Research Library The MCHA Research Library & Archives is a significant resource for historians, genealogists, scholars, and anyone with an interest in the storied history of Monmouth County, one of New Jersey’s earliest permanent settlements. The Association houses one of the largest collections of local published and unpublished materials in the state, including more than 1,000 manuscript collections. The breadth and depth of these collections offer regional insights into the broad themes of United States history, while documenting more than three centuries of daily life in Monmouth County. ~ Hours ~ The use of the research library is by appointment only. Please email library@monmouthhistory.org for questions or to schedule a research visit! Catalog / Research Resources Genealogy Email Unable to visit us in person? Let our research staff help. For a small fee, we will conduct “in-house” searches of our record holdings and manuscript collections. A specific search within a small batch of records (e.g. newspaper obituary, church or Bible record, basic research lookup) is a $10 fee, which includes up to five digital or printed records. Broader research questions and genealogy inquiries are $35 per hour (notice will be given upfront for expected research times of more than one hour). These include a thorough search of all relevant sources, collaboration with an experienced genealogist as necessary, photocopies, and postage. Our staff will contact you after you submit your request to give you a quote. PLEASE DO NOT make payment in advance before speaking with a staff member. We may not have the records you are looking for. Refunds will not be issued - any payment submitted without a consultation will be considered a donation. Rights and Reproduction The Monmouth County Historical Association is happy to extend image reproduction rights for various uses. Please email us here or call 732-462-1466, ext. 16 for details and fee structure (if applicable).

Genealogy The MCHA Research Library and Archives is a valuable repository for Monmouth County genealogical research. Some of the resources we offer to genealogists include: Bible Records 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th century Bible records, indexed by family surname Vital records Freehold Township vital records, 1844-1866: births, marriages, deaths, bastard cases, guardianship cases Ocean Township vital records, 1855-1930: births, marriages, deaths, communicable diseases Marriage records of various circuit preachers Church Records Original, microfilm copies, and transcriptions of baptismal, marriage and death/funeral records Click here for a list of our church records Wills Monmouth County Wills / Estates, 1693-1800 (microfilm) Unrecorded New Jersey wills (microfilm) Abstracts of Wills, 1670-1801 Cemetery Records Cemetery gravestone transcriptions for most Monmouth County cemeteries Newspaper Obituary Abstracts and Indexes: Monmouth Inquirer, July 1830-1888 Monmouth Democrat, July 1830-Dec 1884 Freehold Transcript, September 1888-1919 Red Bank Register, June 1878-Dec 1988 Directories and Censuses County and city directories Town tax ratables, 1778-1820 Federal and New Jersey state censuses Other Genealogical Resources Family genealogy book collection Genealogist research files for thousands of family surnames Michael Adelberg’s Database of the American Revolution in Monmouth County, and Biographical File of the People of Revolutionary-Era Monmouth County Fire Insurance Records for Western Monmouth County, 1885-1928 Shrewsbury Overseer of the Poor Records, 1743-1802 Abstracts of Colonial Conveyances of East & West Jersey, 1664-1794 Access to FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, Fold3.com military records, and Newspapers.com

Become a Volunteer Educator! Would you like to be a part of something greater than yourself? Would you like to engage with students eager to learn about their amazing local history? Would you like to give the gift of time and effort to help our education program and youth community grow? If your answer to any of these questions is YES , then we want you to VOLUNTEER WITH US! Apply The generosity and efforts of our valued volunteers are integral to the success of our K-12 education programs. A background in education is preferred, but those with a flair for storytelling or a love of history are encouraged to apply! Prerequisites : Availability during school hours Reliable transportation to locations Ability climb stairs Interview by phone and/or in person Program Locations: Marlpit Hall, Middletown Covenhoven House, Freehold MCHA Museum, Freehold Allen House, Shrewsbury Additional Information : We will work with your schedule and preferences Tours run about 60 minutes for Grades 3-5; 90 minutes for Grades 6-12 Mandatory training will be provided by MCHA staff to ensure our volunteers are confident and effective educators Volunteers will always conduct programs with one or two other staff/volunteers Period clothing is required for programs at Covenhoven House and Allen House, and will be provided from our authentic colonial reproduction wardrobe! MCHA Volunteer Educator Application Please fill out the form completely to be considered for a position Name Email Phone Address Hours of availability Our volunteering shifts vary depending on the location or event. 9am-3 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday How did you hear about us? Language skills About yourself References Submit Thank you! Your application has been sent Volunteer Application Have a question? Please email Yvette Rego, On-Site Education Coordinator at education@monmouthhistory.org

Gilded Age A Staggering Spectrum The Gilded Age was approximately from 1870-1900. In the years after the Civil War, America entered into an era of unprecedented advancement in both industry, technology, and travel. The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 with much-needed improvements, making cross-country travel and expansion easier. The boom in rail travel made the railroad executives and their related business partners, such as steel and shipping tycoons, very, very rich. These men were there for the birth of the nation’s booming industrial expansion, and so were early winners in the game of control. All of the major industries were ripe to hold monopolies in their areas of business. But when power goes unchecked, abuses will certainly follow. The Gilded Age displayed both magnificent wealth alongside abject poverty in a staggering spectrum of the haves and have-nots. Suffrage Women's Work “Woman herself must do this work; for woman alone can understand the height, the depth, the length and the breadth of her degradation. " - Elizabeth Cady Stanton While NJ was the first state to allow women the right to vote in 1790, that right was stripped in 1807. Women could not vote again in NJ until the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920. Monmouth County saw its share of social reform movements as suffragists embraced the call to action, "Deeds Not Words." Prohibition Era Nothing But Trouble... Al Capone once famously said, "Prohibition has made nothing but trouble." There was a push by the "Bone-Drys" to ban alcohol, while the "Wets" wanted to leave the decision to drink alcohol to the individual. The contentious era began with the passing of the 18th amendment in 1919, banning the manufacture, sale, and or transportation of intoxicating liquors. The Volstead Act laid out the specifications for how this would be implemented in 1920. Where there is a will - and there was a big will - there is a way. The ban resulted in a boom of bootleggers who illegally produced and transported the booze, and the “Roaring 20s” exploded with a colorful underground culture of speakeasies (secret drinking establishments), liberated flappers, moonshine, rum runners, and a rise in organized crime. In short, it didn’t quite work out the way it was intended to, and was overturned in 1933. Prohibition was known as President Herbert Hoover’s “noble experiment.” It was not a new idea - temperance groups have existed in America since the late 18th century. The measure can be looked at as a well-meaning attempt to reduce crime and help curb the social issues that stem from alcohol and alcoholism, or it can be viewed as a government overreach on the personal liberties of Americans. The Great Depression and the New Deal T he Great Depression was the largest and longest economic downturn the country had seen then or since, beginning in the summer of 1929 and lasting through to 1941. Though largely misunderstood at the time and even since, there were many contributing factors. Most notably was the stock market crash in 1929, the banking panics that followed, and resulting financial crises that had a global impact. The commercial banking system collapsed in 1933 as frightened bank customers pulled out their money to keep safely at home. FDR enacted the Emergency Banking Act, aimed at strengthening the banking system and restoring confidence in it by assessing the banks for financial stability before they reopened, now with the backing of the Federal Reserve to protect customers against losses. In his first fireside chat shortly after, he assured Americans that their money was safer in the bank than hidden away at home. It was a step in the right direction, however, many misguided legislative attempts to correct the economy were made by the Federal Reserve that had unintended negative consequences. Monmouth County was a typical reflection of the Depression as it affected the rest of the country. Unemployment rates were approximately 1 in 4, and all felt the sting of inflated prices. The Roosevelt administration set in motion a number of government projects intended to make life better for Americans during this difficult time. To learn more, the Monmouth County Clerk's Office put together a wonderful exhibit catalog called The Great Depression in Monmouth County , curated by archivist Gary Saretzky. It is an excellent comprehensive resource for learning about the effects of the Depression locally. To help offset the economic struggle of the Depression, the government created the Works Progress Administration with the goal to create jobs for the unemployed while strengthening the country. Roads and bridges were built, and artists were hired to create murals and sculptures to beautify public spaces and buildings. View the box below to learn about some New Deal projects in Monmouth County. BACK

