Download Student Packet Beneath the Floorboards: Whispers of the Enslaved at Marlpit Hall Upper Elementary Education Resource Request Teacher Resource NJ Standards Alignment Book a Class Trip! Marlpit Hall, painted by Henry Gulick in 1952 Welcome to Colonial Monmouth! Middletown's Marlpit Hall stands today as a window into the 18th century. This c. 1762 home and its residents witnessed many of the most exciting, inspirational, and painful chapters in our history, from the fight for independence to the heartbreak of slavery. This resource will give students insight into the history of slavery in New Jersey using many of the primary sources used to build the award-winning exhibit, Beneath the Floorboards: Whispers of the Enslaved at Marlpit Hall . This page can only be viewed on a laptop or desktop. It is not enabled for mobile phones. Sorry for the inconvenience! Approaching Marlpit Hall in the 18th Century Let's take a little trip, during which we will be invisible. It is 1778, and you are traveling to Marlpit Hall, the farmhouse owned by the Taylors of Middletown. This means you are either in a wagon or on a horse right now, so be careful and hold tight! There are very few houses in the area at this time, with great distances between them. The dirt road that is Kings Highway can be bumpy and treacherous! If your wagon wheel pops off or you fall from your horse, help is not around the corner! Read More Life Before Enslavement By the mid-1700s, nearly all enslaved people in America were directly from West Africa or the descendants of enslaved Africans. They were removed from a homeland that was rich in culture and magnificent civilizations, such as the Mali empire, dating back thousands of years. West Africans had built a trade empire, and were quite skilled in the areas of art, medicine, and other sciences such as astronomy and mathematics. Europeans began taking Africans against their will for their talents and their labor. The transatlantic slave trade was soon born. Read More Detail of the Catalan Atlas, 1375 They Were There... Scroll over the image to learn about the individual Daily Life The enslaved were deprived of freedom, but found ways to make their lives as meaningful as possible. Aside from daily work, they took comfort in their families and friends. They practiced religion, dreamed, danced, made music, laughed, loved, and formed bonds among themselves and the local community of free blacks and abolitionist whites. Read on to learn about the day-to-day activities and interactions of Monmouth's enslaved. Read on Deep Down in My Heart... The Influence of African Music Then and Now African rhythms came overseas with the first slave ship, and were passed down through generations of enslaved persons. Music was used for communication, celebration, in rituals and expressions of self. The most common type of African song was known as call and response . A singer would call out a line and a response was called back. This style can be heard in the music of today. Listen to the following audio clip to hear an authentic African call and response example, and then listen to the modern examples the follow. Can you think of any other examples of call and response songs today? Next RESISTANCE! The enslaved protested their condition in different ways. Rather than leaving their African heritage behind, they celebrated it through religion, food, and music. Some pretended to be sick or did a poor job of their tasks, such as burning meals or breaking tools. Some fought back when they could. Escaping was also a brave act of resistance. This was a very difficult decision to make; if the runaway was caught, they could be beaten, sold, or thrown in jail. Sometimes the penalty was death, to discourage other slaves from thinking of escaping. Read More SO HOW DO WE KNOW THAT?? Learning with Primary Sources Primary sources are original items created during the time you are studying that help to tell you about that time period. Examples of primary sources are diaries, newspapers, account books, maps, photographs, letters, and artifacts like tools or clothing. They are now voices from the past from someone who lived then, so it makes them an excellent source of information. If you wrote a letter to a friend about what your school experience was like today, that would be a great primary source! Read More - Key Term Card Deck - SLAVERY RESISTANCE TRAVEL PASS ABOLITIONIST MANUMISSION PAPER INDENTURED SERVANT PRIMARY SOURCE INVENTORY SPIRITUALS HOODOO Next Many grateful thanks for the advisory contributions of: Bernadette Rogoff, MCHA Director of Collections Joe Zemla, MCHA Associate Curator Hank Bitten, Executive Director of the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies Dr. Wendy Morales, Assistant Superintendent of the Monmouth and Ocean Educational Commission For class trips or professional development training, please contact Dana at dhowell@monmouthhistory.org

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > New Jersey Legislature Investigates the Retaliators by Michael Adelberg In summer 1780, vigilante “Retaliators” seized furniture from the house of John Hartshorne, a leading Shrewsbury Quaker. The Retaliators victimized many other Quakers over the next two years. - September 1780 - On July 1, 1780, a public meeting was held at the Monmouth County Courthouse to officially establish the Association for Retaliation . 435 men signed the articles that established the group—more signatures than compiled on any other Revolutionary Era Monmouth County document. The Retaliators established a nine-man board of directors chaired by Colonel David Forman—a man who was already known for 1.) being a zealous supporter of the Revolution based on senior-level military commissions and civil offices, and 2.) exceeding the authority of those offices. The Retaliators promised eye-for-an-eye retaliation for every act committed against a member. Largely unable to strike at their real enemies (Loyalist raiders sheltered behind lines), the Retaliators looked at the kin of Loyalists within Monmouth County as befitting targets of retaliation. From the moment of their founding, the clique of Freehold leaders who led the group—including Forman, Nathaniel Scudder, and Thomas Henderson—faced accusations that the group’s extra-legal punishments were illegal. They sought to insulate themselves with a law that would authorize their activity. Monmouth Countians Petition the New Jersey Legislature On September 23, 1780, Scudder and Henderson petitioned the New Jersey Legislature for the opportunity to address the Assembly "on matters of the moment in the County of Monmouth." They were admitted and presented a memorial, "praying that a law may be passed to authorize the well-affected inhabitants to retaliate upon the property of the disaffected of said county; and also a copy of an association lately formed and entered into by a number of inhabitants of said county." The Assembly established a committee to consider their request and investigate the Retaliators. However, just two days later, Joseph Salter, a squire from Dover Township, petitioned the Assembly: Setting forth that Captain Green [James Green], with a number of armed men under his command, had forcibly seized and carried away sundry articles of furniture belonging to the said petitioner and John Hartshorne of the same county, under pretense of retaliation; that he had sought redress through the medium of the law without effect, and praying relief. Joseph Salter had participated in the December 1776 Loyalist insurrections . For this, he was brought before General Israel Putnam who decided not to punish him. Later, Salter was brought before the New Jersey Council of Safety —he took a loyalty oath to the New Jersey government and was released. Salter sold off tracts of land along the shore to start saltworks , and was a creditor to the ill-fated Pennsylvania Salt Works . His son, William Salter, however, was a Loyalist living in New York. John Hartshorne was one of the leading Quakers in Monmouth County; as a pacifist, he played no role in the war. He freed his slaves in 1776 and hosted the French Admiral, Charles Henri D’Estaing, when he came ashore in July 1778. Members of his large family were supporters of the Revolution (Richard Hartshorne was the Monmouth Militia’s Paymaster), but other family members were Loyalists (Lawrence Hartshorne was a merchant in New York) or disaffected (Esek Hartshorne refused loyalty oaths to the New Jersey government). There is no evidence that either Joseph Salter or John Hartshorne had committed any crimes; rather, their “crime” in the eyes of the Retaliators was having Loyalist kin. Salter’s petition demonstrated that the Retaliators were practicing extra-legal property confiscations while concurrently petitioning the legislature for a law that would authorize acts already taken. Committee Report on the Retaliators On September 29, the committee established to study the Retaliators presented a scathing report about the group. The report offered six findings. The first four concerned Monmouth County’s defenses. First, the committee expressed sympathy for the people of Monmouth County: The exposed and dangerous situation on the frontiers of Monmouth County, liable to the continual depredations of the enemy, and the great numbers of well affected inhabitants lately captured by them in that quarter are matters highly worthy of the attention of government. Second, the Committee observed that Monmouth County’s best defense was the county’s own militia supplemented by militia from other counties : A prudent disposition of militia force, together with the occasional aid of militia adjoining the frontiers would, with proper and spirited execution, in a great measure, if not entirely, have afforded protection & security to that part of the country. Third, the Committee singled out the need to prevent militia delinquency to strengthen the county’s defenses (Monmouth County was in the midst of a crackdown on militia delinquency): Delinquency of the officers and classes in some of the counties in procuring and forwarding men for that directed service has greatly contravened the good intentions of the legislature, and burdened the militia in that quarter with an over-proportion of the duty. Fourth, the committee called on Governor William Livingston to call out militia from other counties to assist Monmouth County when necessary. The report’s last two findings focused specifically on the Retaliators. Fifth, the Committee declared that: The Association for Retaliation, referred to in the said memorial, is an illegal and dangerous combination, utterly subversive to the law, highly dangerous to the government, immediately tending to create disunion among the inhabitants, directly leading toward anarchy and confusion, and tending to the dissolution of the constitution and government. And, finally, the committee suggested that: The exertions of the associators regularly to enforce laws in that county, and to defend the frontiers against the predatory incursions of the enemy's parties, would have had a much more evident tendency to have produced security for the said county, and safety to the well-affected inhabitants, than any illegal combination whatever. The report was a stinging rebuke of the vigilante acts of the Retaliators. However, the report never explicitly banned the Retaliators. For this reason, James Mott, a Monmouth County Assemblyman (recently exchanged home from capture and an in-law to Joseph Salter) offered an amendment to the report on October 2. Mott sought to add the following sentence: "that the association referred to in the memorial ought to be discountenanced by the legislature as illegal and contrary to the laws of this state." The Assembly declined to add Mott’s language by an 11-14 vote. Monmouth County’s other two Assemblymen, Hendrick Smock and Thomas Seabrook, voted against the new language. Both men had signed the Articles of Association for Retaliation. Had Smock and Seabrook voted with Mott, the resolution would have passed 13-12. The defeat of Mott’s amendment allowed the Retaliators to maintain that the Assembly had only frowned on their group. Their vigilante acts would grow bolder in 1781. Related Historic Site : Shrewsbury Quaker Meeting House Sources : Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, September 23 - October 2, 1780, pp. 270-282; The New Jersey Legislature’s rebuke of the Retaliators is in Larry Gerlach, New Jersey in the American Revolution 1763-1783 A Documentary History (Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1975) p. 399 note 4; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File, unpublished, Monmouth County Historical Association. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > Raising David Forman's Additional Continental Army Regiment by Michael Adelberg Captain Thomas Marsh Forman of Cecil County, Maryland, raised a company of Maryland men to defend Monmouth County in David Forman’s Additional Regiment of the Continental Army. - January 1777 - In spring 1776, David Forman raised four companies of Flying Camp for the Monmouth – Middlesex Counties regiment that he would soon command. He suffered through the summer and fall of 1776 with the Continental Army. With enlistments expiring on December 1, Forman led his men back into Monmouth County on November 24 and rounded up 100 Loyalists. A few weeks later, during the Freehold-Middletown Loyalist insurrection, Forman was robbed twice. He left New Jersey for Maryland and started recruiting a new regiment for the Continental Army. Recruiting for Forman’s Additional Regiment It is unclear if Forman had been formally authorized to recruit this new Continental regiment when he started recruiting. It was not until January 11, 1777, that George Washington officially authorized him to do so. In that letter, Washington encouraged Forman to select either David Brearley or Thomas Henderson as his Lt Colonel and Richard Howell as his first major. Washington also set out a few recruiting parameters. Specifically, the recruits: Must be free men between ages of 17 and 50, May not be British Army deserters or people convicted of disaffection, Must enlist for either 3yrs or the length of war, All mustering must conform to the rules set by the Continental Congress’s Board of War, Inducements may be offered including a uniform, equipment, and help-pay pensions for the wounded. There was no mention of a cash or land recruitment bounty. On January 13, Washington followed up with more formal and detailed “recruiting instructions” and authorization to offer recruiting bounties: They shall receive a Bounty of Twenty Dollars and a Suit of Cloaths; the Cloaths to be given annually, as long as they continue in the Service. And at the end of the War, or the term of three Years, every private and Non-Commissioned Officer that shall complete his Service, agreeable to his engagement, shall be entitled to One hundred Acres of Land. Those that die, or are killed in the Service, their legal representatives are to be entitled to the same. Forman’s was not an ordinary Continental Army regiment. It was an “Additional Regiment”—meaning a regiment of the Continental Army raised for a special purpose outside the Continental Line, the main body of the Army. In Forman’s case, his Additional Regiment would be stationed in Monmouth County for the dual purposes of defeating local Loyalists and breaking up illegal trade between Monmouth County and the British camps on Sandy Hook and Staten Island. Whether recruiting in Maryland in December or home in Monmouth County in January, raising men for the Additional Regiment proved difficult. During the American Revolution, few regiments maintained their full strength of near 500 men, but Forman’s Additional Regiment never reached half that size. As originally conceived, four companies of Forman’s regiment were supposed to be raised from Maryland and Delaware, but it appears that only one Maryland-Delaware company, captained by Forman’s nephew, Thomas Marsh Forman, raised an appreciable number of men. After the war, Thomas Marsh Forman would boast that he “recruited the largest company in the Regiment” but it appears that his company reached a peak strength of 33 men (slightly more than half of a full company). The majority of Forman's recruits were raised in Monmouth County in early 1777. Two Monmouth County captains, John Combs and William Wikoff, raised 18 and 10 men respectively in January. John Burrowes, Jr., son of the County Committee Chair, would ultimately raise the largest company. He raised 26 men in February and 22 more men between March and June. A document compiled later in the war suggests that Forman’s Additional Regiment raised only 90 men, of whom ten are listed as deserted; eight captured; five dead; and one invalid. However, this document is likely incomplete. It is probable that the actual number of men recruited into Forman’s Additional regiment was somewhat higher, as immediate desertions and deaths seem to have been left off this retrospectively-compiled roll. Additional evidence is of incompleteness is offered by the “casualty book” for John Burrowes’s company. It lists eight deserters in his company. If Burrowes’s one company had eight deserters, but Forman’s regiment had four functioning companies, it is improbable that the regiment had only ten deserters. One of Forman’s recruits, Samuel Bennett, discussed his enlistment into Forman’s regiment in his postwar veteran’s pension application: Enlisted at Toms River in the County of Monmouth in the month of May 1777 in the company of William Wikoff for the term of three years -- that the said Captain Wikoff did not fill up his company and sometime after he joined the company of Captain John Burrowes. Silas Crane further noted: “The regiment [Forman’s Additional Regiment] was not completed, upon which Capt. Wikoff left the Army & Bennett was put in the company of John Burrowes.” Monmouth men who wished to support the Continental cause in 1777 had a number of options . The State of New Jersey authorized a company of State Troops under Joshua Huddy to defend Monmouth County for a six-month term (Huddy would command similar companies later in the war as well). Huddy and Forman not only had overlapping missions, they likely competed for the same recruits. And Forman’s distant relative, Captain Jonathan Forman of Middletown, commanded a company raised from Monmouth County for the 4th Regiment of the New Jersey Line . Jonathan Forman recruited twelve new recruits from Monmouth County in the first half of 1777, placing him in competition with David Forman. The frustrations of recruiting in competition with other state and Continental units forced Forman to complain. On May 28, 1777, Forman and his senior officers wrote the Continental Congress about the difficulties of recruiting with a Continental Congress bounty when richer bounties were being offered by the New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland legislatures: By the laws of such State Legislatures, we have too much reason to fear the recruiting service as it respects a certain part of the Army of the United States will be much impeded... We are sorry to find that certain laws passed by the Legislatures of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey, that we are by no means considered to be on equal footing with the other Regiments, but we are laid under such restrictions as amounting, in all its consequences, to an entire prohibition. Forman concluded, "We therefore hope your Honorable House will consider our situation and put us on a respectable footing, by establishing our authority to equality in the different States.” Forman’s memorial was referred to Congress’s Board of War; there is no evidence that it was acted upon. Forman’s recruiting problems had previously led him to propose drafting Loyalist insurrectionaries into his regiment. This plan was not approved, but he was given permission to recruit jailed Loyalists into his regiment—the Loyalists receiving a pardon if they voluntarily enlisted into Forman’s regiment for the length of the war. This topic is discussed in a later article. Beyond recruiting troubles, Forman’s men lacked uniforms until they captured a British ship with hundreds of British uniforms. The weak results of this initiative is the subject of another article. The Performance of Forman’s Additional Regiment Though undersized, Forman’s men were active in Monmouth County’s local war over the next year, but the record of the regiment was generally disappointing. The regiment’s existence helped Monmouth County’s Whigs restore Continental rule after the collapse of the Loyalist insurrections in January 1777. And Forman’s regiment, more or less, replaced Francis Gurney’s Pennsylvania regiment when Gurney left the county on February 5. But Forman’s regiment was not on the front lines in Middletown when the Monmouth militia was routed by British regulars at the Battle of the Navesink and the regiment’s first battle, a doomed attack on Sandy Hook , was quickly repulsed by the heavy guns of a British frigate. Over the next half year, Forman’s regiment participated in the defense of the county from the first Loyalist raids , and the regiment was Forman’s de facto muscle when Forman was commissioned a General of the New Jersey militia and flirted with martial law in Monmouth County. By the summer of 1777, Forman’s men were stationed at Manasquan , ostensibly to guard the salt works of the Monmouth shore. But with Forman’s men serving at a salt works that he co-owned, credible charges of conflicts of interest soon emerged. This and other abuses would lead to a dispute between Forman and the New Jersey Legislature, climaxing with Forman losing his militia commission and command of his regiment in early 1778. Related Historic Site : Rogers Tavern Museum (Perryville, Maryland) Sources : National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, Coll. 108, p34-60; National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, Coll. 105-8; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Thomas Marsh Forman of Maryland, National Archives, p19; National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, Coll. 106, p32-76; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Thomas Marsh Forman of MD, www.fold3.com/image/#19575180 ; New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #3777; Robert K. Wright, Jr., The Continental Army (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1983), pp. 100, 321; New Jersey State Archives, Dept of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #2528; George Washington to David Forman, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 8, 6 January 1777 – 27 March 1777, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998, pp. 44–45; John Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, US Govt Printing Office, Washington DC, vol 6, p 494. Rutgers University Library Special Collections, Neilson Family Papers; Pennsylvania Archives, Series I, v5, p209; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 49; “List of New Jersey Troops”, Numbered Records, National Archive; Casualty Book, Capt. John Burrowes, New Jersey State Archives, Dept of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #3777; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Samuel Bennett; William Harrison to David Forman, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 49, item 41, vol. 3, #179-80; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 8, p 394; Muster Rolls, John Burrowes’s Company, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, Coll. 105, p35, 36, 38, 41, 44, 46. 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 > Thomas Henderson Selected to Continental Congress by Michael Adelberg Abraham Clark was selected to the Continental Congress after Thomas Henderson declined the serve. Henderson was active locally and probably did not want to leave his distressed home county. - November 1779 - Dr. Thomas Henderson was an important supporter of the Revolution in Monmouth County. Before the Declaration of Independence, he served on the Freehold committee and was second-in-command to Colonel David Forman in the regiment of Flying Camp raised to join the Continental Army in spring 1776. He served under George Washington during the disastrous New York Campaign that summer and then came home to capture local Loyalist insurrectionists in November. In early 1777, Henderson helped raise troops for David Forman’s Continental Army Additional Regiment . Later in the year, Henderson was one of three election judges who biased the election against the county’s incumbent legislators. The New Jersey legislature voided the election. Despite the rebuke, Henderson continued as an ardent patriot. In June 1778, following the razing of Middletown Point by Loyalists, Henderson led a mob that captured the Loyalist, William Taylor. He apparently hoped to conduct a prisoner exchange of Taylor for his captured father-in-law, John Burrowes, Sr., who was taken in the attack. A few weeks later, prior to the Battle of Monmouth , Henderson led a mounted militia party that gathered and delivered intelligence on British positions to George Washington. It was Henderson who likely was the first person to tell Washington of the Continental Army’s disorganized initial attack on the morning of the battle. Following the battle, Henderson took a leading role in compiling information on the British plundering of Freehold. Henderson was also a practicing physician and appears to have practiced as a protégé to Dr. Nathaniel Scudder, Freehold’s other practicing physician. Scudder was selected as one of New Jersey’s delegates to the Continental Congress in November 1777. In November 1778, the New Jersey Assembly selected Colonel John Neilson of New Brunswick for the Congressional delegation, but Neilson declined the seat. Scudder and Governor William Livingston lobbied for Thomas Henderson’s selection for the vacant seat. Livingston wrote on November 24, "I heartily wish he may be elected," but the legislature selected Colonel Elias Dayton instead of Henderson. Thomas Henderson Selected to Continental Congress In November 1779, it was widely rumored that Nathaniel Scudder would decline to serve another year in Congress. He had complained that serving in Congress had harmed his family and personal estate. Henderson, as Scudder’s protégé, was an obvious replacement. On November 7, the New Jersey Assembly selected Henderson, William Churchill Houston and John Fell as the state’s delegates to the Congress. On November 19, the credentials of Henderson and the others were presented to Congress. Scudder wrote Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress about Henderson: “Colo. Henderson, who if he accepts, shall be a very good man [in Congress]." On November 30, Philadelphia’s leading newspaper, the Pennsylvania Evening Post , noted Henderson’s selection to Congress. It was likely assumed that Henderson would naturally accept Scudder’s seat, but there is no evidence that Henderson ever indicated that he wanted the job. Even before his selection, Abraham Clark (one of New Jersey’s previous delegates in Congress) wrote Rev. John Caldwell, that, "if