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 England Privateers Prey on Shipping at Sandy Hook by Michael Adelberg The Connecticut privateer, Oliver Cromwell, was one of a few dozen New England privateers to capture British/Loyalist ships off Sandy Hook. These privateers took at least 20 prizes in 1779 alone. - June 1779 - As discussed in prior articles, privateering along the New Jersey shore blossomed in the spring of 1778 when the British naval presence weakened, making ships coming to New York City vulnerable . In 1778, most of the privateers along the New Jersey shore were small Philadelphia vessels and boats manned by New Jersey militia . Privateers were, by nature, opportunists seeking the greatest possible prize at an acceptable level of risk. In New England, ship captains embraced privateering and went long distances to prey on British ships in Europe and the Caribbean. It was inevitable that New England privateers would prey on British ships bound for New York as well. New Jersey historian, Franklin Kemp, counted the ships taken off the New Jersey shore during the Revolutionary War. He counted 194 prizes (of which 24 were shipwrecks taken by militia). Kemp’s tabulations are the most complete accounting of New Jersey’s Revolutionary War maritime events, but he did not review New England newspapers or have access to Internet-privateer datasets—rich sources of maritime incidents. So, Kemp’s work, while admirable, undercounts the number of captures and particularly undercounts New England privateer activity. This article seeks to fill that gap. New England Privateers at Sandy Hook, 1777-1778 A few New England privateers were active off Sandy Hook as early as 1777; two maritime events are documented. Thomas Dunbar of Stonington, Connecticut recalled boarding the 14-gun privateer, Revenge , under Captain William Jager, and taking “the schooner Experiment , bound from N. York to Halifax & sent her into Mystic." However, the Revenge was soon captured by a larger British ship. Captain Timothy Shaler of Connecticut, sailing in the Lion , was also active off the New Jersey shore in 1777. On April 17, he captured a supply ship, Hazard , with a cargo of coal, off Sandy Hook and towed the prize toward Egg Harbor. However, a British frigate, Mermaid , was dispatched from Sandy Hook and pursued Shaler. The privateer and her prize grounded in the shallows north of Egg Harbor (Stafford Township) where the Mermaid destroyed both vessels. In May, the Pennsylvania Journal advertised the sale of “the remains of the brigantine Hazard … captured by Captain Timothy Shaler" with 6 swivel guns, small arms and equipment, food stuffs. The Pennsylvania Evening Post advertised the sale of the wrecked Lion , "her hull and some spars & c. now lie on Long Beach" including, "eight excellent double fortified four pounders” and other combat-related materials. In 1778, as in 1777, New England privateers were occasionally on the Monmouth shore. Captain Nathan Post sailing in the Revenge (probably a different vessel from Captain Jager’s above) captured two prizes near Sandy Hook in June 1778. One was carrying cargo of indigo and the second a cargo lumber—probably a London Trading vessel from New Jersey. The capture of these vessels was important enough to merit a report from General Philemon Dickinson, commanding the New Jersey militia, to George Washington. Dickinson wrote: Two valuable Prizes were sunk into Toms River, two days ago, by a small New England Privateer, part of the Cargoes, consists of one hundred & fifty hogsheads Rum—this small Privateer within five weeks past, has taken Prizes, to the amount of, One hundred & fifty thousand pounds. The other documented incident involving a New England privateer in 1778 is the confusing case of the sloop, Active , commanded by Gideon Olmstead. Olmstead captained a Connecticut sloop that went to Egg Harbor before sailing for Sandy Hook. On its way, it was intercepted and taken by a larger Loyalist vessel, Tyrol . However, Olmstead led an uprising against the four-man prize crew and claimed that he re-took his vessel. According to one of his men, Thomas Clark: “They succeeded in securing the [Loyalist] captain crew under the deck, and intended to run the sloop in Egg Harbour." However, because Active was still flying British colors, the Pennsylvania privateer Convention took it before she could reach Egg Harbor. The Pennsylvanians brought Active to Philadelphia as a prize. Olmstead and Captain Houston of the Convention engaged in years of litigation over the fate of the vessel. Solomon Drowne, sailing on the Massachusetts privateer Hope , recalled capturing a snow loaded with rum from Jamaica as it neared Sandy Hook (the year of the incident is not stated): She sails very heavy and Captain Munro is very sanguine in the belief we shall make a prize of her. There seems to be something awful in the preparation for an attack, and the immediate prospect of an action. She hauls up her English colours. I take my station where I remain not long before I hear the huzza on deck in conveyance of her striking [surrender]. Send our boat for her Captain and papers. She sailed from Kingston, Jamaica, upwards of 40 days since, in a fleet, and was bound for New York, Captain William Small commander. She has ten men on board and four excellent 4 pounders. Hope towed the prize toward Egg Harbor, but then lost the prize: "About sunset, sail seen from the masthead which excites no small anxiety. Cast off the snow [to escape]." New England Privateers at Sandy Hook, 1779 Starting in June 1779, a half-dozen of Connecticut privateers began regularly “cruising the lanes” into Sandy Hook. The New London privateer, Beaver (65 crew, 12 cannon) was the most prolific, taking seven prizes in 1779. Twice, Captain William Havens of the Beaver teamed up with other privateers to capture larger prizes, including the Otter on July 1 with a valuable cargo of Caribbean rum. In 1779, New England privateers, including vessels from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, took at least twenty prizes off Sandy Hook. Their activity was greater in 1779 than any other year. See c hart 3. The largest prize taken in 1779 was the 16-gun Belona , taken by the pairing of the Beaver and the Hancock . Three other times, two or three privateers combined to take a prize. But tandem attacks did not always work. On June 5, 1779, the Hancock (80 crew, ten cannon) teamed up with Oliver Cromwell , with a crew of 140 men and 18 cannon. They attacked the HMS Daphne 20 leagues from Sandy Hook, a vessel about the size of the Oliver Crowell . The privateers shot down one of Daphne ’s masts, but the battle was then joined by two Loyalist privateers, Union and Delaware , which crippled and took the Oliver Cromwell . The Virginia Gazette reported: The ship Oliver Cromwell, owned by the state of Connecticut, and the privateer Hancock, were cruising some leagues south of Sandy Hook, they fell in with three British cruising ships and a brig; one of the ships was a very fast sailor, and coming up with the Oliver Cromwell, they engaged for near two hours, in which time the Oliver Cromwell shot away the main top mast; but the other ships coming up she was obliged to strike [surrender] after making a gallant defence. The Oliver Cromwell mounts 20 guns and had about 130 men. The Ship which engaged her appeared to be larger, but her force we did not learn. Massachusetts privateers also prowled the lanes into Sandy Hook. The Jason , under Captain Manley (120 men, 18 cannon) on June 23 came on the Hazard , a 16-gun Loyalist vessel approaching Sandy Hook. After a two-hour battle, Jason had one dead, three wounded; 30 were killed or wounded on the Hazard . A sailor on the Jason, Joshua Davis, recalled: The Captain ordered the helm hard-a-port, which brought us alongside. Our Captain said 'fire away boys'. We gave them a broadside which tore off her side very much & killed & wounded some of them. The rest all ran below, except their Captain who stood on deck like a man amazed. Our Captain ordered Lt Frost to go out on the driver boom and get on board her, and send the Captain on board of us, and keep the prisoners below. Captain Manley sent the prize back to Boston and then captured another vessel, Adventurer , immediately afterward, which it towed home. Davis described taking this second prize: When we got disentangled [from the Hazard], we bore away for the other privateer that began to run from us. We gave her a few shot from our bow chasers... Our Captain told them to come aboard, they answered 'Our boat won't swim', our Captain answered 'Then sink in her. You shall come on board or I will fire into you.' They then came on board. The surge of captured vessels fed the growing rift between Loyalist and British leaders. William Smith, Chief Justice of the Loyalist government in New York, wrote on August 14, 1779: “How scandalous is the conduct of the [British] Administration and the naval officers under them? The [Loyalist] privateers' business languishes and owners are selling out at a rate of six vessels in a week." He wrote of the New England privateers off Sandy Hook: "The rebels make this their cruising ground, and send several armed vessels in concert, there is a want of naval strength there." By October, privateering off Sandy Hook lightened due to worsening weather and fewer vessels coming in. The Boston Independent Chronicle reported on the Beaver spending three weeks off Sandy Hook with “blowing weather almost the whole of the time,” but taking no prizes. The one opportunity to take a vessel was fouled by weather. Beaver “brought to a schooner which had been taken by the enemy, but it being very windy, and a large sea going, they could not board her." New England Privateers at Sandy Hook, 1780 through War’s End The first prize taken off Sandy Hook in 1780, was by Captain William Treen of Rhode Island. Sailing in the Black Snake , Treen captured the vessel Dispatch and towed her into Egg Harbor. However, on his next voyage, Treen was chased by the Royal Navy’s frigate, Galatea . Black Snake grounded on a sandbar off Deal. As the frigate sent a boarding party, Treen’s 33 sailors crowded into a boat that overset in the rough water. One account claims the men drowned; another claims the men made it to shore where they were taken by a guard of New Jersey Volunteers. The British took the vessel. Treen returned to Sandy Hook later in the war in the galley, Skunk , and took a number of small prizes. The demise of the Black Snake was part of a larger campaign by the British navy to re-assert control of the sea lanes to Sandy Hook. On May 1, the Loyalist New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury , reported on "the following prizes were brought in by his Majesty's ships Iris and Delaware , taken last week within a few leagues of Sandy Hook." This crackdown included taking at least seven privateers, including three with crews of 100 or greater. However, the crackdown (the subject of another article ) did not last. On May 17, the Royal Gazette reported that "a large ship from London for New York was captured off the Hook, after an obstinate action for four hours, by two New England privateers." Two days earlier, the Gazette & Weekly Mercury reported that privateer sloops were cruising the Sandy Hook lanes again and had taken at least one prize. Some of the prizes taken in 1780 were remarkable—as when Captain Elisha Hart, in the Connecticut privateer Retaliation , captured a small sloop transporting a company of Loyalist soldiers to Sandy Hook. However, 1780 was the only year of the war where New England privateers lost more engagements (11) than they won (9). New England privateers were never again as successful as they were in 1779—though they continued to capture vessels into spring 1783, a year and a half after the British surrender at Yorktown “ended” hostilities. The New England privateers were not alone. Philadelphia privateers were also active around Sandy Hook and the exploits of Yelverton Taylor and Stephen Decatur are discussed in other articles. Privateers from Baltimore and southern ports were also involved in a few actions off Sandy Hook. Raritan Bay privateers , such as William Marriner and Adam Hyler, also took several small prizes , as did Monmouth County militia. New England privateers were also visitors on the Jersey shore. They purchased provisions and, on a few occasions, teamed with local militia in actions against London Traders and Pine Robbers . As discussed in other articles, Revolutionary War privateering changed the Jersey Shore Region—creating boomtowns at Little Egg Harbor and Toms River —and bringing people and capital to the shore as never before. New England privateers played a significant role in raising up this formerly sleepy and poor region. Related Historic Site : Connecticut River Museum Sources : Franklin Kemp, The Capture of Enemy Vessels by Ground Troops in New Jersey (-----) pp 16-7; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Thomas Dunbar of CT, www.fold3.com/image/#18457531 ; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/pl/Br/British%20Prizes%20April%201777/Experiment%20%5bunknown%5d%20%5bunknown%5d.html Pennsylvania Journal, May 14, 1777; PA Evening Post in William Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1970), vol. 9, p 179; Philemon Dickinson to George Washington, Philemon Dickinson to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 15, May–June 1778, ed. Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006, pp. 371–372; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 207-8; The Case of the Sloop ‘Active’, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 16 (1892), pp. 387-8; The Journal of Gideon Olmstead. Edited by Gerard W. Gawalt and Charles W. Kreidler. (Washington, DC: Library of Congress) p 58; Thomas Clark, A Naval History of the United States (Philadelphia: M. Carey, 1814) vol 2, p59-60; Franklin Kemp, The Capture of Enemy Vessels by Ground Troops in New Jersey (-----) pp 16-7; Thomas Collier, An Account of the State Cruisers (New London: New London Historical Society, 1892) p14; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, p 107; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/H/Hancock%20Connecticut%20Sloop%20%5bChester%20Hinman%20Richards%20Champlin%20Richards%20Chester%5d.html; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 1, pp. 85-6; Charles O Paullin, The Navy of the American Revolution (Chicago: The Burrows Brothers Co., 1906) pp. 370, 390; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 54-5; Connecticut Journal, June 30, 1779; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/B/Beaver%20Connecticut%20Sloop%20%5bDodge%20Havens%20Scovell%5d.html; and http://www.awiatsea.com/pl/Am/American%20Prizes%20April%201779/Hunter%20Sloop%20%5bRobert%20McLarty%5d.html; The Journal of Gideon Olmstead. Edited by Gerard W. Gawalt and Charles W. Kreidler. (Washington, DC: Library of Congress) pp. 77-8; Virginia Gazette, July 10, 1779; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/R/Revenge%20Connecticut%20Sloop%20%5bConkling%20Post%20Parker%5d.html ; Gardner Allen, Naval History of the American Revolution (NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1913) p408; Independent Ledger (Boston), July 5, 1779; Joshua Davis, Journal, Gardner W. Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution (1912, 1940, reprinted New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962), pp. 409-10; Independent Ledger (Boston), February 8, 1779; William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971) pp. 154-8; Connecticut Gazette, August 25, 1779; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 64-5; Gardner W. Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution (1912, 1940, reprinted New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962), p 414; The Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen, An American Refugee in England from 1775-84 (NY: C.S. Francis, 1842), p592; Connecticut Gazette, October 20, 1779; Independent Chronicle (Boston), October 28, 1779; Independent Ledger (Boston), November 29, 1779; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 65; William Nelson, Austin Scott, et al., ed., New Jersey Archives, 1901-1917, (Newark, Somerville, and Trenton, New Jersey, 1901-1917) vol. 3, p 616; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Thomas Dunbar of CT, National Archives, p6; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, p 338; The capture of the Black Snake is discussed in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 70-1; British captures are summarized in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 72; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, p 343; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/Y/Young%20Cromwell%20Connecticut%20Schooner%20%5bWattles%20Hilliard%20Wattles%20Buddington%20Hilliard%20Reed%20Cook%5d.html; and http://www.awiatsea.com/pl/Am/American%20Prizes%20October%201781/Betsey%20Schooner%20(John%20Robinson).html ; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, p 394; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, pp. 364, 370. William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 74; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, p 384; Connecticut Gazette, May 26, 1780; Christopher Prince, Autobiography of a Yankee Mariner (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2002), p234; Thomas Collier, An Account of the State Cruisers (New London: New London Historical Society, 1892) p16; Independent Ledger (Boston), June 5, 1780; The battle between the Trumball and the British vessel is discussed in William S. Hornor, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold, N.J.: Moreau Brothers, 1932), p 74; Virginia Gazette, June 28, 1780; The captures made by the Retaliation are discussed in Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 205-6; The capture of the Hazard is discussed in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 74; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; The capture of the Otter is discussed in Records and Papers of the New London County Historical Society, vol. 1, p20; Thomas Collier, An Account of the State Cruisers (New London: New London Historical Society, 1892) p17; American Journal (Providence), July 26, 1780; Narrative of the sloop Retaliation in Thomas Collier, An Account of the State Cruisers (New London: New London Historical Society, 1892) p18-19; Solomon Drowne, Journal of a Cruise in the Fall of 1780 in the Private-Sloop of War, Hope (Berkley: U of California, 1872) pp. 11-2; The action of the Viper are in American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/V/Viper%20Massachusetts%20Ship%20%5BWilliams%5D.html ; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 194-8; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, p 181; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/R/Raven%20Connecticut%20Schooner%20%5bOlmsted%20Hollister%20Buckland%5d.html ; American Journal (Providence), May 12, 1781; Providence Gazette, August 25, 1781; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/V/Viper%20Massachusetts%20Ship%20%5BWilliams%5D.htm ; Journal of Christopher Vail, Library of Congress, Series 7E, item 146, reel 54; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 87-9; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; The attack on the Polly is discussed in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 78; The voyage of the Rainbow is in Thomas Collier, An Account of the State Cruisers (New London: New London Historical Society, 1892) p24 and Massachusetts Spy, September 6, 1781; Fair American’s prize noted in American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/F/Fair%20American%20Connecticut%20Brigantine%20%5bChamplin%5d.html ; Providence Gazette, September 8, 1781; American Journal (Providence), October 18, 1781; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 246-9; Providence Gazette, May 25, 1782; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 214-6; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Nathaniel Prentice of CT, www.fold3.com/image/# 25868821; Norwich Packet, August 15, 1782; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post; William Treen discussed in Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 53-5; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/M/Modesty%20Rhode%20Island%20Sloop%20%5bArnold%20Brown%5d.html ; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, p 232; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906. 