The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > Monmouth Loyalists Emigrate to Canada by Michael Adelberg The eastern provinces of Canada were carved up on land grant maps like this one. Dozens of Monmouth County families emigrated to Canada. Even with free land, life was hard when they arrived. - September 1782 - Throughout the Revolutionary War, New York City was home to thousands of Loyalist refugees. Much of the time, the city was overcrowded; food and firewood shortages were common. While Loyalists sided with the British and performed military activities with British regulars, the relationship was an uneasy one. The British military was intensely hierarchical and harsh. American Loyalists, at least by British standards, were ill-disciplined. The British decision to court-martial Richard Lippincott in May 1782 for hanging Joshua Huddy angered Loyalists, as did other conciliatory gestures by the British. Whatever the resentments, Loyalists backed the losing side in the war—and were therefore dependent on British largesse. In many cases, Loyalists who tried going home were unwelcome and met with violence. Canada was sparsely settled and the British were eager to relocate loyal English families as a counterweight to the French population. Guy Carleton, the former Governor-General of Canada and British Commander in Chief at New York, was well positioned to steer Loyalists there. Monmouth Loyalists Head to Canada Documentation of Loyalist resettlement is plentiful but sometimes confusing. There are many partially overlapping lists of Loyalists bound for or settled in Canada, but some Loyalists who are known to have ended up in Canada are absent from these lists. African American Loyalists were compiled in separate lists and are the subject of a different article . With these data limitations in mind, it appears that the first Monmouth Countians resettled in Canada were part of a group of 600 Loyalists that left for Nova Scotia on September 20, 1782. Seven probable Monmouth County Loyalist families were among them, including Widow Buckalew (with two children) and Conradt Hendricks Freehold Loyalist with his wife and six children. Another group of 432 Loyalist refugees, the "Bay of Fundy Adventurers," left for New Brunswick, Canada on October 19. The effort to resettle Loyalists grew more intense in early 1783. The New Jersey Gazette wrote on March 12 about "recent intelligence from New York” detailing “that the Provincial Corps [Loyalist military units] are to be immediately disbanded." British authorities prepared lists of the Loyalists they were supporting. One list, "Refugees from the Province of New Jersey… for support from 1 January to 31 March, 1783," included 79 New Jersey families of which 17 were probably from Monmouth County including the families of former County Collector Samuel Osborne, former Judge John Wardell, former militia colonel George Taylor, and widow Catherine Reading (wife of a Middletown Loyalist partisan killed on Staten Island in 1781). Loyalist newspapers in New York began running glowing accounts of Canada and encouraging emigration. The advertisement excerpted below about Prince Edward Island (published on March 12 in the Royal Gazette ) was written to specifically appeal to New Jerseyans. Prince Edward Island was called "the most eligible Country for you to repair to of any we know between this and New Jersey.” The advertisement discussed the island’s virtues: The soil is good, it is well wooded, and free from rocks. The climate so good that fevers and agues unknown. Water everywhere is excellent. The government is mild, with but very few taxes.... Before we came here, we were told, as perhaps you may be, the worst things possible of this country but we have found the reverse to be true. Seven officers from the King's Rangers signed the advertisement, including three Monmouth Countians, Lieutenant John Throckmorton, Ensign John Robins, and Ensign Joseph Beers. Efforts were made to emigrate military units and their families together, but the decision to emigrate was voluntary. Some Loyalists had good reason not to leave when requested—perhaps they needed more time to sell possessions, settle business, or return to New Jersey to say goodbye to family. Ships taking some New Jersey Volunteers (Loyalist soldiers) and their families left on April 27 for New Brunswick. It appears that 24 additional Monmouth County families accompanied them that day, including the families of Rhoda Pew (whose husband was murdered in Monmouth County) and William Dillon (a Loyalist boatman from Toms River who would eventually return to New Jersey). The once-feared Associated Loyalists split up. Roughly 400 Loyalists emigrated to Port Roseway in April 1783. But they did so with trepidation, worrying over the "suffering they must endure" as the British offered only six months of provisions. They did not believe they could be self-sustaining in that time. In January 1784, 220 men, women and children remained at Port Roseway. Fifteen of those families were probably Monmouth County families including those headed by David Thomson, James Thomson, and John Thomson—an extended family that included a number of London Traders. Loyalist historian, Janice Potter-MacKinnon, wrote of another 300 Associated Loyalists who went to Sorel, Quebec in July and August 1783. She notes that they were from New York and New Jersey and one fourth were of Dutch descent. One of those Loyalists was Joseph Allen, a mill owner in Dover Township before the war, who would become a successful owner of several mills in Canada. While some New Jersey Volunteers had already left for Canada, it appears that the largest tranche--more than 600 men, women and children—emigrated to New Brunswick on July 8 along with "4 companies of free Black Refugees." Elisha Lawrence of Upper Freehold (former Lt. Colonel in the New Jersey Volunteers ) and John Antill (former Major) left for Canada on April 17 to scout for a large-scale emigration site. They returned to New York and brought off the 600 Loyalists in July. But Lawrence ran afoul of the Royal Governor who complained to General Carleton of Lawrence’s and Antill’s “unreasonable demands and illiberal ideas.” Additional New Jersey Volunteers continued to emigrate. A September 5 report, "Embarkation Return of Troops to Settle in Nova Scotia" included information on 59 New Jersey Volunteers settled there. “Staging for embarkation” were another 153 men, 67 women, 98 children and 12 servants from the 1st Battalion, and 134 men, 46 women, 67 children and 25 servants from the 2nd Battalion. Personal Accounts Regarding Emigrating to Canada Unfortunately, there are no surviving diaries or personal letters from Monmouth County Loyalists during their emigration. But a good sense for the journey is provided in the diary of New York Loyalist, Sarah Scofield Frost. She left on the ship, Two Friends , with 250 other emigres on her ship and 2,000 in total; on board with her, "many of the voyagers were or had been members of the New Jersey Volunteers." They boarded their ships June 8, 1783, bound for resettlement near St. John. The ships left Manhattan on June 9 but were detained by bad weather for a week at Staten Island and then detained again near Sandy Hook on June 15. She wrote, "We came to anchor about six miles from Sandy Hook Light House... This evening, we had a terrible storm, and hail stones fell as big as once balls." They sailed again on June 16 but were delayed for several hours as each of the fourteen heavily loaded ships (carrying 2,000 Loyalists) had to clear the Hook one at a time. During this time, Two Friends sat over the fertile fishing banks off Sandy Hook. Frost wrote that "the men are fishing for mackerel... It is the handsomest fish I beheld." After ten days at sea, the convoy arrived at St. John. The Loyalists had to live in tents and because it took time to build cabins for themselves; most spent the next winter in those same tents. Frost matter-of-factly wrote: Many of the women were unaccustomed to such living and this was made more serious by the care of the children, many of them being of tender years. Living in tents with snow at the time being six feet or more in depth caused much suffering. Two Monmouth County Loyalists wrote letters regarding emigrating to Canada. John Morris (formerly of Manasquan) commanded the 2nd Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers through the first half of the war before retiring on a half-pay pension due to disability. In August 1783, he wrote Guy Carleton to request reinstatement into the Army and reassignment to Quebec. It is unknown if his request was granted. Richard Robins (formerly of Upper Freehold) was a leader in December 1776 Loyalist insurrection. He wrote Carleton a memorial on his service in September 1783: “Your memorialist was called upon by Sir William Howe to furnish the Army with a number of wagons and horses, which your memorialist did." Robins suffered for his loyalty, writing that he was "confined in close gaol for eighteen months & upwards" and had his £1000 estate confiscated. He wrote that "has been drove from his home with the loss of the remainder of his property" and was leaving for Canada in “destitute” condition. He asked for compensation. The British created a process for Loyalist compensation in 1787, but Robins was dead—dying on Prince Edward Island in 1784. Monmouth County Loyalists Settle in Canada Canadian records from 1784-1786 provide information on Monmouth County Loyalists during the first years in Canada. A large number of the 2nd Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers had settled together in New Brunswick. A “List of Volunteers” compiled on July 14, 1784 (eight years after 60 Shrewsbury Loyalists marched to Sandy Hook to establish the group) includes 27 likely Monmouth Countians. Four were junior officers who served continuously through the war (Ensign Lewis Thomson, Lieutenant John Combs, Lieutenant Cornelius Thomson, and Ensign John Leonard). The 1st Regiment of the Kings Rangers was established halfway through the year, made up partially of Monmouth Countians who tired of the New Jersey Volunteers. They settled in Nova Scotia. A June 12, 1784 roll lists 85 household heads including eleven probable Monmouth County families: Lieutenant John Throckmorton (with wife and 2 two servants, 500 acres), Ensign John Robins (single, 500 acres), Ensign Joseph Beers (with wife, child, servant, 500 acres), Sergeant Alexander Campbell (with wife and child), 200 acres), Privates Peter Rose, Matthew Griggs, Thomas Smith, John Croxen, John Jackson, Daniel Wall, William Armstrong (all single with 100 acres each). Ward Chipman, the Muster Master for the Canadian Maritime Provinces, compiled rolls of “disbanded” American officers and widows of officers in his provinces. Ten likely Monmouth Countians are listed: John Horner, Lydia Horner, Anthony Woodward, Anthony Woodward Jr., Richard Lawrence, Michael Wardell (at Bellevue in Beaver Harbor, July 1, 1784); John Leonard (at Digby, May 29, 1784); John Taylor (1st NJ Volunteers), John Williams (at Gulliver's Hole, St. Mary's Bay, and Sissiboo, June 6, 1784); John Throckmorton (“Preparing to settle in the Island of Saint John” on August 12, 1784). There are other records of land grants being made to Loyalists in 1784. At least four more prominent Monmouth