I am rightly informed… Dr. Scudder, Mr. [Elias] Boudinot, Dr. Henderson and Colo. [Frederick] Frelinghuysen will decline if chosen." Indeed, Henderson did decline to serve, though he was not immediately replaced. There were probably months of discussion between Henderson and those who wanted him to serve. Finally, on March 1, 1780, more than four months after this selection to Congress, the New Jersey Legislature selected Clark to replace Henderson "who declined taking his seat." Henderson’s reasons for declining to serve in Congress are not stated in surviving documents. But it is known that by 1779: 1.) Monmouth County was understood to be among the most distressed localities in the new nation and Henderson probably felt needed at home; and 2.) Henderson held important local offices in the county that were not easily given up. Among his leadership roles, Henderson was the county’s loan commissioner and was likely the Freehold Township magistrate. He would later serve five years in the New Jersey Assembly (1780-1784), the longest consecutive tenure of any of the county’s Revolutionary Era delegates. He also became a proponent of extra-legal retaliation against Loyalists—serving on the Board of Directors of the vigilante group known as the Retaliators. While a delegate in the Assembly, he authored a scathing report on the Associated Loyalists , a Loyalist vigilante group that rivaled the Retaliators. At war’s end, Henderson became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (1783) and the county commissioner to settle the accounts of veterans owed money by the state (1783). Later in life, he served in the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature (the Legislative Council). Henderson ran for the United State Congress in the first election under the Constitution (1788), but was defeated. He did, however, win a seat to Congress in the 1790s and served for two years and briefly served as New Jersey’s acting governor. Related Historic Site : Independence Hall (Philadelphia, PA) Sources : William Livingston to Thomas Henderson, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 2, pp. 484; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 15, p 1324 and vol. 16, p 84; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, November 17, 1779, p 28; William Livingston to Nathaniel Scudder, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, pp. 225, 281 note; Nathaniel Scudder to Henry Laurens, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Charles Jenkins Collection, ALS: Nathaniel Scudder; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post; Abraham Clark to John Caldwell, Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 18, p 110; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File, in the collection of the Monmouth County Historical Association; Randall Gabrielan, Monmouth County Revolutionary War Sites (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2025), 117-118. 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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 and Continental Soldiers Pass Through Allentown by Michael Adelberg 1777 map shows the roads between New York and Philadelphia. Note the location of Allen’s Town (Allentown) at the confluence of roads from Trenton and Philadelphia. - December 1776 - George Washington’s bold attack on the Hessians at Trenton on Christmas, 1776, changed the course of the war. For the first time, the British were defeated and the surprise attack set both armies in motion. The armies would soon meet again at the Battle of Princeton on January 3. In between, detachments of both armies passed through Allentown, on the western edge of Monmouth County. At this time, Allentown and surrounding Upper Freehold Township was loosely controlled by an embryonic Loyalist regime , more or less led by Commissioner John Lawrence. The arrests and property confiscations of the Loyalist insurrection took a toll on Allentown. On December 27, when a regiment of Hessians entered the town, they found it largely empty. The reputation of the Hessians for brutality likely induced Allentown’s residents to flee. Captain Johann Ewald wrote: “In the afternoon, the march continued to Allentown where the corps arrived in the evening and took up quarters in devastated and abandoned houses, which numbered about eighty.” Ewald’s commander, Colonel Carl von Donop, used Allentown as a base to gather up and reorganize the recently defeated Hessians. On the 27th, he wrote General Wiliam Knyphausen, the commander of German troops in America, that "I have organized all the escaped men from the Rall brigade and made up a force of two hundred and ninety-two men." Von Donop worried that “my ammunition has run low, only about 9 bullet cartridges to a man,” but still thought Allentown’s location at a key crossroads made it an ideal place to camp. "This place is so situated that I intend to get through it to anywhere from here." With a Delaware Continental regiment only four miles away at Crosswicks, von Donop left Allentown for Hightstown on the afternoon of December 28. Historian David Hackett Fisher noted that the Hessians brought 150 wagons of supplies with them when they entered and left Allentown. This would have been the largest baggage train ever brought through Allentown—until the British Army’s baggage train in the days preceding the Battle of Monmouth. The Delaware Continentals followed the Hessians and moved into Allentown on December 29. Captain Thomas Rodney was not among the first of his regiment to enter Allentown, but he described the activities of his regiment’s vanguard as it entered Allentown. Before dawn, the Continentals turned the tables on the Loyalist insurrectionists. Rodney wrote: This morning, about sunrise we set out to reinforce the troops that went forward last night. We marched on through Allentown without stopping, about half a mile beyond, met the troops returning with about 30 bullocks and 5 Tories. Later that day, the Delaware troops shot and killed Isaac Pearson, the former town clerk, now a Loyalist, of neighboring Nottingham Township (Burlington County). Pearson was being sheltered by Upper Freehold Loyalists. The local Loyalists escaped but Pearson was not so fortunate, “In the afternoon was brought in the body of Isaac Pearson, who being found in the house with other Tories that were taken, fled off." Rodney described Allentown: “A little village of wooden houses, indifferently built on both sides of the road, at a mill, about 4 miles from Crosswicks." And he described a distasteful first encounter with the newly-arrived Captain Francis Wade of Pennsylvania. Wade had arrived with orders to set up a Quartermaster office at Allentown. Rodney called Wade "a vain blustering man." Rodney and the Delaware Continentals would stay at Allentown until January 2. While there, Rodney talked with Upper Freehold Whigs who were recently abused by the insurrectionists. He wrote: Jersey will be the most Whiggest [sic] colony on the continent: the Quakers declare for taking up arms. You cannot imagine the distress of this country. They [British and Loyalists] have stripped everybody almost, without distinction - even of all their clothes, and have beat and abused men, women and children in the most cruel manner ever heard of. It is possible that the locals exaggerated the brutality of the conduct of the insurrectionists, as there are no documents that detail beatings from the Upper Freehold Loyalists. It is also possible that Rodney was conflating accounts from Upper Freehold with accounts from western New Jersey, where Hessian soldiers engaged in numerous acts of brutality. Not all of the locals were bitterly divided. One of Allentown’s leading merchants, Richard Waln, though a Quaker pacifist, supported the Loyalist insurrection. This did not stop him from selling goods to the Continentals on December 31. On December 31, much of the Delaware regiment went to Cranbury to gather supplies and intelligence. During their absence, a Pennsylvania regiment under Lt. Colonel Francis Gurney moved into town. The officers of the two regiments nearly came to blows that evening. Rodney wrote: When we returned to Allentown, my quarters were full of militia [Pennsylvania Flying Camp] and there was no place to sit or lie down. I went to the door of the room, which was now occupied by three Pennsylvania field officers and politely requested to let us come in and sit by the fire, but they sternly refused. I told them we had no other place to go and if they would not admit us willingly they must defend themselves, and thereupon drew my sword. But the Continental officers were able to reach an accord, after which "we spent the rest of the night in great festivity... with good wine and ready dressed provisions." Gurney’s men would soon march for Freehold where they would clash with and defeat Monmouth County’s new Loyalist militia. Francis Wade would act as Continental Quartermaster at Allentown for several months. His relationships with the people of Monmouth County would be no better than his relationship with Thomas Rodney. Related Historic Site : Battle of Princeton State Park Sources : Thomas Rodney, Diary of Captain Thomas Rodney, 1776-1777 (Wilmington: Delaware Historical Society, 1888) p 26; Thomas Rodney, Diary of Captain Thomas Rodney, 1776-7 (Wilmington: Delaware Historical Society, 1888, p 27; John Fabiano, Allen's Town, New Jersey: Crossroads of the American Revolution, unpublished manuscript in the collection of the Allentown Historical Society, p 31; John Fabiano, Allen's Town, New Jersey: Crossroads of the American Revolution, unpublished manuscript in the collection of the Allentown Historical Society, p 25. 28; Johann Ewald, Diary of an American War (New Haven: Yale UP, 1979), 55; David Hackett Fischer, Washington's Crossing (NY: Oxford UP, 2004) p260, 344; New Jersey State Archives, Revolutionary War, Manuscripts Coll., box 2, #9, #12 and William S. Stryker, Battles of Trenton and Princeton, pp. 398-400; George Ryden, Letters to and from Caesar Rodney, 1756-84 (Philadelphia: U of Penn Press, 1933) p 152; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 79; Thomas Rodney, Diary of Captain Thomas Rodney, 1776-7 (Wilmington: Delaware Historical Society, 1888, p 27; John Fabiano, Allen's Town, New Jersey: Crossroads of the American Revolution, unpublished manuscript in the collection of the Allentown Historical Society, p 31 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 > Monmouth Countians Fight at Battle of Germantown by Michael Adelberg Gen. William Smallwood commanded about 400 Monmouth troops at the Battle of Germantown. In the confusion of battle, red-coated Monmouth men took fire from Continental soldiers. - September 1777 - In August 1777, the main body of the British Army in America landed at Elk Head, Maryland and began marching north toward Philadelphia. George Washington’s Continental Army rushed south to face the advancing British. A call went across New Jersey for patriots to join them. First Monmouth Countians March to the Defense of Philadelphia Although documentation is lacking, at least one company of Monmouth County militia marched into Pennsylvania in early September to join the Continental Army as it prepared to defend the capital along the Brandywine Creek in southeastern Pennsylvania. Two Monmouth County militiamen recorded participating in the Battle of Brandywine on September 11 and were at the Paoli Massacre on September 20. Joseph Kelly of Middletown recalled: As many as could be spared from the shore went and, as fast as we could go, we arrived there in the beginning of September 1777, some miles below Philadelphia. Captain Smith went with us. He was one of Washington’s captains (regulars). We were placed under General Wayne [Anthony Wayne] at the Battle of Brandywine, which was a few days after we got there. It was a hot siege that we had there. That same night we left the battleground and filed off towards Philadelphia. We arrived there next morning, it rained and we were tired and had a very bad time. We soon encamped on French Creek. Shortly afterwards, we were sent into General Wayne’s detachment near the Paoli tavern. He remembers the night of the massacre well and a horrid night it was too, the British used the bayonet only and made a terrible slaughter. Kelly’s narrative is corroborated by Thomas Patten of Shrewsbury who recalled "working on artillery carriages for the purpose of forming a flying company” in August “to march to the main army which was making head against the British.” Patten went “with seven others, were selected from said village on account of our activity & spryness. We marched toward the main body & joined the division under the command of General Greene [Nathanael Greene]." Patten manned a cannon at the Battle of Brandywine, which lasted eleven hours. The long day took its toll: “My head was so severely injured by the repeated explosions as to cause the blood to gush from my ears & create a deafness that has continued to this day." After the Paoli Massacre, most of the Monmouth men fell back to Philadelphia and marched to Trenton, where they were dismissed. But some of the men stayed in Philadelphia and then marched west to guard the fleeing Continental Congress. Stephen Seabrook recalled his company "guarding the Congress from Philadelphia when the British was advancing on that city." David Forman Raises a Large Force Even before this first group of Monmouth men returned home, another call went out for more support. Governor William Livingston ordered out militia from across New Jersey. Beyond the militia