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 > Failed Prisoner Exchange Stokes Tensions between Whigs and Loyalists by Michael Adelberg The British Provost Jail housed prisoners captured by the Associated Loyalists. A failed prisoner exchange of Monmouth militiamen nearly ignited retaliatory mistreatment of prisoners of both sides. - January 1781 - In September 1778, Thomas Crowell, a Loyalist from Middletown now living in New York, traveled to New Brunswick under a British passport . During the trip, he illegally traded sugar for foodstuffs and was arrested for it. By April 1779, Crowell was back in New York. He recruited seventeen men and became a captain in the King’s Militia Volunteers, but this group dissipated. In October Crowell was appointed a warden of the Port of New York. In Middletown, his family was thrown off the family estate and reduced to poor relief. They left Middletown and came to New York as refugees. This may have radicalized Crowell; he joined the vigilante Associated Loyalists as a captain and would soon become a central figure in a failed prisoner exchange that nearly resulted in a murder. As noted prior articles , the Continental and British governments conducted prisoner exchanges based on a negotiated cartel. But these exchanges deprioritized captured New Jersey militia officers and officeholders who commonly waited many months for an exchange. In Monmouth County, Colonel Asher Holmes and others negotiated local prisoner exchanges with the Associated Loyalists beginning in 1780. However, these locally-negotiated exchanges were prone to dangerous complications. Thomas Crowell Seeks a Prisoner Exchange On December 30, 1780, William Franklin, Chairman of the Associated Loyalists "recommended the delivery of sundry prisoners taken by the Refugees [Loyalists], to Capt. Crowell, for the purpose of procuring the release or exchange" of Loyalists jailed in Monmouth County. Crowell landed in Monmouth County under a flag of truce but soon learned “of the execution of the Refugees” he had come to liberate. This is revealed in a January 3 letter from Asher Holmes (leading Monmouth County’s state troops ) to Crowell. Holmes wrote of the executions of John Farnham, Jonathan Burdge & Robert Paterson, “your letter came too late for they was executed before it came to hand (or had it been sooner it would not have answered any purpose).” Holmes further explained: As to an exchange of prisoners of war, I am as ready to go into it as any man, but such a person as one guilty of murder, horse stealing or robbery, & coming into our County without being under an officer or military command, must expect to suffer the penalty of the law of that place when such depredations are committed. Angered by the executions and news that other Loyalists were loaded in irons in the Monmouth County jail , Crowell loaded his prisoners—Hendrick Smock, Hendrick Johnston and James Tanner—in irons and revoked the parole of Lt. Colonel John Smock (Hendrick’s brother, recently paroled home via a locally-negotiated exchange). Holmes threatened counter-retaliation: As to the treatment you threaten Hendrick Smock, Hendrick Johnston and James Tanner with, we have those in our power who must expect the same, vizt Samuel Stevenson, Joseph Pew, Daniel Hullett, John White, Andrew King, and James Tucker. John Smock also wrote Crowell on January 3. He sought to avoid, or at least delay, having his parole revoked, and returning to prison in New York: I, this moment, rec'd yours, and what you write concerning my brother, Hendrick Smock, Hendrick Johnson and James Tanner, being put in the dungeon & in irons. I am exceedingly sorry to hear [that] the matter of which they are put in such confinement is & has been entirely out of my power to remedy, and also understand by the above that you are directed to call me in. Smock promised, “I shall immediately repair to New York” when properly ordered, but because Crowell’s order had not come through the Commissary of Prisoners, Smock questioned Crowell’s authority to revoke his parole. Smock promised to go to the Commissary of Prisoners to discuss, he patronized Crowell, “your indulgence to this request shall be very much obliged.” With Crowell’s proposed exchange failed and retaliation looming against prisoners on both sides, another Monmouth Countian in the Associated Loyalists, landed at Black Point. Clayton Tilton came to propose another exchange. He wrote Holmes: It is proposed to give Col John Smock, Hendrick Johnston & James Horner for Joseph Price, John White, Dan'l Hulletts, James Tucker, Andrew King, Samuel Stevens & Humphrey Wade; for the rank of Lt Col [John Smock]. They have a right to insist on 60 privates if exchanged agreeable to the cartel; which will be the case if Col Smock goes in. Tilton also threatened to revoke the parole of another officer, "We think Capt. David Anderson has not acted up to his parole, nevertheless if the above is complied with, shall agree with his proposals." Failed Exchange Escalates Tensions As Holmes and Smock negotiated with Crowell and Tilton, both sides were notifying their higher-ups. Crowell notified William Franklin, who forwarded Crowell’s letters to General Henry Clinton, the British Commander in Chief. Franklin wrote: We now beg leave to inform your Excellency that the proceedings thereon were this day laid before the Board by the President [Franklin] and the enclosed letter, notifying of the execution of the Refugees, delivered by the officer who has just returned from Monmouth with the flag of truce sent by Capt. Crowell to procure their release. Franklin deferred to Clinton on whether to further retaliate against the three Monmouth prisoners for the hanged Loyalists. As these prisoners were not taken by Associated Loyalists, he noted that the Associated Loyalists lacked jurisdiction to retaliate against these men: “The propriety of retaliation in the present instance must be, of course, submitted to your Excellency’s determination.” Meanwhile, the New Jersey Assembly considered the failed prisoner exchange and the mistreatment of Monmouth County prisoners: In consequence of the due execution of the laws of this State, upon certain persons in the County of Monmouth for willful murder and horse-stealing, a certain Thomas Crowell, styling himself a Captain of the King's Militia Volunteers, has procured Messrs Hendrick Smock, Hendrick Johnson and John Tanner, good citizens of said County, to be confined in irons in the lower dungeon of the Provost of New York; threatening that they shall receive the same fate as the criminals executed on the 3rd instant; and as the said Crowell has also ordered Lt Col Smock immediately to repair for New York, probably with a design to treating him in a similar way. Influenced by Monmouth County delegates Nathaniel Scudder, Thomas Henderson, and Thomas Seabrook (elected to the Assembly in a tainted election ) the Assembly then passed two resolutions promising retaliation for the mistreatment of the Monmouth prisoners: "This Legislature will, with the utmost effect, retaliate for all such ill-directed and unwarrantable severities... until their enemies shall confine themselves to military matters within the lines of regular military conduct"; "The Commissary of Prisoners be directed to cause three of the prisoners of war belonging to this State to be immediately ironed in the same manner." The Assembly also resolved to raise the affair with the Continental Government. The Legislative Council, the Upper House of the legislature, passed similar resolutions. Retaliation Is Averted The Board of the Associated Loyalists recorded receiving an offer to conduct an alternative prisoner exchange on January 15, 1781: Clayton Tilton, having received a letter from Col Asher Holmes and Major [Elisha] Walton of the New Jersey troops, offering to exchange some refugees, prisoners at Monmouth gaol, for some rebel prisoners taken by Refugees who were not associators. It was determined that William Franklin should write the British commander for permission to make the exchange; permission was needed because the prisoners in question were not taken by the Associated Loyalists and were, therefore, not the property of the Associated Loyalists to exchange. Three days later, the Associated Loyalists wrote Henry Clinton to request a flag to conduct the exchange. The exchange occurred. On February 5, the minutes of the Associated Loyalists recorded: Clayton Tilton reported that he had, with the flag allowed him, with prisoners taken by the refugees, and after much difficulty and dispute, exchanged them for four of their own people, and had also exchanged two other of his men who were prisoners, for two men he had taken before & paroled. Holmes followed up on the successful exchange with a proposal to Governor William Livingston to let Sarah Wikoff (wife of Lt. Colonel Aucke Wikoff, jailed in New York) visit New York with Huldah Van Mater (wife of Loyalist Daniel Van Mater and Holmes’s sister). Holmes wrote of Mrs. Wikoff: Since the Col. [Wikoff] has been a prisoner, the enemy have plundered his family several times and distressed them to a great degree. His wife is therefore very earnest to see her husband, and as the Enemy will not let her land unless the wife of some refugee is gone with her, Mrs. Huldah Van Mater is recommended for that purpose, as a person as important as any woman that has a husband that has joined the enemy. It is not known if either Governor Livingston or the British permitted this visitation. This exchange defused a tense situation. Subsequent testimony offered during the court martial of Richard Lippincott (an Associated Loyalist captain who hanged Monmouth County’s Joshua Huddy) reveals that Crowell’s failed prisoner exchange nearly led to a murder. Crowell testified that: It was proposed to have executed one of them [local Whig] by way of retaliation, the Board of Directors having promised the deponent that orders should be given for the purpose, but the order was not given, nor did the execution take place; but he [Crowell] in consequence of the declaration made by the Board of Directors, dated 28th December 1780, should have thought himself justifiable in executing one of those Prisoners even had he received only a verbal order. Crowell’s testimony was corroborated by another Monmouth Loyalist, Moffat Taylor, who stated that Captain Barnes Smock was the man to be executed and that Corwell would have done the deed if the Board of Associated Loyalist signed the order—but the Board refused to do put the order in writing. The tense prisoner negotiations in Monmouth County occurred as the Associated Loyalists were trying to expand their ranks and clarify their authority. On January 3, 1781, the Loyalist New York Gazette advertised that the Associated Loyalists had a commission from General Clinton to 1.) keep all of their captures, and 2.) conduct their own prisoner exchanges. Further, new Associated Loyalists who served through the end of the war were promised "two hundred acres of land in North America” and would enjoy “the support of British arms, provisions, and shipping” while conducting British-authorized raids. While we do not know the names of the men exchanged by Tilton and Holmes, we know that this exchange averted a tragic escalation that might have included the deliberate mistreatment of several prisoners and the murder of at least one. That escalation would, however, occur in 1782 when Clayton Tilton was captured and loaded in irons, and Richard Lippincott hanged Joshua Huddy. Related Historic Sites : New York City Revolutionary War Trail (Sugar House Prison) Sources : Thomas Crowell, letter, Library of Congress, MMC - Courtland Skinner, box 10; Crowell’s appointment is n the New York Royal Gazette, October 16, 1779; Jones, E. Alfred. The Loyalists of New Jersey, (Newark, N. J. Historical Society, 1927) p 57. Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn. and London, 1984), p 190. Rutgers University Special Collections, Great Britain Public Record Office, Loyalist Compensation Claims, D96, AO 13/108, reel 8; William Franklin to Henry Clinton, William Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, William Franklin to Henry Clinton, January 6, 1781; Asher Holmes to Thomas Crowell, U. of Michigan, Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, box 138, folder 42; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; John Smock to Thomas Crowell, U. of Michigan, Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, box 138, folder 44; Clayton Tilton to Asher Holmes, Clements Library, U Michigan, Henry Clinton Papers, January 4, 1781; Clayton Tilton to Asher Holmes, U. of Michigan, Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, box 139, folder 11; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, January 6, 1781, p 102-103; Journals of the Legislative Council of New Jersey (Isaac Collins: State of New Jersey, 1781) p64-5; Clements Library, Proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists, January 1781, p. 11-3; Rutgers University, Special Collections, Loyalist Compensation Applications, Coll. D96, PRO AO 10/20, reel 7 and AO 13/112, reel 10; Clements Library, Proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists, February 1781, p. 3; Asher Holmes to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 142; Thomas Crowell’s testimony in Howard Peckham, Sources of American Independence: Selected Manuscripts from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) pp. 570, 579-80. 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 > Defending the Pennsylvania Salt Works at Toms River by Michael Adelberg Often called the “Financier of the American Revolution,” Pennsylvania’s Robert Morris served in the Continental Congress and twice sought to protect the Pennsylvania Salt Works at Toms River. - November 1776 - A prior article discussed the establishment of salt works along the Jersey shore in the early years of the American Revolution. The most ambitious of these salt works was the Pennsylvania Salt Works. It was established at Toms River in July 1776 by Thomas Savadge of Philadelphia with financial backing from the Pennsylvania government. These and other salt works along the Jersey were vulnerable to attack and their defense was a continuous concern. With the Continental Army in retreat across New Jersey in early November, the Pennsylvania government moved to protect its investment at Toms River. On November 2, the Pennsylvania Council of Safety resolved to send "an officer and twenty-five men to the Salt Works at Toms River as a guard, and twenty-five spare muskets and two howitzers, and sufficient amount of ammunition to defend in case of attack." The Continental Congress was also requested to "write to Gov. [William] Livingston of New Jersey for two companies of militia to guard the salt works near Toms River." The Continental Congress acted on this request just three days later but, notably, focused on more than just the defense of the Pennsylvania Salt Works: Resolved, that the President write Governor Livingston and request him to send two companies of militia to Toms River to guard the salt works, and one company to be stationed at or near Shrewsbury to intercept and put a stop to the intelligence said to be carrying on between the Tories and Lord Howe's fleet; that the companies to consist of 50 men each. Meanwhile, Robert Morris, a Pennsylvania delegate in the Continental Congress, advised his state’s Council of Safety: If you were to man Cap Rice’s Galley immediately & send her round to Toms River she would not only save the Salt Works until a proper Land force can be appointed but would also probably be very useful in retaking some of the Prizes the Men of War send along shore for N. York. There is no evidence, however, that Captain Rice made it to Toms River. On November 21, in response to the prompt from the Continental Congress, Governor William Livingston ordered Colonel Isaac Smith of the Hunterdon County militia to Shrewsbury, "You are hereby directed to detach one company of fifty men under your command to be stationed at or near Shrewsbury." Col Bowes Read received orders on the same day to take Burlington militia to Toms River to protect the salt works. With the British Army pushing across New Jersey in late November, it is doubtful that the Hunterdon or Burlington militias reached Monmouth County. The Pennsylvania Salt Works were unguarded in early December when Colonel John Morris and his 2nd Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers re-entered Monmouth County and established Loyalist control over the Monmouth shore. In January, Thomas Savadge wrote about his meeting with Colonel Morris on December 23: When I heard the Colonel and his party were at Toms River, I thought it best to go to him and know the truth of it. When I was introduced to him, he told me he had positive orders from Lord Howe to destroy them [the salt works], but by informing him that ye works were not altogether publick property, he politely told me he would not destroy them or send his party there. Two days later, two noted Tories, John Williams and Joseph Allen, came with