County Loyalists received significant grants of land. Nova Scotia: Captain Samuel Leonard, New Jersey Volunteers, 700 acres (October 8) and Major Thomas Leonard, 1000 acres (October 22); Cape Breton Island: Captain Thomas Crowell, 500 acres (March 15) and Major John Antill, 1,000 acres (November 28). An undated Canadian report, "List of Provincial Officers that Served in North America During the Late War" included the following probable Monmouth Countians as active: 1st Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers - Captains John Taylor, Samuel Leonard; Lieutenants John Thomson, John Lawrence, James Britton, Henry Britton, Ensigns John Woodward, Joseph Britton, Ozias Ansley, Reuben Hankinson; 2nd Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers - Lieutenant Cornelius Thomson, Ensigns Robert Morris, John Leonard; Roger's Rangers - Lieutenant John Throckmorton, Ensign Joseph Beers, John Robins. A list of retired officers on half-pay included: Lt. Colonels John Morris, Elisha Lawrence; Majors John Antill, Thomas Leonard; Captains John Longstreet, Robert Morris, Lieutenants John Throckmorton, Thomas Okerson; Ensign John Robins. Retired or not, Elisha Lawrence was entrusted by the British to make land grants to New Jersey Volunteers under his leadership. He granted 36 Loyalists 300 acres each on July 2, 1785. A year later, at St. John, Jonathan Odell (formerly of New Jersey) made 613 land grants in New Brunswick. Dozens of possible Monmouth Countians were among these grantees including Catherine Reading. Canada was not a frozen wasteland. But it was cold, the land was untamed, and support from the British fell short of expectations. The New Jersey emigres were not frontiersmen; most farmed land that had been cleared for decades. During the war, most lived on British rations or food purchased at New York City markets. Given all of this, there should be no doubt that while a few Loyalists prospered (Joseph Allen soon owned several mills and a great deal of land in Quebec), most found life in Canada, particularly in the early years, very difficult. Related Historic Site : United Empire Loyalists Heritage Centre (Ontario) Sources : List of Loyalists, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v97, #427; Loyalists Evacuated from New York to New Brunswick, (David Bell, Early Loyalist St. John, Fredericton, NB: New Ireland Press, 1983), compiled by Edward Kipp; Advertisement in Royal Gazette in Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, Class 226, vol 9, folio 5-6; List of Provincial Officers, Great Britain Public Record Office, T64/23; Joseph Allen’s bio, United Empire Loyalists, Loyal Directory: http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Info ; United Empire Loyalists, Loyal Directory: http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Info ; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; List of Refugees from the Province of New Jersey, David Library, British HQ Papers, Carleton Papers, #7258; David Bell, American Loyalists to New Brunswick: Passenger Lists (Formac, 2015); Return of the Port Roseway Associated Loyalists, www.buckingham-press.com/project ; Associated Loyalists in Report on Canadian Archives (Ottawa: S.E. Dawson, 1894) p403; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 66, item 53, #276-94. Library of Congress, Peter Force Collection, series 7C, box 24, folder 3, 53:281-7; Notice, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #7575; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Diary of Sarah Scofield Frost, Migration by Ship/United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada, www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Ships/Loylalist-Ships.php; Captain John Hatfield : A Genealogy of the Descendants of Captain John Hatfield, Loyalist (New York: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1943) p10; Janice Potter-MacKinnon, While the Women Only Wept: Loyalist Refugee Women Eastern Ontario (Montreal: MacGill U.P., 1993) p 135-6; United Empire Loyalists, Loyal Directory: http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Info ; Governor Parr to Guy Carleton in Alfred Jones, “Letter of David Colden, Loyalist, 1783”, American Historical Review, October 1919, vol. 25, p81 n5; John Morris to Guy Carleton, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #8799; Return of Troops to Settle in Nova Scotia. Great Britain Public Record Office, WO 36/3, p 96; Richard Robins, Report on American Manuscripts, Library of Congress, v4, p336; Richard Robins to Guy Carleton, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #9022; Sketch of the Movement of the Troops, Clements Library, U Michigan, MacKenzie Papers, October 1783; Return of Loyalists Gone from New York to Nova Scotia, Great Britain Public Record Office, WO 36/3, p 97; Digitized Manuscripts: Loyalists in the Maritimes – Database: Ward Chipman, Muster Master ( http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/loyalists/loyalists-ward-chipman/pages/search.aspx ); Muster Roll of the King’s Rangers, 1784, www.islandregister.com/kingsrangers/html ; Muster Roll, King's Rangers, Capt Samuel Hayden, June 24, 1784, www.islandregister.com/kingsrangers/html ; 2nd Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers, List of Volunteers, Collections of the New Brunswick Museum, folder 75, box 9; Nova Scotia Archives, Land Papers, http://www.novascotia.ca/nsarm/virtual/landpapers/archives.asp?ID=183&Doc=memorial&Page=201100512 ; List of Grantees, We Lived: A Genealogical Newsletter of New Brunswick Sources: http://freepages.geneaology.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cannbfam/SJ.pdf ; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File, unpublished at the Monmouth County Historical Association. 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The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > State Troops Raised for the Defense of Monmouth County by Michael Adelberg In May 1778, 74 men were recruited as State Troops for the defense of the Monmouth shoreline. 32 of these men were from Middlesex County, mostly from Perth and South Amboy. - May 1778 - The April 5, 1778 British-Loyalist raid of Manasquan, during which 140 men completely destroyed the salt works there, proved that the Monmouth County shore was easily penetrated by a mid-sized raiding party. David Forman’s undersized and scandal-plagued regiment of Continental soldiers were recently removed from the area; local militia, stationed at Tinton Falls and Toms River, were too weak and distantly-posted to effectively defend the county’s long coastline. The New Jersey government had previously allowed Monmouth County’s militia colonels to raise companies of State Troops for the county’s defense (including an “Artillery Company ” raised by Joshua Huddy in late 1777). State Troops were militiamen who volunteered for six, nine or twelve months of continuous service during which the state paid them as Continental soldiers. Unlike Continental soldiers, State Troops remained under the command of local militia officers for local defense. Following the April 5th raid, Monmouth County’s militia officers sought to raise two companies of State Troops. Recruiting occurred in May (with service to begin on June 1) amidst difficult circumstances. The imminent British withdrawal from Philadelphia would bring their army into New Jersey and preparing for that march was the top priority of the Continental and New Jersey governments. Defending the shore was not on the minds of state and national leaders. Further, Monmouth County had just sent thirty draftees into the Continental Army—men who would have been likely State Troop enlistees. A handful of surviving lists document the recruiting efforts. The most complete is the list compiled by Colonel Samuel Forman, commanding the militia from Upper Freehold, Dover and Stafford townships. Forman recruited 45 men in total. The majority were young, 27 recruits were under 25 years old, including three 16-year-olds. The oldest recruit was 47-year-old Alexander Stewart, an Irish immigrant. Interestingly, the majority of Forman’s recruits were not from the townships where he led the militia: 14 were from Monmouth County’s other townships (Freehold, Middletown and Shrewsbury) and 18 were from Middlesex County. Concurrently, Colonel Asher Holmes was raising men for the state troops. Holmes raised 29 men from May 14 – May 29. Thirteen recruits were from Freehold and Middletown townships (where commanded the militia), 14 were from Middlesex County (of which 9 were from South Amboy), one was from Shrewsbury Township, and one was from Salem County. As with Forman’s recruits, the majority of Holmes’s recruits were young men (18 or the 29 were younger than 25). An overlapping list shows 24 recruits being raised from captains who reported to Colonel Holmes—showing that Holmes delegated recruiting to several of his company captains. The remaining militia regiment, under Colonel Daniel Hendrickson of Shrewsbury Township, apparently did not raise men for the State Troops. This was likely because much of Shrewsbury was disaffected. In contrast to the four men raised from Shrewsbury Township, 32 of the 74 State Troop recruits were raised from Middlesex County, mostly from the port towns of South Amboy, Perth Amboy and New Brunswick. The British naval blockade likely depressed the economies in these towns; short term military service was likely attractive for underemployed sailors and teamsters in these towns. The most curious of the recruits was 25-year old Alexander Eastlick of Freehold. He enlisted on May 14 (the first day of recruiting) and then was listed as “absconded.” He likely collected a recruitment bounty and then went into hiding. Eastlick had been previously indicted for riot, suggesting volatile or even criminal behavior. However, by 1783 Eastlick had integrated back into the community—signing a petition urging the New Jersey Legislature to compensate citizens holding inflationary war-time currency. Another interesting recruit was David Hill of Middletown. He applied for a military pension after the war in which he described his service in the State Troops: "joined a company of state troops raised… for six months… duties were to guard the shores & frontier of Middletown from the depredations of the enemy who were continually landing on the shores in small parties for the purpose of foraging and plundering the inhabitants.” Hill had been "taken prisoner in the early part of the war [at the Battle of the Navesink ] and remained a prisoner until the month of May 1778, when he returned home." He apparently went right into the State Troops. Perhaps out of patriotism, but more likely because of the relative safety of living amongst a body of soldiers. Hill would rejoin the State Troops in 1779 and 1780. The specific service of these State Troops in 1778 is unknown because they were treated as part of the militia in the orders and reports of the senior officers. However, they were not ready to offer resistance when a Loyalist raiding party attacked Middletown Point on May 27. Related Historic Site : The Proprietary House Sources : List of Recruits, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #3634; Samuel Forman, New Jersey State Troops, National Archives, Collection 881, reel 593; Muster Roll, Asher Holmes, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, New Jersey, folder 58, #137; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Daniel Hill of NY, www.fold3.com/image/#24262324 . 