call-out, Major Thomas Mifflin of the Continental Army, who participated in toppling the Loyalist insurrections in Monmouth County eight months earlier, made a direct appeal to Colonel David Forman for help. Mifflin knew Forman commanded an (undersized) Continental Regiment in Monmouth County. As Continentals, they would not be subject to the militia alarm. On September 14, Mifflin wrote directly to Forman about the need to protect Philadelphia and then appealed for help: I believe that forty or fifty light cavalry from your state will be of infinite aid to us -- if they can be formed into a troop & sent forward without delay they will render essential service to America. I will supply them with forage. It is not clear if Forman responded to Mifflin, but Forman, who was also the militia general over Monmouth, Middlesex, and Burlington counties, raised 900 men and crossed into Pennsylvania on September 25. The exact number of Monmouth Countians is unknown, but Monmouth militiaman Zachariah Hankins recalled marching with “Captain [Michael] Sweetman's company and some other companies of militia [Captains William Schenck and Benjamin Van Cleave], Captain [John] Burrowes's company of regulars, and [Joshua] Huddy's artillery company, all under the command of Col. Holmes [Asher Holmes] and Genl. Forman.” Solomon Ketchum of Middletown recalled the march: Marched from Shrewsbury to Freehold when they were joined by some companies from Middletown and Freehold and, under the command of Colonel Asher Holmes, proceeded to Allentown where they stayed all night. Next day they marched to Burlington and crossed the Delaware at Bristol... Was ordered to cook three days provisions, which was done. One company of Forman’s Continentals joined the militia on the march, including the company of Captain Burrowes, the largest in the regiment. In all, the Monmouth Countians may have numbered about half of Forman’s 900. But some of these men never made it to Pennsylvania. Tunis Aumack recalled, "he marched part of the way to Germantown… but his company was sent back to drive off the British and Tories who were pillaging along the shore in their absence.” While Forman’s force was considerable, its size disappointed General Washington. He wrote Forman on the 26th: "I am sorry to find you cannot bring on so respectable a force as we both could wish & had reason to expect.” He asked Forman to “collect your scattered parties as soon as possible." In a letter to Elbridge Gerry, Washington confided that he had expected Forman to bring at least 1,500 men. The British Army took Philadelphia the next day. Forman circled around the British Army in the city and joined up with General William Smallwood’s Maryland regiment west of Philadelphia on September 27. They stayed with the Marylanders for the next week. Monmouth Countians Fight at the Battle of Germantown On the morning of October 4, Forman’s militia, together with Smallwood's Marylanders, were ordered by General John Sullivan, to “march a further circuit to the rear of the right wing to attack the British right flank.” The longer march and unfamiliarity with the land caused the Smallwood-Forman brigade to arrive later than expected. Foggy weather and smoke from cannon fire caused low visibility on the battlefield. In the confusion, Continental troops fired on each other. Forman’s regiment, wearing red uniforms taken from the British six months earlier, may have added to the confusion within the Continental ranks. One of Forman’s men, Koert Schenck, recalled that Captain Burrowes' company “who all wore red coats and were fired at by some of our troops by mistake." The next day, Major Asher Holmes of the Monmouth Militia (soon to be Colonel) wrote his wife about the battle. He recalled being in a brigade with "the Jersey militia and Red Coats under Gen. Forman and the Maryland militia" under Smallwood. Initially, the New Jersians and Marylanders "drove the enemy" but "by thickness of the fog the enemy got in our rear" and the Continentals around them retreated. According to Holmes, “the enemy was within a 120 yards of us in the hottest fire." Despite this: The Monmouth militia and Forman's Red Coats stood firm and advanced upon the British Red Coats until our ammunition was nearly exhausted and the enemy advancing on our right flank, Gen. Forman then ordered us to retreat which we did in pretty good order. Holmes noted that “the officers are all well since the battle, our army is in good spirits... we have lost very few, if any, killed and not many wounded.” Other sources add to Holmes’s account. An anonymous eyewitness recalled the brave (and perhaps exaggerated) action of a Monmouth man named Barkalow: During the heat of the Battle of Germantown, while bullets flew as thick as hail stones, one Barkalow (of Monmouth) was leveling his musket at the enemy, when his lock was carried away by a ball. Undismayed, he caught up the gun of a comrade just killed at his side, and taking aim, a bullet entered his muzzle and twisted it around like a corkscrew. Still undaunted, our hero immediately kneeled down, unswerved the lock from the twisted barrel, screwed it into the barrel from which the lock had been torn, and blazed away at the enemy. The newly-raised artillery company of Captain Joshua Huddy made the march to Germantown but did not make it into the battle. Jerusa Sanford, wife of one of Huddy’s men, William Sanford, recalled that “their piece was an iron one and very heavy so they were kept out of the battle." William Stryker, who extensively researched New Jersey’s Revolutionary War soldiers in the late 1800s, determined that one of Forman’s men, Gershom Vanderhull, was fatally wounded and two other men (Andrew Mains and Jesse Vanderule) were wounded at Germantown. But Stryker did not record the wounding of Thomas Patten, who wrote: “Received a wound with musket ball in my side so severe as to disable me until the later period of the spring [1778]." He was taken back to Freehold "and remained there until late fall when I was taken to the hospital at New Brunswick until the latter part of May." After the battle, the Monmouth men briefly stayed with the Army. Ketchum recalled that his “company became much scattered” during the battle and it likely took some time for the men to find each other after the retreat. Catherine Reid recalled that her husband, John Reid, took part in “burying two soldiers killed at Germantown.” Jerusa Sanford also wrote that her husband buried the dead after the battle. Forman’s men soon returned to New Jersey. Hankins recalled: "After the battle, they remained a few days with the army and came back to Trenton under Genl. Forman, his company was discharged at Monmouth Court House and he went home." The total period of the call-out was six weeks, according to Benjamin Berry of Captain Sweetman’s Company (Freehold Township), but different companies mustered at different times, so Berry’s time estimate was not universal for all of the Monmouth men. In total, Monmouth Countians responded well to the call to defend Philadelphia. Their conduct demonstrates a considerable turnaround from ten months earlier when the county militia “laid down its arms” rather than face Loyalists emboldened by the British advance across New Jersey. That the Monmouth militia advanced on the enemy in pitched battle, despite lacking munitions and training, is noteworthy. However, Monmouth County paid a price for marching so many of its patriots out of state; the county suffered (at least) two Loyalist attacks during the absence of its most patriotic Whigs. Postscript: David Forman and the Defense of Red Bank Even before David Forman left Pennsylvania, George Washington requested his return. He wrote Forman on October 6: You having informed me that the time of your present brigade of militia is near expiring, and that many others who came out here for no certain amount of time are anxious to return home, you have my permission to march... When they cross the river, you may discharge them. But I must beg that you will use your utmost endeavors to collect a number equal to what you have brought to join the army under my command. Two days later, the New Jersey Assembly passed an act to raise 2,000 militia under Forman. Governor Livingston accordingly called out the militias of Hunterdon, Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth & Sussex counties to assemble at Princeton. However, Forman was not optimistic. He wrote Washington from Freehold on October 11: “Your Excellency observes that the order calls for 2,000, neither the Legislative body nor myself expect that so many will march." Forman wrote Washington from Princeton on October 15: “I do not believe I shall collect three hundred men.” Only the Burlington County militia turned out, Forman noted needing to keep many of his own men on the Jersey shore to protect the salt works (in which he was heavily invested). He reported of the Monmouth militia: The Monmouth militia turned out quite well as before, but from the interruptions of several enemy pillaging parties into that County during my late absence, the inhabitants have been led to petition the Legislative body that no part of their militia may march off, and have succeeded for the present. In an October 19 letter, Washington acknowledged the need to protect the salt works requested whatever men Forman could spare. He was more forceful in his next letter to Forman on October 21. “I request in the most urgent manner that you use your utmost exertions immediately to collect a large body of your militia and hasten to the relief of that post [Red Bank on the Delaware River].” Washington argued that the immediate threat to Red Bank was more important than theoretical threat to the salt works: What I have said is on supposition that the danger to the salt work is not so great as to require the whole force you may be able to gather to defend it. I do not mean to neglect the precaution necessary for their security, they are of too much importance; but the defence of Red Bank is an object of the greatest moment. Forman marched for Red Bank on October 21 and arrived at Red Bank on October 26 with an unknown number of Monmouth men. He sent for the assembled Burlington militia. On his arrival, he began quarreling with Silas Newcomb, the militia general commanding the New Jersey militia from the southern counties. Forman complained about Newcomb to Washington who responded: “Your complaints respecting the conduct of Gen Newcomb give me more concern.” But Washington deferred to the New Jersey government to consider the dispute. Governor Livingston sided with Forman and, two weeks later, ordered Newcomb to transfer his command to Forman. As late as October 29, Forman was still collecting men. He wrote Washington from Red Bank: The Excessive rainy weather has prevented the troops from Monmouth and Burlington coming forward as fast as I could have wished—They are however some of them this day advanced as far as Haddonfield and will in the morning be down, when I will Immediately incorporate them with the two Garrisons—They will not be equal to our wants. On November 1, Washington wrote Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress, about the situation at Red Bank. He complimented the efforts of Philemon Dickinson (senior general of the New Jersey militia) and Forman “whose conduct and zeal upon every occasion, give them a claim to the Public esteem.” But he was still disappointed with the New Jersey militia’s turnout. David Forman’s Controversies Cloud the Defense of Red Bank Meanwhile, Forman’s troubles with the New Jersey Legislature were coming to a head. Forman had left Red Bank to rally more men to its defense. He wrote Washington from Princeton on November 7 complaining about his continued quarrels with General Newcomb and new quarrels with the New Jersey Legislature: Two Petitions ware handed into the Assembly most unjustly charging me and sundry other Gent. with undue practices on the day of election & praying the election to be set aside—The Petition was read in the House and a hearing ordered on Tewsday [sic] next and a notice served on me to attend. I immediately went to the Assembly, informed them of my situation and requested the hearing might be deferred for a few days until the militia ware assembled and put in some order—My request was denyed [sic]. Forman told the Assembly, “it was impossible” for him to attend the Legislature while rallying the militia and leading the defense of Red Bank. Forman then informed Washington that he had “returned” his militia Brigadier General’s commission to the legislature. Forman also accused the legislature of insufficiently supporting the war: I have long been disgusted with the indolence and want of attention to military matters in the Legislature of this State; I was determined to spin out this campaign in my Slavery until I found a set of Men plotting by the most unfair means to stain my reputation. Washington was saddened by Forman’s resignation. He wrote Livingston, "General Forman has, to my great concern, and contrary to my warmest solicitations, resigned his commission upon some misunderstanding with the Assembly." Forman returned to Red Bank. Despite having resigned from the New Jersey militia, Newcomb was removed and it appears Forman continued on as the de facto commander of the assembled New Jersey militia. On November 24, General Nathanael Greene noted that the New Jersey militia “under Forman” was leaving Red Bank. However, militiamen who had been recruited into the army during their service at Red Bank would have to stay. Related Historic Sites : Battle of Brandywine Visitor Center (Brandywine, PA); Cliveden (Germantown, PA); Red Bank Battlefield Park Sources : Cyclopedia of New Jersey Biography, David Forman, American Historical Society, New York City, 1921 Page 25-29; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Benjamin Berry of VA, National Archives, p4-6; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Joseph Van Note of Ohio, S.3114; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Zachariah Hawkins of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#22623931 ; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Thomas Patten of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#27227091 ; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Joseph Kelley of PA, www.fold3.com/image/# 26180227; David Forman to [?], Neilson Family Papers, box 1, folder: Rutgersania, Rutgers University Special Collection; Donald Brownlow, A Documentary History of the Battle of Germantown (Germantown, PA: Germantown Historical Society, 1955) pp. 11, 47; George Washington to David Forman, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 44, September 26 and 29, 1777; George Washington to Elbridge Gerry, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 11, 19 August 1777 – 25 October 1777, ed. Philander D. Chase and Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001, pp. 326–327; Mary Hyde, Jersey at Germantown, New York Times, May 3, 1896, p1-2; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Tunis Aumock; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Jonthan Hildreth of NY, www.fold3.com/image/#22779401 ; Contained in: National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Reid of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# 14359840; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Benjamin Van Cleave; William S. Stryker, Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War (Trenton: Naar, Day & Naar, 1872); Anonymous Account, Hezekiah Niles, “Centennial Offering” (New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1876), p 497; Charles Lefferts, Uniforms of American, British, French & German Armies in the Revolution (New York: 1926) p 31; Sullivan, John, Letters and Papers of Major John Sullivan, Otis G. Hammond, ed., 2 vols. (Concord, NH: 1930-31) vol. 2, p 543; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John Reid; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Koert Schenck; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Stephen Seabrook; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Solomon Ketchum of NY, www.fold3.com/image/#25013139 ; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Thomas Patten of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#27227091 ; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - George Taylor; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of William Sanford of NJ, National Archives, p3-5, 22-3; Asher Holmes, Letter Concerning the Battle at Germantown, 1777, Proceedings of the NJHS, vol 7, 1922, p34-5; George Washington to David Forman, Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p163. Postscript Sources : David Forman to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 44, October 5 and 9, 1777; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, October 8, 1777, p 195; William Livingston to David Forman, in Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 2, pp. 89-90, 93, 94-5; David Forman to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 44, October 10 - 16, 1777; David Forman to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 44, October 10 - 16, 1777; George Washington to David Forman, Neilson Family Papers, box 1, folder: Rutgersania, Rutgers University Special Collections; George Washington to David Forman, Neilson Family Papers, box 1, folder: Rutgersania, Rutgers University Special Collections; George Washington to David Forman, John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 9, pp. 402, 411; George Washington to David Forman, Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 232; Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 3B, reel 17, October 20, 1777; George Washington to David Forman, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 11, 19 August 1777 – 25 October 1777, ed. Philander D. Chase and Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001, pp. 572–573; George Washington to David Forman, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 45, October 25 - 31, 1777; George Washington to David Forman, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 45, October 25 - 31, 1777; David Forman to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 12, 26 October 1777 – 25 December 1777, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. and David R. Hoth. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2002, pp. 13–16; David Forman to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 12, 26 October 1777 – 25 December 1777, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. and David R. Hoth. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2002, pp. 49–51, 59; 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. 9, pp. 485-6. Library of Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 168, item 152, vol. 5, p 161; George Washington to Henry Laurens, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 12, 26 October 1777 – 25 December 1777, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. and David R. Hoth. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2002, pp. 78–85; William Livingston to Silas Newcomb, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 2, pp. 99-100; David Forman to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 12, 26 October 1777 – 25 December 1777, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. and David R. Hoth. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2002, pp. 151–154; Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 2, p 108; Nathanael Greene, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1976) vol. 2, p 206. 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 > Jonathan Forman’s Long Service in the Continental Army by Michael Adelberg Jonathan Forman led a company of Monmouth troops through the famous winter at Valley Forge. He served in the army from 1776 into 1783, longer than any other Monmouth County officer. - February 1783 - Jonathan Forman was born into a prominent family from Middletown Point. He was the son of a successful merchant and son-in-law to John Burrowes, Sr., the Chairman of the County Committee , (which coordinated anti-British dissent before the Revolution). Members of his extended family included several of the county’s leading supporters of the Revolution: militia colonel, Samuel Forman; judge Peter Forman; sheriff John Burrowes, Jr.; and Continental Army Colonel and judge David Forman. Born in 1755, Jonathan Forman was a recent Princeton graduate at the start of the Revolution; he was not yet deep into career pursuits that would make long term military service difficult. On June 18, 1776, Jonathan Forman enlisted for five months service in the New Jersey Flying Camp Regiment headed by his kinsman, David Forman. Jonathan was commissioned a Lieutenant under his brother-in-law, Captain John Burrowes, Jr. Since both company officers were from Middletown Point, it is probable that they raised their company from that village and the surrounding neighborhoods. Forman served through the disastrous New York campaign and retreat into New Jersey. While most of David Forman’s Flying Camp returned home at the end of November to arrest Loyalists and then laid low during the December Loyalist insurrections , Jonathan Forman stayed with the Army. He enlisted as a captain, under Monmouth County’s Lt. Colonel David Brearley, in the 1st Regiment of the New Jersey Line on November 23, 1776 (some documents list January 1, 1777 as his enlistment date). He would remain in the New Jersey Line for the rest of the war—serving longer than any other Monmouth County officer. The Military Service of Jonathan Forman, 1777-1778 Forman was with Washington’s Army all through 1777, except in the month of August when he was sent home to retake deserters. This is recorded in his journal: 12th, myself got liberty to go to Jersey on command after Deserters / 13th, set out this morning with Capt. [Isaiah] Wool, being provided with horse, arrived that day at Allentno [sic] / 14th, arrived home [Middletown Point] where continued till 27th then set out with Capt. Wool to join the Regt / 28th, Allentno / 29th, C'pers Ferry [Coopers] / 30th, join'd the Regt at Brandywine. He returned in time to be with the Continental Army for its defeats at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown . Muster rolls from Forman’s Continental Army company have survived for much of 1778 and 1779. These muster rolls reveal a lot about Forman’s command. Based on surnames of the men in Forman’s company it is safe to assume that the company was raised from Monmouth County, though it is likely that a few people from other locales served alongside the Monmouth Countians. Starting in 1777, Continental Army recruits enlisted for terms of either three years or the length of the war. Through 1777, Forman’s company had more than 50 rank and file (near full strength). At a time when much of the Army was very short on men, Forman’s company was much larger than most. However, absences were high—18 men were absent in January 1778, and a slightly different list of 18 men were absent in February 1778. The absences occurred during the fabled winter camp at Valley Forge —when Washington’s camp shivered through the winter outside of Philadelphia while the British wintered comfortably in Philadelphia. Forman’s company traveled across New Jersey that June and fought at the Battle of Monmouth . During the Monmouth Campaign the New Jersey Line saw significant action and endured losses (12 wounded, 7 missing, 9 captured, 2 killed in battle, 2 others dead). Forman’s company had only one documented loss: Private Daniel Stevens deserted on the day of the Battle of Monmouth. Forman spent four days at Englishtown after the battle, but went home for a day. Forman recorded in his journal: "29th at English Town… July 2d, went home [Middletown Point] and returned to Englishtno where we lay till Thirst [Thursday]." There is no evidence of exceptional furlough or desertions in Forman’s company even when the company was close to home. This suggests that the company had high morale; it is possible that short absences were winked at by officers and went undocumented. From Englishtown, Washington’s Army marched out of Monmouth County, but Forman’s company stayed and accompanied Colonel Daniel Morgan’s regiment as it shadowed the British on their withdrawal to Sandy Hook. Forman’s journal entries reveal that his company stayed in Monmouth County until July 14, several days longer than Morgan: The Main Army then moved to Spotswood / Our Brigade being left to observe the motion of the en'y [enemy]. Colo march'd that morning to Mr. Denice's, myself sent off to Midle Tno [Middletown] where the en'y [enemy] had possession of the heights to get intelligence[.] Col Morgan laying there with abt [about] 200 Riflemen and part of his Excellency's guards returned Saturday [the] 11th on guard / Sunday 12th, went to Mid Tno [Middletown] with Colo D [Elias Dayton] and David B [Brearley] to reconnoiter [reconnoiter]. The eny [enemy] moved off to Sandy Hook and embark'd / the Brigade moved down to VM [Van Mater] Mills where we lay till Tuesday, the 14th, march'd abt [about] 3 o'clock a.m. to Spotswood abt [about] 14 miles distant. Forman was back with the Continental Army at Elizabethtown by July 18 when he was dispatched to carry a body of British prisoners to Morristown. Forman was sent home again in October when General William Maxwell, commanding New Jersey’s troops, sent him to gather information on the British incursion at Little Egg Harbor: Genl Maxwell has sent two Messengers to Major [Richard] Howell for Intelligence, I have now desired him to send Capt. Forman (who is well acquainted in that Country) to go to Middletown, Naversink &c. and get all the Intelligence he can and immediately to return. That same month, Maxwell sent one officer to each New Jersey County to recruit for one month. Forman was selected for Monmouth County. As noted below, Forman apparently stayed home for another four months after that, missing the brutal winter of 1779 at Morristown. The Military Service of Jonathan Forman, 1779 While Forman served continuously through the war, his junior officers did not. One of his original Lieutenants, Daniel Pearson, left the army on December 1, 1778. The other, Ephraim Whitlock, transferred commands on March 1, 1779. The new Lieutenants (Cyrus DeHart, Absalom Bonham) were probably not from Monmouth County and this might reflect the company’s rank and file evolving over time to be less Monmouth County-centered. In fact, by March 1779, only eighteen of the January 1777 rank and file were still serving in Forman’s company. March 1779 also appears to have been a low point for Forman’s company—its fit and present rank and file had dipped to 33 men. 23 more were unfit: eight men had deserted, two were furloughed, one was absent with leave, eleven were sick & absent, one was confined. That same month, Forman was one of several New Jersey Line officers to petition the legislature regarding inadequate support for its soldiers. Forman followed up with a letter directly to George Washington. On March 8, he wrote: It will be proper to inform your Excellency that the officers of the Jersey Brigade have