orders from General Skinner [Courtland Skinner] to seize the works for the King's use, accordingly, one of them came to the works on the next day and put 'R' for Royal on each building, but Monday morning they decamped in haste and I have seen no more of them since. In the same letter, Savadge reminded the Pennsylvania government that his salt works were still vulnerable: Lord Howe has a galley near completed that carries a brass 18 pounder in her bow & 12 pounder in her stern, with a number of swivels and cohorns, and is intended to lay in Toms River and Barnegat Inlet and in consequence will destroy the works if not prevented by some vessels of the same force stationed in ye bay. The Pennsylvania Council of Safety responded to Savadge’s letter. On February 5, it resolved that “a Captain and a Company of Penns. Regt with two pieces of cannon be sent into New Jersey for the protection of the salt works there [Pennsylvania Salt Work at Toms River], at the expense of this State." Before the Pennsylvania guards arrived, Savadge felt a need to remind the Council of Safety about the problems with the local militia: The militia in this part of the county is by no means calculated for the defense thereof; for more than half of them are Tories and the rest but little better. I am of the opinion that if this part of the county is to be defended it must be by Continental troops who know their duty, or militia of another State. He also reported a rumor about Col. Morris's return, "if this is true, the works are gone." On February 17, the Council of Safety, acting on another nudge from Robert Morris, ordered a guard for the Pennsylvania Salt Works. “Resolved, that the armed boat Delaware , under the command of Richard Eyre, be immediately fitted out and ordered to proceed with all expedition to said works for the defense thereof, until further orders." However, there were delays in readying the vessel and it did not leave for Toms River until March 27. The defense of the Pennsylvania Salt Works was a legitimate concern. An April 1778 British-Loyalist raid destroyed several of the salt works north of Toms River and probably would have destroyed the Pennsylvania Salt Works were it not for a change in the weather inhibiting the raiders. But, in reality, Savadge’s salt work was a failing venture that, despite significant investment, did not produce any appreciable amount of salt. Labor shortages, exacerbated by mandatory militia service, blocked progress and frustrated Savadge. Similar problems would plague the Union Salt Works on the Manasquan River, the other large-scale salt works on the Jersey shore, were it not for soldiers being deployed as laborers. That topic and the demise of the Pennsylvania Salt Works are discussed in other articles. Related Historic Sites : Ocean County Historical Society Sources : William Fischer, The Toms River Block House Fight, March 24, 1782; Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. 14, p419-20; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 193-4; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 419; Peter Force, American Archives, 4th series, vol. 3, pp. 182-183; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 6, p 925; Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 6 January 1, 1777 - April 30, 1777, Robert Morris to Benjamin Rush, p311, n2; Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. I., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1879, pp. 491; Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, p 173, 182-4; William Fischer, The Toms River Block House Fight, March 24, 1782; Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. 14, p420; William McMahon, South Jersey Towns — History and Legend (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1973) p 304; Samuel Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives (Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1902) First Series, vol. 5, p 177; Library Company, Minutes of the Pennsylvania Council of Safety, vol. 2, p114; Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg: Theo. Fenn, 1853) vol. 11, pp. 114; Samuel Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives (Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1902) First Series, vol. 5, p 216; Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 6, p 310 note 2; Library Company, Minutes of the Pennsylvania Council of Safety, vol. 2, p126, 191; Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg: Theo. Fenn, 1853) vol. 11, pp. 126, 191; Clement Biddle to John Hancock, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 83, item 69, vol. 1, #355. DH 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 > Upper Freehold's First Loyalist Insurrection by Michael Adelberg John Lawrence was a respected political leader, attorney, and surveyor. He was entrusted to draw the line that split East New Jersey and West New Jersey. - June 1776 - In June 1776, the debate over independence forced Americans to take sides. In Monmouth County, large numbers of people were opposed . As noted in prior articles, Monmouth Countians authored nine anti-independence petitions and refused to turn out for the militia in much of eastern Monmouth County. But it was in the westernmost township of Upper Freehold where hostility to independence first came to a head. The first evidence of exceptional disaffection in Upper Freehold was recorded by the New Jersey Provincial Congress. On June 24, it received "a letter enclosed by the Committee of Monmouth, enclosing an association signed by certain Disaffected persons." The same day the Congress received a second letter, “that Coll. Forman [Samuel Forman of Upper Freehold], and his minute men seizing several disaffected persons... without the express command of that Committee, though approved by them afterwards." The next day, the Provincial Congress received a memorial from Moses Ivins and Richard Robins of Upper Freehold. They were vocal opponents of independence. Two weeks earlier, they were summoned to appear before the Provincial Congress. The memorial offered “reasons for their refusal of the summons." Ivins, who was apparently being detained, soon sent another letter "praying a hearing, confessing their faults, offering to make discoveries and praying discharge." Ivins likely appeared and revealed information about a budding Loyalist insurrection. The day after his confession, the New Jersey Provincial Congress, declared: It appears, from undoubted intelligence, that there are several Insurgents in the County of Monmouth, who take every measure in their power to contravene the Regulations of Congress, and to oppose the cause of American freedom; and as it is highly necessary that an immediate check be given to so daring a spirit of disaffection: It is therefore Resolved, unanimously, that Colonel Charles Read take to his aid two companies of the militia of the County of Burlington, properly officered and armed, and proceed without delay to the County of Monmouth, in order to apprehend such Insurgents and disaffected persons. Due to dysfunction in the Monmouth militia, the Provincial Congress turned to a neighboring county to restore order. The order also specially named a number of persons to be arrested, at least three of whom would become hostile Loyalists later in the war: Richard Robins, Anthony Woodward, Guisebert Giberson. Read’s men were not immediately effective. On June 29, the Provincial Congress received: Two Memorials, the one from the County Committee of Monmouth, the other from the Committee of Safety of that County, respecting certain disaffected persons in said County, and requesting that this Congress would take some decisive order therein. Three days later, on the same day that the Provincial Congress approved a new constitution that severed ties to Royal authority, additional action was ordered against the Monmouth insurgents: Resolved that Colonel Charles Read and Lt. Col. Samuel Forman... take two hundred Burlington County militia, and proceed without delay, in order to quell the aforesaid insurrection, and to disarm and take prisoner whomsoever they shall find assembled with the intent to oppose the friends of American freedom... and the said officers are empowered to take such measures as they shall think necessary for this service. Read and Forman were further ordered to bring the men they took to the Burlington jail, likely because the Monmouth jail was deemed insufficiently secure for holding Loyalist prisoners. That same day, John Covenhoven of Freehold, a delegate in the Provincial Congress, warned the Provincial Congress that some Loyalist insurrectionaries were “embodying themselves, and a considerable number encamped at the Cedar Swamps” near Sandy Hook. From here, they were expected to join the British Army. He asked Congress to "send forward all the assistance in your power." The New Jersey Provincial Congress, now renamed the New Jersey Convention, reported the troubles in Monmouth County to the Continental Congress. On July 3, the day before adopting the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress considered affairs in Monmouth County: The Congress took into consideration the letter from the Convention of New Jersey, whereupon: Resolved, that the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania be requested to send as many troops of their Colony as they can spare to Monmouth County, in New Jersey, to the assistance of the inhabitants. John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, promptly requested help from Pennsylvania: The Congress being informed by an express from the Convention of New Jersey that a number of Tories are embodying themselves in the County of Monmouth, and a considerable number are already encamped in the cedar swamps, and as the power of the militia in that County have marched to New York for the defense of that important place ...I apply to you and request that you would immediately send as many troops as your colony can spare to Monmouth County, for the defense and the assistance of the militia and inhabitants. The same day, the New Jersey Convention revised its orders to Colonels Read and Forman: Take two hundred of the Militia of Burlington County and two hundred of the Militia of Monmouth, and proceed, without delay, in order to quell the aforesaid insurrection, and to disarm and take prisoners whomsoever they shall find assembled with intent to oppose the friends of American freedom. The troubles in Monmouth County were also noticed by George Washington in New York. On July 4, he wrote about “the disaffection of the people at that place and others not far distant… unless it is checked and overawed, it may become more general, and be very alarming." Also on July 4, Samuel Forman, the militia Colonel for Upper Freehold, wrote to Colonel Charles Read, "I have ordered 200 men to meet at the Court House tomorrow morning at 6 o'clock, to be taken out of the company of Lower Freehold. The notice was so short that I could not send to Shrewsbury & Middletown in time to get their assistance without delaying you." Forman said he would march his men to Imlaystown and link up with Read. Forman also suggested that John Lawrence, one of Monmouth County’s most prominent citizens, was at the head of “the Tory party.” Forman had interrogated a man named Foster, “who they [the Tories] pressed in their service & forced him to take their oath.” Foster named a number of men in the Tory party, including Anthony Woodward (who would lead a subsequent Loyalist insurrection) and Elisha Lawrence (the former county sheriff who would soon become a Lt. Colonel in the Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers ). He said that "sundry others to the amount of about 30 went on board of Thomas Chadwick's boat, said to be bound for the British fleet." As Forman was mustering the Monmouth militia, the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety acted on John Hancock’s request: It ordered 150 men under Col. Broadhead to go to Bordentown, get provisions, and march to Monmouth County. However, on July 6 Broadhead was still in Philadelphia. In a letter, he acknowledged his orders "but as no particular part of sd county is mentioned & every man in the detachment strangers to that county." Broadhead claimed needing a guide before deploying. Meanwhile, Read’s men made their first arrests and some of whom went before the New Jersey Convention on July 4. The Convention recorded that: Numbers have expressed willingness to return to their duty upon assurances of pardon, alleging that they have been seduced by the false and malicious reports of others...It is therefore resolved that all such persons as shall without delay return peaceably to their homes, and conform with the orders of Congress, shall be treated with lenity and indulgence; and upon their good behavior, shall be restored to the favor of their Country. The Convention also ordered that supplies be brought to Bordentown for Col. Broadhead. Two days later, Col. Charles Read was at Imlaystown with Samuel Forman. They had captured John Lawrence “on information of his qualifying men to join the insurgents” and four other men. Read estimated the strength of the remaining insurgents at “50 or 60 men.” He concluded, however, that the most ardent Loyalists had escaped: “I am afraid the principals are flown." The Pennsylvanians were unhelpful. It is unclear when Col. Broadhead made it to Monmouth County, but another Pennsylvania regiment, under Colonel Samuel Miles, was already in New Jersey. He was ordered to “disperse and disarm” the Loyalists on July 8. But the orders apparently did not reach Miles quickly. He had marched into eastern New Jersey before returning to Upper Freehold. He later recorded: Sent a body of men to suppress an insurrection in Monmouth County, N. Jersey, and Lt. Col. Broadhead was sent with a detachment of 400 men, but the Whigs in that State had completed the business before his arrival. By the end of July, it appears that the Loyalist insurrection was quelled, but not crushed. The insurrection’s apparent leader, John Lawrence, was detained and the New Jersey Convention would soon fine four of the more prominent insurrectionaries: Richard Robins, John Leonard, Thomas Woodward and Ezekiel Forman. As for the less strident Loyalists, Charles Read understood that they would remain a problem . He frankly apprised the situation in Upper Freehold on August 4: "We have no doubt that there are persons, some of them of note, who are acting a very improper part, but we do not really know what to do with them.” As for the party of strident Loyalists now with the British, they would be heard from again. Related Historic Site : Historic Walnford Sources : Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p136-43; Peter Force, American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress Clerk's Office, 1853), 5th Series, vol. 6, pp. 1628-9; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornel University Press, 2009) p 474; "Peter Force, American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-6 (digitized: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch/find.doc.html), v6: p 1629-30; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornel University Press, 2009) pp. 475, 482-4; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p136; Peter Force, American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress Clerk's Office, 1853), 5th Series, vol. 6, p 1630-1; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornel University Press, 2009) p 478; Peter Force, American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-6 (digitized: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch/find.doc.html), v6: p 1630; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p136-43; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey, 1775-1776 (Trenton, NJ: Naar, Day, Naar, 1879) pp. 482-484; Peter Force, American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress Clerk's Office, 1853), 5th Series, vol. 6, p 1663; Peter Force, American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-6 (digitized: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch/find.doc.html), v6: p 1632, 1635; Journal of Col Samuel Miles, Pennslyvania Archives, Series II, Journal of Col. Samuel Miles, v 1, p519; John Covenhoven to Continental Congress, "Peter Force, American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-6 (digitized: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch/find.doc.html), v1: p 1-2; Peter Force, American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress Clerk's Office, 1853), 5th Series, vol. 1, p 1165; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 5, p 508; John Hancock to Pennsylvania Convention, Pennslyvania Archives, Series 1, v 4, p781-2; Journals of the Continental Congress, p508 ( www.ammem/amlaw/lwdg.html ); Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 4, pp. 377-8; Peter Force, American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-6 (digitized: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch/find.doc.html), v6: p 1637; George Washington, Official Letters to the Honorable American Congress Written During the War between the United Colonies and Great Britain (Boston: Manning & Loring, 1795) v 1, p181; Samuel Forman, "Tory Movements in New Jersey on Howe's Arrival at Staten Island", Historical Magaizine, vol. 5, 1861, p 7; Historical Society of Pennsylvania, New Jersey Papers, Historical MSS, 1654-1853, p 201, 203; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p137; Peter Force, American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress Clerk's Office, 1853), 5th Series, vol. 6, p 1636; "Peter Force, American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-6 (digitized: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch/find.doc.html), v6: p 1638-9; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p138; Samuel Forman, "Tory Movements in New Jersey on Howe's Arrival at Staten Island", Historical Magazine, vol. 5, 1861, pp. 7-8; Peter Force, American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress Clerk's Office, 1853), 5th Series, vol. 6, p 1665. Minutes of the Provincial Congress and Council of Safety of New Jersey (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009) p 545; Joseph Reed, Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blankston, 1847, p 212; The Library Company, Pennsylvania Evening Post, July 9, 1776. 