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 > Pulaski's Legion and the Osborn Island Massacre by Michael Adelberg Patrick Ferguson was among the most energetic officers of the Revolutionary War. His attack on Pulaski’s Legion was among the most brutal Revolutionary War incidents to occur in New Jersey. - October 1778 - On October 5, 1778, a 1,000-man British-Loyalist raiding party reached Little Egg Harbor (called Egg Harbor at the time), just south of Monmouth County. They blocked the harbor entrance and, with disaffected locals as guides, 300 men in four galleys went upriver to Chestnut Neck, New Jersey’s privateer boomtown . Brief cannon-fire from the boats scattered the local militia from the town. On October 8, the valuable British merchant ship, Venus , and ten other vessels were unloaded and then burned, as were the warehouses and the town’s unarmed fort. Some smaller vessels escaped by upriver, but the success of the attack was near-total. The raiders returned to the mouth of Mullica River at Egg Harbor. One of their larger ships, Granby , grounded in the harbor and this may be why the raiders stayed in Egg Harbor for the next week. During that time, the raiders sent out parties to destroy nearby salt works (a favorite target of Loyalist raiders) and take unwitting privateers entering the harbor. British leader, Edmund Burke, received a report that the raiders then razed “three salt works, and several stores were destroyed. The Raleigh , a fine American frigate was taken.” The British also sent a party to Cranberry Inlet (the entrance to the shore’s second busiest privateering port of Toms River ) to capture another vessel. Even before the raiders razed Chestnut Neck, American forces were moving to defend the area. Thinking the attack would be made against Elizabethtown, Governor William Livingston mistakenly sent militia from several counties in the opposite direction of the attack. However, George Washington had better intelligence and ordered the new Legion of Kasimir Pulaski (officered by Europeans but manned by Americans) and the artillery regiment of Thomas Proctor to defend Egg Harbor. By October 8, a formidable collection of American forces neared the area: 250 men under Pulaski, 220 men in Proctor's Artillery Regiment with cannon, 50 Philadelphia militia, and 300 Monmouth militia under Samuel Forman. But the American forces were uncoordinated—arriving at different times, from different directions. Pulaski left Trenton for Egg Harbor on October 6 and, according to the New Jersey Gazette "marched for that place with all his troops in high spirits and with great alacrity." Lacking the strength to attack the British, Pulaski camped ten miles north of their ships, on Osborn Island—a swampy piece of land at the edge of Egg Harbor and the southern tip of present-day Ocean County. Local histories say they stayed in the homes of John Ridgeway and Jeremiah Ridgeway, members of a disaffected Stafford Township family. Though most of the recruits into Pulaski’s legion were Marylanders and Pennsylvanians, at least one Monmouth Countian enlisted in the Legion as they marched to Osborn Island. Joseph Coward enlisted for eighteen months and probably guided the Legion to its camp, where they arrived no later than October 10. Jonathan Pettit of Egg Harbor would later submit a claim for feeding Pulaski’s men with 40 fowls, 1 barrel of cider, and 2 1/2 yards of new cloth (total value L20 S7) "taken by the men under Genl. Pulaski” on October 10. By October 14, a stalemate of sorts existed at Egg Harbor. The British raiding force was too strong to be attacked, but Proctor and Philadelphia militia had moved up the Mullica River to defend the state’s interior. To the north, Pulaski and the arriving Monmouth militia blocked further raids into Monmouth County. (The activity of the New Jersey militia is discussed in another article.) Pulaski’s position was revealed to the British by Carl Joseph Juliat, an officer under Pulaski who deserted to the British. Local teenagers, Thomas Osborn, and Richard Osborn were compelled to serve guides to the British. Well informed about Pulaski’s vulnerable camp, a British-Loyalist party under Captain Patrick Ferguson determined to row ten miles to attack Pulaski’s Legion at night. The Osborn Island Massacre The reports of Count Pulaski to the Continental Congress and Captain Ferguson to General Henry Clinton describe what happened on Osborn Island: Pulaski reported having his camp revealed to Captain Ferguson: “One Juliat, an officer lately deserted to the enemy, went off with them… with three men whom he debauched and two others whom they forced with them.” Ferguson reported similarly: “A Captain and six men from Pulaski’s Legion defected to us” and provided information on Pulaski’s camp. Ferguson opted to attack because “the winds detained us” at Egg Harbor. Pulaski’s description of the attack: The enemy, no doubt excited by this Juliat, attacked us at three o’clock in the morning with 400 men. They seemed at first to attack our pickets with fury, who lost a few men in retreating. Then the enemy advanced on our infantry. The Lieut. Col. Baron DeBose, who headed these men, fought vigorously, was killed with several bayonet wounds, as well as Lieut. De la Boderie and a small number of soldiers and others were wounded. This slaughter would not have ceased so soon if on the first alarm had I not hastened with my cavalry to support the infantry which then kept up a good countenance; the enemy soon fled in great disorder and left behind a great quantity of arms, accoutrements, hats, blades, etc… We took some prisoners and should have taken many more had it not been for a swamp through which our horses could scarcely walk. Ferguson’s account of the attack differs on key facts: At eleven last night 250 men were embarked and, after rowing ten miles, landed at four in the morning within a mile of a defile, which we happily secured, and leaving thirty men for its defence, pushed forward upon the infantry of the Legion, cantoned in three different houses, who are almost entirely cut to pieces. We numbered among their dead about fifty and several officers among whom we learn are a Lieutenant Colonel, a Captain and Adjutant. It being a night attack, little quarter could, of course, be given; so that there are only five prisoners. Pulaski reported that immediately after the battle, he was unable to “cut off the retreat [desertion] of about 25 men, who retired into the country and the woods.” Given the loss of these men and deaths from the battle, he could not launch a significant counter attack. Pulaski did not report that the arriving Gloucester County militia attacked Ferguson’s raiders during its withdrawal, but was badly defeated. Ferguson also discussed the withdrawal, “The rebels attempted to harass us in our retreat but with great modesty, so that we returned at our leisure, and re-embarked in security.” Ferguson reported his losses at only two dead and two wounded. One Loyalist newspaper claimed that 60 of Pulaski’s men were killed, another stated 53. American newspapers reported Pulaski’s losses “at about 30 men killed or missing.” Subsequent accounts reveal additional information on the so-called Osborn Island Massacre. Ferguson reported that his men spared the homes of James Willett and the Ridgeways, who hosted Pukaski’s men: “as the houses belonged to inoffensive Quakers, who may have already suffered sufficiently in the night's confusion." But Ferguson was also callous about killing Pulaski’s Legion “which is entirely cut to pieces.” He explained, “It being a night attack, little quarter could be given.” With accusations building about the brutality of the attack, Ferguson wrote a second account of the attack ten days after his first report: Capt. Ferguson set off in the night in boats with 250 men, rowed ten miles, landed, marched one mile to a bridge, at which he left fifty men, with the rest he marched a mile farther, surprised and cut to pieces the infantry of Pulaski's legion. Our soldiers were highly irritated against this brutal foreigner, who had given out in public orders to his men, never to give any quarter; in consequence of which our people took only five prisoners, all the rest, were left on the spot, the business being done with the bayonet only. Yet even here Capt. Ferguson had an opportunity of exercising his humanity; the houses in which were the baggage and equipage of Pulaski's legion, belonging to inoffensive Quakers, he left them untouched, rather than distress the innocent inhabitants by burning the quarters. Ferguson further noted his need to strike quickly given that “the rebel Colonel Proctor being within two miles with a corps of artillery." British political leader, Edmund Burke, reading reports from America, wrote that Pulaski’s sleeping men “were almost entirely put to the sword.” Burke also claimed that “Pulaski had given orders that no quarter should be given to our troops." Pulaski’s alleged order to grant no quarter seems unlikely since it was Ferguson who launched the pre-dawn surprise attack. Continental Army General William Heath was outraged by Ferguson’s murderous conduct and the weakness of the “no quarter” excuse: They surprised a part of Pulaski's legion in that neighborhood [Osborn Island], whom they handled very severely. The British pretended that they had heard that Pulaski had instructed his men not to give them quarter; they therefore anticipated retaliation. A British captain, Charles Steadman, clarified the controversy over Pulaski’s alleged “no quarter” order: Captain's Ferguson's soldiers were highly irritated by intelligence immediately before received from the deserters [of Pulaski's Legion] that Count Pulaski had given out in public orders to his Legion, no longer to grant quarter to British troops. This intelligence afterwards appeared false; but in the meantime, Captain Ferguson's soldiers acted under the impression that it was true. Ferguson’s party returned to their ships at 10 a.m. on October 15. The invasion flotilla weighed anchor that afternoon but had to leave behind and burn their flagship, Zebra , which had grounded. They had orders raid along the shore on their back. Ferguson recalled that his men were to "employ ourselves” by “looking into Barnegat and Cranberry Inlets, and destroy and bring off any vessels that may happen to be there, and demolish the saltworks, which are very considerable on the shores of these recesses." Slowed by contrary winds, the British did not return to Sandy Hook until October 22. Back on Osborn Island, a mob took young Thomas and Richard Osborn, who had guided Ferguson’s men. According to local histories, the mob would have hanged the Osborns but one of Pulaski’s officers saved them by arresting them. Pulaski wrote on October 16, “Two men who guided the enemy were taken in that operation, I have ordered them to Trenton, with some prisoners and arms.” The Osborns were charged with treason and acquitted on October 30 (presumably because they were forced to assist Ferguson). As for Pulaski, his Legion was decimated and humiliated. They headed north though poor and disaffected neighborhoods where the locals had no love for either European officers or their out-of-state recruits. Pulaski’s difficult march is the subject of the next article.