repeatedly at almost every session of the Assembly since 1777 memorialized upon the necessities of the troops but we have the misfortune to inform your Excellency that not a single resolve was entered into the minutes on our favor... We have lost all confidence in our Legislature, reason and experience forbid that we should have any. Forman specifically noted that the officers were owed several months pay and then concluded: We have the highest sense of your ability and virtue, the execution of your orders has given us pleasure, that we love the service and we love our Country; but when that Country gets so lost to virtue & justice as to forget to support its servants, it then becomes their duty to retire from that service. Forman then signed another petition of complaint to the New Jersey Assembly on April 17. His discontent continued into May when he wrote Governor William Livingston on behalf of the officers of the First Regiment on May 8. Forman noted that previous pleas for assistance for their suffering families were ignored and again threatened resignation: So long ago as last winter we informed the Council of our determination to leave the service unless we were properly provided for, and from them we again received assurances that provisions should be made for us... We love the service, and we love our Country; but when a Country gets so lost to virtue and justice as to forget to support its servants, it then becomes the duty to retire from service. Forman was not whining without merit. A return of his company on July 30, 1779, shows that his company was shockingly short on supplies. Of his 44 non-commissioned men, they are were short on the following essentials: 9 hats, 8 coats, 19 vests, 43 breeches, 44 stockings, 11 shoes (one or more), 24 shirts, 43 frocks, 10 blunderbusses, 3 firelocks, 3 bayonets, 3 cartridge boxes, 3 belts, 6 scabbards, 9 flints, 33 cartridge boxes (less a full complement of 24), 30 turn keys, 31 priming wires, 34 canteens, and 8 knapsacks. Washington wrote General Maxwell about Forman’s protests, He was unsympathetic : Our troops have been uniformly better fed than any others—they are at this time very well clad and probably will continue to be so—While this is the case they [the complaining officers] will have no just cause of complaint. It is important that any misconception on this point should be rectified. However, Washington also used the opportunity to lobby both Governor Livingston and the Continental Congress for more provisions for the Army. It is unknown exactly when conditions improved for the Army. But New Jersey troops soon went west into Pennsylvania to fight in the Iroquois Campaign . Provisions likely flowed into camp prior to that assignment. There is no record of Forman complaining in the later years of the war. Jonathan Forman’s Military Service, 1780-1783 If there was a taint on Forman’s reputation for complaining, it was temporary. On November 20, 1781, he was promoted to major in the 1st Regiment of the New Jersey Line. He was stationed at King’s Bridge in Westchester County, New York where he married Mary Ledyard on March 5, 1782. In August, Forman was at Newburgh where he became commander of a combined New York-New Jersey battalion. General Edward Hand wrote him: “You are appointed to the command of a battalion of infantry to be composed of New Jersey and York flank companies.” His four-company command stretched as far as Peekskill. Forman was entrusted to determine who could and could not pass enemy lines. He was at Dobbs Ferry on September 11, 1782, when he forwarded George Washington letters intercepted from a Loyalist and passports from men seeking to go to New York: I do myself the honor to enclose for your Excellency the receipt for a letter sent the 8th inst. address’d for Sir Guy Carleton, together with eleven private letters receiv’d last evening… Also a passport from Brigadier Genrl. [Moses] Hazen for Mr. Garosens passing to New York who I have ordered to remain att Mr. Lawrence’s near this post untill I am informed of your Excellency’s pleasure. On December 11, Forman wrote George Washington again: Mr J. Odle who I permitted yesterday to go between the lines has just returned and informs that Sir Guy Carleton with about 5,000 of the Enemy at New York were preparing to embark; that the transports for their reception were haul’d to the wharfs on Saturday last but waited for a fair wind. The 17th Dragoons was said to compose a part tho’ he could not learn the particular Corps, or given destination for the troops; for this purpose I shall permit him again in two or three days, when he says he will be able to obtain a better account, of the whole. Forman might have indicated a desire to finally leave service at this point. A December 26 order notes discharge from the Continental Army. However, Forman did not leave the Army and he was, in fact, promoted to Lt. Colonel and given a short-lived regimental command on February 11, 1783. In April, when Washington’s Army downsized, Forman was furloughed home. He remained commissioned in the Army until November 13. Three other Monmouth Countians—David Forman, David Brearley, and David Rhea—were also colonels in the Continental Army. The former lost his command in early 1778 and the latter two left the army in 1778 and 1779 respectively. Jonathan Forman was younger than David Forman, Brearley and Rhea and started the war at a more junior rank than these men. Despite Forman’s discontent in 1779, he endured the many battlefield defeats, late pay, scant supplies, and many other privations to serve all the way through the war. He was a true patriot. Jonathan Forman was a founding member of the Society of Cincinnati in 1783 and remained active in the New Jersey militia after the war. He was colonel and led a regiment of federalized New Jersey militia into Pennsylvania to suppress the so-called “Whiskey Rebels” in 1794. Forman was living in New York State by 1800, and became a Brigadier General in that state’s militia on April 14, 1800. Related Historic Site : Valley Forge National Historical Park Sources : Richard Harrison, Princetonians: 1769-1775: A Biographical Dictionary (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014) vol. 1, pp. 377-8; Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during The War of the Revolution April 1775 to December 1783 (Washington DC: The Rare Book Shop Publishing Company, Inc., 1914) pp. 110, 179, 216; Some muster rolls from Jonathan Forman’s company are mistakenly included in Muster Rolls of New York Provincial Troops, 1755-1764, Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1891 (New York: New York Historical Society, 1892), pp. 324-33; Captain Jonathan Forman’s Muster Rolls, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, Coll. 48, p44, 47, 48 & Coll. 11, p6; John Rees, 'They Answered Him with Three Cheers': New Jersey Brigade Losses in the Monmouth Campaign, www.revwar75.com/library/rees/Njlosses.htm ; Munn, David, Battles and Skirmishes of the American Revolution in New Jersey, (Trenton: Bureau of Geology and Topography, New Jersey Geological Survey, 1976) p 132; Jonathan Forman, Anonymous Revolutionary War Diary, Fellows Papers, box 2, Special Collections, Rush-Rhees Library, University of Rochester; transcribed by John Rees; The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 16, 1 July–14 September 1778, ed. David R. Hoth. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006, pp. 94–95; Lord Stirling to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 17, 15 September–31 October 1778, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, pp. 300–301; Orders to from William Maxwell to Capt. Jonathan Forman, Library of Congress, Peter Force Collection, 7E, reel 1, William Alexander, #70; William S. Stryker, Officers and Men of New Jersey in the American Revolution (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1967); Jonathan Forman to George Washington, Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-10176 ; New York Historical Society, Fairchild Collection, item: Jonathan Forman; Selections from the Correspondence of the Executive of New Jersey, From 1776 to 1786 (Newark, NJ: Newark Daily Advertiser, 1848) p 146; Dennis Ryan, A Salute To Courage The American Revolution as Seen through Wartime Writings (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979) p 151; New Jersey Historical Society, Jonathan Forman, Account Book; National Archives, Numbered Record Books, Records of Military Operations and Service, Orderly Books 60, Apr 27, 1782-Aug 9, 1782, p145; Forman’s discharge is mentioned in John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 24, p 474; The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 20, 8 April–31 May 1779, ed. Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, pp. 439–441; Berg, Fred A., Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units: Battalions, Regiments, and Independent Corps (Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1972) p 82. Daniel Morgan essay David Brearley leaves Army 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 > Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee's Dragoons in Monmouth County by Michael Adelberg The bold cavalryman, Henry Lee, was twice court-martialed for ignoring rules, but never convicted. He camped in Monmouth County and performed well, but made enemies and was removed. - February 1779 - As noted in a prior article , in January 1779, George Washington, after resisting calls to do so, sent a regiment of troops into Monmouth County to increase the county’s security. That assignment fell to Colonel Caleb North of Pennsylvania , though North’s regiment would be replaced by deployments led by Mordecai Gist (Maryland ) and Benjamin Ford (Maryland ). These men camped close to the British base at Sandy Hook. They sought to block illegal trade and shield the county from Loyalist raiding parties . Parallel to these troop deployments, the cavalry regiment of Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee was intermittently stationed at Freehold for the purpose of establishing contact with and relaying communications with the French fleet —if it appeared off the New Jersey shore. Lee was apparently ordered to Monmouth County in late January 1779. On the 31st, Washington wrote Governor William Livingston about his decision to send troops into Monmouth County, including this note on Lee’s corps: No Corps of Cavalry remains in Jersey except Major Lee's, which is quartered in the lower part of the Country where the Quarter Master informed me there would be a sufficient supply of forage with least inconvenience to the Inhabitants. However, Lee had not yet arrived in Monmouth County by February 12. That day, David Rhea, the Army’s quartermaster officer for Monmouth County, wrote of Lee’s dragoons, "the light horse have not made their appearance, pray do not send them to these parts as yet.” Rhea went on to describe his difficulties in raising forage for the Army, including the controversy from the seizure of Benjamin Van Cleaf’s grain. Rhea did not want the added burden of finding forage for Lee’s men. Determining Lee’s arrival in Monmouth County is muddied further by a brief report in the New Jersey Gazette on February 15, "We hear that the Continental troops that were for some time stationed at Freehold, in New Jersey, are ordered away by Congress, and to be replaced by some Light Horse." This is a reference to the pending arrival of Lee’s men at Freehold, but it is unclear who they were replacing. While the date of Lee’s arrival at Freehold is unknown, there is no doubt that he arrived and operated out of Freehold by spring. According to a veteran’s pension application filed after the war, James Chambers of Freehold Township, only 15 years old at the time, enlisted in Lee’s dragoons in spring 1779. (Another Monmouth Countian, William Van Mater, enlisted on September 23.) It is probable that Lee was in Monmouth County intermittently through the summer. Lee’s Cavalry Camps at Freehold In September 1779, Lee re-established quarters at Freehold. On September 12, General Nathanael Greene noted ordering Lee to Monmouth County "in hopes that Lee might deliver the letter if D'Estaing should appear off the coast." George Washington sent further orders to Lee: “I desire that you will, with the remainder of your corps, [go] to the County of Monmouth and take a position as near the coast as you can, without making yourself liable to a surprise." Lee was directed to monitor the coast for the arrival of the French Fleet and report on British movements at Sandy Hook. He was also asked to “suppress” illegal trade between Monmouth County and the British to the degree he could do so without risking his men. In another note that day, Washington alluded to sending Lee to nearby Englishtown. At about this time, a sergeant’s guard of Lee’s men patrolling near the Shrewsbury shore killed Lewis Fenton, a notorious Pine Robber . A New Jersey Gazette report on September 23 noted that the men were alerted to Fenton’s presence: The Sergeant immediately impressed a wagon and horse and ordered three of them to secret themselves under some hay... on the approach of the wagon, Fenton (his companion being gone) rushed out to plunder it, while advancing toward the wagon, one of the soldiers shot him through the head, which killed him instantly on the spot. The killing of Fenton is the subject of another article. In October, with the French fleet again expected on the Jersey shore, Washington wrote Livingston about sending pilots to the shore. He wrote on October 4 that “good pilots should be ready to go