequently plying from thence to New York to protect their trading boats. Aiken estimated that the Pine Robbers have 70 men and 5 boats which "are constantly plying up and down the bay and supporting illicit trade." He wrote that the Pine Robbers are based at Clam Town (modern-day Tuckerton), opposite Osburn’s Island, and their biggest boat has "one six pounder in the bow and three swivels on the sides." Cook and Brown wrote that the Loyalists were led by William Davenport (of Gloucester County) and Samuel Ridgeway (from one of Stafford Township’s leading families). Cook also complained that some of the Loyalists were criminals who were “pardoned by your Excellency and broke gaol , etc." Brown wanted to attack the Pine Robber base: “If we don't visit them, they will visit us.” However, he lacked the men to make an attack: “our number being small, the enlist'd men's being out and the militia very slack coming in." This is a reference to State Troop terms expiring at the end of the year. On January 11, Governor Livingston considered the three letters and forwarded them to Lord Stirling [William Alexander], commanding the New Jersey Line. The letters were carried by Elisha Lawrence, the former militia Lt. Colonel over the Dover and Stafford militias. Livingston wrote that Lawrence had “recently been on the spot with the command of a party of our militia to dislodge the Enemy. He is a member of our Council & the greatest confidence may be reposed of him." Lawrence and Stirling apparently discussed a campaign against the Loyalist base. Re-Assessing the Pine Robbert Threat However, George Washington quashed the campaign on January 13, writing Livingston that the Pine Robber threat was exaggerated. Washington had received contrary information from Colonel David Forman: Had I found the report to be well-grounded, I should have concerted my measures to dislodge them. From the best information I have been able to obtain, particularly from General Forman who is now in town, no lodgment was ever made on Osborn's Island or any other place. Washington acknowledged that the lower shore was a center for London Trading and bluntly expressed frustration with the persistent problem: A constant intercourse is carried on by water between the refugees and inhabitants, but no force which I could spare would prevent it, as they would, if kept out of one inlet, use another for their purposes. It is in vain to think the pernicious and growing traffic will ever be stopped until the States pass laws making the penalty death... We are, I believe, the only nation who suffer their people to carry on commerce with their Enemy in times of war. Livingston was likely caught off-guard by Washington canceling the campaign based on intelligence from Forman (who might have been assumed to support a campaign against Pine Robbers). The Governor likely consulted with Monmouth County leaders before responding to Washington on January 26: Relative to the affair of Egg harbour: As the facts upon farther enquiry appeared to be very different from the information I had at first received, it could not be expected that your Excellency should pursue such measures as I had hoped. Livingston acknowledged “your Excellency’s good intentions & am glad to find that the enemy have not yet dared to venture on so bold an attempt, ’tho’ they do infinite mischief in that part of the country.” Livingston concurred with Washington’s assessment regarding leniency toward London Traders: “I heartily concur with you in sentiment that it ought to be made capital [a capital offense].” Was the Pine Robber gang and base on Osburn Island exaggerated? Certainly, there are examples of enemy strength being exaggerated in unrelated reports. David Forman clearly thought his Monmouth County colleagues were overselling the threat to Toms River and he convinced Washington and Livingston accordingly. It can only be speculated why Forman undermined other county leaders, but it is worth noting that Aiken was a known opponent of the Retaliators (the vigilante group led by Forman). So, Forman may have sought the opportunity to quash an action that a rival desperately wanted. The Pine Robber gangs of Davenport and Bacon operated in Stafford Township in 1782. Davenport’s mixed-race gang was estimated to be 80 men—when it was surprised and routed at Forked River in June 1782. Based on this later report, the size of Davenport’s gang probably was not exaggerated by Cook, Brown and Aiken, though the threat against Toms River may have been. The local leaders were clearly on edge after the village’s state troop guard went home. Davenport’s gang never came to Toms River, but the residents of Toms River could not have not known this in January 1782. Toms River was indeed targeted by Loyalists—even after a new State Troop guard under Captain Joshua Huddy arrived there at the end of January. The village was razed in March 1782 by Associated Loyalists from New York, guided by local men such as William Dillon with ties to the Pine Robber gangs. Related Historic Site : Little Egg Harbor Friends Meeting Appendix: The Pine Robber, Joseph Mulliner Historian David Fowler has extensively researched Joseph Mulliner. He writes that Mulliner was likely from a poor Quaker family, probably from Little Egg Harbor Township in Burlington County. He was likely a London trader and may have interacted with other Pine Robber leaders like William Davenport and John Bacon. In late 1780, Mulliner was indicted for beating a man, and he became an outlaw after that. Fowler suggests that Mulliner’s gang consisted of about ten hard core members and he had access to dozens of associated London traders and disaffected. In 1781, Muller committed an arson and robbery on the homes of John Watson and the widow Bates of Burlington County. Mulliner’s documented activities were in Burlington County, not Monmouth. Secondary sources suggest that Mulliner carried a privateer’s commission from the British government. Mulliner was captured by Monmouth County militia and first jailed in Freehold in July 1781. The New Jersey Gazette reported him as “motivated by the devil” and further stated: This fellow has become a terror of the country. He made a practice of burning houses, robbing and plundering all who fell in his way... when he came to trial, it appeared that the whole country, both Whigs and Tories, were his enemies. Mulliner was transferred to Burlington County for trial. He was convicted of horse stealing and sentenced to be hanged on August 8. Mulliner’s hanging, on August 16, reportedly drew a hundred spectators. Interestingly, New Jersey Legislative Council (Upper House of the legislature) recommended him for a pardon in September, not knowing he was already dead. Sources : National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Job Clayton; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Job Throckmorton; Kenneth Scott, Rivington's New York Newspaper: Excerpts from a Loyalist Press, 1773-1783 (New York: New York Historical Society, 1973) p 232; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Abraham Osborn; Robbery Evidence, Princeton University, Special Collections, CO 315, box 5, folder: Monmouth Pleas; Samuel Forman to William Livingston, in Carl Prince, ed., Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 326; Dover and Stafford Township Petition in Carl Prince, ed., Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 328, 356 note; Monmouth County Petition, Massachusetts Historical Society, Monmouth County, NJ, Petition; Andrew Brown to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 356, 358 note; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 212; Edwin Salter, Old Tims in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 40; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - David Imlay; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Gregory of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# NJ 21671340; William Livingston to George Washington, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 35; John Cook to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 358; Andrew Brown to William Livingston in Richard J. Koke, "War, Profits, and Privateers Along the Jersey Coast," New York Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 41, 1957, p 3; Abiel Aiken’s letter is in Richard J. Koke, "War, Profits, and Privateers Along the Jersey Coast," New York Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 41, 1957, p 313; William Livingston to Lord Stirling, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 359, 361, 372; George Washington to William Livingston, John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 23, pp. 444-5; To George Washington from William Livingston, 26 January 1782,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07738, ver. 2013-09-28; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 215-225. Previous Next