\ Related Historic Site : Little Egg Harbor Friends Meeting House Sources : Franklin Kemp, A Nest of Rebel Pirates (Egg Harbor, NJ: Batsto Citizens Committee, 1966) pp 22-4; Wilson, Harold F., The Jersey Shore: A Social and Economic History of the Counties of Atlantic, Cape May, Monmouth and Ocean (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1953) pp. vol. 216-217; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v3, p477; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Franklin Kemp, A Nest of Rebel Pirates (Egg Harbor, NJ: Batsto Citizens Committee, 1966) pp 3-5, 29-35; Private Correspondence: Jack Fulmer, Personal Map of Egg Harbor; Damages by Americans, Burlington County Ledger, claim #59, New Jersey State Archives; William MacMahon, South Jersey Towns (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1973) p 302; David Fowler, egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 192; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Joseph Coward; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Jacob Davidson; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I42, Petitions to Congress, v 1, p 214; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; William Livingston to Lord Stirling, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 2, p 457; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 12, pp. 981, 984; New York (Royal) Gazette, October 24, 1778; Edmund Burke, An Impartial History of the War in America (R Faulder, London 1780), p 42-3; Patrick Ferguson’s account in Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 50-1; Franklin Kemp, A Nest of Rebel Pirates (Egg Harbor, NJ: Batsto Citizens Committee, 1966) pp 124-5; Patrick Ferguson to Henry Clinton, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v93, reel 2, #420-37; Szymanski, Leszek, Casimir Pulaski: A Hero of the American Revolution, (New York: Hippocrene Books, Inc., 1993) pp. 211-2, 214; Richard B Martin, Runaways of Colonial New Jersey (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2007) p307; William Fischer, Biographical Cyclopedia of Ocean County (Philadelphia: A.D. Smith, 1899) p 49; Patrick Ferguson, Report, The Scots Magazine, v43, p 29; Patrick Ferguson to Henry Clinton, Great Britain Public Record Office, CO 5/1089, p 151-3; William Heath, Memoirs of the American War, (Boston: Applewood, 1798), p 208; Franklin Kemp, A Nest of Rebel Pirates (Egg Harbor, NJ: Batsto Citizens Committee, 1966) pp 132-3; Frederick W. Bogert, "Sir Henry Raids a Hen's Roost,'" New Jersey History, vol. 98, n. 3-4 (Fall/Winter 1980), pp. 228-31; Richard Henry Spencer, "Pulaski's Legion," Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. 13 (1918), pp. 215-24; William Livingston to George Washington, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, pp. 80-1. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > Monmouth Militia Join Continental Army to Shadow British Retreat by Michael Adelberg The Monmouth Militia marched west to Princeton and then north into the rugged Sourland Hills to join the Continental Army in shadowing the British Army on its withdrawal from New Jersey. - June 1777 - Following defeats at Trenton (December 25, 1776) and Princeton (January 3, 1777), the British Army retreated across New Jersey into a small perimeter of encampments around Perth Amboy and New Brunswick. General William Howe, the British commander-in-chief in America, had always considered the stretch of British winter camps across New Jersey to be “too extensive.” He later claimed that he had moved across the state in order to provide cover to Loyalist insurrectionists in Monmouth County. When he retreated, the insurrections quickly collapsed . But even the small perimeter in New Jersey was too much to defend when the British decided to use their naval advantage to attack Philadelphia by sailing around New Jersey and take it from the south. By June 1777, Continental Army leaders knew the British were preparing to move, but did not know their destination. General John Sullivan, commanding troops closest to the British camps, worried about an overland march across New Jersey, writing George Washington: “Surmise probably they may turn off for Philadelphia.” Alarms went out across New Jersey for the county militias to muster and support the Continental Army in this moment of uncertainty and potential danger. The first time the British invaded New Jersey in November 1776, New Jersey’s county militias, pre-occupied by local unrest, were generally unresponsive to Continental calls for assistance. But in June 1777, the counties across northern New Jersey answered the call. This prompted Washington to write Sullivan on June 15: “I am happy to hear that the Militia join you in such numbers, and are in so good spirits.” Washington continued: In this situation, you will have it in your power to harass the rear and left flank of the Enemy, while we oppose them upon their Front and Right. If, notwithstanding this, they are determined to push forward, always cross them and keep upon their right Flank, by which means you will join this Army at pleasure. Washington knew his army—lacking arms and filled by untrained recruits—was too weak to attack the British. He concluded on June 17 that “an attack upon them [the British] wou’d not be warranted by a sufficient prospect of success; and might be attended with the most ruinous consequences.” Instead, Washington planned to keep the main body of the army a safe distance from the British and use the New Jersey militia to annoy the British: “I intend by light Bodies of militia, seconded and encouraged by a few Continental Troops, to harass and diminish their number by continual Skirmishes.” Washington gave orders to Sullivan to attach one thousand Continentals to the one thousand New Jersey militia assembled. Noting the fickleness of militia, Washington further instructed Sullivan: “As an encouragement to the Militia, let them know that whatever Baggage or Spoils of any kind they can take from the Enemy shall be appropriated to their Benefit.” Those same orders noted the recent arrival of “the Monmouth Militia” which would “go with the detachment.” On June 21, Sullivan’s command assembled in the Sourland Hills of Somerset County and marched east toward the enemy. Militiamen Report on the March to Shadow the British Retreat There is a disappointing lack of documentation on the Monmouth militia who joined Sullivan. No officer letters or muster rolls exist from this campaign. Newspaper and later accounts discuss “the militia” but make no particular mention of the Monmouth County participants. Fortunately, a dozen Monmouth militiamen reported on the campaign in their post-war veteran’s pension applications. These pension narratives reveal that the Monmouth militia was late arriving because it had to circle around the British. After mustering at Freehold, they had to march 25 miles west before turning and marching 22 miles north to the rendezvous point at Pluckemin. The circuitous march is mentioned in a few of the pension narratives but most explicitly laid out by John Hulsart of Freehold: “he marched from Freehold to Princeton through Amwell Township to Sourland Mountain to Pluckemin.” It does not appear that the Monmouth militia saw any considerable combat during the campaign. Only one pensioner mentions “skirmishing” during the operation and only one pensioner suggests close contact with the enemy (“pursuit” of a British party). One pensioner notes the Monmouth militia was split up during the march. “They divided and part under the command of Major Garrett Longstreet marched on the south side of the Raritan River to New Brunswick, which was just deserted by the British Army” while the rest of the militia stayed with the main body of men under Sullivan. There are no mentions of picking up British deserters, difficult encounters with locals, sickness or privations during the march—all of which are mentioned in pensioner narratives of other campaigns. From this, it can be inferred that Sullivan did not press the militia too hard and that the militia were welcomed as liberators as they went into formerly-British occupied territory. There is no count of how many Monmouth Countians marched from Freehold. However, militia participants were drawn from all of Monmouth County’s townships—Dover, Freehold, Middletown, Shrewsbury, Upper Freehold—except for secluded and sparsely-populated Stafford Township. Two militiamen recall volunteering for the campaign; one said he was “drafted.” It is likely that Monmouth’s three militia regiments were asked to turn out a quota of men—calling for volunteers but drafting men to reach their quota when necessary. Documentation does not indicate that David Forman’s Additional Regiment marched with the Monmouth militia, but it is possible that some did. Pensioners recalled being commanded by Brigadier General David Forman, Colonel Samuel Forman (of Upper Freehold), and Nathaniel Scudder of Freehold during the march. Scudder’s mention is curious. Scudder had last commanded Monmouth militia at the disastrous Battle of the Navesink . By June 1777, he was serving on the New Jersey Council of Safety and representing Monmouth County in the Legislative Council (the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature). By law, Scudder was not permitted to hold a militia commission and civil government position that took him out of the county. Scudder likely accompanied the militia without any formal authority. He may have continued to carry himself as a militia colonel and because he was friends with David Forman, there was no rebuke. The length of time the men claim to have been out for the campaign ranges from two weeks to two months. It is possible that the two months refers to the entirety of activity from first call-up in Monmouth County to the safe return home, while two weeks refers to the time spent directly under Sullivan. It is also possible that the two months is an embellished figure written by an older man with an incentive to aggrandize his service for posterity and to increase his chances of being awarded a pension. Weak documentation makes it hard to be more precise. There is more precise documentation on the route taken by the Monmouth militia while under Sullivan. Joseph Van Note recalled marching from Pluckemin and then shadowing the British through “Steele's Gap, New Brunswick, & Woodbridge” (28 miles). Several militiamen recalled being dismissed at Woodbridge, but two pensioners recalled being discharged at New Brunswick—this likely reflects the Monmouth men being split after leaving Sourland Mountain. By the time the Monmouth militia reached Woodbridge, the militiamen had come nearly full circle. The march from Woodbridge back to the muster point at Freehold was only 23 miles; this was a short walk home in comparison to the 75 miles already covered by the men. On top of this, some of the men faced long marches to and from the muster point at Freehold. William Williams of Dover Township, for example, marched an additional 36 miles from Toms River to Freehold at the start of the call-up and that many miles again at the end. While David Forman’s shortcomings were many, he successfully mustered and marched the Monmouth militia without incident at a time when the county still lacked a functioning civil government and large parts of the militia were dysfunctional . This was likely his most impressive moment as a military leader. Forman would again turn out the Monmouth militia in September 1777 and march them all the way to Germantown , Pennsylvania, but personal scandal and the problems caused by the uniforms of his men during that campaign would complicate his record. Related Historic Sites : Historical Society of Princeton Sources : George Washington to Major General John Sullivan, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 10, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000, pp. 45–46; George Washington to Major General Benedict Arnold, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 10, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000, pp. 58–61; George Washington to Major General John Sullivan, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 10, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000, pp. 64–65; George Washington from Major General John Sullivan, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 10, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000, pp. 78–79; Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw080245)) ; John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 8, p 279; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Joseph Vanderveer. Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of William McBride of NJ, National Archives, p3-4, 20-2; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, James Hendrickson of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#23341082 ; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - William Williams. National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Joseph Van Note of Ohio, S.2895; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Joseph Van Note of Ohio, S.1129 National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Kenneth Gordon of NY, www.fold3.com/image/#21884413 ; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Benjamin Berry of VA, National Archives, p4-6; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application,Thomas Henderson of of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#23389962 ; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of William West of NJ, National Archives, p3; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John McBride of Middlesex Co, www.fold3.com/image/#26202857 ; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Daniel Dey of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#15489356 ; Contained in: National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Reid of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# 14359840. 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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 > Preparations Made for the Return of the French Fleet by Michael Adelberg Captain William Dobbs was the resident pilot at Sandy Hook before the war. Gen. Washington ordered his return to Sandy Hook in July 1778, October 1779, and June 1780 to help the French fleet. - May 1780 - In July 1778, a large French fleet anchored just south of Sandy Hook. The French outgunned the British fleet inside Sandy Hook, but their largest ships—when loaded for battle—sat too deep in the water to cross the channel into lower New York Harbor. Continental and state authorities attempted to supply the French, but provisions arrived slowly. After a two-week stand-off, the French sailed for Rhode Island. In October 1779, the French fleet was again expected to anchor off Sandy Hook and new preparations were made to provision the French, but the French steered for Savannah, Georgia instead. In April 1780, there were new rumors about the French fleet’s arrival at Sandy Hook. The French officer, Francois Louis de Fleury, wrote John Adams on May 1, 1780, that his fleet was headed for New York, but might not attack. The fleet "will in the mean time cruise before Sandy Hook to starve the British in their inexpungible lines." British Moves to Defend Sandy Hook As they had in July 1778 and October 1779, the British moved to defend the entrance of New York Harbor and block the channel above Sandy Hook . On April 27, the prominent Loyalist, William Smith, wrote about preparations for the French arrival: "The project of sinking 20 hulks in the channel at the Hook, which is about 800 yards wide. The expense of the hulks about £1000, not to be sunk until the moment of the enemy's approach." A few weeks later, Governor General James Robertson wrote of preparations to defend New York against the French Fleet: "twenty five vessels lye loaded with stones at the Hook, ready to occupy their places on the bar at the approach of the enemy's fleet." Also in May, General James Pattison wrote Lord George Germain about the expected French fleet and the defense of New York: Everything is preparing a vigorous defence on both the land and sea sides. Batteries are made and guns placed on them where ever they can most effectually damage the enemy's ships, but these can only annoy, a fleet with a favorable wind & tide can't be prevented by any number of cannon from coming up to our wharfs, to prevent this, twenty five small vessels are ready loaded with stones, they lye at the hook [Sandy Hook], and on notice will be taken out to the bar and sunk there according to a plan formed with exactness, a few anchors are sufficient to render the inner channel impracticable even for frigates. The bar will not be spoiled nor the vessels be sunk till the enemy's approach makes it absolutely necessary. Pattison noted that fortifying Sandy Hook was not a priority: No part of Sandy Hook is within three miles of the bar, guns placed there could not annoy a fleet in passing so well as they could on places nearer at hand and which we can better support, there is no time to make a work that could stand a siege—a fascine work that can contain one hundred men is all that is constructed, and this is round the light house. British moves in New York Harbor and at Sandy Hook were known within Continental lines. On May 25, the Connecticut Journal , reported: "They [New York Loyalists] are under so much fear of a visit from our allies [the French navy] that they have laden large ships with stones, ready to sink in the channel way at Sandy Hook, on the shortest notice of a fleet appearing." On June 17, two privateer sailors, prisoners in New York, escaped and landed on the Monmouth shore. They were examined by David Forman and provided a detailed report on the small British squadron in New York Harbor: Naval forces at New York and cruising about Sandy Hook -- Iris, frigate, a mere wreck now docked; two frigates, the names they had forgot; Galatea -- twenty gun ship; Delight -- sloop, 18 guns; Sloop - 14 guns; 30 sail of old vessels, brigs, schooners and sloops lay at Sandy Hook loaded with stone for the purpose of stopping the channel on the appearance of a French fleet. Lt. James Home, an officer on one of those frigates, the Europe , wrote about the British squadron on June 28. He wrote that his vessel and others were expected to sail but were detained at Sandy Hook because of the expected French fleet. Horne "was disappointed.” He noted, “We had heard of a French fleet sailed for this coast, which I believe was the cause of our not leaving." He concluded: "There is now nothing new going on here, for we are waiting for the French fleet, which I dare say will not come here." Continental and Local Authorities Prepare for French Fleet George Washington was well aware of the French fleet’s potential to attack on the weakened British fleet at New York. On May 16, he wrote the Marquis de Lafayette: I observed that the French Squadron would find no difficulty in entering the Port of New York, with the present naval force of the enemy there. The only possible obstacle to this is the obstructions the enemy are preparing; but I am inclined to hope these will be ineffectual and will be easily removed. They last fall made an attempt of the kind on the expectation of Count D'Estaing, but it failed from the depth of the water and rapidity of the current. Pilots for the harbor can be ready at Black Point from which they can go on Board the fleet at its first appearance. A week later, Washington wrote General William Maxwell, commanding the New Jersey Line, about the need to verify rumors that the French fleet had anchored on the Monmouth shoreline: “We have had repeated accounts that a considerable Fleet has been seen off the Coast of Monmouth, but as none of them have been sufficiently accurate to determine whether it is really so.” Washington was sending a French officer to the shore and ordered Maxwell to send a New Jersey officer with local knowledge: You will therefore be pleased to make a choice of an intelligent Officer of your Brigade, well acquainted in the County of Monmouth, to meet and accompany Colo. Jimat, and that they may be secure against the disaffected , you will be pleased to order a party of eight or ten Dragoons from Bedkins Corps, if he can mount so many, and if not, to take some of the Militia Horse to make up the number. Washington enclosed an order to the selected officer: You are to accompany Colo. Jimat to the County of Monmouth and to such parts of the coast as he may find occasion to visit. You are, I imagine, well apprized of the disaffection of many of the inhabitants in that Quarter and of the necessity which there will be of guarding against any attempts of theirs to take you off. It may perhaps add to your security if you can prevail upon some of the well affected Gentlemen of the Country to accompany you whenever you ride towards the shore. While Washington was not convinced that the French fleet was on the Monmouth shore, others were. On May 24, the New Jersey Journal reported that the French fleet was on the Monmouth shore and several "officers have been ashore." The next day, Robert Morris, the former Chief Justice of New Jersey, wrote of the arrival of the French fleet. He wrote Colonel Asher Holmes: “I congratulate you on the arrival of a fleet that I hear is off Toms River… this we heard yesterday, & I believe is true.” Morris was mostly incorrect. The French fleet had not arrived off Toms River—though a single French frigate had. On June 6, the 36-gun Hermione cruised the Jersey shore and mauled the British frigate, Iris , outside of Sandy Hook, killing seven and wounding nine more British sailors. On June 11, Washington made preparations for the arrival of the French fleet. He wrote Captain William Dobbs, the resident pilot at Sandy Hook before the Revolution: The French fleet have been in route and hourly expected. You will be pleased to repair to this place with all practical dispatch and bringing with you such pilots as may be acquainted with the navigation into the Harbour of New York. If these are not at hand or in perfect readiness, you will not delay on their account but direct them to follow up. A month later, Washington was still seeking pilots. He wrote Captain Patrick Dennis on July 11: Upon receipt, you will repair to the station of rendezvous for the pilots in Monmouth, to which place Major Lee [Henry Lee] is ordered with his horse. Perhaps you may fall in with him. It is essential that no time be lost, as it comes from