on Board the French fleet.” Livingston was asked to send the pilot, Wiliam Van Driil, “to go down to Monmouth and join Major Lee at English Town." Two days later, Washington asked Lee to be more vigilant in receiving and conveying intelligence reports from the shore. He wrote: I presume that you constantly keep an intelligent officer to observe the arrival or casting of the enemy's vessels. I wish to have his diary transmitted from time to time, say once a week, and more especially when anything more extraordinary occurs. Later that month, the Continental Congress’ Marine Committee wrote Lee about the pilot, Patrick Dennis, being sent to the Shrewsbury shore to come aboard the French fleet. Congress instructed Lee that: "Captain Patrick Dennis, being employed to wait on the arrival of Count D'Estaing's fleet off the Hook, and being a Gentleman for whom we have the greatest confidence, we request you will afford him every assistance." This likely led to Lee’s men patrolling the shore more vigorously, which created new demands for forage for the horses. Quartermaster officer, David Rhea, was aggrieved. On October 12, he wrote that "Major Lee's dragoons have done as they please since they have been in this county.” Rhea refused Lee’s request for wagons and horse teams to supply his men and worried that Lee would negotiate purchases on his own with local farmers. He further wrote: I have put him off in such a manner that I believe he will not ask again -- I think I shall have no more of it -- those horse consume a large quantity of forage, and at a very high price, I know not what to do --I hope they will not stay long. Rhea’s complete grievances with Lee are the subject of another article . Whatever his problems with forage, Lee went to the Navesink Highlands to observe the British fleet. He sent a report to Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s aide-de-camp, on October 22: The enemy’s strength at the hook consists in two 64, the Europa & Russell—the Raisonable, Renown, Roebuck & Romulus. Besides these they have a few frigates & some armed Schooners. They have sunk ten hulks in the outer channel & have more ready to be sunk, some of those sunk have got afloat & reached shore. They have also two fire ships. A few days later, Lee wrote Washington from Freehold: "My spies have not given us their report for the last week, none of them having returned." But Lee believed the French fleet was not coming to Sandy Hook based on British actions, "The heavy cannon placed in the batteries at the Hook, to secure the channel, was taken off." Lee’s Cavalry Winters in Monmouth County Despite this report, Washington, not knowing the location of the French fleet, kept Lee in Monmouth County through the winter. That month, he issued general orders for the Army’s winter quarters. Washington ordered a regiment of New Jersey Continentals into Monmouth County to disrupt the illegal trade between disaffected farmers and Sandy Hook. Lee would stay in Monmouth County as well. Washington wrote that a New Jersey regiment would be "aided by a party of Lee's Light Dragoons, endeavor to stop the communication from New York, from that quarter." As weather grew colder, travel to the Navesink Highlands became unpleasant. Lee wrote Washington on November 30: "It is utterly impossible to execute your Excellency's orders as the source of intelligence without enduring great personal trouble from the civil government of this State." Lee wrote Washington again two weeks later regarding his men lacking winter coats: "The season is getting cold & my men are perfectly bare of clothing, having not received the annual allowance for '79." In addition to his “trouble” with “civil government,” Lee was feuding with Judge John Imlay. Imlay complained to Governor Livingston about Lee issuing passports to locals in the interest of having spies in New York. Livingston wrote back on December 18 that Lee had exceeded his authority in granting the passports, “but I have lately so fully explained to him the dangerous tendency of such a practice & his want of authority for that purpose, that I flatter myself he will for the future cause no further complaint on the subject." Livingston wrote Lee on the subject that same day. In a letter to Washington, Lee also noted a slow-down in intelligence from his “spies” in New York, "my last account from New York mentions no appearance of emissaries or embarkation of troops." Washington, who had received a letter from Livingston complaining of Lee issuing passports, cautioned Lee: The practice of [illegal] trading under the cover of procuring intelligence has grown to such a height that there is an absolute necessity of putting a stop to it. To avoid giving any umbrage to the Government of the State, I would have you confine your observations to the sailing of the fleets from New York, and whenever any capital movement takes place communicate it immediately to the president of Congress as well as to me. Washington offered to send more men to winter in Monmouth County if forage was available for them: “If the Country where you are will afford Forage for more than your own Corps, I can reinforce you with some detached troops of Horse." Washington then ordered Col. Armand to Monmouth County on December 23. You will proceed with your corps to Monmouth County and take such a station as will best accommodate your men and horses and enable you to communicate with Major Lee for the purposes of mutual security, covering the country and preventing all intercourse between the inhabitants and the enemy. Washington told Armand that he should rest his men, but also asked him to support Lee’s patrols of the shore: “I am persuaded you will wish to be as useful as you can. You will immediately open a correspondence with Major Lee." On December 29, Lee reported that the cavalry of Colonel Charles Armand “has reached this place." But Armand did not stay more than a few days, prompting Washington to express disappointment: I should have been glad had it been possible for your corps and Col Armand's to have found a position in Monmouth County capable of supporting both cavalry with hay & forage, as it would in my opinion, have answered the object which I have principally had in view, that of covering the county and preventing intercourse with the enemy. Because of the apparent lack of forage for the two cavalry units, particularly near the shore, Washington gave Lee permission to pull his scout parties inland. He advised Lee to have his men make “their quarters at a distance from the shore, far enough to prevent surprises, but still able to send patrols toward those places at which the enemy most commonly land, and to which the country people usually carry their produce." The opportunity to pull back did not stop Lee from opportunistically attacking British assets. On January 5, Lee reported a raid on Sandy Hook. "I have heard from one of my officers on the shore, who has taken a British officer with five others, & 80,000 counterfeit dollars, I hope this capture will lead to some useful discoveries." Lee sent the money and prisoners to Philadelphia. Washington acknowledged and praised the attack in a brief response. This action is the subject of another article . Washington abruptly ordered Lee out of Monmouth County on January 8. Caleb North would return to Monmouth County as a replacement. The abrupt order was likely sparked by Lee’s proposal to impound cattle from the Monmouth shore. On January 7, Washington skeptically wrote Lee: "I take it for granted that measures you mean to pursue for cutting off intercourse between the country and the Enemy will be justified by circumstances and not incompatible with the laws of the State." He asked Lee to further consider New Jersey’s law. As Lee moved toward impound cattle from locals living along Monmouth's shores, it is likely that Lee’s enemies in Monmouth County (Rhea and Imlay) protested. They finally had what they needed to rid themselves of Lee in January 1780 and hastened his departure. When Lee returned to Monmouth County in July 1780— to establish contact with the expected French fleet —he and Rhea promptly feuded again. Perspective By any measure, Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee was among the Continental Army’s most energetic officers. But he was frequently at odds with authority and twice court-martialed for disobeying orders or ignoring rules (never convicted). While in Monmouth County, Lee’s men killed a hated Pine Robber leader and successfully raided Sandy Hook. But Lee’s vigorous prosecution of the war put him at odds with local officials charged upholding rules of which Lee was either unknowing or indifferent. This tension created local enemies and likely led to Lee’s abrupt removal from Monmouth County. Related Historic Site : Moland House (Bucks County, Pennsylvania) Sources : George Washington to William Livingston, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw140058)); Marine Committee to Henry Lee, National Archives, Collection 332, reel 6, #230; David Rhea to Clement Biddle, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I173, Letters from Nathanael Greene, v3, p37; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 136; William Nelson, Austin Scott, et al., ed., New Jersey Archives (Newark, Trenton, Somerville, 1901-1917) vol. 3, p 77; Contained in: National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Wyley of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# NJ 28231283; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - James Chambers; Library of Virginia, Archives, Revolutionary War (Land) Bounty Warrants, William Van Mater, reels 1-29; National Archives, revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - William Van Mater; Nathanael Greene, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1976) vol. 4, p 366 note; George Washington to Henry Lee, John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 16, pp. 279, 367; David Rhea to Moore Furman, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #5599; George Washington to William Livingston, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw160418)); New Jersey Gazette report on death of Lewis Fenton in Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p198; George Washington to Henry Lee, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 61, September 25, 1779; Henry Lee quoted in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1899, v 7, p 177; Henry Lee to Alexander Hamilton, The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 2, 1779–1781, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 208–209; George Washington to Henry Lee, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 62, October 25, 1779; Marine Committee of Congress to Henry Lee, Charles Paulin, Out-Letters of the Marine Committee and Board of Admiralty (New York: Navy History Society, 1914) vol. 2, pp. 124-5; Winter Orders, John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 17, p 211; Henry Lee to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 62, November 3, 1779; Henry Lee to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mgw/mgw4/062/1000/1046.jpg ; Henry Lee to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 63, December 16, 1779; George Washington to Henry Lee, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw170339)); Nathanael Green, Report, Nathanael Greene, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1976) vol. 5, p 85 note; Henry Lee, note, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, General Correspondence; Henry Lee to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 63, January 5, 1780; Henry Lee to John Simcoe in John Simcoe, A JOURNAL OF THE OPERATIONS OF THE QUEEN'S RANGERS, APPENDIX, p267, p270; George Washington to Henry Lee, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 63, December 28, 1779; William Livingston to John Imlay, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, p 271; George Washington to Henry Lee, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 63, December 23, 1779; George Washington to Charles Armand, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw170362)) ; General Orders in John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 17, p 362; George Washington to Henry Lee, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, General Correspondence. 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Catalog and Research Library Catalog Unable to visit us in person? Let our research staff help. For a small fee, we will conduct “in-house” searches of our record holdings and manuscript collections. A specific search within a small batch of records (e.g. newspaper obituary, church or Bible record, basic research lookup) is a $10 fee, which includes up to five digital or printed records. Broader research questions and genealogy inquiries are $35 per hour (notice will be given upfront for expected research times of more than one hour). These include a thorough search of all relevant sources, collaboration with an experienced genealogist as necessary, photocopies, and postage. Our staff will contact you after you submit your request to give you a quote. PLEASE DO NOT make payment in advance before speaking with a staff member. We may not have the records you are looking for. Refunds will not be issued - any payment submitted without a consultation will be considered a donation. Email us with any inquiries and we'll be happy to help! Use of the physical research library is free of charge, though donations are greatly appreciated. Please help support our mission of bringing Monmouth County history to all!