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > Pine Robbers Defeat Militia at Cedar Creek by Michael Adelberg On December 27, 1782, Burlington County militia were attacked by Pine Robbers at the tavern at Cedar Creek. After a bloody skirmish, the militia retreated. But they would return four days later. - December 1782 - In December 1782, the Revolutionary War, as a military event, was over in most of the United States. However, the Jersey shore between Toms River and Little Egg Harbor was a glaring exception. Illegal trade with the British continued to flourish and conflicts occurred when London Traders and privateers came upon each other. More violent was the Pine Robber gang of John Bacon, which killed and wounded 21 militia in nighttime attack on October 25 and then seized a vessel and skirmished with privateer sailors on December 15. Earlier in the war, Bacon and his colleague, William Davenport, commanded parties as large as 70 as men, but it appears that the size of Bacon’s gang had dwindled to less than half that size by late 1782. However, Bacon operated along the lower Monmouth shore (Stafford Township) and Little Harbor Township of Burlington County where he was generally supported of disaffected locals . With local assistance, his smaller parties remained capable of defeating local militia. The “Battle” of Cedar Creek in Newspapers and Letters On January 8, 1783, the New Jersey Gazette reported on Bacon’s skirmish with Burlington County militia. The “battle” occurred at Cedar Creek in Stafford Township on December 27: Captain Richard Shreve of the Burlington County light-horse and Captain Edward Thomas of the Mansfield militia, having received information that John Bacon with his banditti of robbers were in the neighborhood of Cedar Creek bridge, collected a party and immediately went in pursuit of them. The report stated that Bacon's men had "the advantage" of holding better ground, but the militia bravely attacked anyway: It was nevertheless determined to charge them, the onset of the part of the militia was furious and opposed by the refugees with great firmness for a considerable time, several of them having been guilty of such enormous crimes as to have no expectation of mercy should they surrender. They were nevertheless at the point of giving way when the militia were unexpectantly fired upon from a party of inhabitants near that place who had suddenly come to Bacon's assistance. This put the militia in some confusion and gave the refugees time to get off. The militia had one man (William Cook) killed and one more (Robert Reckless) fatally wounded. Bacon’s party lost one man (Ichabod Johnson). Bacon and three other Pine Robbers were wounded. Seven locals were taken prisoner for assisting Bacon and lodged in the Burlington County jail. The militia also took a "considerable quantity of contraband and stolen goods in searching some of the suspected houses and cabins on the shore." The New York Gazette printed the same report. Colonel Israel Shreve, leading the Burlington County militia, wrote Governor William Livingston on the skirmish at Cedar Creek the day after it occurred. His report mirrors the newspaper account, but provides additional information on militia party: This evening a party of horse and foot returned from several days search for Bacon and party. Our party consisted of six horsemen and twenty foot... The party returned by way of Cedar Creek Bridge in Monmouth County. Shreve also noted that it was Bacon’s men who showed themselves to the militia, ready for a fight: “While refreshing at a tavern, Bacon and his party appeared at the bridge.” The “Battle” of Cedar Creek in Veteran’s Pension Applications A handful of militiamen submitted veteran’s pension applications that included narratives of the Battle of Cedar Creek. Benjamin Shreve recalled the battle and his return to Cedar Creek in January: This affirmant was engaged in the Battle of Cedar Creek on the 26th of December 1782, in which battle William Cook was killed and Robert Reckless mortally wounded, of which wound he did on 8th day of January 1783. This affirmant had his horse wounded in the neck, his pistol butt broken, and the flint knocked out of his carbine. After this engagement, he returned home, procured another horse and with 18 of his company returned immediately to Cedar Creek, which was about 40 miles distant, there to take care of the said Robert Reckless and guarded him from the Tories and refugees about that neighborhood. While out raising provisions for his guard in January, Shreve observed that “the left leg of the affirmant’s pantaloons which was quite bloody.” He recalled: Upon examination, this affirmant had by some means unknown received a wound immediately below the knee pant from which the blood was freely flowing. Doctor Swain, the physician, who had charge of the wounded soldier, put a plaster on the wound which became so much inflamed that this affirmant was unable to perform military duty. When Reckless died on January 8, Shreve’s party returned home with the dead man’s body. William Potts also recalled the battle at Cedar Creek vividly: We were attacked by the Refugees on a long, open causeway with a deep morass on each side. The enemy was posted in the thick woods and brush at the far end of the causeway. They fired on us and shot down two young men who were mounted, one dead, and the other mortally wounded. We brought them off and retired on the count of the disadvantage of our position, leaving them (the enemy) in the possession of the ground they occupied. Like Shreve, Potts reported on the return to Cedar Creek in January: In one week afterwards we returned with a strong re-enforcement, and secured the woods and swamps from Egg Harbor to Toms River, but could find no trace of them - We took about twenty of the disaffected (not in arms) prisoner, and lodged them all in jail at Burlington for trial. William Sutton recalled additional details about the skirmish, stating that, in addition to Cook and Reckless dying, a handful of militiamen were wounded: “Thomas Salter, Thomas Cook and Samuel Beakes and others from the militia were wounded." Four days later, Sutton was back on the shore where he "assisted in capturing Thomas Bird, who was a very desperate and active refugee who had been a terror of the countryside" and also captured some of Bacon’s men, "Holmes and several others." Sutton stated that his company was "kept in a constant state of alarm" by Bacon whose "daring and cruelty" and leadership of "numerous bands of Wood Rangers, Tories and Refugees" terrorized the shore from "Burlington [County] to Toms River." Bird’s capture is discussed in the appendix of this article. Abner Page wrote of marching “from Slawtown through Burlington County into the pines of Monmouth County in pursuit of the Tories and refugees, came upon them at Cedar Creek Bridge.” He recalled: Here we had an action in which we lost one man killed, Sergeant Cook, one mortally wounded, Robert Reckless, who died shortly after. Bacon, the leader and commander of the enemy, was wounded but got off, was sometime after killed and fell into our hands. I still continued under Captain Shreve, scouring the Pines and along the shore, in pursuit of the enemies, refugees & robbers who were constantly committing depredations on the inhabitants - burning, robbing & stealing horses and driving off their cattle. John Salter recalled that, “He marched with the said company to the head of Wood Swamp in the County of Monmouth to arrest some London Traders.” Shortly after that, he went out again: He again went out with the said troop under Captain Richard Shreve to Monmouth County to repel an incursion made by the Tories and refugees, and at a skirmish at Cedar Creek Bridge between the Jersey militia composed of a company commanded by Captain Edward Thomas equipped both to act as cavalry and infantry. William Newberry briefly recalled that he was at Cedar Creek and that "the skirmish lasted about two or three hours and night came on, so that the refugees got to go to their boats." Perspective David Fowler, who comprehensively studied Bacon, notes that after the skirmish at Cedar Creek, colonels Israel Shreve of Burlington County and David Forman of Monmouth County exchanged recriminations. Shreve charged that the Monmouth militia should have long since disarmed the Tories of Stafford Township; Forman countered that Shreve was unable to control the land that his militia was assigned. In reality, neither the Monmouth nor Burlington militias were negligent. Pine Robbers were comprised of and supported by disaffected locals in a region that had never been effectively-governed by or supportive of the Continental cause . Pine Robbers laired in salt marshes that negated land approaches from horse and artillery. Defeating the Pine Robbers and quelling unrest in the lower shore region posed formidable political and military challenges for New Jersey’s leaders. These challenges could not be overcome by the occasional marches of militia companies from outside the region. However, Bacon’s attack at Cedar Creek was a Pyrrhic victory for the Pine Robbers. They lost several men (killed or captured). Bacon was wounded and two of his key comrades, Ichabod Johnson and Thomas Bird, were killed. While the Pine Robbers won the day on December 27, militia returned a few days later and faced no opposition when they did. Bacon would never again have the strength to stand against a militia party. Historians disagree about when and where the last battle of the American Revolution was fought. Yorktown was the last formal battle between the Continental and British armies; battles between Great Britain and France continued to be fought on other continents for nearly a year after Cedar Creek; skirmishing between American frontiersmen and Native Americans continued well into 1783. But some historians have pointed to the fight at Cedar Creek as the last battle of the Revolutionary War. A reasonable argument can be made that it was. Related Historic Site : Cedar Bridge Tavern Appendix: The Capture of Thomas Bird Historian David Fowler, who studied the Pine Robbers exhaustively, concludes that Thomas Bird and his brother, Richard Bird, were both notorious Pine Robbers. Richard Bird, served in the New Jersey Volunteers early in the war. He was stranded at Barnegat (likely while London Trading), and was apparently captured and jailed for a year. Antiquarian sources suggest that he lived in a cave near Cedar Creek late in the war and escaped capture more than once. According to an antiquarian source, Richard Bird was killed while in a cabin with a woman. The woman may have set him up, as she was "rifling the dead man's pockets within seconds of his death." Postwar veteran’s militia narratives do not corroborate these details about Richard Bird’s death, but do establish that he was Pine Robber hunted down by state troops in 1781. Court records provide a more documentation of the robberies of Thomas Bird. He was indicted before Monmouth County Court of Oyer and Terminer for grand larceny in October 1782 (along with Elisha Bennett). The indictment read: “Thomas Bird, late of the Township of Dover, laborer, and Elisha Bennett, late of the same, laborer, with force of arms" took "one certain whaleboat of the value of three pounds and the goods and chattels of one John Chadwick" which Bird and Bennett "did feloniously steal, take and carry away." Bird and Bennett pled not guilty. Thomas Bird either escaped from prison or was paroled prior to sentencing. We know this because he committed another robbery on November 15, 1782. According to David Fowler, Bird was captured in a combined Burlington and Monmouth militia campaign to take Bacon in January 1783 (following the Battle of Cedar Creek). The militia also captured one of Bacon’s trusted boatmen, Jo Crumill, during this campaign. Bird was indicted for an additional robbery at the next Monmouth County Court of Oyer and Terminer, in July 1783 and again pled not guilty. The indictment read: "Thomas Bird, late of the Township of Dover" on November 15, "with force of arms… in the dwelling house of Abraham Platt… feloniously did make an assault" on Platt "and endanger his life." In addition, Bird "did feloniously put one watch chain of the value of four schillings, one blanket of the value of five schillings, and one small whaleboat of the value of three pounds.” There is no record of Bird’s sentencing. Sources : Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, January 15, 1783, reel 2906; New Jersey Gazette, January 8, 1783, reel 1930; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p212-3; Howard H. Peckham, ed, The Toll of Independence: Engagements and Battle Casualties of the American Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), p 98; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - William Newberry; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Benjamin Shreve of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# NJ 16273690; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - William Potts; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of William Sutton of NJ, National Archives, p37-9; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Abner Page of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# NJ 25889537; Contained in: National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Salter of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# 14666904; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 265-7; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) pp 169-70 and 268-9; Kobbe, Gustav, The Jersey Coast and Pines. (Gustav Kobbe, 1889) p 70; Signed by Grand Jury Foreman -- Monmouth Court of Oyer and Terminer, NJ State Archives, #33983; Elisha Walton, Foreman of the Grand Jury, Monmouth Court of Oyer and Terminer, NJ State Archives, #33980. 