New-York, from tolerable authority, that the French fleet is near the coast. You will take with you the pilots which are near you. David Forman Provides Intelligence In 1777, David Forman was a Brigadier General of the New Jersey Militia and the Colonel of the Regiment of Continentals defending Monmouth County. However, a string of scandals pressured him to resign his militia commission and Washington stripped him of his regiment. Afterward, Forman largely receded from public life, but the French fleet’s expected arrival was Forman’s opportunity to again raise his profile. As noted above, Forman interrogated two privateer sailors who escaped from New York, gathered intelligence from them on the strength of the British squadron, and sent it forward to Washington. Forman sent another report on June 30 after interrogating a British deserter. Forman discussed British plans to sink hulls off Sandy Hook: "They should sink their store vessels in the place they now lay, which will, I apprehend, for a time render the passage of large ships up to the Narrows impracticable." Forman wrote Washington again on July 9. He was receiving reports from Captain Joseph Stillwell, watching British movements from the Highlands. Forman worried that the British might block the French from entering New York Harbor "by interrupting the channel way at the point of the Hook [by sinking hulls] & at the same time taking possession of the Hook with a body of troops and heavy cannon, they would make the passage almost impossible.” Forman wanted to attack Sandy Hook. If the Army could "take possession of the Hook, every difficulty would be removed in a very short time - by landing a few pieces of heavy cannon, the troops could cover the French ships while they drew the sunk vessels out of the channel or until they could wrap their ships through them.” Forman believed that Sandy Hook was weak, guarded by only “a Lieut and twenty of the new raised troops at the Light House - in the cedars are about 60 or 70 refugees, white and black.” He wrote about the battery built for the French in 1778, “The enemy erected a battery at the point of the Hook... the works are now entirely out of repair, the cannon has long since been removed.” Forman also complained about the lack of men to menace Sandy Hook and the lack of horses to carry intelligence: "There is so few militia horse ordered out and so much use for them that in many instance I cannot be furnished with one in twenty horses, and never until I send 15 or 20 miles for them." The next day, a frustrated Forman wrote Washington again. On the expected French fleet, he wrote: “It would give me great pleasure to give our allies assistance - [but] in the present situation of officers in the county I fear little will be in my power.” Forman was referring to the “mansteaing” raids that took a dozen militia officers out of Monmouth County that spring and drove other militia officers into inactivity. He also spoke of seizing provisions from the largely disaffected Monmouth shoreline: I imagine that a very pointed order from your Excellency to impress provisions and teams will be abundantly necessary - when Count D'Estaing lay off Shrewsbury, he was exceedingly imposed on in point of price & could draw but little supply - the disaffection in Shrewsbury is since that time greatly increased... yet I am convinced that several hundred sheep and some cattle might be taken from some people who at several times withheld supplies from the American army & are strongly suspected of sending supplies to the enemy. That same day Washington wrote Forman. He acknowledged Forman’s report and request for men. In consequence, "Major Henry Lee moved down yesterday to Monmouth with his corps of horse to protect the pilots and keep open the communication between me and the French Admiral and the General [Forman] upon their arrival. This will render the hiring of the persons you mention unnecessary." The French Fleet Does Not Arrive Just as Washington was sending in Lee, the need to do so was fading. On July 12, Nathaniel Scudder, Monmouth County’s top political leader, wrote his son about British moves at: “Something troubles them much - it is supposed they have sunk their vessels to obstruct the channel - we presume it probable that the French fleet is near.” But just five days later, Scudder doubted the French arrival: We have been for some days past, amused with accounts of the appearance of the French fleet near Sandy Hook - indeed the day before yesterday the account seemed to be so well authenticated that for a few hours we believed it - but they prove to be a British squadron. That same day, Washington wrote Forman: "We have an account of the arrival of the French Fleet at Rhode Island, which may render the collection of any considerable quantity of stock unnecessary." On July 21, the Loyalist, Wiliam Smith, wrote that the hulks brought to Sandy Hook (to be sunk on the arrival of the French fleet) were returned to New York. The British had apparently learned that the French fleet was not bound for New York. On July 31, Washington wrote Forman that he “desired Capt. Dobbs to assemble at Capt. Dennis's at Basken Ridge as soon as possible.” Washington gave Forman the ability to summon the pilots back to Black Point if the French came: “You will please to give order to the Pilots to repair down, where they [the French] may be at hand.” July 1780 would be the last time that Monmouth County leaders scrambled to accommodate a French fleet that would disappoint them. But the false alarm was still consequential because it returned David Forman to an active role in local affairs. This, combined with the crisis posed by Loyalist manstealing raids, enabled Forman establish the Association for Retaliation , a vigilante group that Forman and allies likely promoted while traversing the county on behalf of the French fleet. Related Historic Site : Sandy Hook Lighthouse Sources: William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971) p 257; Francois Louis DeFluery to John Adams, Massachusetts Historical Society, Online Collections, John Adams Papers; Robert Morris to Asher Holmes, Monmouth County Historical Association, Cherry Hall Papers, box 5, folder 9; James Robertson, The Twilight of British Rule in Revolutionary America: The New York Letter Book of General James Robertson, 1780-1783 (New York: New York State Historical Association, 1983) p 113; The attack on the HMS Iris is discussed in The Remembrancer or Impartial Repository of Public Events, 1780, p148; George Washington to William Dobbs, July 11, 1780, https://www.sethkaller.com/slideshow.php?id=1983&t=t-1983-001-21195_p1_w.jpg ; George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw180426)) ; James Pattison to George Germain, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York (Albany: John R. Broadhead, 1857), vol. 8, p791-2; Connecticut Journal, May 25, 1780; George Washington to William Maxwell, 23 May 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-01839, ver. 2013-09-28; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, pp. 386, 395; American Journal (Providence), June 7, 178; Monmouth County Historical Association, Diaries Collection, box 2, John Stillwell's Diary (photocopy); James Home, letter, June 28, 1780; NYHS, Gilder-Lehrman Collection; David Forman to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 67, June 30, 1780; David Forman to George Washington, Monmouth County Historical Association, Diaries Collection, box 2, John Stillwell's Diary (photocopy); George Washington to Patrick Dennis, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw190184)) ; David Forman to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 68, July 12, 1780.; Nathaniel Scudder to John Scudder, New Jersey Historical Society, Letters: Nathaniel Scudder; George Washington to David Forman, in John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 19, p 183; George Washington to David Forman, Monmouth County Historical Association, Collections Alphabetical, Letters 1770-1780; George Washington to David Forman, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 68, July 12, 1780; Nathaniel Scudder to Henry Laurens, Pennsylvania History Society, Dreer Collection, Nathaniel Scudder, August 17, 1780; George Washington to David Forman, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw220484)) . 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The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > Daniel Hendrickson and Other Militia Officers as Privateer Captains by Michael Adelberg Militia privateers usually put to sea in oar-powered galleys and whaleboats. These boats were hidden on shore and rowed through the surf to take small ships and vessels grounded on sand bars. - September 1778 - As noted in prior articles, privateering flourished on the Jersey shore in summer 1778. The arrival of the French fleet and weakening of the British fleet opened up the waters near Sandy Hook to daring American sea captains. Privateers from Philadelphia and New England began taking British merchant vessels, and bringing them into Little Egg Harbor (called Egg Harbor at the time). New Jerseyans living on the shore had been taking wounded British ships since 1776; in 1778, they also took to the sea as privateers. Daniel Hendrickson Moves into Privateering Colonel Daniel Hendrickson lived at Tinton Falls, a few miles inland from the Shrewsbury River (which connected to the Atlantic Ocean in the 1700s). Hendrickson’s first prize vessel was taken in November 1776. General Hugh Mercer wrote: A ship loaded with rum, wine and sugar, and other stores belonging to the enemy is drove on shore at Deal beach, near Shrewsbury; the Colonel [Daniel] Hendrickson of the militia have taken care of her and the cargo. Hendrickson was appointed the colonel of the dysfunctional Shrewsbury Township militia in late 1776, but due to the disaffection in the region, Hendrickson lived in Upper Freehold Township in late 1776 and into 1777. He returned home in 1777 after the Loyalist associations at Shrewsbury were broken up by Pennsylvania soldiers . Some companies of the Shrewsbury militia remained dysfunctional, but Hendrickson was able to raise a hundred men on alarm in June 1778—when the British Army marched across the county in the days prior to the Battle of Monmouth. Sometime in July 1778, the Shrewsbury militia seized a Loyalist vessel, Indian Delaware , and it was condemned to Hendrickson at an admiralty court at Allentown on August 13. Taken vessels were commonly sold, but Hendrickson chose to keep the vessel and try his hand at privateering. On September 11, Hendrickson and the Indian Delaware were at Egg Harbor, where he signed up a nine-man crew. The contract read: We those under written, parties concerned in the Schooner Indian Delaware, taken by the militia… do each ourselves agree with Col Hendrickson… paying each of us our equal proportion of five hundred pound after deducting and paying all costs and accounts of the same. One of the signees, Jacob Dennis, was a minor. So his mother, Rebecca Dennis, signed for him. John Stokes, the Port Marshal at Egg Harbor, also signed. The Indian Delaware put to sea under Hendrickson. Four days later, Hendrickson was at Tinton Falls where he sold 400 lbs. of flour for £6 S14 to two buyers; this suggests that the Indian Delaware captured a