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 Attack British Baggage Train by Michael Adelberg The heavy wagons of the British baggage train were pulled single-file on Monmouth County’s narrow roads. During the Battle of Monmouth, the baggage train was attacked twice by local militia. - June 1778 - As the British Army marched across New Jersey in June 1778, its baggage train was its most conspicuous feature. Stretching twelve miles, it contained, among other things, war materials, foodstuffs, and the luxury goods of British officers and Loyalist squires. British commander, Henry Clinton, rightly understood that the baggage train was the most vulnerable and monetarily-valuable part of his army. At Freehold on June 27, as Continental forces gathered in his army’s rear, Clinton moved the baggage train to the front of his line of march. On June 28, before British forces turned west to face the attacking Continental Army, the British baggage train advanced eastward toward Middletown . Attacks on the British Baggage Train With the Continental Army west of the British Army, it fell to elements of local militia east of the British Army to menace the baggage train. While documents are not clear on some details, they demonstrate that two unsuccessful attacks were made on the baggage train on the day of the Battle of Monmouth. Lt. Col. Francis Downman, commanding a regiment guarding the baggage train, wrote: Marched through a close woody country for several miles without the least molestation or annoyance from the enemy until 12 o'clock when a party of 15 or 16 militia, taking advantage of our flanking parties being too widely dispersed, broke through the provision train and wounded two or three men and as many horses without halting at all and another party of 40 or 50 made an attempt on the baggage but went off again on the appearance of two companies [of troops]. General James Pattison of British Army also reported two attacks: A party of 15 or 16 militia, finding our flanks exposed, had the audacity to break through our line of baggage, making use of the bayonet against every man or horse they met, but without waiting the consequence of a delay or halt, & a party of forty or fifty made an appearance afterwards, apparently with a design of attacking our baggage, but they were beat back by a part of our rear guard. Additional details on the attacks emerge in other British accounts. John Peebles called the actions “small” and noted the British “had a few men killed & wounded" in the attacks. Loyalist cavalryman, John Simcoe, reported “the baggage was not seriously attacked; but some very small parties ran across it, from one side to the other.” Simcoe reported “dispersing” the attackers but admitted that rumors of additional attacks raised his “public anxiety.” German Officer Bernhard Bauermeister wrote that "several skirmishers got between the wagons and maltreated the drivers and patrols alongside them.” At least two British officers were unimpressed by the attacks. Gen. Archibald Robertson wrote: "An attack was made on our flank of the baggage, but they were repulsed without losing a wagon." British Officer Samuel Johnson concluded, “We pursued our march and gained our object, the heights of the Neversink, without losing a carriage." It appears that the two attacks were led by Monmouth County’s Colonel Asher Holmes, leading Middletown Township militia, and Joshua Huddy, leading a company of New Jersey State Troops raised from Monmouth County. As explained below, scant documentation of the participants involved in Holmes’ attack leaves room for interpretation. Huddy commanded an artillery company, while the attack he led was made by mounted men. This suggests that Huddy’s party was comprised, at least in part, by ad hoc volunteers with access to horses on June 28. One of Huddy’s men, Matthias Hulce, recalled the attack: "Came in contact with a party of the enemy having charge of the baggage with whom a skirmish took place in which four of the militia were killed." A second member of Huddy’s party, Andrew Pharo, recalled: "On the day of the battle, he was in a scouting party when Captain Huddy had several men killed & wounded." Joseph Johnson recalled, "They fell in with Capt. Huddy at or near Colts Neck where he was engaged with a small party of the British, he helped carry off a soldier who was butt by the sword of a horsemen, he died." The most complete account of Huddy’s attack was written by Samuel Carman: At request of Capt. Huddy, about 14 or 15 of Capt. Holmes company volunteered to go on an expedition with Capt. Huddy, they were militia men scouting round the baggage that was in advance of the mane [sic] Army, they charged a party of wagons, bayoneted some their horses, overturned some of the wagons - at this moment, they were charged by a small party of horse, they had 2 men killed but at the moment more of the militia coming up - they had retreated in to a swamp where the horse could not come - but by this time, the advance of the British come up and they retreated off, being too few in number to meet them. The second attack, led by Asher Holmes, was recalled by John Holmes of Middletown, "We continued to harass the enemy for about six miles until we came to Col. Holmes, where we had a smart engagement & we had two men killed & two men wounded." An antiquarian source noted that Holmes’ attack came from Middletown militia – the militia had one killed and several wounded. This source claimed that the British lost five men, which is likely exaggerated. Mark Lender, who exhaustively researched the Battle of Monmouth, concluded that the attackers were Middlesex County militia under the command of Colonel John Neilson of that county. Neilson was a few miles north of the baggage train; he wrote a letter that day stating that he had missed the baggage train because the British took “the most private roads” instead of the main road he patrolled. It is likely that Holmes led men from both counties. Continental Army leaders, engaged with the British Army at the Battle of Monmouth, took little notice of the baggage train attacks. The brief mention of the attacks by Colonel John Laurens is typical: "the militia of the Country kept up a random running fire with the Hessian Jaegers; but no mischief was done by either side." Perspective In isolation, the two attacks on the baggage train were small skirmishes that produced a few casualties on each side. They did not impede the British march. The skirmishing parties that engaged the British at Allentown (and elsewhere) were larger than the parties that attacked the baggage train on June 28. However, when the two June 28 skirmishes are considered in the context of the dozen or so additional skirmishes that occurred during the Monmouth Campaign, in addition to the other obstacles and harassments thrown up by the Monmouth militia, it is easy to see that the chain of activities—in total—sapped British resources and morale. As Simcoe noted, small attacks like these reminded the British that they were in hostile territory and (to borrow Simcoe’s term) greatly increased their “public anxiety.” Related Historic Site: Monmouth Battlefield State Park Sources : John Peebles' American War, 1776-1782 (Stackpole Books) p194; Gen James Pattison, report, Monmouth Battlefield State Park, Battle of Monmouth files: folder - British Sources; Francis Downman, The Services of Lieut. Colonel Francis Downman (London: Royal Artillery Institution, 1898) p64-72; Archibald Robertson, Archibald Robertson: His Diaries and Sketches in America, 1762-1780 (New York: Arno, 1969) p 178; John Simcoe, Simcoe's Military Journal (New York: Bartlett & Welford, 1844) p 72; Samuel Johnson to Lord Amherst, Amherst Manuscripts, U1350 079/22, Kent County Archives (England), Valley Forge National Historical Park (transcribed by Garry Wheeler Stone); Bernard Uhlendorf, Confidential Letter and Journals, 1776-1784, of Adjutant General Major Bauermeister of the Hessian Forces (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1957) p 187; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Matthias Hulce; William Nelson, The New Jersey Coast in Three Centuries (New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1902) vol. 1, p 172; John Neilson to Philemon Dickinson, Monmouth Battlefield State Park, Battle of Monmouth files: folder – Militia; John Laurens, The Army correspondence of Colonel John Laurens in the years 1777-8 (New York: New York Times, 1969) p 194; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Andrew Phares of New York, National Archives, p4; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Joseph Johnson; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Samuel Carman; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John G. Holmes. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > The Capture of William Marriner by Michael Adelberg William Marriner led two boats with 28 New Jersians to the Brooklyn shore to pick-off vessels trading with New York. Bad weather forced Marriner’s party to land; they were taken by local militia. - August 1780 - In early June 1778, two whaleboats left Middletown Point (present-day Matawan). They rowed through the night, and landed in Brooklyn. The small party, led by William Marriner (along with Captain John Scheck of Middletown) captured two prominent Loyalists and returned with them without any losses. It was one of the more remarkable raids of the war. Operating out of Middletown Point, Amboy, and New Brunswick, Marriner raided Brooklyn again and intermittently attacked and took larger vessels over the next two years. But his string of successes ended in August 1780. On August 3, Marriner headed toward Brooklyn again with a small party (28 men) in two whaleboats. In bad weather, one the boats overturned and the party had to go ashore at Hog Island (near present-day Breezy Point). The Loyalist New York Gazette reported the results: Captain Hicks, of the militia of that place, mustered his company and with a few volunteers in two boats went in quest of them, but the stormy weather prevented their attacking them this evening. About four o'clock the next morning, a smart action ensued, and the whole party of Rebels were taken prisoner. The report claimed that Marriner had been cruising the Brooklyn-Queens shore for fourteen days and “had met with no success." That seems unlikely as Marriner’s party would not have carried enough provisions to be at sea for that long. The report also stated that "there were none killed or wounded on either side; several grape shot went through Captain Hick's jacket." Finally, the report discussed the captured rebels: One of them [boats] was commanded by William Marriner, formerly of this city, but of late a great rebel partisan, prisoners amount to twenty-eight, among them a rebel commissary named Mr. [Alexander] Dickey, who ever had proven a violent persecutor of Royal officers and Loyalists who had fallen in his power. Two men in Marriner’s party discussed their capture in their postwar pension applications. Joseph Vanderveer of Middletown recorded: He volunteered with about twenty other persons on board a boat under Captain Marriner and another boat under Dickey, upon an expedition where they proceeded as far as Rockaway Bay; our boats, together with a sloop we had captured, ran aground, while lying in this situation we were taken prisoner by a part of the British Army and marched across Long Island to a place called White Stone, where we then put on board boats, taken to New York, and imprisoned in the North Church & kept there in close confinement until the latter part of December in the year 1780, when he was again exchanged. Josiah Woodruff of Essex County was also in Marriner’s party. He later recalled that "in the year 1780, I volunteered with said William Clark [also from Essex County] in a company under the command of Captain Marriner who, as we understood, had a commission for cruising as a privateer on the water against the common enemy." The party left Amboy on August 3 "on board two boats" with 10 oars each and 28 men "well armed with muskets and other weapons." They rowed past Sandy Hook to the southern shore of Long Island where, at Hog Island, they captured a small sloop “loaded with pork and sugar.” Woodruff described the mission going bad. The boats were unable to row back to New Jersey "due to boisterous winds." One of the boats overturned and the men had to swim to shore. Then, "very early in the morning, the British collected in a large boat, well armed, and we were all made prisoners." Marriner’s men were jailed five months before they were exchanged. Woodruff noted that the mission was to "intercept London Traders " and that the men “had perfect confidence in his [Marriner’s] skill & his patriotism as a Whig engaged in annoying the London Trader & carrying on unlawful traffic with the enemy." This was Marriner’s last privateer action. While the men in Marriner’s party were exchanged in December 1780, Marriner was not released until October 1781. Upon release, Marriner returned to a hero’s welcome in New Brunswick. But he quickly faded from public view. Marriner was likely an alias, and he may have reverted to his original name. An antiquarian source claims Marriner managed a tavern at New Brunswick after his release. Alexander Dickey, the co-leader of Marriner’s party, would remain an active whaleboat privateer through the end of the war. And New Brunswick became the primary port for the Raritan Bay privateers . If Marriner was managing a tavern it is easy to imagine him advising would-be privateers over strong drinks. New Brunswick’s most famous privateer captain, Adam Hyler, would soon emerge. Related Historic Site : The Wyckoff House Museum (Brooklyn, New York) Sources : National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Tunis Vanderveer; J.A. McManemin, Captains of Privateers. (Spring Lake, N.J.: Ho-Ho-Kus Pub. Co., 1994), pp. 341-4; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of William Clark of NJ, National Archives, p26; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, August 1780, reel 2906. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > The Death of John Bacon by Michael Adelberg After more than three years as a Loyalist outlaw, John Bacon was hunted down at a tavern near present-day Tuckerton. He surrendered, but was bayoneted and killed by Burlington County militia. - March 1783 - As noted in prior articles, John Bacon was the most prolific of the Pine Robber gang leaders, and was likely the last active Loyalist partisan in the state. In December 1782, Bacon’s gang attacked a party of Burlington County militia at Cedar Creek (Tuckerton). Bacon scattered the militia, but the attack was costly—Bacon lost two of his most steadfast comrades and seven other supporters were captured days later. Bacon and three others were reported wounded and this may have prompted him to lay low for a few months. Bacon never again had the strength to turn away a militia attack. On March 13, 1783, the state of Maryland sent a ship to New York for the relief of its prisoners held there. It was attacked by an unprincipled Rhode Island privateer captain, Oliver Reed, “off Little Egg Harbor.” According to the Maryland Gazette , the Rhode Islanders took the vessel "under the pretense that this government was trading with the enemy." But the Maryland vessel was then boarded by a Loyalist galley that deposited the Maryland crew "on shore on the Beach Island (near Barnegat Inlet) and observed that “no inhabitants lived within five or six miles from the main land.” The newspaper report concluded that, “It cannot escape notice that more respect was shown to this government [Maryland] by a refugee barge than by the vessel of a sister state [Rhode Island]." The “refugee boat” was likely Hero’s Revenge led by John Bacon, and, assuming this was Bacon, it was his last successful attack. The capture of the vessel also likely aroused the local militias of Burlington and Monmouth counties. A posse of Burlington County militia party was soon after Bacon. On April 9, the New Jersey Gazette reported Bacon’s death on April 4: The infamous John Bacon, a refugee from New York, who has murdered several good citizens from this State, and plundered many defenseless families, was surprised and killed at Egg Harbor by a detachment from Capt. Shreve's light horse, commanded by Cornet Cook. The New York Gazette and New Jersey Journal carried the same report. Historian David Fowler, who comprehensively studied Bacon, provides additional details on Bacon’s death. Captain John Stewart (previously robbed by Bacon) and Joel Cook (brother, William Cook, killed in skirmish with Bacon) located Bacon at a tavern at West Creek, three miles north of Clam Town (an antiquarian source claims it was the tavern of William Rose in Clam Town). Fowler, relying on a plurality of sources on Bacon’s death, writes that Bacon was surprised and surrendered. He was disarmed. Bacon reportedly then insulted Cook, who responded by bayoneting Bacon (an antiquarian source claims that Cook and Bacon wrestled on the tavern floor before Bacon was bayoneted). Bacon attempted to flee but was shot before exiting the tavern. There are, however, alternative versions of Bacon’s death. Militiaman John Peters claimed: “A price was offered for his [Bacon’s] head; that he was shot thru a window sitting by a fire by one of our company, Sergeant Benjamin Smith.” Another militiaman, Isaac Quigley, offers yet another version: He [Quigley] was out with scouting parties at least six times to take Col. John Bacon, a refugee officer weigh-laying the road and wood by day and night - a bounty of $500 was offered for him dead or alive. He was, at length, shot by Nathaniel Forman who got the bounty. Bacon’s body was brought to Jacobstown in Burlington County (Cook’s home village) and displayed on the public road. Bacon's brother arrived from Philadelphia and was allowed to take the corpse. Bacon was buried at Arneytown on the western edge of Upper Freehold Township, suggesting a family connection with that area. Governor William Livingston had previously issued bounties for the capture of Bacon and Ichabod Johnson (killed at Cedar Creek in December). But the Burlington militia had killed them, rather than captured them, so the militia were ineligible for the bounties. On June 9, Cornet John Brown and Captain Richard Shreve petitioned the New Jersey legislature "to allow them and their party to collect their reward offered for the capture of John Bacon and Ichabod Johnson." Two days later, the legislature voted them the reward of Shreve £50 and Brown £25. Its action is recorded in the minutes of the New Jersey Assembly: A Petition from Captain Richard Shreve and Cornet John Brown, of the County of Burlington, was read, praying that an order may pass to allow them and their Party the Reward offered by His Excellency’s proclamation for securing Ichabod Johnson and John Bacon: Whereupon, Resolved, that the Treasurer of the State be directed to pay unto Captain Richard Shreve, of the County of Burlington, the Sum of Twenty-five Pounds, in consequence of His Excellency’s proclamation, being for the use of himself and the party of men that assisted him in securing Ichabod Johnson; and to John Brown Cornet of Horse, of the