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 > Burying the Dead and Recovering the Wounded after the Battle of Monmouth by Michael Adelberg The Battle of Monmouth raged around the Tennent Church in Manalapan. The church became an impromptu hospital as wounded were brought there throughout and after the battle. - June 1778 - When the British Army withdrew from Freehold and headed for Middletown following the Battle of Monmouth, the Continental Army was left in possession of the battlefield. By European military tradition, possession of the battlefield gave the Continental Army the honor of claiming victory. With this honor came responsibility for considering the damages of the battle and cleaning up a battlefield strewn with the bodies of hundreds of dead and dying men. Burying the Dead George Washington called upon Lt. Colonel Cornelius Van Dyke to coordinate the grim task of locating and burying the dead. Early on June 29, the Army’s general orders included this notice: "a party of 200 men to parade immediately & bury the slain of both armies." Van Dyke divided the men into thirteen burial parties. After two days of burial duty, he compiled "A Report of the British and American Troops Fallen in the Action near Monmouth & Buried Under Care of Coll. Van Dyke and Different Officers.” The report indicated his parties buried 190 British and 29 Continental bodies; 27 more British were buried "by different inhabitants." Van Dyke noted that additional British soldiers were buried by the enemy before it left Freehold and were not included in his tally. According to the British “Inventory of Losses by the British Army” compiled immediately after the battle, that was another 60 men. Combined, these sources suggest that 304 men were buried on the battlefield. This does not include men who died elsewhere during the Monmouth campaign, or wounded who died shortly after the battle. Other Continental accounts offer similar, but not the same number, as Van Dyke’s 304 buried bodies. Continental Army Officer, Persefor Frazer, wrote that "258 have been buried by a party sent from our Army for that purpose.” Frazer also noted that “a great number were buried by” the British before they left Freehold “and numbers more have been interred by the Country people." Continental Army Officer James Chambers wrote on June 30 that the previous day "our fatigue parties were collecting the dead in piles and burying them." Chambers wrote that the parties buried 200 British and 30 Americans. A few days after the battle, Gen. Joseph Cilley wrote that “left on the field, about three hundred of the enemy's dead, with several officers.” George Washington’s Secretary, James McHenry, wrote on June 30: “As we remained masters of the ground, of course the burying of the dead became our duty, the returns of the parties employed for that purpose amount to 233 killed.” All but 52 of the bodies were from the British Army. In addition to the battlefield dead, McHenry said that 30-40 British soldiers died from skirmishing during the Monmouth Campaign and 100 more British died from heat stroke during the march. Washington, in his report to Congress about the battle, avoided providing a precise figure: “By accounts from Monmouth more of the Enemy's dead have been found. It is said the number buried by us and the Inhabitants exceeds three Hundred." Two accounts suggest a much larger body count. Dr. Samuel Adams of the New Jersey Line suggested that 300 British fell during the battle and 200 more Continentals. John Chittendon of Connecticut claimed that he "he helped berry [sic] 500 dead bodies." It is possible that Adams and Chittendon offered higher figures because they included the apparently large number of bodies found after Van Dyke’s burial parties quit the field. Sgt. Enos Barnes wrote of being sent to gather up the dead on June 29: "Our next business was to gather the dead together in order to bury them, which we did, going about in wagons, loading them up, bringing them together and burying about twelve or fourteen a hole." Captain John Nice, wrote about finding dead bodies "on the field and strewn through the woods; more was found afterwards by the country people when they began to smell." Dr. William Read wrote about dead soldiers left in a bog, “mired to the waist and probably shot." The “country people” of Freehold Township spent several days burying the dead. Richard Kidder Meade, a Continental officer, wrote from the Continental camp Englishtown on June 29 that "many of their dead have been buried by the country people, and other bodies since found." General Anthony Wayne wrote that while Continental burial parties “remained on the ground for two or three days after the action to bury the dead” the country people “discovered more bodies every day in the woods." And, as noted above, Persefor Frazer noted that many additional dead “interred by the Country people.” Recovering and Caring for the Wounded The British left, according to General James Pattison, 45 wounded men when they retreated from Freehold . They did so, because "we were under necessity of leaving a great part of our wounded officers and men behind, for want of a sufficiency of wagons to bring them off." David Griffith of Virginia offered a slightly more detailed account on the British wounded left behind. They [the British Army] retreated in a great hurry in the night, leaving behind them at Monmouth Court House, four Captains & forty-nine Privates and Sergeants, with a surgeon to take care of them. These were all too badly wounded to be moved. They left behind all the officers & prisoners they had taken in their march, which consisted chiefly of militia & people they had taken from their houses. James McHenry noted that other British wounded were recovered beyond those left at the Court House. McHenry wrote, "they left at Monmouth Court House 45 of their own, we found several others in the field… near some little brooks, we found a dozen of their soldiers.” The French officer Chevalier de Pontigibaud left Englishtown for Freehold and saw several corpses from heatstroke: "We found many soldiers dead without having received a wound.” On reaching Freehold, he wrote: “The enemy had left some of his baggage behind and his wounded; they were to be found in every house and in the [St. Peter’s] church." Dr. William Read wrote vividly about finding wounded on the field. Read came upon a British officer in his final minutes: Saw an officer lying a few yards from the morass, nearly cut in two by cannon shot; he was alive and spoke, implored Dr Read to lift him to a tree which stood near, alleging he had been all night trying to do so 'so that he might die easy'. The clotted blood was piled up several inches on his front and it had ceased to flow... they placed him against a tree, the blood now began to flow precipitately and in all probability terminated his life. He came upon another British soldier calling for water and "uttering the most dreadful and severe imprecations of the rebels.” He brought water to this man and others. While helping the wounded, "some country people and Negroes coming to the field of carnage, Dr. Read enlisted their feelings, and hired them to assist in turning these wounded men, and at length in procuring wagons and straw to remove them to the Court House.” The wounded were generally taken to two improvised hospitals at the Tennent Church in Manalapan and the county courthouse in Freehold. Captain John Shreve wrote about the activity at the Tennent Church on June 29: I halted at the Presbyterian Meeting House & barn, both filled with wounded men of the American and the English; the surgeons of both armies (the enemy had left several), after having been twenty-four hours dressing the wounded, had not got through. Dr. Read, as noted above, spent June 29 bringing 21 men from the battlefield to the county courthouse. He tended to the wounded, "aided by lint and bandages" supplied by locals. "Dr Read continued to dwell in the Court House, sleeping in the Judge's bench" and serving the wounded "at his own expense." Read continued to tend to the wounded at the courthouse until July 4 when he was relieved by two surgeons from New York. Continental doctors stayed at Freehold into August. Dr. Samuel Adams of Continental Army worried that in the summer heat, the wounded were in "no very agreeable situation, the ground being rather low, and the air confined by surrounding woods, which makes fever and ague flourish here." It is unknown exactly how many men successfully convalesced and how many died in Freehold in the summer of 1778, but at least two men died. Matthew Roads, a musician in the New Jersey Line, died at Englishtown shortly after the Battle of Monmouth (having fallen from heatstroke). Private John Sayre of the Essex County Militia, wounded in battle, fell into a coma on the 29th and died ten days later. Others recovered. Moses Etsey of Middlesex County recalled having a “wound that bled very freely, but not dangerously.” He received encouraging words from George Washington: Whilst bleeding, General Washington rode up to him, inquired very kindly by the nature & entry of his wound, directing that he should be carried to a place where his wound could be dressed, enjoining him to be very careful of infection until his recovery. Joseph Kelly of Middletown (serving in the Pennsylvania Line) recalled being wounded in the battle: He [I] was wounded while at the cannon, two bullets or ounce balls entered into the sides of the calf of his leg and the big toe on the left foot, tore off, the balls were taken out afterwards, but a buckshot he received in his right knee is still in the joint of the knee, which has never been entreated. This deponent, after being wounded, was taken to a house near the battleground, where his wounds were dressed, he was then carried to the meeting house where the wounded was taken, and staid [sic] there until he was able to join the army. Cannot remember the date he returned to the army. Joel Bower of New York was also wounded that day. He spent the night on the battlefield before being rescued: "The next day we were conveyed a few miles to a barn which was used as a kind of temporary hospital. From this place, we were sent to Morristown." Following the battle, different parties carried the wounded to hospitals in Princeton, Hightstown, and Morristown. June 29 Army orders noted that “A sergeant & 12 men from Genl. Maxwell's Brigade to guard the sick to Princeton." A party of Monmouth militia was sent “"to Hightstown with four wounded men, who were to be conveyed to the hospital." Mark Lender and Garry Stone, in their exhaustive study of the Battle of Monmouth, noted that most of the wounded were transported to permanent hospitals in Princeton and Morristown, but the men who were too wounded to move stayed in Monmouth County, where they were cared for in private homes. The British Army assisted by sending two surgeons to Englishtown on June 30 and two more surgeons, along with a wagon of medical supplies, a few days later. Indeed, General Henry Clinton "thanked Gen Washington by flag for his humane and generous treatment of the wounded and for the honors of war paid Col. [Henry] Monckton and other officers who were killed and left on the field of action." A letter published in the London Gazette also praised the Continental Army’s treatment of wounded British soldiers: We have accounts from Freehold that the four wounded officers of the Royal Army left