small Loyalist vessel along the Monmouth shore and brought it into Shrewsbury Inlet (a channel that connected the Shrewsbury River to the ocean at present-day Seabright). The next day, Hendrickson purchased supplies to outfit Indian Delaware : £4 S15; £1 S10 for cartridges and fuses; £1 S10 for a sheep; £8 for two barrels of cider; £8 for rum. He also paid for "carting sails from Freehold", S15; "carting 2 3 lb. cannon from Tinton Falls", £1 S10, and he paid "Jeremiah Chadwick for piloting" his ship. Ten days later, the Indian Delaware had been out to sea, and returned. John Van Emburgh, a Middlesex County militia major and investor in privateers, wrote Hendrickson from Freehold. Van Emburgh was seeking to purchase a vessel at Egg Harbor that might have been deposited as a prize by Hendrickson, "In consequence of our determination at Squan, I have been to Egg Harbor but found on my arrival that the vessel we proposed [to buy] could not be sold until the next Admiralty Court.” Van Emburgh had also been to Tinton Falls: Was yesterday at the Falls to consult with your Captain Green [James Green], what more guns would be needed for us than he had purchased on our account... but was informed that you was under an engagement for that day & returned. Documentation on the Indian Delaware and Hendrickson’s time as a privateer is scant after this. Philip Freneau, the privateer sailor and poet, recorded sailing out of Shrewsbury inlet in the Indian Delaware on October 25 bound for the Caribbean (Shrewsbury Inlet connected the Shrewsbury River to the Atlantic Ocean at present-day Sea Bright). Egg Harbor’s Port Marshal, John Stokes, recorded the arrival of the Indian Delaware on November 21. There is no additional documentation related to the vessel or Hendrickson as a privateer—he was captured on land, during a raid against Tinton Falls in June 1779. Other Monmouth Militia Officers Dabble in Privateering Privateering was risky. Colonel Richard Somers of Gloucester County, who became involved with a double-dealing privateer , complained of his privateering investments that he "have lost my interest many times and received little for my share of prizes." But the profits from a successful voyage seemed to outweigh the risks (a small captured vessel with a cargo was often valued about £10,000, about equal to the cost of five yeoman estates). Besides Hendrickson, at least eleven other Monmouth Militia officers took to the sea as privateers or took vessels that grounded off the Monmouth shore. Captain Thomas Anderson of Freehold Township took a vessel on the Monmouth shore in May 1778. The New Jersey Gazette reported: "Friday last, a prize vessel laden with beef and pork, bound to New York, was taken by Capt. Anderson and 16 men in an armed boat and brought into Toms River.” Samuel Bigelow was a Dover Township militia captain. In December 1780, he led a militia party in the capture of the stranded Loyalist sloop Betsy off Cranberry Inlet; shortly after that, Bigelow took the stranded brig, Dove , off Long Beach, and brought the prize into Toms River. James Brewer , a militia captain from inland Upper Freehold, tried his hand at privateering. Wilson Hunt, one of his militiamen, recalled that in early 1778, Brewer’s company took a small vessel off Sandy Hook: We spied a sloop of war under sail, it appeared as tho' it would land where we immediately hid ourselves in ambush but she did not land. She tacked about and sailed near the British fleet and cast anchor. We marked her position, in course of the evening, we procured a vessel and after dark sailed to the aforesaid sloop, seized her and boarded her immediately and found only the captain and mate on board. The captain surrendered to us at discretion but the mate threatened to alarm the British fleet which lay close at hand, but there was a file of men with fixed bayonets quickly around him - if he opened his mouth they would quickly run him through, upon which he made no further resistance, and we hoisted anchor and bore away for the mouth of the Shrewsbury River which we fortunately struck and ascended our way up river. The next day we were hailed by two men and asked if we did want to buy provisions, having the British colors hoisted they took us to be British, we decoyed them on board and made them prisoners. They were both Tories. We carried the above sloop up to Shrewsbury Town and anchored as near the town as we could, where she was declared a lawful prize. Captain Samuel Brown of the Dover township militia led the 30-man militia company that mustered at Forked River. In late 1776, according to Samuel’s son, Thomas, "they immediately commenced building a gunboat on said river... intended to be used for the annoyance of the Enemy: boat kept 1 mile from the Brown homestead and guarded nightly.” By 1777, Thomas Brown recalled the Forked River militia manning the row galley, Civil Usage (with one 6-pound cannon, 4 swivel guns, and 36 men serving on board). Their mission was to "guard Barnegat Inlet and prevent, as far as practicable, aggressions of the enemy." In July 1778, the militia "succeeded in capturing a boat of the enemy engaged in trading with the Tory residents at the then called Clam Town (now Tuckerton)." Later that year, Brown captained a privateer sloop out of Toms River, during which he attempted to keep his true identify incognito. In 1779, Brown again captained Civil Usage "engaged and captured a gunboat belonging to the Refugees… armed with four swivels and a whale piece and with a crew of twenty-five to thirty-five men." In 1781, Samuel and Thomas Brown, after two attempts to capture them, left Forked River for the relative safety of Woodbridge. They brought Civil Usage with them and took two prizes in Raritan Bay, a schooner heading for New York City, and, in concert with a second gunboat, another schooner taken in Prince's Bay off Staten Island. The prizes were brought to New Brunswick. In summer, 1782, the Browns returned to Forked River. In concert with the New England privateer, William Gray, they rowed Civil Usage to Clam Town—in order to provoke an attack from the Pine Robber gang of William Davenport. When the Loyalists attacked, Gray joined the fight: "The vessels engaged. Captain Davenport and eight or nine of his men were killed by the first broadside of the privateer... and was immediately taken possession of by Captain Gray and sunk." The Pine Robbers were turned over to the Egg Harbor militia. John Burrowes , Jr., was commissioned a captain in the Continental Army in January 1777 and served for three years. Despite being in uniform and with the Army most of this time, Burrowes was active on the Raritan Bay while furloughed parts of 1778 and 1779. Middletown militiaman, Jemson Van Kirk recalled: Served three months on his own account at Mount Pleasant N.J. at this place Captain Burrowes of the regulars with ten men regular troops under whom Lieutenant Schank [John Schenck] volunteered with ten militia men of whom he was one went down the Bay with three skiffs and run among five sloops where they boarded two of them and took nineteen prisoners who were called refugees or Tories, one sloop they fetched off the other ran aground. On discharge in January 1780, Burrowes took to the water again. A February note in the papers of the Continental Congress notes a deposition of Burrowes as master of the sloop Tryal . By April, Burrowes was captain of the privateer, Rebecca . One of his sailors, Thomas Geron, wrote of his service under Burrowes: “He went to Philadelphia and enlisted as a common sailor before the mast on board the brig Rebecca , letter of marque, under one Captain John Burrowes." He sailed with Burrowes on May 1 but Rebecca had a brief tenure as a privateer: Arrived at the Gulf Stream southeast from the capes of Philadelphia, where the brig was taken and the whole crew was taken, by the English sloop of war Delight... he [Geran] was taken immediately to New York and put on board the prison ship Scorpion on the 18th of May, and remained there as a prisoner of war for about five weeks. He was then removed to the hospital ship Hunter, and remained there as a prisoner (an invalid) for 72 days when he was exchanged. Burrowes fared better than Geran. He was quickly exchanged, and then appointed a marshal of the New Jersey Admiralty Court. He was elected Sheriff of Monmouth County after that. Major John Cook commanded the Dover militia, including Samuel Brown and Joshua Studson. He led the capture of two prizes: Fanny and Hope . in 1778. In early 1779, he and Captain John Price took the Loyalist sloop Success , after it grounded off Island Beach. Samuel Forman was the militia colonel over Upper Freehold and the shore townships of Dover and Stafford. On June 25, 1781, he led a militia unit in capturing the vessel, Brunswick, which had grounded off the Monmouth shore with a cargo of lumber. On August 15, 1781, Forman wrote Governor William Livingston about using the Brunswick as a privateer, "on the fourteenth last month [7/14/81], I got a sloop or boat called Brunswick , burthen about 50 tons, condemned & since have sold her, a register [of the vessel as a privateer] is wanting, I wish to be favored with one under the name 'Monmouth'." But the vessel apparently was not condemned by the admiralty court. More than three years later, on September 13, 1784, the New Jersey Gazette advertised an admiralty court for October 22 to finally settle Forman’s claim to the vessel. Asher Holmes was the Colonel of the Freehold and Middletown militias. He also led the regiments of state troops stationed in Monmouth County from 1779 into 1782. In 1779, he led the capture of the stranded supply ship, Britannia , near Sandy Hook. This is the subject of another article. Joshua Huddy was a strident supporter of the Revolution who commanded a company of state troops in 1777 and 1778 and participated in the extra-legal hanging of the Loyalist, Stephen Edwards . Huddy was nearly captured by a Loyalist raiding party on August 31. Two weeks earlier, on August 18, 1780, he received a Letter of Marque from Pennsylvania to captain the privateer, Black Snake (co-owned with James Randolph). It was a small vessel with only one swivel gun and a crew of fourteen. The letter licensed Huddy to “by force of arms to attack, subdue, seize and take all ships and other vessels, goods, wares and merchandizes, belonging to the Crown of Great Britain, or any of the subjects thereof." Black Snake was at Toms River at the time, and sailed on September 22. Huddy sailed past Sandy Hook, where six British warships prevented him from hovering close to the Hook. He arrived in Providence, Rhode Island on October 3. The Providence Gazette recorded that: “he [Huddy] saw six British ships of the line standing for Sandy Hook." There is no evidence that Huddy took any prizes as a privateer. Joshua Studson was a militia lieutenant from Toms River. He commanded a whaleboat that in May 1778 rowed to Sandy Hook and captured a vessel as it sat near a large warship. The prize was taken to Middletown Point where it prompted British/Loyalist retribution . In August 1780, Studson received a Letter of Marque to captain the privateer Dolphin with one cannon and a fourteen-man crew. He captured two vessels. He was out in a militia boat again on December 1 when he spotted a Loyalist boat and closed on it. As he rose to give orders, he was shot and killed at close range by the Pine Robber, John Bacon. This incident and Studson’s career at sea are detailed in another article. John Walton was a militia captain from Freehold Township. He took a Loyalist boat and crew in 1777. Other prizes : Monmouth militia were involved in other maritime clashes where the officer’s name is unknown. Below is a short summary of four such incidents. 