said County, the Sum of Fifty Pounds, in consequence of said proclamation of His Excellency, being for the Use of himself and the Party of Men that assisted in securing John Bacon; and the Receipt of the said Richard Shreve and John Brown, shall be sufficient vouchers to the Treasurer for so much of the publick. The next month, July, Monmouth County held its seventh and final Court of Oyer and Terminer . The court was noteworthy because it did not charge any of the 38 people on the docket with a capital crime. The most noteworthy person indicted was Hannah Bacon, presumably Bacon’s captured wife. She was charged with misdemeanor—the details of her crime are unknown. She was likely complicit in Bacon’s partisan activities or allied with London Traders at Sandy Hook. Perspective Bacon was the last man killed in a military action in Monmouth County, and probably the last Revolutionary War belligerent killed anywhere in New Jersey. An objective look at the documentation on Bacon’s acts reveal that he was more “regular” in his conduct than most other Pine Robbers. Bacon’s actions did not include the kind of gratuitous violence and revenge attacks that characterized the careers of Pine Robbers like Lewis Fenton. Bacon skirmished (arguably battled) with militia, but these were military actions in which his assembled men battled militia parties sent to capture him. Twice, after killing Gloucester militia on Long Beach and with respect to the Maryland sailors above, Bacon brought prisoners to safety. His most notorious act, the Long Beach massacre, was a nighttime attack in which his outnumbered party slaughtered (likely sleeping) men. When Bacon’s men did so, they were employing the tactic used by British Captain Patrick Ferguson’s party on nearby Osborn Island in 1778. Ferguson reported that because his men were outnumbered and they attacked at night, “no quarter could be given.” Bacon, who surely knew of Ferguson’s attack, would have made the same argument. Several Pine Robbers survived Bacon, but there is no reason to think that Pine Robber gangs continued as active belligerents after Bacon’s death. Peace negotiations premised on American Independence were underway, the British ceased supporting Loyalist partisans, and thousands of Loyalists were being shipped to Canada . The remaining Pine Robbers likely melted back into the disaffected neighborhood s from which they came—though a few would have to endure vigilante punishments in the post-war period. Related Historic Site : Tuckerton Seaport & Baymen’s Museum Sources : David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 273-6; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 211-2; Joseph E. Wroblewski. Captain John Bacon: The Last of the Jersey Pine Robbers, September 28, 2021, Journal of the American Revolution, https://allthingsliberty.com/2021/09/captain-john-bacon-the-last-of-the-jersey-pine-robbers/ ; Maryland Gazette, March 27, 1783; Thomas Wilson, Notices from New Jersey Newspapers, 1781-1790 (Hunterdon House, 1820) p 19; New Jersey Gazette, April 9, 1783; Library of Congress, New Jersey Journal reel 1930 (mistakenly included on film with New Jersey Gazette, March 19, 1783); Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, May 1783, pp. 100-110, 122; Journals of the Legislative Council of New Jersey (Isaac Collins: State of New Jersey, 1783) p55; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - July 1783; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Peters of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# NJ 25927424; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Isaac Quigley of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# NJ 27214772. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > Pine Robbers Menace Dover and Stafford Townships by Michael Adelberg This map of Little Egg Harbor shows Osborn Island at the southern tip of Monmouth County, where 70 Loyalists camped at the end of 1781. The Loyalists worried shore leaders at Toms River. - December 1781 - In Monmouth County’s southern townships of Dover and Stafford (present-day Ocean County), the majority of inhabitants were ambivalent or opposed to the Revolution. The residents of the Little Egg Harbor, just south of Monmouth County, may have been even more disaffected. Lured to the profitable London Trade , disaffection flourished in these townships (disaffected men held several local offices ). In October 1778, snipers harassed Kasimir Pulaski’s Continentals as they marched north (after being decimated at Osburn Island ). In December 1780, Lt. Joshua Studson was killed in a boat near Toms River while intercepting a London Trading vessel. Pine Robber activity, centered in Shrewsbury Township in 1778-1779, and then moved south into Dover and Stafford Townships under new and resourceful leaders—William Giberson (originally from Upper Freehold ), William Davenport (likely from Gloucester County ), and, most notoriously, John Bacon (possibly from Arneytown on the border of Upper Freehold and Burlington County). Another Pine Robber leader, Joseph Mulliner, operated in Little Egg Harbor Township, just south of Monmouth County (see appendix for summary of Mulliner’s outlaw career). The Growing Pine Robber Threat The Pine Robber threat in southern Monmouth County and Little Egg Harbor Township (just south of Monmouth County) built through the second half of the Revolution. Job Clayton of the Monmouth Militia recalled in his postwar pension application that the Pine Robbers were "concealed through the extensive pines of the lower part of the county, and sprung out of them, plundered and robbed and murdered the inhabitants." Mary Throckmorton, wife of the militiaman, Job Throckmorton recalled her husband providing intelligence to the militia to inform an attack on a Pine Robber gang: The enemy had been to Burlington County and stole a number of horses & secured them in William Parker's Cedar Swamp, six miles off, the enemy had got information from their Tory friends that we was laying in wait for them… retook said horse and the thieves attending them. The attack, however, only aroused the Pine Robbers. Afterward, the Throckmorton family left the shore and relocated to Englishtown for its safety. An August 1780 newspaper report from Philadelphia reported the robbery of four houses just over the county line in Burlington County: John Black Jr., Clayton Newbold, William Newbold, and Caleb Shreve. The report continued, "Colonel William Shreve, with a number of inhabitants immediately set off in pursuit of the villains and overtook them at Borden's Run on the verge of the Pines.” The report continued, "one of the robbers, it is said, is taken to Monmouth Gaol." From this, it can be inferred that the captive either was from Monmouth County or was taken by Monmouth militia. Abraham Osborn, living in present-day Howell, also recorded after the war that "he was robbed by the Tories of his horses, cattle and furniture" in 1780. In March 1781, James Allen was robbed by a Pine Robber gang that included Nathan Lyon and Joseph Wood. Allen compiled a "memorandum of articles plundered from the house of James Allen" in 1784. His itemized losses demonstrate that Pine Robbers, while politically motivated, were also common thieves: cloth coat (£5 S10), one pair of buckles and breaches (£1 S10), musket, cartridge box & bayonet (£3 S10), pair of shoes (S7), pair of silver buckles (£1 S17), gold ring (£1 S4), 3 silver teaspoons (S15), 3 oz. of unwrought silver (£1 S5), one boat (£7 S2), 2nd boat (£6), pair of stockings (S6), 3 cambric stocks (S6), 2 shirts (S7 each), 2 handkerchiefs (S10), one Morocco Leather pocket book (S15), one razor (S7). Allen’s follow up note about Lyon demonstrates the familiarity that often existed between Pine Robbers and their victims: He [Lyon] lived about 1 3/4 miles from James Allen, when he was robb'd; that the robbers came to the house in the night -- that Nathaniel Lyon was with them -- he knew him afterwards and recognized that it was the same -- he was Lyon with a pair of breaches of Allen's -- that a few days afterward, he saw one Joseph Wood (as people say his name is), one of the men that was there that night with Lyon. Privateers also interacted and occasionally clashed with Pine Robbers, as when a party of Cape May militia captured a London Trading vessel at Shark River, lost it to a party of Pine Robbers at the mouth of Little Egg Harbor, and then retook it on Osborn Island. From June 1780 into 1782, a 30-man guard of state troops was posted at Toms River, the lone village in the shore townships that solidly supported the Revolution. Yet, this guard was too small to exert influence beyond the village. In May 1781, Colonel Samuel Forman, commanding the undersized militia of Dover and Stafford townships, wrote Governor William Livingston: The refugees [Loyalists], joined by a number of residents from Burlington County have drove Ensign [David] Imlay & some militia from the boundary of Little Egg Harbor to Hankins; our men have killed one & wounded two mortally. A reinforcement is demanded of me; I have ordered thirty five mounted [men] to their assistance for twelve days. Forman requested 150 Burlington County militia join him in a campaign against the Pine Robber gang that chased off the militia. He was angry that the leaders of Burlington County allowed disaffection and London Trading to fester on the shore: “The complaint lodged with me is bitter against the County of Burlington... the illicit trade is so much esteemed that their lives are endangered for it." The Loyalist attack may have been prompted by Imlay’s killing of the Pine Robber, Richard Bird. Bird was reportedly found in a cottage and was shot through a window without being given a chance to surrender. Zachariah Hankins, formerly disaffected, now serving under Imlay, would later report that Imlay’s posse "surprised and took a gang of Tories under the notorious Richard Bird, near Toms River, when Bird fell. It was always believed that Captain Imlay himself killed Bird." Pine Robber Gang Fights Off Militia and Threatens Toms River Six months later, Forman was still complaining about the disaffected living around Little Egg Harbor. On November 7, he wrote Governor Livingston about "the lower part of Monmouth” and “more particularly Burlington.” He further wrote: “The refugees come and go unmolested & repeatedly [are] joined by the inhabitants in their mischiefs under the cover of night." Forman discussed his inability to muster the disaffected into the militia, "My adjutant was beaten exceedingly last Monday night on the presumption that he had been to review that part of the regiment the preceding day; his son was also beaten shamefully on that same day." Forman called for a 40-man party to march against the disaffected neighborhood and arrest the assaulters. They would then remain as a guard. It did not happen. As Forman was lobbying the Governor, the Whigs of Dover and Stafford petitioned the state legislature. A November 1781 Stafford Township petition read: We do suffer on several accounts for want of militia or Continental guard to protect them from the ravages & devastations of the Refugees which they are committing every day by taking and treating in an inhumane and savage manner, & on the other hand they are censured by their own people for harboring and secreting them & holding a correspondence with those creatures. A Dover Township petition in December discussed: Several armed boats with a number of men are fortifying on Osburn's Island near Egg Harbor meeting house, with a view as we conceive to receive deserters from the American Army… also that a quantity of provisions is conveyed from that place to New York. - now we petitioners beg a guard to be stationed, to prevent such unlawful proceedings. At the bottom of this petition is an extraordinary unsigned statement about government inaction: I am extremely sorry so little attention is paid to the petitions of the inhabitants of this county by the legislature vizt. the legislature became immune of all human feeling for this suffering county - every year since the commencement of the war, we have paid dearly for the inattention of the legislature -- it is a most notorious faith & yet unaltered - does not this legislature know, for instance, their men in service [State Troops] expires, do they not know the difficulty & length of time it takes to recruit a number of men? March the legislature down to the lines, that they might see & feel a little of what these inhabitants have - it May be said where is the militia? - the militia is worn out. Captain Andrew Brown of Dover Township also wrote Livingston regarding “the precarious situation of the well affected inhabitants of this place.” He wrote of large Pine Robber gang at Little Egg Harbor: The refugees are this time more numerous in this quarter than has been known since the start of the war. I am well informed that they are fortifying at Little Egg Harbor where they have made a stand for a considerable time. The militia gunboat Flying Fish "was attacked by a superior force and narrowly escaped capture.” Brown continued: They have a number of boats down there now and we having nothing to oppose them but this one, whose force is not equal to them. I would wish and pray that something may be done to drive them from the shore by land or water, and that a guard may be continued at this place. Livingston wrote George Washington about the situation on the lower Monmouth shore on January 2, 1782. The Pine Robbers, he said, “have several armed boats, with a number of men, are fortifying Osborn's Island near Egg Harbor.” They “receive deserters from the American Army & for the greater convenience of conveying provisions to New York, which already go from that neighborhood in immense quantities.” Livingston was blunt about the inadequacy of the local militia: That part of the State is so disaffected or intimidated that the Refugees have reigned in it. Guards of our militia are, whether for want of pay or other cause, procured with the greatest difficulty, and when obtained are, for want of discipline & unfitness of their officers, not infrequently corrupted after being stationed on the lines by the alluring profits of illegal trade. Livingston requested a Continental guard "to prevent the well affected in those parts from deserting their habitations ... thereby extending the Enemy's lines." Livingston did not mention that Continental detachments in Monmouth County had mutinied in 1779 and traded with the enemy in 1780. A week later, three letters were sent to Governor Livingston by Brown (again), Major John Cook—the highest ranking lower shore office—and Abiel Aiken—the Dover Township magistrate. Each described the threat to Toms River. Cook wrote that “we were under arms all nite on information that about thirty refugees being on horse within 7 miles." Brown offered similar information; Aiken was more descriptive. "Our number here is small, the [State Troop] guard that was here was discharged and the militia is very slack coming to our assistance, which is very discouraging." Cook described the Pine Robber’s moated base on Osborn Island: “The main entrance is by causeway… and a bridge of 12 feet.” They had no cannon on land, but their armed boats had cannon. Cook noted that there were no regular soldiers at the base, but there was 50 to 80 armed men. Their base was formidable: “Their boats are armed: the one with a six pounder, swivels, etc., the other with 2 small carriage guns, swivels, etc. By good intelligence another large armed boat went thro' the bay last Sunday to join them.” Brown noted additional challenges with attacking Osburn’s Island: Whenever they are attacked or are apprehensive, they fly to their boats and proceed to the beach to the house of one Tucker, where the principal rendezvous is, and where we cannot come at them by water... as for the inhabitants in the neighborhood, they are no better than the refugees, as they do countenance and trade with them. Brown sized up the enemy: There [sic] numbers are forty to one hundred at times, and they have not less than five arm'd boats, some of which carry from a three to six pounder swivels and small arms, which are frequently plying from thence to New York to protect their trading boats. Aiken estimated that the Pine Robbers have 70 men and 5 boats which "are constantly plying up and down the bay and supporting illicit trade." He wrote that the Pine Robbers are based at Clam Town (modern-day Tuckerton), opposite Osburn’s Island, and their biggest boat has "one six pounder in the bow and three swivels on the sides." Cook and Brown wrote that the Loyalists were led by William Davenport (of Gloucester County) and Samuel Ridgeway (from one of Stafford Township’s leading families). Cook also complained that some of the Loyalists were criminals who were “pardoned by your Excellency and broke gaol , etc." Brown wanted to attack the Pine Robber base: “If we don't visit them, they will visit us.” However, he lacked the men to make an attack: “our number being small, the enlist'd men's being out and the militia very slack coming in." This is a reference to State Troop terms expiring at the end of the year. On January 11, Governor Livingston considered the three letters and forwarded them to Lord Stirling [William Alexander], commanding the New Jersey Line. The letters were carried by Elisha Lawrence, the former militia Lt. Colonel over the Dover and Stafford militias. Livingston wrote that Lawrence had “recently been on the spot with the command of a party of our militia to dislodge the Enemy. He is a member of our Council & the greatest confidence may be reposed of him." Lawrence and Stirling apparently discussed a campaign against the Loyalist base. Re-Assessing the Pine Robbert Threat However, George Washington quashed the campaign on January 13, writing Livingston that the Pine Robber threat was exaggerated. Washington had received contrary information from Colonel David Forman: Had I found the report to be well-grounded, I should have concerted my measures to dislodge them. From the best information I have been able to obtain, particularly from General Forman who is now in town, no lodgment was ever made on Osborn's Island or any other place. Washington acknowledged that the lower shore was a center for London Trading and bluntly expressed frustration with the persistent problem: A constant intercourse is carried on by water between the refugees and inhabitants, but no force which I could spare would prevent it, as they would, if kept out of one inlet, use another for their purposes. It is in vain to think the pernicious and growing traffic will ever be stopped until the States pass laws making the penalty death... We are, I believe, the only nation who suffer their people to carry on commerce with their Enemy in times of war. Livingston was likely caught