with the soldiery, the flag, the surgeons, are as well as can be expected and are treated in a manner that does much honor to the American gentlemen whose protection and care they are under. The humanity shown to British soldiers in July would not be reciprocated the next time British and Continental troops clashed near Monmouth County. In a nighttime attack in October, British and Loyalist regulars would slaughter dozens of Continentals camped on Osborn Island at the southern tip of present-day Ocean County. That is the subject of a different article. Related Historic Site : Old Tennent Church Sources : Ritchie, Carson I. A. “A New York Diary of the Revolutionary War.” in Narratives of the Revolution in New York (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1975) pp. 239-41; Jedidiah Huntington’s Orderly Book, New York Historical Society, Orderly Books Collection, reel 5, #60-61; Henry Lee, Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States. (New York: University Publishing Co., 1869), p 113; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p 508; British Army Return, Monmouth County Historical Association, Collections Alphabetical, Revolution folder 1; Persifor Fraser, General Persifor Fraser (1907), pp. 182-3; Joseph Cilley’s letter in Elliott Cogswell, History of Nottingham, Deerfield and Northwood (Manchester: John Clarke, 1878) p 181; George Washington to Congress, July 7, 1778, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw120194)) ; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of John Chittendon of CT, National Archives, p5; Sgt. Enoch Barnes Diary, Monmouth Battlefield State Park, Battle of Monmouth files: folder - James Kochan; Albert Venderveer’s account in Three Generations from the Battle of Monmouth, Journal of the NY State Historical Association, vol. 9, n 3, July 1928, p 279-84; Report of Troops Fallen at Monmouth, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, roll 50, transcribed by Garry Wheeler Stone; John Thompson, Revolutionary Letters, The Southern Literary Messenger, vol. 28, April 1859, p 298; Robert Douglas, The Chevalier de Pontgibaud, a French Volunteer of the War of Independence (New York: Leopold Classic Library, 2015) p 56; Garrard, L. H., Chambersburg in the Colony and in the Revolution (Philadelphia, 1856) pp. 51-2; William Read’s account in John Rees, 'What is this You have been about Today?': The New Jersey Brigade at the Battle of Monmouth, www.revwar75/library/rees/monmouth/Monmouth.htm, p 32-3; Frederic Kidder, History of the First New Hampshire Regiment in the War of the Revolution (Albany, NY: Joel Munsell, 1868) pp. 42-3; The Battle of Monmouth, as Described by Dr. James McHenry, Secretary to Gen. Washington, with notes by Thomas H. Montgomery, Magazine of American History, June 1879, pp. 355-60; Copy: Letter of Capt. John Shreve, David Library, Battle of Monmouth Collection, #5; Robert Morris to Mr. Cooper, Monmouth County Historical Association, J. Amory Haskell Collection, folder "Battle of Monmouth"; Anthony Wayne, The Life and Services of Gen. Anthony Wayne (Philadelphia, 1845), p. 64; David Griffith to Hannah Griffith, Monmouth County Historical Association, J. Amory Haskell Collection, folder "Battle of Monmouth"; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p199; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Joseph Kelley of PA, www.fold3.com/image/# 26180227; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Joel Bower of New York, www.fold3.com/image/#11092848 ; Orderly Book of the 8th Massachusetts Regt., Book 2, June-August 1778, Huntington Library, HM 719; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Samuel Burke; Samuel Adams to Sally Adams, letter, July 2, 1778; NYHS, Gilder-Lehrman Collection; Samuel Adams to Sally Adams, letter, David Library of the American Revolution, Sol Feinstone Collection, reel 1, #28-30; Return of Dead Bodies, Correspondence File: letter from The Friends of the Monmouth Battlefield; "Notes on the Battle of Monmouth" (orginally published in the London Gazette, September 17, 1778), reprinted in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 14, 1890, pp. 46-47. 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 Thomas Creigher Sails the Monmouth Coast by Michael Adelberg The New York State Navy’s General Putnam, captained by Thomas Creigher cruised the New Jersey shore and attempted to provide security for American vessels in the summer of 1776. - June 1776 - As discussed in a prior articles, the British Navy took Sandy Hook in April 1776. They also set up a blockade of the now-rebelling colonies and sent ships down the Jersey Shore. The British Navy took at least six prizes on the Jersey shore in the spring-summer 1776: a May 23 list of 24 prizes taken by British ships in American waters includes four taken off New Jersey; in early June, the British navy convened hearings at Sandy Hook to establish the legality of two prizes taken by HMS Phoenix and Amazon . Eleven of the thirteen colonies responded to the British navy’s blockade by establishing state navies. While New Jersey did not establish a state navy, New York did and its government quickly focused on the Jersey shore. On March 12, the New Provincial Congress wrote of two British vessels patrolling the Jersey shore. They were “Barmuda, brig of 8 or 10 carriage guns, and a small schooner 4 carriage guns and 40 men for the purpose of intercepting vessels between the Capes of Delaware and Sandy Hook.” Two weeks later, New York’s government acted: Resolved and Ordered, That the armed schooner, [General] Schuyler, whereof James Smith is commander, lately fitted out by order of this Congress, be ordered to cruise on the southern shore, between Egg Harbour and Sandy; Hook; to protect all vessels coming into this port; and that the sloop Bishop, belonging to the Provincial Congress of this Colony, now in Egg Harbour, or supposed to be there, be fitted out for the like purpose. On April 12, the New York Committee of Safety reported on another state navy vessel, Montgomery , being “completely fitted in a warlike manner.” The ship’s captain was ordered to sail from Cape May to Sandy Hook, and then Sandy Hook to Long Island. He was instructed to “send [British] prizes as you may take into some place of safety” and to assist friendly ships. Knowing the remoteness of many Jersey shore inlets, the captain was advised “to have a good pilot on board” who is “acquainted with the coast.” Historian Donald Shomette noted that, in addition to the New York vessels, the Continental Army ordered the sloop Hester to patrol Raritan Bay and the Continental Navy sent Lexington to patrol Cape May and the Delaware Bay. In comparison to British frigates, the Continental and New York ships were small. For example, General Putnam was "lightly armed, carrying only a dozen swivel guns" and only 30 men. On April 16, General Alexander MacDougall about the need to protect Little Egg Harbor. “You know that Egg Harbour is not in our colony, but it is frequented by the trade of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, and should therefore be secured.” Three days later, Captain William Rogers was ordered to sail the Jersey shore: You are to cruise along shore on our coasts, any where between Sandy Hook and Cape May, or from Sandy Hook lo the east end of Long island. You are always too keep some inlet under your lee, so that you may secure a retreat from a superior force. Be careful to send such prizes as you may take, into some place of safety in the United Colonies. It is very necessary to have a good pilot on board, and also that you make yourself well acquainted on the coast. You are to assist any of the friends of the United Colonies by every means in your power, and assist to carry them into some place of safety; and where different objects for assistance offer at the same time, you are to give the preference to the vessels and inhabitants of this Colony. You are always and by every opportunity, to advise the Provincial Congress, or Committee of Safety of this Colony, of your proceedings. There appears to be only one record of Rogers sailing the Jersey shore. On May 22, Rogers reported to the New York Provincial Congress on his cruise a few days earlier: The 18th, we were off Sandy-Hook; saw but two ships in the bay; they did not send anything out after us, which we expected they would. I expected to find the schooner Putnam on this coast, but have not seen or heard anything of her; we have not seen a sail of any kind since we left cruising off Montauk but the ships we saw in at Sandy-Hook. It would be two other New York State Navy vessels—the General Schuyler and the General Putnam —that first engaged the enemy on the Jersey shore. Letters from Captain Thomas Creigher, commanding the General Putnam , in particular, document the difficult position of a single, midsized ship in protecting a long coastline menaced by large British warships. The Voyages of Captain Thomas Creigher on the Jersey Shore On June 20, Creigher recorded needing to avoid a larger British vessel during his first cruise of the Jersey shore: I am to inform you that on my passage here from Barnegat, I saw three sail of vessels plying to the northeast — they appeared to be three ships. I immediately hauled my wind to speak to them, the wind about north by west. After standing for them some time, I found one of them to be a very large ship, and was soon convinced she was a ship of war [probably the British frigate Lively] of about fifty guns. I then bore away for this harbor [Little Egg Harbor]. Creigher reported his next encounter with a ship, which came after cruising off Barnegat for five days: A sloop that was driven on shore by the Lively frigate, on the 11th of June. She came from the West-Indies, having on board about three hundred bushels of salt, with other goods. The owners were one Schenck & Vanvechten. The [Lively’s] ship' s boats, after she struck the beach, immediately boarded her, but the inhabitants coming to them, acquitted her without plundering. They [the British sailors] endeavored to set fire to her, but to no effect, as timely assistance prevented their scheme. Captain Creigher’s next letter was authored on July 9. He was at Shrewsbury; the General Putnam was being repaired at Shrewsbury Inlet (a waterway at present-day Seabright that connected the Shrewsbury River to the ocean). This followed a battle with a larger British vessel off Manasquan that drove the General Putnam into the beach. Creigher recorded what transpired after he was beached: I got all my arms and ammunition on the beach as the Enemy began a heavy firing on us; at last she hoisted out two barges and manned them with about 50 men; but as they approached the shore, we handled them so roughly that they were obliged to make a scandalous retreat. She [the British] continued her fire on the boat until after dark. At nightfall, the British ship captain apparently grew tired of firing on Creigher’s beached vessel and sailed away. The larger British vessel probably lacked a local pilot who could bring the ship close enough to finish off the General Putnam . Captain Creigher’s final letter was written from Cranberry Inlet (near Toms River) on August 23. Creigher noted that three days earlier he “fell in with a ship and sloop tender, about ten guns, the frigate being about a mile and a half from the sloop, and was determined to give the sloop battle, but could not bring her to battle.” Creigher broke off his pursuit and, instead, assisted “2 prizes taken from the West Indies by 2 different privateers.” One of the vessels, lacking a local pilot, “lay aground on the bar of Egg Harbour.” It took three days to float the vessel and bring it into port. But the valuable cargo of sugar, rum, and molasses validated the effort. Historian Shomette examined New York documents that narrate the demise of the New York Navy’s schooners on the Jersey Shore. On September 