The Monmouth County Historical Association collects, preserves, and interprets its extensive museum and archival collections relating to Monmouth County history and culture, making these resources available to the widest possible audience through special programming and exhibits. MCHA also preserves and interprets five significant historic sites that represent the county’s vanishing architectural heritage. Freehold High School, c. 1925 History is Ours Monmouth County, New Jersey is home to some of the most revolutionary history in the story of America. Originally settled in 1675 as part of what was known as the province of East Jersey and officially established in 1683, the county was divided into the three towns of Freehold, Middletown and Shrewsbury. It was from Freehold that Washington strengthened our resolve at the Battle of Monmouth, young William Burroughs Ross went off to fight for the Union, and a tenacious, spirited Lillie Hamm walked into Freehold High School, ready to change the world. Explore the Stories in the MCHA Museum and Archives and Beyond... Established in 1898, MCHA is home to one of the finest and most extensive regional collections in the country. Our museum collection contains over 35,000 objects, and our archives house over 1,000 manuscript collections. In partnership with local history organizations, this digital resource has been curated to support the NJ Social Studies Curriculum for high school students. We are pleased to offer a variety of local and national primary source examples and other fascinating material to help engage students in the classroom, and will continue to build and refresh the resource with new discoveries. Colonial Era thru Revolution 1600s - 1783 Slavery Era, 16oos-1865 Civil War Era, 1861-1865 Early L ocal Industry 1800s to mid-1900s The Gilded Age thru New Deal, 1870-1938 War in the 20th Century Featured Art Peter Luyster c. 1760 by Daniel Hendrickson No, we don't know either. But good luck sleeping tonight. Now and Then... Hover to Peek Into the Past! Click to Enter Under Construction ! Small Town Life Diverse Monmouth Monmouth County has a rich history of diversity, though minority populations have not always been documented as thoroughly. Through oral histories, video presentations and photographs, learn about the achievements of individuals with physical challenges, the fight for women's equality, the fascinating history of Asbury Park's Segregated Seashore, and the struggles and triumphs of our African American and LGBTQ communities. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Inspiring Civil Rights Quotes from MC Residents We must discredit the notion that economic status defines an individual’s morality. - Reverend William H. Dickerson Next Social Justice Next Next Hey guess what? The next group of categories really have nothing to do with your curriculum, but we think this stuff is cool so we're sharing it with you anyway! Fun ... Fascinating... Quirky.... Monmouth County Stuff & Things People Interesting Stories Museum Collection Have an idea for us? We know an awful lot over here but we don't know it all...if you have an idea for a topic, please share it and we will do our best to integrate it! Email suggestions to dhowell@monmouthhistory.org

Civil War "Since We Left Old Monmouth..." At the outbreak of the Civil War on April 12th 1861, Monmouth County was an agricultural hub that was home to nearly 39,000 people. The residents held a deeply-felt pride in their ancestors' part in the American Revolution under Washington himself at the Battle of Monmouth, and this translated to a need to carry that torch within themselves as well. The Monmouth Herald and Inquirer beckoned the men of Monmouth: "Men of New Jersey! The hour has again come when your loyalty to freedom and the Union of the Fathers is to be tested. Treason and Rebellion are at your very doors and you are called upon to resist and overwhelm them..." Volunteers flooded the enlistment rolls for what they hoped would be a brief conflict. They were wrong. The war raged on far longer than anyone had guessed. There was tremendous loss of life, felt even more so in the close-knit, rural towns of Monmouth. The Government was running low on funds, and the soldiers were not getting paid regularly. Southern sympathizers (referred to as "sesesh") and anti-war sentiment began stirring discontent at home, and volunteer enlistments began dwindling. The quota that each town was responsible for filling was not being met, and the draft was required to ensure we had enough men to fight. In order to avoid instituting the draft, towns began offering sign-on bonuses in addition to the People & Stories Artifacts Documents BACK

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 3rd Court of Oyer and Terminer by Michael Adelberg The county courthouse in Freehold hosted its 3rd Court of Oyer and Terminer in July 1779. Despite worsening conditions, the court showed restraint when punishing dangerous criminals. - August 1779 - On July 27, 1779, Monmouth County convened its third Court of Oyer and Terminer. Courts of Oyer and Terminer were special courts that convened episodically to hear cases that were particularly serious or politically charged. Monmouth County’s 1st Court of Oyer and Terminer convened in January 1778 and heard many cases related to the Loyalist insurrections of December 1776. In keeping with sentencing precedents established by New Jersey’s Council of Safety in 1777 , the punishment meted by this court were generally mild. There were no capital convictions. The 2nd Court of Oyer Terminer convened in late May 1778 just two days after a Loyalist raided the village of Middletown Point , killed three militiamen, and carried off John Burrowes, Sr., one of the county’s leading supporters of the Revolution. On top of that, the court convened as anticipation was building that the British Army would soon leave Philadelphia and march through Monmouth County on its way to New York. This court was likely influenced by popular passions (courts of the era often attracted unruly crowds). The punishments meted out at the second court were markedly more severe and included six executions. Monmouth County’s 3rd Court of Oyer and Terminer The 3rd Court of Oyer and Terminer convened while the New Jersey Chief Justice position was vacant. New Jersey’s first Chief Justice, Robert Morris of New Brunswick, had resigned on June 10 (the same date that a punishing Loyalist raid decimated the village of Tinton Falls) and Morris went to Tinton Falls to help rally the villagers. The Chief Justice commonly joined local judges in administering Courts of Oyer and Terminer, but New Jersey had no Chief Justice as the Court convened. William Smith (not the Loyalist Chief Justice in New York of the same name, but an Associate Justice of the State’s Supreme Court), went to Freehold to convene the court with the local judges. There, Smith was joined by David Brearley, an Allentown lawyer who had been serving in the Continental Army before leaving the Army on July 2. Brearley would become New Jersey’s second Chief Justice, but the details of his appointment were still being worked out when the court convened (Brearley hoped to retain his Army commission while serving on the Court, but neither the State nor the Continental Congress would authorize this arrangement). Brearley would later report to George Washington that his first day as Chief Justice of New Jersey was August 1, four days into Monmouth County’s 3rd Court of Oyer and Terminer. As the court convened, key officials were deeply impacted by recent wartime events. Sheriff Nicholas Van Brunt’s brother, Major Hendrick Van Brunt, had been taken prisoner by Loyalists during the raid against Tinton Falls six weeks earlier; Judge John Longstreet’s home was burned by Loyalist raiders two months earlier. Judge John Anderson was embroiled in a growing dispute for upholding seizure of fabrics by Major Elisha Walton of the Freehold militia from two Middletown residents (despite evidence that Walton tampered with the six-man jury that heard the case). The seizure would ultimately be reversed by David Brearley’s New Jersey Supreme Court. The 3rd Court of Oyer and Terminer heard 129 total indictments, more than either of the prior courts. Sixteen indictments had the potential for capital convictions: three people were charged with high treason, nine were charged with murder, and four were charged with robbery. With respect to the High Treason cases, Joseph Stockton Nicholson was found guilty, but was permitted to “invoke an act of grace.” Acts of grace were granted occasionally to men of stature who confessed to the crime and showed contrition. New Chief Justice David Brearley apparently supported leniency for Nicholson. Two months later, the New Jersey Legislative Council, the Legislature’s Upper House, recorded receiving two petitions and “a letter from the Chief Justice in favor of Joseph Stockton Nicholson, lately convicted of High Treason in the County of Monmouth, recommending him as a proper object to be pardoned." The Council asked Governor William Livingston to pardon Nicholson on the condition that he sign a loyalty oath and agree never to return to Monmouth or Middlesex counties. The other men charged with High Treason were Thomas Thomson and Chrineyonce Van Mater. Thomson was a prosperous Upper Freehold farmer who had been arrested in 1777 for disaffection and compelled to take a loyalty oath in May 1779. His treasonable offense is unknown, but he was found not guilty. Chrineyonce Van Mater was active in the Freehold-Middletown Loyalist insurrection of December 1776. He guided the British party that captured Richard Stockton and John Covenhoven, two of New Jersey's leading statesmen. He went behind British lines and participated in violent incursions into Monmouth County. Van Mater was captured and briefly jailed in 1778, but freed by the British Army when it occupied Freehold the day before the Battle of Monmouth. While it is likely that there was considerable evidence to support a High Treason conviction, Van Mater was found not guilty. He would remain active in the local war after his acquittal. The men charged with murder included Samuel Wright, who formerly led a Loyalist association that was broken up in late 1776. Wright and a few others tried murder—William Van Note, Jacob Van Note, Elijah Groom—can be tied to Pine Robber activity. Other men charged with murder were Aaron Brewer Jr, Joseph Bennett, Thomas Bennett, and Dennis Hurlehoy. The disposition of these cases is not known, but if there were multiple death sentences, they would have been reported in the New Jersey Gazette as it was with other Courts of Oyer and Terminer. The men tried for robbery were Elijah Groom (a former New Jersey Volunteer and member of Jacob Fagan’s Pine Robber gang ), William Hankins (who was found not guilty), James Buckalew and Isaac Smith. Beyond Hankins, the outcomes of their cases are not known. Hankins subsequently collaborated with Colonel Samuel Forman in capturing Pine Robbers. Forman wrote to Governor Livingston about him in April 1780: There is one William Hankins, who was convicted of High Treason in this country & escaped from goal - has several times discovered himself & offers to betray a number of those wood rangers that has struck terror to the country, on condition of being pardoned. Six Monmouth Countians were charged with assault. One, Philip Milligan, was found guilty of "assault of with intent to ravage" and sentenced to one hour at the public pillory. William McMurray was also charged with assault. It is unclear what the Court of Oyer and Terminer decided, but the case was re-heard by the Supreme Court soon after. McMurray was charged with acting "with force and arms… in and upon Benjamin Parker… did make an assault” during which he “did beat and ill-treat & other wrongs." Other assault charges were against local leaders. David Rhea, the county’s agent for the Continental Army Quartermaster , had two counts of assault against him and was found guilty on at least one count because he was fined £20. His counterpart from the Army’s Commissary Department, John Lloyd, was also found guilty of assault and fined £6. Finally, Elias Longstreet, who had raised the first Continental Army company from Monmouth County in January 1776, was also charged with assault—the outcome of his case is not known. The remaining felony charges were against John Alward, who was indicted for deceit, and Peter Stillwagon, William Woodcock, and Richard Jackson were indicted for larceny. The outcome of their cases is not known. There were 105 misdemeanor indictments against 102 individuals (Samuel Dennis, Elizabeth Fisher, and Oliver Talman were indicted twice). Joseph Wardell, a disaffected Shrewsbury squire, received a massive L500 fine. Joseph Davis and Walter Curtis were fined £150 each. Two other men were fined £100, Peter Wardell and William Williams. Sarah White was also fined £100—the largest fine put on a woman. Eleven other women were indicted: Elizabeth Fisher (2 counts, fined L40), Sarah Dennis (fined £20), Elizabeth Parker, Elizabeth Wardell, Deborah Leonard, Ann Garvey, Elizabeth DeBow, Valerie Mount, Margaret Mount, Deborah Talman, and Lydia Corlies. With the exception of the fine against Joseph Wardell, the fines meted out by the 3rd Court of Oyer and Terminer were in keeping with those of the 2nd Court of Oyer and Terminer. As noted in prior articles, unnamed misdemeanor charges generally related trading illegally with the British or going behind enemy lines to visit with Loyalist kin. The court also moved against two constables who did not attend the court. Nathan Davis (Shrewsbury) and John Southard (Stafford) were fined £50 for not attending—a larger amount than the majority of criminal fines. Similarly, twenty jurors were fined £30 for not attending jury duty. The large fines show a newfound willingness of judges to move against citizens who neglected their duty but were otherwise supporting the Revolutionary government. Perspective The circumstances surrounding the 3rd Court of Oyer and Terminer were as grim as those surrounding the 2nd Court of Oyer and Terminer fourteen months earlier. Despite this, the 3rd Court of Oyer and Terminer stepped back from the capital convictions of the 2nd Court, and the 3rd Court, for the first time, took meaningful actions against supporters of the Revolution who had broken the law or shirked the responsibilities of their office. It cannot be proven that David Brearley, as the new Chief Justice and a Monmouth Countians, caused this correction, but it is probable. What is clear is that the 3rd Court of Oyer and Terminer moved toward a more impartial adherence to the law and away from the passions of the crowd. Related Historic Site : Monmouth County Historical Association Sources : New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - July 1779; New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #37083; Samuel Forman to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 11, April 7, 1780; David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 126; Adelberg, Michael, Biographical File (on file at the Monmouth County Historical Association). Previous Next