off-guard by Washington canceling the campaign based on intelligence from Forman (who might have been assumed to support a campaign against Pine Robbers). The Governor likely consulted with Monmouth County leaders before responding to Washington on January 26: Relative to the affair of Egg harbour: As the facts upon farther enquiry appeared to be very different from the information I had at first received, it could not be expected that your Excellency should pursue such measures as I had hoped. Livingston acknowledged “your Excellency’s good intentions & am glad to find that the enemy have not yet dared to venture on so bold an attempt, ’tho’ they do infinite mischief in that part of the country.” Livingston concurred with Washington’s assessment regarding leniency toward London Traders: “I heartily concur with you in sentiment that it ought to be made capital [a capital offense].” Was the Pine Robber gang and base on Osburn Island exaggerated? Certainly, there are examples of enemy strength being exaggerated in unrelated reports. David Forman clearly thought his Monmouth County colleagues were overselling the threat to Toms River and he convinced Washington and Livingston accordingly. It can only be speculated why Forman undermined other county leaders, but it is worth noting that Aiken was a known opponent of the Retaliators (the vigilante group led by Forman). So, Forman may have sought the opportunity to quash an action that a rival desperately wanted. The Pine Robber gangs of Davenport and Bacon operated in Stafford Township in 1782. Davenport’s mixed-race gang was estimated to be 80 men—when it was surprised and routed at Forked River in June 1782. Based on this later report, the size of Davenport’s gang probably was not exaggerated by Cook, Brown and Aiken, though the threat against Toms River may have been. The local leaders were clearly on edge after the village’s state troop guard went home. Davenport’s gang never came to Toms River, but the residents of Toms River could not have not known this in January 1782. Toms River was indeed targeted by Loyalists—even after a new State Troop guard under Captain Joshua Huddy arrived there at the end of January. The village was razed in March 1782 by Associated Loyalists from New York, guided by local men such as William Dillon with ties to the Pine Robber gangs. Related Historic Site : Little Egg Harbor Friends Meeting Appendix: The Pine Robber, Joseph Mulliner Historian David Fowler has extensively researched Joseph Mulliner. He writes that Mulliner was likely from a poor Quaker family, probably from Little Egg Harbor Township in Burlington County. He was likely a London trader and may have interacted with other Pine Robber leaders like William Davenport and John Bacon. In late 1780, Mulliner was indicted for beating a man, and he became an outlaw after that. Fowler suggests that Mulliner’s gang consisted of about ten hard core members and he had access to dozens of associated London traders and disaffected. In 1781, Muller committed an arson and robbery on the homes of John Watson and the widow Bates of Burlington County. Mulliner’s documented activities were in Burlington County, not Monmouth. Secondary sources suggest that Mulliner carried a privateer’s commission from the British government. Mulliner was captured by Monmouth County militia and first jailed in Freehold in July 1781. The New Jersey Gazette reported him as “motivated by the devil” and further stated: This fellow has become a terror of the country. He made a practice of burning houses, robbing and plundering all who fell in his way... when he came to trial, it appeared that the whole country, both Whigs and Tories, were his enemies. Mulliner was transferred to Burlington County for trial. He was convicted of horse stealing and sentenced to be hanged on August 8. Mulliner’s hanging, on August 16, reportedly drew a hundred spectators. Interestingly, New Jersey Legislative Council (Upper House of the legislature) recommended him for a pardon in September, not knowing he was already dead. Sources : National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Job Clayton; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Job Throckmorton; Kenneth Scott, Rivington's New York Newspaper: Excerpts from a Loyalist Press, 1773-1783 (New York: New York Historical Society, 1973) p 232; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Abraham Osborn; Robbery Evidence, Princeton University, Special Collections, CO 315, box 5, folder: Monmouth Pleas; Samuel Forman to William Livingston, in Carl Prince, ed., Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 326; Dover and Stafford Township Petition in Carl Prince, ed., Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 328, 356 note; Monmouth County Petition, Massachusetts Historical Society, Monmouth County, NJ, Petition; Andrew Brown to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 356, 358 note; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 212; Edwin Salter, Old Tims in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 40; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - David Imlay; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Gregory of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# NJ 21671340; William Livingston to George Washington, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 35; John Cook to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 358; Andrew Brown to William Livingston in Richard J. Koke, "War, Profits, and Privateers Along the Jersey Coast," New York Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 41, 1957, p 3; Abiel Aiken’s letter is in Richard J. Koke, "War, Profits, and Privateers Along the Jersey Coast," New York Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 41, 1957, p 313; William Livingston to Lord Stirling, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 359, 361, 372; George Washington to William Livingston, John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 23, pp. 444-5; To George Washington from William Livingston, 26 January 1782,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07738, ver. 2013-09-28; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 215-225. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > The Loss of Tinton Falls by Michael Adelberg Lt. James Moody co-led a raid from Sandy Hook against Tinton Falls on June 10, 1779. The raiders captured five village leaders and 300 livestock. Afterward, the village was abandoned. - June 1779 - Through much of the Revolutionary War, a military frontier line stretched across northeast Monmouth County. On one side of that line was the British base at Sandy Hook, and on the other side was the New Jersey interior. In between was contested terrain, nominally-controlled by the New Jersey Government, but containing many disaffected residents and easily penetrated by Loyalist raiding parties. The village of Tinton Falls was in the middle of this contested stretch of land. Storekeeper Benjamin White wrote: We were so near the line that in the fore part of the night we had the British and Refugees, in the morning the American troops. My brother was called a King's Man or Refugee and myself a rebel or friend of the Jersey troops. Through early 1779, Continental troops were headquartered in Tinton Falls and a magazine of arms for the Shrewsbury Township militia was established there, in the barn of Colonel Daniel Hendrickson. However, an April raid by 750 British and Loyalist troops proved that the area was indefensible . As the Loyalist party entered the village, the Continentals assigned to defend the village retreated. The Loyalists burned a few of the village’s most prominent homes and, according to one resident, “behaved like wild or mad men” as they looted several buildings. Oddly, the raiders left the arms magazine intact. A few weeks after the raid, George Washington ordered his troops out of Monmouth County and the people of Tinton Falls attempted to put their lives back together. With the Continentals gone, the New Jersey Legislature, on June 2, authorized raising a regiment of State Troops to defend Monmouth County and Colonel Asher Holmes started raising that regiment. But raising an appreciable number of men would take several weeks—in the meantime the military frontier line was undefended and the people of Tinton Falls would suffer a brutal raid just ten days after the Continentals departed. Loyalist Accounts Three British-Loyalist newspapers (two New York newspapers and the London Gazette ) reported the raid against Tinton Falls. (The New York Gazette ’s report is in Appendix 1 of this article). According to these accounts, a party of 56 New Jersey Volunteers and local Loyalist refugees assembled on Sandy Hook on June 9. They were led by Captain Samuel Hayden, Lieutenant James Moody, and Lieutenant Thomas Okerson of Shrewsbury "who was perfectly acquainted with the country." The Loyalists landed at Jumping Point on the Shrewsbury River before dawn and advanced to Tinton Falls undetected. They divided into parties that surrounded the houses of the three militia officers who lived in the village: Colonel Daniel Hendrickson, Lt. Colonel Aucke Wikoff, and Captain Thomas Chadwick. In coordinated attacks, they captured the three officers. They soon captured Captain Richard McKnight and Major Hendrick Van Brunt who lived nearby. Loyalist newspapers described these men as “Tory persecutors” and claimed that McKnight had broken the terms of his parole from a prior capture by returning to militia service. The Loyalists took all of the “publick stores,” the arms magazine, and some 300 cattle and sheep. With their captives and booty, they withdrew to Jumping Point. Thirty local militia, led by Lieutenant Jeremiah Chadwick advanced on the raiders as they loaded their boats. A hot one-hour engagement ensued during which Lt. Chadwick and Loyalist officers cursed each other and called out that no quarter would be granted to captives. Chadwick then “received two balls” and died. “Upon his falling, the Volunteers charged with their bayonets, drove the rebels and took possession of the ground." Casualty figures vary slightly across accounts, but the militia suffered either two or three dead, twelve or fourteen wounded; as many as seven additional men were taken prisoner. The Loyalists, who had the decisive advantage of bayonets in hand-to-hand fighting, lost one man with two wounded. James Moody was a Loyalist from Sussex County who led a platoon of sixteen men during the raid. After the war, he wrote a self-aggrandizing autobiography that includes a narrative of the raid on Tinton Falls. He incorrectly stated that Loyalists took the militia officers "without destroying private property” but that they “destroyed a considerable magazine of powder and arms." Moody portrayed himself as leading the attack against the militia at Jumping Point. After running out of ammunition, “the bayonet was Moody’s only recourse, and this the enemy could not withstand; they fled leaving eleven of their number killed and wounded.” He reported that Lt. Chadwick died while uttering "bitter oaths of vengeance." After the militia was defeated, one of the rebels came forward with a handkerchief on a stick.” Moody then described his men’s withdrawal. A truce was agreed on, the conditions of which were that they should have their dead and wounded, while Moody and his party were permitted to return to the British lines unmolested. None of Moody’s men were wounded mortally. Moody reported that he sold his booty for “upwards of £500” and that “every shilling of which was given by Moody to his men for meritorious service." Whig Accounts The New Jersey Gazette reported briefly and incorrectly on the loss of Tinton Falls. The "party of Tories from Staten Island landed at Middletown in Monmouth County, plundered several houses and carried off four or five of the inhabitants prisoners." However, Philadelphia and Virginia newspapers reported more completely and accurately (even while under-reporting the prisoners and property taken): A party of Tories landed at Shrewsbury Thursday last, when they were opposed by about thirty militia, hastily collected, who, after some resistance retired with the loss of two killed and ten wounded. As the Tories kept the ground, their loss is unknown. As soon as the militia had retired, they collected thirty horses, some sheep and horned cattle; took Colonel Hendrickson and a few of the inhabitants, and made off. A receipt from Joseph Loring, British Commissary of Prisoners, from June 11 proves that the British accounts of the prisoners taken were correct. The receipt is a "List of Prisoners taken by the Refugees at Shrewsbury." It lists Daniel Hendrickson, Aucke Wikoff, Hendrick Van Brunt, Thomas Chadwick, Richard McKnight, and private Nicholas Van Brunt. Interestingly, a Maryland Continental, Private Abraham Irwin, was also taken. Maryland Continentals had been pulled out of Monmouth County ten days earlier—so Irwin was likely a deserter. New Jersey’s Chief Justice, Robert Morris of New Brunswick, went to Tinton Falls shortly after the April raid to help rally the people of the village. He returned after the June 10 raid. On June 20, he wrote that the enemy “carried off” Col. Hendrickson, Lt. Col. Wikoff, Maj. Van Brunt, Capt. McKnight, and Capt. Shaddock [Chadwick]. He listed the livestock theft as “eighteen horses, 100 cattle & 50 sheep,” less than Loyalist accounts but still a huge loss for a single village. He described the battle at Jumping Point, claiming less than twenty militia engaged the retreating Loyalists. They "skirmished with and pursued them to the water, with more spirit than providence." Morris wrote that Lt Chadwick & Pvt. Hendrickson were killed and six militia were wounded. Morris also claimed that the Loyalists lost much of their booty: "Most of the sheep and some of the cattle drowned, and greater part of their plunder is lost, the water being so deep as to overset one and wash things out of the other." He claimed that the Loyalists released five prisoners on the beach because they lacked space on their boats. Morris tried to reconvene the leaderless militia without success. He reported that the people of Tinton Falls were leaving the village: Some are quitting their habitations and others declare they are willing to do so, observing that if they must go on by starving, they had rather do it in the country than the Provost Jail… they are but farmers and mechanics in middling circumstances, I have little hope of continuing it long. Indeed, many of the women of Tinton Falls went west to Colts Neck where the local militia captain, James Green, provided for them . During the war, dozens of Monmouth Countians moved inland for safety. Two of the militiamen who fought the raiders at Jumping Point, realled the battle in their postwar veteran pension applications. Elihu Chadwick, the younger brother of Thomas and Jeremiah Chadwick, recorded being with Jeremiah as he was killed. Oakey Van Osdol recalled: Went to Monmouth Court House & from that down to Tinton falls where we were stationed to guard against the refugees at the time a company of Refugees came from sandy Hook Light House and landed at Black Point where Captain Jeremiah Chadwick with a company of men attacked them and they retreated below the bank down to the river and formed behind the Bank up the river & as Captain Chadwick advanced upon them they fired and killed him and killed some of his men. The most vivid New Jersey account of the raid was provided by Eliza Chadwick Roberts, the daughter of Thomas Chadwick. She described the death of her uncle, Jeremiah: My uncle, exasperated to the utmost pitch, followed the band and at daylight saw them already entering upon their boats to return to New York and discovered my father pinioned in one of the barges. She wrote of her uncle advancing on the raiders, but that all but eight of the militiamen fled during the battle (they likely ran out of ammunition and lacked bayonets for the hand-to-hand fight). Chadwick advanced though his party “was constantly exposed to their fire without being able to return it." Jeremiah Chadwick was shot in the neck and then in the chest. A Loyalist, "fearing he would survive, flew to his side, drew his own sword from his scabbard and buried it in his heart.” Antiquarian accounts add that Aucke Hendrickson, the brother of Daniel, accompanied Jeremiah Chadwick to Jumping Point and joined Chadwick in cursing the Loyalists. He survived the fight. Another source notes that private John Henderson was also killed by the Loyalists at Tinton Falls. An 1846 letter suggests that a small Loyalist party attacked nearby Shrewsbury and defeated a twelve-man guard of lingering Continentals at the same time that Tinton Falls was razed. (See Appendix 2.) The sacking and loss of Tinton Falls was a small military event, but a climatic one for the people of the village. Afterward, the village was abandoned. The raid moved the militia frontier line westward to Colts Neck for at least a year. Related Historic Site : Sandy Hook Lighthouse Appendix 1: New York Gazette account of the attack on Tinton Falls On the 9th day of June instant, a party of volunteers went down to Sandy Hook, where they were joined by a small detachment of Col. Barton’s regiment of New Jersey Volunteers, from where they proceeded to the Gut, about four miles distant, but as the wind blew very hard, the boats that were to be provided did not come in, and they were obliged to return to the Light House. On the 10th, being ready to leave the Gut, it was agreed by the party that Lieut. Okerson, who was perfectly acquainted with the country, should give them direction. They advanced undiscovered with fifty-six men, as far as Fenton [Tinton] Falls, about ten miles from the landing, where they halted just as the day broke, near the rebel headquarters at the back of the town, but not knowing the house where their main guard was kept, they determined to surround three houses at the same time. Capt. Hayden, of General Skinner’s, proceeded to the house of Mr. McKnight, a rebel Captain; Ensign [James] Moody to the house of Mr. Hendrickson, a Colonel; and Lieutenant Throckmorton to one, Chadwick’s, a rebel Captain. The three parties came nearly at the same time to the place where the main party of the rebels was kept but missed them, they being on a scout. They made Col. Hendrickson, Lieut. Col. Wikoff, Capts. Chadwick and McKnight, and several privates, prisoners; after proceeding one mile further took Mr. Van Brunt. They collected about three hundred sheep and horses belonging to the rebels. A warm engagement ensued at Jumping Inlet [Shrewsbury Inlet], and continued an hour, where they heard the Captain of the rebels declare that he would give them no quarter, and soon after he received two bullets, whereupon his falling, the Volunteers