21, Thomas Quigley, serving under Captain Creigher, wrote a letter from Cranberry Inlet. General Putnam was out of supplies and the crew had quit the vessel. Creigher returned to New York without his ship. He reported to the New York Convention (the state’s legislature) on September 26: My vessel being very small and low in the water, my greatest ordinance being swivel guns, the shrouds very old and not trustworthy, the vessel very weak and leaky, which weakness proceeded from her lying on a bar and heavy surf breaking over her when I was run on shore by a [British] man of war, the people much exposed when under sail... which prevents them from lying in their beds, daily complaints being made by my people in this regard to the vessel's condition, and the season of the year advancing toward cold and story weather - This, gentlemen, is certainly the condition of the vessel. On October 7, the Convention ordered that the officers of the ship should be paid back wages. It also ordered the sale of General Putnam (presumably still beached at Cranberry Inlet). There is no record of the New York Navy sending additional vessels to patrol the Jersey Shore. The mediocre results of Creigher’s voyages did not dissuade Continental authorities from seeking to protect the Jersey shore with their own midsized vessels. On November 1, the Continental Congress's Marine Committee issued orders to the Captains of the Continental Navy sloops Fly and Wasp to cruise the Jersey shore. Informed by the experience of the New York vessels, the Continental ship captains were ordered to stay in shallow waters when facing a larger British vessel: You must be careful not to let any British frigate get in between you and the land… for they cannot pursue in shore and they have no boats and tenders that can take you; besides, the country people will assist you in driving them from the shore, if they [British] should attempt to follow you in. On the other hand, the captains were encouraged to risk their vessels for a good prize: "We should deem it more praiseworthy in an officer to lose a vessel in a bold enterprise than to lose a good prize by too timid a conduct." The voyages of the Continental Navy on the Jersey shore are discussed in another article . Related Historic Sites : National Museum of the U.S. Navy (Hampton Roads, VA) Sources : "An Account of Vessels Seized or Taken by His Majesty's Ships and Vessels in North America Received since the Last Account Was Transmitted," Great Britain, Public Record Office, Admiralty 1/484. Accessed via https://navydocs.org/ ; Admiralty Court Proceedings, Vice Admiralty Register, vol. 5, 1769-1777, N. S. Arch. Accessed via https://navydocs.org/ ; New York Provincial Congress to John Hancock, President, Continental Congress, Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York : 1775-1777, 2 vols., (Albany : Thurlow Weed, printer to the State, 1842) v. 1, item 366; NY Prov Congress, 3/27/76, -- Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York : 1775-1777, 2 vols., (Albany : Thurlow Weed, printer to the State, 1842) v. 1, item 354; NY Committee of Safety, 4/12/76, -- Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York : 1775-1777, 2 vols., (Albany : Thurlow Weed, printer to the State, 1842) v. 1, item 426; John Jay Papers, Columbia U., digitized, http://wwwapp.cc.columbia.edu/ldpd/jay/image?key=columbia.jay.01088&p=3&level=2&originx=0&orginy=0&fullheight=2768&fullwidth=2133ℑ.x=129ℑ.y=20 ; Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York (Albany: Thurlow Weed, printer to the State, 1842) vol. 1, p414; Donald Shomette, Privateers of the Revolution: War on the New Jersey Coast (Shiffer: Atglen, PA, 2015); William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 4, p 204; Peter Force, American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-6 (digitized: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch/find.doc.html), v6, p 992-3; Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York (Albany: Thurlow Weed, printer to the State, 1842) vol. 2, p279; Peter Force, American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-6 (digitized: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch/find.doc.html), v6, p 992-3"; Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York (Albany: Thurlow Weed, printer to the State, 1842) vol. 2, p241; William James Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969) vol. 5, pp. 991-2; Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York (Albany: Thurlow Weed, printer to the State, 1842) vol. 2, p279; Gardner W. Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution (1912, 1940, reprinted New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962), pp. 128-9. 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 > Prosecution of Loyalists Intensifies in Monmouth County by Michael Adelberg Daniel Hendrickson of Middletown was found not guilty of perjury at the Monmouth Court Oyer and Terminer in May 1782. But the Court was hard on Loyalists, meting out six death sentences. - May 1782 - On April 12, 1782, a Loyalist party hanged Joshua Huddy on the Navesink Highlands. A note pinned to Huddy’s chest proclaimed the execution an act of retaliation for the killing of the Loyalist, Philip White, two weeks prior. The hanging of Huddy escalated to the highest levels of the Continental, British and French governments and included the near-hanging of a British officer in retaliation for Huddy. Locally, the leaders of Monmouth County vented their outrage through Monmouth County’s courts. David Forman, formerly focused on military affairs, leveraged his recent appointment as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas to move the county’s courts toward an aggressive anti-Loyalist posture. In May, the Court of Common Pleas restarted the Loyalist estate confiscation process and the county convened a new Court of Oyer and Terminer that was the most punitive court in four years. Monmouth County’s Sixth Court of Oyer and Terminer Monmouth County’s first court of Oyer and Terminer (January 1778) was restrained in its punishments; the second Court of Oyer and Terminer (June 1778) was stoked by the punishing raid against Middletown Point and the imminent invasion of the British Army. That court meted out twelve death sentences, resulting in six executions (six men were pardoned). The Third (July 1779), Fourth (December 1780), and Fifth (November 1781) Courts of Oyer and Terminer were all less punitive. The Sixth Court of Oyer and Terminer was presided over by a five-judge panel comprised of four veteran local judges—Peter Forman, Denice Denice, Richard Cox, Joseph Lawrence—and David Forman, new to the bench. As was the custom, a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Isaac Smith in this case, attended the court. The court heard 178 indictments, only the Second Court of Oyer and Terminer had a larger docket. Table 16 lists the 23 men who were tried for crimes that had the potential to carry a death sentence. Six are recorded as receiving a death sentence, one was found not guilty. Nine of the other sixteen men appear in later documents, demonstrating that they were not executed. At the misdemeanor level, the court took on a number of pre-war squires known to be disaffected. It found Edward Taylor (a longtime rival of David Forman) guilty on two counts of perjury and imposed on him an unusually large £200 for a misdemeanor fine. Two other disaffected former officeholders—James Wardell and Daniel Grandin—were charged with seditious words, but the outcome of their cases is not known. Wardell was further charged and found guilty on two counts of trading with the enemy (fined £30). Another disaffected former officeholder—Daniel Hendrickson of Middletown (not the militia colonel of the same name) was also charged with perjury but found not guilty. As with prior courts of Oyer and Terminer, women were tried for misdemeanors at the Sixth Court of Oyer and Terminer. However, the number was lower than at previous courts. The seven women were: Widow Abigail Parker (fined £5); Esther Wilson (charges dropped), Cornelia Johnson, Hannah Davis, Phoebe Brown, Charity Stout (fined £10), and Deborah Leonard (not paying bail from a prior charge). A few prominent Whigs were tried and fined. Elias Longstreet, the captain of the first Continental Army company raised from Monmouth County, was found guilty of assault and fined £10. Captain Stephen Fleming of Shrewsbury Township was charged with an unnamed misdemeanor. Daniel Hendrickson, Jr., son of the militia colonel, was convicted of two unnamed misdemeanors—fined £3 and a whopping £500 for the second count. His brother had been killed by Loyalists in March—raising a likelihood that young Hendrickson did something very ill-advised while grieving. Fines were the common punishment for misdemeanors, but there were two exceptions: David Jones of Stafford Township was sentenced to twenty lashes and Michael Howland was sentenced to nine months in jail. The rationale for these unusual sentences is not offered, but it is likely that these were poor men who it was presumed would be unable to pay a fine. They have also been flight risks. Concurrent with the Sixth Court of Oyer and Terminer Concurrent with the court, David Forman issued warrants to impress horses from eight disaffected Monmouth County residents. On May 20, he directed a former Continental Army officer, Abraham Woolley, "You are hereby, in the name of the State, to impress three good saddle horses from Thomas Thomson, Joshua Anderson, John Anderson, Benjamin Covenhoven, Jacob West or either of them." Similarly, on June 2, Forman directed Constable Peter Sutton, "You are hereby, in the name of the State, to impress a good saddle horse from John Anderson, son of Joshua, Solomon Combs, David Covenhoven, [and] Thomas Thomson." (Thomson was the subject of an impressment order twice.) Forman would later be reprimanded for these orders—lacking the authority to act on behalf of the State. As the court convened, men were left in jail without being charged. 24 petitioners claimed: We have no form of tryal - if any crimes are laid to our charge, we have no chance of defending ourselves, nor any account of how our property, thus torn away, is disposed of tho’ diverse of us have been imprisoned, and one [John Taylor] for months, confined in the common gaol, in the course of which time a court of Oyer & Terminer was sitting over his head - Writs of habeus corpus have been disregarded by the Sheriff - in short, every attempt for relief by course of law has been of no effect. The petitioners blamed the irregularities on David Forman’s “prevailing influence” as “the first judge of the court of common pleas” while also leading an extra-legal vigilante society, the Association for Retaliation . Petition signers were some of the same disaffected squires charged at the court, including Daniel Hendrickson (of Middletown) and Edward Taylor. The Sixth Court of Oyer and Terminer was the first one held in Monmouth County without the threat of Loyalist reprisal. Prior courts were conducted with companies of Continental or state troops stationed at Freehold to provide security. The safer atmosphere was noted by attorney William Paterson who wrote from Freehold on June 2: We have passed our time more agreeably than we have done at any former court, as we have not been under the most distant apprehension of the enemy. The business, as usual, has been troublesome, indeed we have dispatched more [cases] than I expected we should have done. The Pardons of Timothy Scoby and William Herbert Of the Loyalists sentenced to be hanged, it appears that the death sentences on Timothy Scoby and Wiliam Herbert particularly distressed Loyalists. William Corlies, a Shrewsbury Loyalist in New York, wrote William Franklin, head of the withering Associated Loyalists , about Scoby on June 10: Timothy Scoby, as Associated Loyalist, taken prisoner by the rebels on Sandy