charged with the Bayonets, vanquished the rebels and took possession of the ground where the dead and wounded lay. When they had crossed the river, they observed a man with a flag riding down from the rebels, who asked for permission to carry off the dead and wounded, which was immediately granted. The man with the flag informed them that the whole of their party there was engaged were killed or wounded. They returned to Sandy Hook the same evening with their prisoners and a quantity of livestock, &c. The names of the men who engaged the rebels are as follows: --Captain Samuel Heyden, Lieut. Thomas Okerson, Lieutenant Hutchinson, Ensign Moody, first battalion General Skinner’s, Lieutenant John Buskirk of Colonel Ritzema’s, five privates of General Skinner’s; two sailors and a coxswain of one of the boats, Marphet [Morford] Taylor, William Gillian, John Worthley, volunteers. In the engagement, one officer and two privates of the volunteers were wounded. Appendix 2: June 1779 – The Allen House Massacre The Allen House was the most prominent tavern in the village of Shrewsbury. It had hosted the key town meetings in 1775 in which the Loyalist-leaning residents of the township resisted and then acceded to join the Continental movement. As the war commenced, the village of Shrewsbury sat on the military frontier line. The village was nominally under the control of the Continental and New Jersey governments, but it could not be defended against Loyalist partisans on nearby Sandy Hook. Many locals lived as neutrals—maintaining relationships with both militaries. In 1779, small parties of Continentals were stationed in the village of Shrewsbury. According to a letter written by Lyttleton White in 1846, a 12-man guard, under a Lieutenant was stationed at the Allen House in the summer of 1779 “to watch the movements of the Tories.” A small Loyalist raiding party set their sights on the Allen House: Five of the Tories or Refugees came in a boat up a branch of South Shrewsbury River - landed and under cover of woods hedges and etc. - got the south side of the Episcopal Church about 6 rods from the above said house - the party being headed by Joseph Price and Richard Lippincott. From nearby bushes, the Loyalists spied on the tavern. The Continentals were remiss in protecting themselves. The Loyalists “found no sentries set and [the soldiers] lounging about, not under arms.” Seeing this, the Loyalists attacked: Price then ordered his party to fix their bayonets and started on full run for the house, where the troops was quartered - their arms all stood together in the North room - one of Price's men grabbed them all in his arms - A scuffle took place being 12 [Continental soldiers] to 5 of the Refugees - the man who held fast on the guns of the American troops was thrown but held fast. They put the bayonet through one of the 12 and he fell at once on the floor - and run two more of them through, the Lieutenant then surrendered. The twelve-man guard was thoroughly defeated by the smaller Loyalist party: “one of the two last killed got out into the road, his bowels coming out, he soon died; the other one got somewhat farther off and fell and likewise died - [The raiders] took the other 9 prisoners - broke their guns round a Locust tree, and made their escape.” Locals presumably had the ability to spot the Loyalist raiders and alert the Continentals before the attack. But the residents of Shrewsbury village were known to be largely disaffected, and their disaffection for the Continentals was likely enhanced by provocations from the soldiers. An antiquarian source claimed that the Continental troops stationed in Shrewsbury created mischief in the village: Several took target practice at the iron crown atop the Shrewsbury Christ Church (the crown was a symbol of the British monarchy). The soldiers did not dislodge the crown, but did put several shots into the church. On another occasion, a soldier set fire to the church. An alert local Quaker, William Parker, extinguished the fire. The tavern’s pre-war owner was Josiah Halstead, but he had fallen into debt and creditors turned him out in 1779, when William Lippincott began managing the tavern. Lippincott purchased a Loyalist estate in April 1779 and was a vestryman at the (Anglican) Christ Church , as it steered away from the Loyalism of its former minister, Samuel Cooke. So, Lippincott might have been targeted by local Loyalists. Interestingly, Joseph Price had married Halstead’s daughter, Amelia Halstead. So, Price likely knew the tavern well and the raid may have had a familial-revenge angle. Lyttleton White’s letter also narrates a second, related, event: In the year and summer, 1779, a party of Refugees landed at Jumping Point – 6 miles east from the village of Shrewsbury, about 25 in number, and made their way as far up as Tinton Falls, collecting and driving off as many cattle as they could - The above party landed by the above Joseph Price. Captain Jeremiah Chadwick, being informed of it, collected all the men he could as well, some few troops on duty, and formed them about 2 miles east of Shrewsbury village, came within shooting distance and kept up a firing on long shot, the Refugees still driving the Gut. It is probable that this event occurred concurrently with the attack on Allen House. The details regarding Jeremiah Chadwick rallying the local militia are similar to what other sources report about Chadwick on June 10, 1779, when Tinton Falls was destroyed by Loyalist raiders. Skepticism about the Allen House Massacre The Allen House Massacre is documented in just a single source, Lyttleton White’s letter, and that source was written in 1846, decades after the fact. According to White, Joseph Price came back to Shrewsbury after the war and talked about the raid with White and others and the raid. Given the thin documentation, there is some reason to question the Allen House Massacre and consider whether it should be treated as a real event. This author believes that the Allen House Massacre should be treated as a real event because the essential facts detailed in the 1846 letter are corroborated in other sources. These include: Continental soldiers were stationed in the village of Shrewsbury in 1779; Continental soldiers stationed in Shrewsbury Township were ill-disciplined and vulnerable to attack and capture; Small Loyalist raiding parties were active in northeast Monmouth County in 1779; Joseph Price and Richard Lippincott, named by White, were active Loyalist raiders; At least three Shrewsbury Loyalist raiders—Price, Clayton Tilton, and Joseph Paterson—returned to Shrewsbury Township after the war; A party of seven men quartered in Shrewsbury village was taken and captured on January 12, 1780 (establishing a likelihood that similar events occurred nearby). The Allen House Massacre was a small military clash. But it was exactly the kind of nasty, little event that characterized the Revolutionary War in Monmouth County from 1779 through 1782. A number of events that are the subject of articles in this series, including the remarkable court martial of the Loyalist Jacob Wood and the bold prison escape by John Hewson, are documented in only one source. On balance and with appropriate qualifiers, the Allen House Massacre should be interpreted as a real event. Sources : Benjamin White quoted in Judith M. Olsen, Lippincott, Five Generations of the Descendants of Richard and Abigail Lippincott (Woodbury, N.J.: Gloucester County Historical Society, 1982) pp. 159-61; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Oakey Vanosdol, National Archives, p4-9; Autobiography of Eliza Chadwick Roberts, coll. 215, Monmouth County Historical Association; United Empire Loyalists, Loyal Directory: http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Info ; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Moody’s narrative printed in Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p207; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 404-5; Susan Burgess Shenston, So Obstinately Loyal, James Moody (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000) p64; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 3, p 429; James Moody, Lieut. James Moody's Narrative of His Exertions and Sufferings in the Cause of Government, Since the Year 1776 (Gale - ECCO, 2010) pp. 10-2; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 3, pp. 441, 456-7, 475; The London Magazine (London: R. Baldwin, 1780) p349-50; Autobiography of Eliza Chadwick Roberts, coll. 215, Monmouth County Historical Association; Virginia Gazette, July 3, 1779; Munn, David, Battles and Skirmishes of the American Revolution in New Jersey, (Trenton: Bureau of Geology and Topography, New Jersey Geological Survey, 1976) p 140; Morris, Robert, “Letters of Chief Justice Morris, 1777–1779,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. 38 (1920), pp. 175-6; Munn, David, Battles and Skirmishes of the American Revolution in New Jersey, (Trenton: Bureau of Geology and Topography, New Jersey Geological Survey, 1976) p 65; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Elihu Chadwick; Prisoner Receipt, William Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, vol. 60. Allen House Massacre Sources : Lyttleton White, "The Allen House Massacre", Monmouth County Historical Association Newsletter, vol. 1, 1973, January 1973, p 1; Lyttleton White to Daniel Veech McKean, Monmouth County Historical Association, Subjects Alphabetical, #98; The Allen House, unpublished manuscript in the collection of the Monmouth County Historical Association, January 2012; Gustav Kobbe, The New Jersey Coast and Pines (Forgotten Books, 2015) p 28; Margaret Hofer, A Tavern for the Town: Josiah Halstead's Community and Life in Eighteenth Century Shrewsbury (Freehold: Monmouth County Historical Association, 1991) p 14; Beck, Henry Charlton, The Jersey Midlands (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1939) pp. 345-346; Howard Peckham, The Toll of Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) p 67. 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 > Captain Francis Wade at Allentown by Michael Adelberg Drawing of a Commissary’s wagon delivering provisions to the Continental Army. Commissary officers, such as Francis Wade at Allentown, had authority to seize provisions and wagons from locals. - January 1777 - As discussed in prior articles , Francis Wade of Philadelphia was a captain in the Continental Army’s Commissary Department. He was sent to Allentown in late December, 1776, to raise provisions for the Army. He arrived at a very precarious time—the Loyalist insurrectionists were scattered by Pennsylvania and Delaware soldiers, but the Loyalists were not yet defeated. There was no effective county government in Freehold. Dozens of residents were recently plundered of their livestock by Loyalist insurrectionists; others were detained and harassed. Wade faced the exceedingly difficult task of setting up an office to purchase livestock for the Continental Army at a time when the Continental government lacked both money and legitimacy. Ultimately, he was not up to the task. Francis Wade at Allentown The first documented action by Wade occurred on January 2, 1777. According to statements made by Wade and Benjamin Randolph, a merchant who guided Wade, the two men with “a few horsemen” went to the house of Richard Robins. Robins was a leading Loyalist insurrectionist. At his house, they found 39 “well-dressed” hogs which had likely been gathered during the Loyalist insurrection for the benefit of the British Army. Richard Robins was in hiding and Mrs. Robins, according to Wade and Randolph, was uncooperative. Wade recalled his conversation with her: I informed her that our army was then suffering for want of provisions; that I was to send beef and pork for their relief, and for whatever she could spare a generous price should be given; she declared they had scarce enough for the family; nay, she was sure they would fall short. I asked if they had lately killed any beef or had pork for sale; she replied ‘not any.’ When the hogs were discovered by Wade’s men, Mrs. Robins claimed no knowledge of them. Since she did not assert ownership of the hogs, Wade felt no need to compensate her when he carried them off. Richard Robins was discovered and jailed. His family claimed the right to compensation for the taken hogs and the matter reverberated in the courts into 1783. There is no evidence to suggest that the Robins family was compensated. Interestingly, it appears that Wade performed this action before he had official orders to do so. The first mention of Wade’s assignment is on January 10. On that day, George Washington wrote: "I have appointed Capt. Francis Wade to collect a quantity of provisions (particularly pork) in and about the towns of Allentown and Crosswix & c. and store the same at Newtown in Bucks County." The same day, Washington sent his official order to Wade: “You are empowered to collect all the beef, pork, flour, spirituous liquors & c. not necessary for the subsistence of the inhabitants of all parts of East Jersey lying below the road leading from Trenton to Brunswick.” Wade was also empowered “to collect & press such wagons, carriages & c. as may be necessary to transport the provisions.” Washington encouraged Wade to offer generous terms to the locals, but also empowered him to impress goods if refused: You are to notify the inhabitants and request them to bring in all the above enumerated articles not necessary for their own subsistence, at such a price as you shall appoint, for which they shall be paid a generous price; but if any should refuse to comply with the request, you are required to take such articles as they withhold by force, giving the proper certificates for the articles. Over the next few weeks, it appears that Wade’s primary duty was cataloging the goods taken by Francis Gurney’s Pennsylvania regiment as it pushed east from Freehold following the “ first ” Battle of Monmouth. Gurney’s men broke up Loyalist stores at Middletown and Shrewsbury. On January 29, Wade, still at Allentown, compiled a list of goods sent to him by Gurney. He wrote Washington: “Enclosed you have a return of provisions stopped by me from Lt. Col. Gurney's party." He sent forward: 55 barrels of fresh pork, 59 sacks of peas, 3 turces of rice, 1 half-pipe of wine, 7 casks of rum, 3 barrels of sugar, 1 cask of limes, 17 hatchets, 2 iron pots, 3 iron kettles, and a half cask of oil. The caravan was valued at £905. In the same report, Wade noted difficulties in raising meat for the Army. He complained: I have great mortification to be without the assistance, at present, of either men or money, I have had, until a few days past, a few of the Philadelphia County militia, but their time being out, as they say, are going home. So I have not a man. He further complained about the "extravagant price " of salt (in which meat was packed in order to preserve it). Wade noted that "I have sent a party yesterday down to the salt works where I had information there is a quantity ready, with orders to secure it." Two weeks later, Wade wrote Congress from Allentown that he had "made considerable progress purchasing provisions of pork & c. for the use of the Army, but have not been so fortunate as to obtain one shilling to pay.” Wade was issuing receipts for purchases but warned that his inability to pay cash “causes a general murmuring among the people & makes my situation rather disagreeable.” Wade also noted his competition with the State of New Jersey’s Commissary Office, “I have purchased at a much lower rate than the [State] Commissary has been giving for the same articles.” He concluded his letter ominously: “I am desirous to do all the good service I can, but unless supported by your body in the cash way, I will find it impossible." On March 4, Wade again wrote Congress from Allentown. His relations with locals had soured, "I have to deal with a sett of the most disaffected wretches that were existed” who are "prejudicing others against me by insinuating that I was never intending they should be paid for their produce." Wade noted that he asked General Israel Putnam to send him men so that he could go east to seize provisions as Gurney had done in January. If "he will strengthen me, I intend tomorrow for Monmouth (Ct. House), Shrewsbury." Wade’s March 4 letter was likely forwarded to George Washington. On March 19, Washington wrote Major Thomas Mifflin about Wade and other commissary officers in New Jersey: I have had so many complaints of irregularity and ill conduct in the Deputy Commissaries, which I have in vain endeavored to remedy, that I some time ago directed Colo. Trumbull [Jonathan Trumball] to come down himself and regulate his own Department. I expect him daily, when I hope he will make strict inquiry into the Conduct of all of them. Washington also specifically discussed Wade. “Capt. Wade may be a man of warm temper, but he has had a sad disaffected Set to deal with." On March 25, Wade wrote George Washington, but that letter has not survived. Washington’s response on March 28 suggests that Wade wrote about his continued frustrations with Monmouth’s disaffected: I have yours of the 25th inclosing sundry Letters and papers respecting some of the most notorious of the disaffected in the County of Monmouth. It is lamented that the States will not pursue the proper Methods to root out all such dangerous Enemies from among them. It is not in my power to do it at present, having sufficient work upon my Hands to watch the common and more powerful Enemy—But I hope the time will come when they will pay for their Villanies. By April, Wade’s purchasing activities seem to have ceased, but his involvement in local activities against Loyalists increased. After Lewis Bestedo captured a gang of Loyalists (the subject of another article ), Wade and David Brearley examined the prisoners on April 10. Wade wrote Governor William Livingston about one of the captured Loyalists, Jesse Woodward: “I find he is very backward in giving any information.” But Wade’s concern with disaffection in Monmouth County extended far beyond Woodward and foreshadowed the Pine Robber gangs that started in 1778: “It plainly appears that there is a gang of them living in the pines and no doubt in readiness to show themselves whenever an opportunity offers.” Wade promised to seek military assistance from George Washington. He worried that the local militia, under Colonel Samuel Forman, was not ready to face down the Loyalists because their "ammunition is much wanting." Indeed, Colonel Forman’s men were not in good shape. But he blamed that, in large part, on Wade. Forman wrote Livingston complaining that higher prices were paid for provisions in Philadelphia than in Allentown, resulting in local shortages. He complained: "I expected we had two days provision of meat, but alas… we had no meat & none be expected from the Commissary." He wrote that the commissaries “leaving only receipts only is another great stumbling block." Forman concluded that “every man pleads the right of getting the best price he can - they say 'we are fighting for liberty & are deprived of liberty by our own people' [commissaries purchasing at a fixed price], they don't understand." Francis Wade Leaves Allentown Wade’s time in Allentown was nearly done. It is unclear exactly when he left, but Wade was home in Philadelphia in May. There, he heard that his time at Allentown was viewed negatively. He wrote George Washington, "it gives me concern to think that you have been troubled on account of the departments I have been acting in… I have petitioned the Congress to appoint a committee to inquire into my conduct & the conduct of the people I had to deal with.” The Continental Congress convened such an inquiry and three Upper Freehold Whigs—John Lawrie, Michael Mount and Jacob Hendrickson—petitioned in support of Wade. On June 26, Congress concluded that Wade “governed himself as nearly to the principles of justice and moderation, and acted with as little severity as might be expected in the execution of such an office." Wade also expressed concern regarding David Forman’s attempt to bring Monmouth County’s disaffected to heel through a general militia muster : I wish I could join your Excellency in the opinion by which Genl. Forman being able to keep the disaffected in Monmouth County in order. I fear he has not the strength for it & as to their militia, I am of the opinion that if they do turn out, they will be of more hurt than good to him. Forman’s actions in Monmouth County in 1777 are the subject of several other articles . As for Wade, he never returned to Monmouth County, but a reconfigured commissary department would again raise provisions in Monmouth County starting in 1778. This time, a local officer, David Rhea, would lead the effort. Related Historic Sites : Morristown National Historical Park . Sources : Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; George Washington to Congress, January 10, 1777, The George Washington Papers, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov ; George Washington to Francis Wade, January 10, 1777, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw060380)) ; Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 3B, reel 17, January 11, 1777; Francis Wade to George Washington, January 29, 1777, 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. 