Hook, within his Majesty's lines, and William Herbert, also an Associated Loyalist, taken by the Rebels on the beach at the Highlands, near Sandy Hook, where he was going to purchase a little bread for the use of his shallop, have been tried for their Loyalty at a rebel court in Freehold, in the County of Monmouth, and have been sentenced to death, to be executed on the Fourth Day of July next. Corlies was “well convinced by his friends within the Rebel's lines that the sentence will be carried into execution” called on Franklin to take action “for the preservation of their lives." Franklin’s Associated Loyalists had been dry docked by the British in the aftermath of hanging of Joshua Huddy. So, Franklin lacked the ability to attack Monmouth County or threaten retaliation. But he promptly wrote to General Guy Carleton, commanding British forces in America, “respecting two Loyalists who were lately made prisoners by the rebels and have been tried for High Treason.” Franklin claimed that “no crime is alleged against them… but their Loyalty.” He complained, “one of them was taken on shore going to purchase provisions, and the other within British lines.” Franklin acknowledged he lacked authority to retaliate, so he put “the whole matter to your Excellency's determination." Carleton promptly wrote Governor William Livingston, on June 12: "Timothy Scoby, taken prisoner at Sandy Hook, and William Herbert, taken also prisoner on the beach at the Highlands, Sandy Hook.” He appealed to the Governor's "moderation and candor." Carleton drew a connection between his inquiry about Scoby and "General Washington justly demanding inquiry concerning the rash execution of Huddy.” Carleton worried that Livingston might be "informed by misinformation" and that Livingston should not be motivated by vengeance against Loyalists. He then flattered Livingston: I will take the fullest measure of reliance on you taking such measures as your own prudence shall dictate to place these men out of danger and that you will not suffer the terms of local law to violate general principles or mingle private or mutual revenge with fair and liberal customs. Scoby and Herbert were spared. On June 20, the Judges of the Monmouth Court of Oyer and Terminer wrote to Governor Livingston: The following persons were capitally convicted, vizt. Richard Phillips and the Negro Jacob for murder, William Herbert & Timothy Scoby for High Treason, the two last, the said Court recommend to your Excellency as the proper objects of mercy, and that they be pardoned accordingly. It is unusual that the Judges did not provide a rationale for the pardons. It seems probable that the Monmouth County judges knew of Carleton’s interest in Scoby and Herbert. They likely looked to lessen the attention on their other sentences by requesting these pardons. Two more Courts of Oyer and Terminer would be held in Monmouth County, in November 1782 and July 1783. The November court had 92 indictments, half the number as the May court, but the court did hand down seven death sentences (one more than the May court). The July 1783 Court of Oyer and Terminer had only 36 indictments and no capital convictions. Concurrent with this court, taxes were effectively collected from the shore region for the first time. James Craig testified (in Jacob Pettinger’s veteran’s pension application) that he and Pettinger were “warned out” in summer 1783 “for the purpose of assisting William Morris on the tax gathering.” They were needed because of “the great number of Tories & disaffected, the taxes could not be gathered without the assistance of the militia.” Craig and Pettinger performed the service "on horseback… for about one month." As the war finally cooled down, normal government functions came into disaffected neighborhoods and the prosecution of Loyalists receded. Related Historic Site : Monmouth County Historical Association Museum Sources : New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - May 1782; Orders from David Forman, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #4360-4361; Library of Congress, William Paterson Collection, Paterson to Cornelia Bell; William Franklin to Guy Carleton, Great Britain Public Record Office, British Headquarters Papers, 30/55, #4768; Guy Carleton to William Livingston, David Library, British HQ Papers, Carleton Papers, #4780; Court Docket, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 17, June 20, 1782; Petition, New Jersey State Archives, Collective Series, Revolutionary War documents, #32; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - December 1780; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - November 1781; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - November 1782; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - July 1783; Court Records, Monmouth Court of Oyer and Terminer, NJ State Archives, #33980; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Jacob Pettinger. 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The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > New Jersey Council of Safety Moves on Monmouth Loyalists by Michael Adelberg The aging squire James Grover was allowed to stay at home without punishment by the New Jersey Council of Safety despite being prominent in a Loyalist insurrection five months earlier. - April 1777 - In the early months of 1777, New Jersey emerged from a period of British occupation during which thousands of its citizens declared allegiance to Great Britain. In a number of counties, and particularly Monmouth County, civilian law enforcement and the courts were non-functional . The New Jersey Legislature stepped in to fill the breach; seizing on the example in neighboring Pennsylvania, it established a new Council of Safety on March 15, 1777. The New Jersey Council of Safety was a twelve-man board chaired by Governor William Livingston. Its appointed members included Dr. Nathaniel Scudder of Freehold. The Council would investigate the conduct of New Jerseyans suspected of undermining the New Jersey government or working against the Continental war effort. The Council had the power to overrule local government officials, call the Legislature into session, and detain enemies of the state. A subsequent law gave the Council the ability to appoint and remove local officials, but this controversial new power caused the Legislature to time-limit the Council’s existence to one-year from this expansion of power (to September 20, 1778). Council of Safety Early Docket Dominated by Monmouth County Cases The Council began meeting in early April 1777. It immediately focused on Monmouth County—which dominated the Council’s docket through the month. The Council’s earliest examinations concerned the Loyalist associations that fed the Loyalist insurrections in Upper Freehold , Freehold-Middletown , and Shrewsbury down the shore in December 1776. Depositions were taken regarding the conduct of Loyalist leaders, and lists of disaffected followers were compiled. The council also took an interest in the failed attempt of Samuel Wright and Henry Weatherby to raise recruits for the (Loyalist) New Jersey Volunteers . After amassing testimony against him, Weatherby was detained and brought before the Council on April 26; in exchange for signing a loyalty oath and posting a £300 bond for his future good behavior, he was released. Wright remained at large and was never brought before the Council. Only a few of the Loyalists and disaffected named in the depositions were brought before the Council. The rest were, presumably, administered loyalty oaths locally. The first Monmouth Countian punished by the Council of Safety was not Weatherby, but Moses Mount of Upper Freehold. The Council sent him to the Burlington County jail on April 10 for “maliciously and falsely saying and doing things encouraging disaffection... spreading false rumors concerning the American forces." Six days later, Mount petitioned for clemency: Your petitioner being sensible of his past misconduct and with a sincere heart that wishes well to the American cause, he begs your Excellency & Honorable House would favor him with another hearing & he hopes to convince your Excellency that his past misconduct was not so much owing to himself as to some designing people. Mount testified against other disaffected and was released. He supported the Revolution afterward. On April 10, after hearing from Moses Mount, the Council began considering Upper Freehold Loyalist associations led by Richard Robins and Anthony Woodward. It heard a confession from Thomas Fowler, a Loyalist insurrectionary recently captured by the Whig, Lewis Bestedo, and from Bestedo himself. It also heard from prominent Whigs Abraham Hendricks, William Imlay, and Alexander Montgomery of Upper Freehold. All three men gave testimony against members of the Woodward family. The evidence from these witnesses led the Council to declare that two prisoners, Jesse Woodward and Richard Robins, had committed treason; they were sent to prison in far-off Sussex County. Ring-leader Anthony Woodward was not tried because he was behind British Lines—though the Council would try and convict him of treason in June 1778 when he was captured. The Council was also concerned with the conduct of Captain Henry Waddle of Freehold. Waddle was an active militia leader early in the war—the first man to march the Monmouth militia outside the county (to defend Amboy from a rumored British attack in July 1776). He apparently became disaffected in the latter months of 1776. With Joseph Leonard, they hid Monmouth County’s records from the new County Clerk, Kenneth Anderson. The records ended up in the hands of Loyalists during the December 1776 insurrections and were lost to the new Monmouth County government. On April 11, Waddle responded to a summons to appear before the Council stating that a gout flare-up prevented his travel: I am extremely unhappy in being prevented by a severe fit of gout (which I am now confined in my room) from waiting on your Excellency & Council, as I think I can clear myself to the satisfaction of every one injurious suspicion. I hope your Excellency & Council will favour me with the reasons which they have for suspecting me & with the name of the accuser, that I may come prepared for my defence. Waddle never voluntarily appeared before the Council. He was arrested on July 19 and detained for five weeks. On August 30 he appeared before the Council, signed a loyalty oath to the New Jersey Government, and was released. Later in April, the Council tried four of Middletown’s most prominent pre-war citizens—John Taylor, James Grover, Daniel Hendrickson (of Middletown, not Shrewsbury’s militia Colonel), and Revaud Kearny. Taylor, who led the Middletown Loyalist insurrection, sought to get his friend, Grover, excused from appearing before the Council. This was despite the admission that Grover administered British protection papers during the Loyalist insurrection: He [Grover] still continues in a poor state of health, I am told has not been out of his house since he was taken; he has been a friend of the American cause, and I believe he is still so, which, if I am not misinformed, he can bring convincing proofs of. I am told he is accused of taking submissions, which I believe to be a fact, he is situated on the water and if he refused, he might have been taken prisoner himself. He did sign certificates as a Magistrate and had been one of many years, tho' he had often told me that when a new commission was issued, he would not qualify [refuse office]. He is a man of seventy years, has taken oath before Genl. Putnam, and is expected to remain quiet with his family. Kearney was charged with "maliciously and advisedly reviling the Honorable Congress of the United States and of measures adopted by the same Congress… and encouraging disaffection & manifestly tending to raise tumults and disorders in the State of New Jersey." Taylor and Kearney