185–186; Francis Wade to Congress, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/P?mgw:7:./temp/~ammem_XXqo :: Francis Wade to Congress, February 16, 1777, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I78, Miscellaneous Letters to Congress, v23, p367; Francis Wade to George Washington, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I78, Miscellaneous Letters to Congress, v23, p383; George Washington to Thomas Mifflin, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw070298)) ; George Washington to Francis Wade, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 9, 28 March 1777 – 10 June 1777, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 7–8; Samuel Forman to William Livingsgton, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Manuscript Coll., State Library Manuscript Coll., #121; David Fowler, egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 87; Francis Wade to William Livingston, Selections from the Correspondence of the Executive of New Jersey, From 1776 to 1786 (Newark, NJ: Newark Daily Advertiser, 1848) p 53; Francis Wade to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 42, May 1777; Journals of the Continental Congress, June 26, 1777, p499 ( www.ammem/amlaw/lwdg.html ). Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > The Capture of the Outlaws John and Robert Smith by Michael Adelberg Out-of-state and British deserters committed various crimes against Monmouth County’s farm families as they sought to go to and from Sandy Hook throughout the Revolutionary War. - May 1780 - Prior articles have demonstrated the rise in violence and felonies during the Revolutionary War in Monmouth County. County courts of Oyer and Terminer were held in 1778 and 1779, resulting in several capital convictions. Pine Robber gangs committed numerous violent crimes along the shore and interior pinelands. Loyalist raiding parties conducted numerous “manstealings” —including more than a dozen militia officer kidnappings in the summer of 1780 alone. On top of all of this, small bands of British and Loyalist prison escapees and outlaws traversed Monmouth County on their way to and from British lines via Sandy Hook. This was known by state and local authorities. On January 20, 1779, the New Jersey Gazette published a notice about these roving men: It appears that a constant correspondence is kept up, and traffic carried on between the Refugees of New York and disaffected persons in this State and Pennsylvania, chiefly by way of Shrewsbury. Magistrates and other officers would do well to examine suspicious people traveling to and from that place. The Capture of John and Robert Smith On May 27, the Pennsylvania Gazette printed a brief account written from the jail in Philadelphia: John Smith and Robert Smith, charged with the murder of Mr. Boyd, a collector of the County of Chester, are taken and secured in the gaol of this city. The vigilance of the good people of Freehold in New Jersey on this occasion does them honor, and particularly the Sheriff of Monmouth County, David Forman, Esq., [cousin of Colonel David Forman] whose son, a youth of nineteen, after receiving the fire of Robert Smith, at twenty yards distance, took them both, and drove them before him to the guard. The Pennsylvania Evening Post further reported that "the two Smiths…were brought to this city. They were near Shrewsbury on their way to New York. They made their escape by force of arms from the party that first took them, but were afterwards both taken by a single man." On May 31, Colonel Samuel Forman, commanding the Upper Freehold militia, wrote an account of the same incident that was published in the New Jersey Gazette . He wrote that the family of Sheriff David Forman was at breakfast when: A soldier almost out of breath burst into the room, and stated that he and another soldier were conducting to the Court House, two men, taken up on suspicion at Colts Neck; they had knocked down his comrade, seized his musket and escaped. Sheriff Forman rode off for the courthouse to raise a posse while his seventeen-year-old son, Tunis Forman, loaded a musket with bird shot. Tunis was not with his father when "he discovered the men sitting on a fence, who, on perceiving him, ran into a swamp." Tunis pursued the men for a mile. Smith fired on Tunis but missed, then young Tunis Forman “compelled the men to throw down the musket by threatening them with death if he did not instantly comply.” Forman then “drove them to the court house, careful, however, to keep them far apart to prevent conversation." Sheriff David Forman and Tunis brought the men to Philadelphia on May 24, where they were handsomely rewarded. That day, the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, drew up an order, "in favor of David Forman, Esq., County of Monmouth… for the sum of £20,000, the reward offered by the Board for securing John Smith and Robert Smith." There are two additional accounts of the capture of John and Robert Smith from the early 1800s. Samuel Forman (not the militia Colonel, but a cousin of Tunis Forman) wrote a memoir that included a mention of the capture: A cousin of his, Tunis Forman, about seventeen years of age, met two robbers; after one fired at him and missed, he, getting advantage of them in the adjustment of his gun, forced them to throw down their weapons, when he marched them several miles, and lodged them in jail at Freehold; for this brave act, young Forman received a large reward. In his postwar veteran’s pension application, John Staatesor, a private in the State Troops in May 1780, recalled capturing John and Robert Smith while serving as a sentry at the Colts Neck farm of Captain Jacob Fleming. He found the outlaws on the road and asked them for papers or the countersign. When they produced neither; he arrested them and took them to Fleming's farm. The Smiths were unarmed but carrying bridles in their packs (suggesting they were planning to steal horses). Staatesor was ordered to take them to the county jail at Freehold. However, the next day, while being walked to Freehold, the Smiths escaped their two guards. That is when the Forman family was alerted, leading to Tunis Forman’s remarkable capture of the two outlaws. Other Out-of-County Outlaws The capture of John and Robert Smith is the best-documented incident of Monmouth Countians capturing roving outlaws heading to New York, but it certainly was not the only such incident. Historians Harry Ward and David Fowler both noted a connection between Upper Freehold Loyalist partisans, John Woodward and Samuel Woodward, and the notorious Doane Gang of Pennsylvania. They collaborated in robbing John Hart, the Burlington County Collector in October 1781, taking £2,000 in currency. Elizabeth Woodward sheltered members of the gang. Burlington County court papers read, “The jurors here conclude that Elizabeth Woodward… did conceal Moses Doane, Nathan Tomlinson and divers others" while they were armed with "guns & pistols and other weapons" despite knowing them to be "notorious thieves and robbers." The Pine Robber , Lewis Fenton, on the day after the Battle of Monmouth, sought to rob the Cooper family south of Freehold only to be chased off by a band of German soldiers, deserted from the British Army, who may have had more ambitious larceny in mind. Later in the war, Lt. Colonel Klein, a German officer who deserted the British for the Continental Army, was arrested in Monmouth County while attempting to illegally go to New York. African Americans were also lured to Sandy Hook by British promises of freedom . One example was documented in the New Jersey Gazette , which advertised: "taken up at Toms River on July 20th [1779] a Negro man who called himself John Thomas, but made his escape." Over the course of the war, there are more than a dozen documented cases of military officers picking up deserters from British ships at Sandy Hook. The first deserter was taken in Monmouth County on May 14, 1776, three weeks before the Declaration of Independence was signed. As the British Army traversed Monmouth County during the Battle of Monmouth campaign, hundreds of deserters wandered parts of the county. No doubt, they committed many petty crimes on their way toward eventually surrendering. British navy deserters came over from Sandy Hook throughout the war. Loyalists from as far away as South Carolina came through the county on their way into British lines. Colonel Lewis Nicola recorded taking up deserters from the Hunter , a guard ship at Sandy Hook: five on June 14, 1779, six more on August 12, three more on September 10, and seven more on January 12, 1780. On April 5, 1779, Continental Army Captain Walter Finney reported chasing a Loyalist party near Shrewsbury. The Loyalists eluded Finney’s troops but Finney’s men took others: The whole detachment set out in quest of them [Loyalist raiders], missed the main object, but in our route took two negroes and one deserter and two suspected persons, put the whole, with one other deserter, into one room--the two most noted villains in irons. Deserters were not always trouble, some attempted to integrate into civilian life. A British navy deserter, Charles Jackson, settled at “Clamtown” just south of Monmouth County. He served faithfully in the local militia, even battling a British raiding party at “the Battle of Little Egg Harbor ” and serving on the privateer, Two Sisters . Other deserters were apparently living at Freehold in early 1780; Loyalist William Smith, on February 21, recorded that British offers of amnesty to German deserters who "have got into rebel lines at Freehold." But the experience with Peter Berry may have been more typical. Berry deserted from the British Army during the Battle of Monmouth Campaign and settled at Allentown where he was employed as a tailor under an indenture. On September 10, William Lloyd, the township constable, advertised him as “absconded”—Berry had broken the indenture that bound him to Allentown. Deserters were still being picked up by militia late in 1782. John Little, a Justice of the Peace for Shrewsbury Township, recorded receiving seven deserters on October 15, another deserter on November 16, and one more on December 21, 1782. More than once, British prisoners who escaped from inland prisons traveled across Monmouth County on their way to Sandy Hook. David Brearley wrote on September 1, 1779, that: "A few days ago, three British soldiers were apprehended making their way through the pines to the Monmouth seashore, in order to get to New York." On examination, the men were found to have walked all the way from the jail in Frederick, Maryland (which had housed fifty Monmouth Loyalists two years earlier). Armed robberies in Upper Freehold Township continued into 1780. On May 31, the New Jersey Gazette reported: A number of armed villains supposed to be about twelve broke open the house of Mr. John Holmes of Upper Freehold in Monmouth County, and robbed him of 400 or 500 Pounds Continental money, a silver watch, a gold ring, silver buckles, a fire lock, a pair of pistols, clothing, provisions and ammunition. Upper Freehold Township remained unsafe into summer 1782. On June 18, New Jersey’s Upper House (the Legislative Council) recorded receiving: Affidavit from Abraham Hendricks, Collector of the Township of Upper Freehold, proving robbery having been committed on his house on the evening of June 12th last by a number of armed men, who robbed the house of cash and effects to considerable value… Robbed by a number of persons unknown, armed and associated into a party, two of whom entered the said house with muskets, and putting the family in fear, robbed said Hendricks of considerable sums of money and effects. Two months later, the New Jersey Gazette published an announcement from John Cox of Upper Freehold, Chairman of an association of citizens living from Allentown and Burlington. He called on local magistrates and militia officers: To attend particularly to the vigorous execution of the law against vagrant and idle persons, the Act to prevent illicit trade and intercourse with the enemy, and the law passed 10th Jan'y 1779 to prevent persons traveling through this state without a passport; and, in a word, use their every possible means in their power to effect the grand purpose of disappointing the Enemy. By war’s end, there was at least one robber gang that combined Pennsylvania and Monmouth County Loyalists. On August 6, 1782, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Executive Council recorded interrogating two robbers, Jesse Vickers and Solomon Vickers. The Council learned that “it appears probable that Caleb Paul [of Pennsylvania] is now confined in gaol in the County of Monmouth, under some other name.” It also warned the New Jersey Government that two members of the Woodward family were robbing with the Vickers family in Bucks County Pennsylvania: Ordered, that a communication be made to Governor [William] Livingston, with a request that he may be delivered to this state, and also inform Governor Livingston that two men named Woodward, who lived near Crosswicks, have been concerned in robbing the Treasurer of the County of Bucks. The same gang of robbers—the Vickers brothers, two members of Upper Freehold’s Woodward family , and perhaps a few others—killed a militia sentry, Richard Wilgus, near Allentown, before heading west to Bucks County. The New Jersey Gazette reported: One Richard Wilgus, with several others were watching the road below Allentown in order to detect person with contraband goods, were attacked by a number of armed men, when the said Wilgus fell sacrifice to their cruelty; he was shot through the bowels and in one of his arms, of which he is since dead. Monmouth Countians seeking to live normal lives faced many dangers during the American Revolution—including militia service and clashes with various Loyalist enemies. These included military clashes and Loyalist raids. All of these dangers and disruptions were considerable—but so was the increase in violent crime related to external outlaws coming through the county on their way to or from British lines. Related Historic Site : Covenhoven House Sources : Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p 387; The New Jersey Gazette notice is printed in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 136; Pennsylvania Archives, Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council,1859, v 12, p396; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post; Pennsylvania Gazette, May 31, 1780 (CD-ROM at the David Library, #28071); Samuel Forman, Narrative of a Journey down the Ohio and Mississippi, (reprint) Wentworth Press, 2016, p6; Samuel Forman’s account, published in the New Jersey Gazette, and reprinted in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 129-30; Chester County Historical Society, Diary of Walter Finney; Pennsylvania Gazette, September 19, 1778 (CD-ROM at the David Library, #25766); New Jersey Archives, (Call Printing: Paterson, NJ, 1903) vol. 2, p 438; National Archives, Charles Jackson, R.5513, State Ohio, Ross County; Continental Congress accounts, Peter Force, American Archives, (Force and Clarke: Washington, DC, 1837) Series 4, vol. 6, p1667; Records of John Little, Justice of the Peace, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Gloucester County Docket Book, coll. 860; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971) p 234; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Notice from David Brearley in Pennsylvania Archives, Minutes of the Provincial Council, 1859, p285; Papers Relating to the War of the Revolution, v3, p285; David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 222-3; The robbery of John Holmes is in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 137; William Nelson, Austin Scott, et al., ed., New Jersey Archives (Newark, Trenton, Somerville, 1901-1917) vol. 4, p 401; Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (New Jersey Archives, 3d ser., Trenton, 1974), vol. 5, p 458; Records of Lewis Nicola, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 187, item 169, #35, 116, 136, 191; Information on the Doane Gang is in Harry Ward, Between the Lines, 120, 130-3; Pennsylvania Archives, Minutes of the Supreme Executive, v 13, p344; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, August 7, 1782, reel 1930. . Previous Next