appeared before the Council, posted bonds for their future good behavior, and were released. Grover, having already taken an oath, was not compelled to appear before the Council. Kearney went home to Keyport, where he retired from public life, but remained openly disaffected. His diary notes several wagers with leading Whigs over the outcomes of war-related events. Council of Safety Continues to Hear Monmouth County Cases Inevitably, the Council would be forced to consider the fate of the 200+ Monmouth Countians jailed in Philadelphia and Fredericktown, Maryland . The first prisoner considered was John Throckmorton of Colts Neck (Shrewsbury Township). He was a junior officer in the Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers before being captured in late 1776, On May 23, John’s father, Joseph Throckmorton, petitioned the Council "on behalf of his son… praying that he might be indulged so far as to have his son removed into this State & confined at his home in Colt's Neck.” Despite offering to post a massive £3,000 for his son’s release the Council never acted on the request. John was likely involved in a prisoner exchange late that year. He rejoined the British Army only to be captured again. Starting in late 1777, the Council started permitting relatives of jailed Loyalists, if they posted bonds, to bring their kin back from Fredericktown. The Council also considered and ultimately supported a plan to recruit jailed Monmouth Loyalists into David Forman’s Additional Regiment —a time-consuming initiative that yielded only three recruits. The Council intervened on behalf of one the prisoners, Jacob Cooper, by awarding him prisoner of war status, "as it appeared that he had joined the enemy & was enlisted with them before publication of the act for punishing traitors." As a prisoner of war, Cooper would be jailed with British soldiers rather than common criminals, and would be subject to prisoner exchange (prior to exchange, Cooper was paroled home to Shrewsbury after Thomas Curtis of Shrewsbury posted a bond pending good behavior.) Twice, on December 12, 1777 and on May 29, 1778, the Council of Safety authorized the Monmouth County Sheriff (Asher Holmes) to send Loyalist women into British lines. The husbands of the nine women included Maj. John Antill of the New Jersey Volunteers and two men who would become infamous Loyalist partisans later in the war (John Tilton and Clayton Tilton). It is unclear if the women requested to go to New York or were exiled. Council of Safety Banishes and Returns Richard Waln Quakers posed a challenge for the Council of Safety, and New Jersey authorities more broadly. Strict Quakers refused militia service or even paying militia fines—this put them at odds with the new government. But they were also non-violent and not necessarily a threat to the Revolution. Richard Waln, a millowner from Upper Freehold, is an example of a Quaker who was considered by the Council of Safety more than once. In October 1777, Waln was brought before the Council, where he refused to take an oath to the New Jersey government. As punishment, he was banished to British lines (recently-captured Philadelphia). Waln spent eight months there. On June 17, 1778, as the British were quitting the city, Elizabeth Drinker wrote of Waln leaving for New York City: “Richard Waln took leave of us this day… have gone on board one of ye vessels, as also have many of ye inhabitants.” In August, Waln sought to return home to New Jersey, writing the Council of Safety: When your Petitioner was in Philadelphia (where he had permission to go) he received a message from several Gentlemen in high office in New Jersey informing him that he may come back upon taking the test [loyalty oath]. That being willing to comply herewith & not withstanding any offense, it came that your petitioner has since understood that an application to your Board is necessary -- He therefore requests that you will permit him to return home to his family & estate in New Jersey, & he will detain himself as a good subject. On August 25, the Council of Safety agreed that Richard Waln could return home if he posted a bond, stayed with his family in Upper Freehold, and agreed to answer any charges against him at the next Monmouth Court of Oyer & Terminer. He was put under supervision of Lt. Colonel Elisha Lawrence (not the Loyalist of the same name). Waln weathered the next five years without serious incident, even hosting a party of sailors walking across New Jersey after a daring escape from prison in New York. Waln was again in trouble with his neighbors at war’s end. Both houses of the legislature read petitions against him on May 28, 1783. The minutes of the Assembly record that the petitioners set forth: The great inconveniences that arise to them and others from an obstruction of the floating or rafting of lumber down Crosswicks Creek, occasioned by the mill dam of Richard Waln; and praying leave to present a bill to oblige the said Richard Waln to make proper waterways for rafts to go through. The petitioners were invited to make their case at the next session of legislature. Council of Safety Gives Way to County Courts As 1777 progressed, New Jersey’s counties returned to convening their courts and punishing criminals. The Council of Safety increasingly meted out temporary punishments pending a regular trial in the county courts. On December 7, the Council of Safety authorized the first Monmouth County Court of Oyer and Terminer (the court that heard political and capital crimes) to meet on January 20, 1778. In 1778, the Council of Safety’s activities tailed off as county courts re-assumed their historical role. When its authorization expired on September 20, 1778, there was no move in the legislature to re-authorize it. The Council ceased to exist. Perspective The New Jersey Council of Safety was a useful stopgap put in place during a time period in which the courts were not functioning in much of the State. Its broad powers and lack of accountability to the citizenry made liberty-living New Jersians suspicious of it. However, in balance, the Council carried itself with transparency (including published minutes) and moderation. Ultimately, the Council considered the political crimes of 47 Monmouth Countians; more than half of these deliberations occurred in April-May 1777. See table in the Appendix of this article. In all but a few cases, the punishments were lenient—most of the political criminals were released upon taking a Loyalty oath or posting a bond. This is consistent with the generally lenient policies of the Continental and British governments in the first half of the war, both of which declared general amnesties for ordinary citizens who were lured into bad conduct by the devious lies of the other side. Related Historic Site : The Grover House (home of James Grover) Appendix: Monmouth Countians Brought before the New Jersey Council of Safety See t able 2 . Sources : New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Council of Safety, Deposition of William Sands; New Jersey State Archives, Collective Series, Revolutionary War documents, #32, Deposition of Samuel Knott; New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, depositions and examinations regarding Henry Weatherby; New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, Examinations of John Longstreet and Peter Schenck re Henry Weatherby; New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, Examination of Sundry Persons; New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, box 1, document #34; Undated receipts and documents, New Jersey Council of Safety, New Jersey State Archives, box 2; Deposition of Thomas Potter, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 4, April 7, 1777; New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #36642-36644; New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, box 1, document #74; Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, p 301; New York Public Library, Diaries Collection, Revaud Kearney; Henry Waddle to New Jersey Council of Safety, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 4, April 11, 1777; Henry Waddle to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, pp. 302, 305; Deposition, Alexander Montgomery, New Jersey State Archives, Collective Series, Revolutionary War Documents, #28; Deposition, William Imlay, New Jersey State Archives, Collective Series, Revolutionary War Documents, #29; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 22. Peter Coldham, American Loyalists Claims: Abstracted from the Public Record Office (Washington, DC: National Genealogical Society, 1980) p 360; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 23; New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Manuscript Collection, Manuscripts, box 1, #64. New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 4, April 16, 1777; Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, p 300-1; William Livingston to Monmouth County Gaolkeeper, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 4, April 16, 1777; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 24-5; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 24; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 24-5; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 25; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 26; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 27; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 28; John Taylor to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Manuscript Collection, Manuscripts, box 1, #65; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 29; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 30-2; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 31; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 33; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 34; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 35-6; Cornelius G. Vermeule, "The Active New Jersey Loyalists," Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, LII (1934), p88; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 36; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 37. Jones, E. Alfred. The Loyalists of New Jersey, (Newark, N. J. Historical Society, 1927) p 135; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 37; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 37-8; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 38; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 38; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 7; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 41-2; New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives of History, Council of Safety, Thomas Woodward; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 50-1; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 54; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 50, 53; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v5, p104-5; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 55-6; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 55-6; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 92; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 59; Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, pp. 311 note; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 60; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 94, 127-8; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 102; John Jordan, Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania: Genealogical and Personal Memoirs (New York: Lewis Publishing, 1911) v. 2, p804; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 143-4; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 159; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 163-4; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 164, 168; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 172; David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 59, 64; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 1, p 514; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 195; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 239; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 242; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 243; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 245; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 251; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p202-3; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 253; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 249-50, 254; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 264; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 243; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 268-70; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 271; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 7; Richard C. Haskett, “Prosecuting the Revolution,” in American Historical Review, vol. 49 (April 1954), pp. 582-4; Hunt, Agnes, Provincial Committees of Safety of the American Revolution, (Cleveland: Western Reserve University Press, 1904) pp. 79-82. 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 Difficult Service of Forman's Flying Camp by Michael Adelberg British soldiers rowed ashore, assembled, and attacked the ill-prepared Continental Army in present-day Brooklyn. David Forman’s regiment saw limited action during the battle. - June 1776 - In June 1776, with momentum building for a declaration of independence and a massive British Army on its way, the Thirteen Colonies renewed their efforts to raise men for the Continental Army. Among other measures, on June 3, the New Jersey Provincial Congress passed an act to raise up to 3,300 “Flying Camp” to join the Continental Army. Flying Camp were like other Continental soldiers but, importantly, their enlistments would run for only five months—the expected length of time of the 1776 military campaign season. Raising Forman’s Regiment One Flying Camp regiment would be raised from Middlesex and Monmouth Counties--Nathaniel Heard of Woodbridge and David Forman of Freehold were charged with raising four companies each from their home counties. Recruiting began in May, prior to the passage of the act, and the regiment reached critical mass by mid-June. Thomas Henderson (a major in the newly-raised regiment) recalled that the first part of the Flying Camp left for “Long Island and joined General Washington's army” on June 14. (Brooklyn and Queens were discussed as part of Long Island in the 1700s.) A month later on July 15, as additional Monmouth County company raised from Upper Freehold left for New York. Forman’s recruits left Monmouth County at an inopportune time. As they left, a Loyalist insurrection bubbled up in Upper Freehold township. The departure of 200 supporters of the Revolution left the Monmouth militia weakened at its first moment of crisis. Noting the militia’s weakness, the New Jersey Provincial Congress resolved on July 2 that no additional Monmouth County militia would leave the county beyond Forman’s men: Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Congress, the Militia of Monmouth County ought, for the present, to remain in their own County, excepting such part thereof as by the late Ordinance of this Congress were required to form their proportion of the New-Jersey Brigade of three thousand three hundred men. Surviving documents do not reveal exactly when the full Middlesex-Monmouth regiment, now commanded by David Forman, its colonel, reached Long Island. However, one of the men, Isaac Vredenburgh, recalled their line of march and initial responsibilities upon reaching Brooklyn: His company was attached to the Regiment commanded by Col David Forman. A few days after the company marched to Elizabeth Town and from thence by Bergen Point & Staten Island, to Long Island [Brooklyn], and that they labored there and were engaged in constructing redoubts, and breastworks. Forman’s Regiment in the New York Campaign Forman’s regiment was assigned to a brigade commanded by General Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island. Greene’s first order mentioning Forman’s regiment concerned gathering "slaw bunks [sick beds] from the different regiments” for Forman. Greene’s order continued “two companies that have been with Col. Forman's Regiment are exceedingly sick, great numbers taken down every day." Indeed, sickness would prove far more dangerous to Forman’s Flying Camp than British soldiers. Periodic muster rolls from Forman’s regiment show the impact of sickness on the regiment during its five months of service. July 1776 – 451 men (42 sick & present, 0 sick & home) September, 352 total (25 sick & present, 131 sick & home); October – 253 men (20 sick & present, 115 sick & home) By October, Forman’s regiment had lost roughly 40% of its men. While there were a few captures and deaths, sickness caused the large majority of losses. After the Continental Army’s disastrous first battle with the British in Brooklyn, the Continental Army began retreating across New York. With the Army in motion, desertions also became a problem. On September 9, Forman advertised a 40-shilling reward for the return of sixteen deserters. He re-advertised for their return in two New York newspapers again on September 28, suggesting little initial success in locating and capturing the deserters. Other men left the regiment for various reasons. Muster rolls record six men being furloughed home (presumably they would return). Forman furloughed himself in September, perhaps to search for the deserters. Other men were listed as “on command” – a catch-all term used for men on temporary assignments away from their company. Common reasons men were listed “on command” include service at a military hospital, gathering supplies for the Army, and recruiting. Combat deaths were a relatively small problem – there were only two combat deaths across the four Monmouth companies. Other documents provide glimpses into the ill-discipline of the rank and file. Orderly books from junior officers and sergeants in Forman’s regiment provide glimpses into the Army’s disorder: July 10: “The General doubts not the person that took and mutilated the statue in the Broadway last night was actuated by zeal in the public cause, yet it was so much the appearance of riot & want of order in the Army that he directs that in the future these things may be avoided by the soldiers & left to be executed by the proper authority.” July 13: [Soldiers] “instead of attending to their duty at the beating of a drum, continued along the banks of the North River, gazing at the ships”; July 17: “Complaints having been frequently made that the Sentries, especially those posted along the river, fire wantonly at boats and persons passing - officers are to be careful upon this head and acquaint Sentries that they are not to molest or upset the ferry boats”; August 3: Warning issued regarding "the foolish & wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing"; August 6: Men chastised for "bad behavior" towards locals "taking and destroying their things." The first time Forman’s regiment saw battle was at the Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn). Several of Forman’s men discussed it in their postwar veteran’s pension applications (written in the 1820s). Some anecdotes about the Battle of Long Island are offered below: David Baird recalled that he “marched to Flatbush where a battle was fought -- that he was not in the main battle, but was engaged in a skirmish with the British during the day, and made a narrow escape with his life, being shot at by a Hessian of whom some of his men killed afterwards, the bullet passing his temple but doing no serious harm." John Bruce recalled that he “was employed in making entrenchments and fortifications in Brooklyn, at which place they continued until a few days after the battle of Flatbush... Saw the engagement but was not in the battle." Isaac Childs recalled that he "was in the battle of Long Island when the British took it, and saved myself from being prisoner by swimming to the Yellow Mill." James Craig recalled that “when the British Army attacked the Americans at Long Island… were placed in a piece of woods that skirted the roads which the British Army had to come.” His friend, Jacob Pettenger, recalled that Craig “induced a fleeing soldier” to return and stay in formation. Samuel Mundy recalled the hurried retreat of Forman’s regiment after the battle: He recalled the regiment fleeing suddenly at 11 pm "leaving their tents standing.” After the Battle of Long Island, Washington’s Army, with Forman’s regiment in it, spent the fall retreating across New York and into New Jersey. Isaac Vrendenburgh recalled the regiment’s line of march: Remained in the New York a very short time when the whole army move towards Harlem, and from thence marched to Fort Washington and while there had several recontres with the enemy – Shortly after marched up to the White Plains, where the American forces were collected, and where he remained until the battle at that place occurred, in which he was engaged. After this affair, marched some distance further north and crossed the Hudson, and then marched down southerly through Haverstraw to Fort Lee, and from thence through Bergen County to Newark and Elizabethtown in Essex. With only a week remaining in their enlistment, on November 24, Forman was permitted to pull his regiment away from the Army and return to Monmouth County. This was done in order to suppress a burgeoning Loyalist insurrection. Samuel Mundy recalled: The Colonel of the regiment received orders to take his regiment to Perth Amboy & cross over into Monmouth County to disarm certain disaffected persons in that county - immediately after this service he was discharged with the rest by the Colonel, their term of service expired. Forman’s campaign against the Monmouth insurrectionaries is discussed in another article. Related Historic Site : Brooklyn Battlefield (Battle of Long Island, Brooklyn, NY) Sources : Anderson, John R. "Militia Law in Revolutionary New Jersey." Proceedings of the New Jersey historical Society, vols. LXXVI and LXXVII (July 1956 and January 1959), pp. 291, 293-4; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Thomas Henderson of New Jersey, www.fold3.com/image/#23877525 ; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009) pp. 550-1; Charles H. Lesser, The Sinews of Independence: Monthly Strength Reports of the Continental Army (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), pp. 26-34; New York Historical Society, Orderly Books Collection, Captain Henry Weatherhill, reel 3, #32 and American Book #32; Library of Congress, William Walton, Orderly Book; Nathanael Greene, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1976) vol. 1, pp. 270-1; Peter Kinnan, Orderly Book Kept by Peter Kinnan, pp. X, 19-56; New York Gazette & Weekly Mercury, September 9, 1776; David Forman returns, National Archives, Collection 881, R 640; New Jersey Provincial Congress, July 2, 17776, in 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; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Samuel Mundy of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#25890437 ; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 1, p 197; David Forman returns, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, Coll. 69, p2, 5, 7, 11; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - David Baird; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p228; John Rees, Eyewitness to Battle: The Pension Depositions of Frederick Van Lew and Isaac Childs, Brigade Dispatch, vol 29, n 3, 1999, p 18-21; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Bruce of New York, www.fold3.com/image/#11713958 ; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Jacob Pettinerger of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# 25952031. Previous Next