1779 – A 16-gun brig from Jamaica to New York, with 160 barrels of rum “was drove ashore near that place [Barnegat].” It was boarded and secured by militia. 1780 – A Loyalist sloop ran aground on Manasquan beach. It was captured and floated by local militia; its cargo of assorted dry goods was saved. The crew was sent to Philadelphia as prisoners. 1781 – The Loyalist brig, Molly, grounded off Barnegat during a storm and began to break up. Local militia saved most of the crew and cargo. The crew was sent to jail in Trenton. 1783 - Two Loyalist trading boats on the way to New York grounded on the Monmouth shore during a storm. They were captured by a militia party. Of course, the Monmouth County militia was not the only militia dabbling in privateering. Cape May and Gloucester County militia were also active up and down the Jersey shore. The postwar pension applications of John Ingersoll (of Cape May) and Zachariah Steelman (Gloucester County) are particularly descriptive in describing the privateering voyages of militia from other counties off the Monmouth shore. Their narratives are excerpted in the appendix of this article. Related Historic Site : Sultana Education Foundation (Chestertown, Maryland) Appendix: Militiamen from Other Counties Recall Privateering on the Monmouth Shore John Ingersoll of Cape May recalled serving under Captain Enoch Willetts of the militia on privateering voyages to Shark River in 1781 and 1782. First voyage : The Cape May militia gunboat provisioned at Little Egg Harbor in fall 1781 before heading north. Ingersoll recalled that "we ran into Shark River… where lay a heavy ship loaded with goods... an English ship; the crew a few days earlier had mutinied. [The militia] succeeded in taking the ship and ran her into Egg Harbor.” The prize, however, grounded at the entrance of Egg Harbor, so the militia had to “float the ship & bring cargo upriver in a scow.” The successful capture took a bad turn when a gang of Pine Robbers “laid upon us, captured the scow one evening and took charge of her loads.” Ingersoll then recalled retaking the scow and its cargo: We went in pursuit... we came up with them at a place called Osborn's Island about six miles from where the ship lay. Said refugees had two wagons loaded with horses each, and one wagon loaded with two horses. They fired upon us and then fled, leaving their booty behind. The militia took back the vessel and its cargo, "said goods were condemned agreeably to law and sold at public sale." Second Voyage : Ingersoll also recalled a second privateering voyage to Shark River with Captain Willets in 1782: We set sail from Cape May and again landed Shark River. We staid [sic] at Shark River for two or three days, when we spied a refugee boat close in with the beach, steering apparently for Delaware. As they came opposite the Inlet wherein we lay, they gave [us] three cheers [mistaking them for London Traders]. We put to sea and gave chase. We kept up a steady and well directed fire for about four miles, when they endeavored to run their boat into Squan Inlet, but in their attempting to do so they ran her ashore and fled. Before we could get on shore, they had concealed themselves in the woods which were nearby. We took their boat, in which we found a six-pounder mounted on her stern, together with a quantity of dry goods, with hardware and one barrel of rum, which we took. We then made sail for Cape May. Zephaniah Steelman of Gloucester County recalled two voyages on the Monmouth shore: First voyage : “We took a refugee trading boat on the north end of Squan Beach with cranberries and tar in her. We saved the articles but burnt the boat… I have been on duty all along the sea coast as far as Sandy Hook and at all intermediate places.” Second voyage : “One [John] Bacon, a notorious refugee had killed Capt. Andrew Steelman in our look-out boat and wounded Lieut. David Scull so that he never recovered from it and had done much other mischief. Capt. Snell sent a company in pursuit of Bacon. We went as far as Barnegat, obtained a pilot to bring us to his father-in-law’s house, and we surrounded it in the middle of the night. It was full of traders but Bacon was not in there not did we obtain any findings of him, so we returned.” Sources : Peter Force, ed., American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution 1774–1776, 9 vols. (1837–53), 5th Series, vol. 3, p 892; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 2, p 363; Monmouth County Historical Association, J. Amory Haskell Collection, folder 12, Documents K and L; Monmouth County Historical Association, J. Amory Haskell Collection, folder 10, Document F; John Van Emburgh to Daniel Hendrickson, New Jersey Historical Society, Hendrickson Family Papers, box 1, folder 13; Axelrod, Jacob. Philip Freneau: Champion of Democracy, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967) pp. 96-7; Richard Somers testimony in Library of Congress, Revolutionary War Prize Cases, M162, reel 1, cases 91-2, David Forman v. Nathan Jackson; John C. Dann, The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980) pp 142-143; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Jamison Van Kirk; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 19, pp. 365-6; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 56; Koegler ,M.L. Burrowes Mansion of Matawan, New Jersey, and Notations on the History of Monmouth County (Matawan, NJ: Matawan Historical Society), pp. 47-8; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Thomas Geron of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#19729784 ; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 56; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Wilson Hunt of KY, www.fold3.com/image/#24273269 ; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, May 27, 1778, reel 1930; William Fischer, Biographical Cyclopedia of Ocean County (Philadelphia: A.D. Smith, 1899) pp. 50-1; Worthington Ford, Naval Records of the American Revolution, 1775-1788, (Washington: Govt Printing Office, 1906) pp. 241, 272; Letter of Marque, Catalog of the Exhibition: Joshua Huddy and the American Revolution, Monmouth County Library Headquarters, October 2004; Franklin Kemp, The Capture of Enemy Vessels by Ground Troops in New Jersey (-----) p 20; New Jersey Gazette, September 13, 1784; Samuel Forman to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 15, August 15, 1781; Paul Burgess, A Colonial Scrapbook; the Southern New Jersey Coast, 1675-1783 (New York, Carlton Press, 1971) pp 161; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 70; Alfred Heston, South Jersey: A History 1664-1923 (Lewis Historical Publishing, 1923) p 227; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 81; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veteran's Pension Application of John Ingersoll of New Jersey, p 6; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Zachariah Steelman of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/# NJ 19818216. 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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 > Loyalists Raid Middletown Point and Keyport by Michael Adelberg During the raid of Middletown Point, Loyalists entered the house of John Burrowes, Sr. He was captured, however, Captain John Burrowes, Jr., escaped when his sister delayed the Loyalists. - May 1778 - The April 5, 1778 raid against Manasquan and the destruction of the salt works there proved that a mid-sized British military party could land on the Monmouth shore and raze a neighborhood with impunity. It was inevitable that a similar raid would soon be attempted elsewhere. A month later, the Loyalists set their sights on Middletown Point (present-day Matawan) and its leading pro-Revolution residents—John Burrowes, Sr., John Burrowes, Jr., and Samuel Forman. Building Toward the Raid against Middletown Point John Burrowes, Senior, chaired the Monmouth County Committee in early 1776 as the county moved toward independence and censured Loyalists. He was a prominent merchant (nicknamed the “Corn King” because of his mill and storehouses) who also supported local privateering ventures against British shipping. His son, John Burrowes, Jr., was a captain in the Continental Army and the most capable officer in Colonel David Forman’s Additional Regiment . Their business partner and brother-in-law was Samuel Forman (not the militia Colonel of the same name). He was one of Monmouth County’s three commissioners charged with renting Loyalist estates and preparing them for confiscation . Samuel Forman was also the father of Captain Jonthan Forman of the Continental Army. All three of these men were hated by Loyalist refugees . According to antiquarian sources, the first attempt to punish the Burrowes family was in January 1778. Thirty Loyalists landed at Keyport, where they were treated to a lavish dinner by Revaud Kearney, a squire who supported the Loyalist insurrections of December 1776. However, while Kearney was disaffected, he was not a Loyalist and did not want bloodshed in his neighborhood. During the dinner, Kearney’s slave excitedly whispered into Kearney's ear. Kearney informed the raiders that the militia was on its way and hastened their departure. A second source claims that these raiders went on Middletown Point to capture John Burrowes, Sr., but Burrowes escaped by swimming the icy Matawan Creek. These details are not found in original sources. Two events prefaced the punishing raid that would be made against Middletown Point on May 27. First, a party of privateers in an oar-powered whaleboat, under Captain Joshua Studson of Dover Township, rowed past the British guardship at Sandy Hook and entered Raritan Bay. Here, they “boarded a British schooner, captured her, and took her into Middletown Creek.” Thomas Brown of Studson’s crew hinted that this capture might have prompted the Loyalist raid: We were shortly afterward blockaded by British vessels, from which a force superior to ours landed, attacked us in the night, burnt our boat, burnt Captain Burrowes mills at Middletown Point, and then returned to their vessels. Studson’s men had to walk home to Toms River—40 miles. There was also a small raid against Middletown on May 24 that may have been a probing action to test local defenses prior to the larger raid. The New York Gazette reported: A very small detachment of Brig. General Skinner's Corps [ New Jersey Volunteers ] landed at Shoal Harbour, in East Jersey, a few nights ago, and marched up to Middletown, where they had intelligence a few of the rebel light-horse had collected; when they had surrounded the houses in town, expecting to meet these youths taking their repose, they found that eight of them, who were a little detached from the houses, had taken the alarm, and made off. They collected some sheep and a few cattle, and marched down to the shore, followed by some of the militia, who kept at a distance; another party followed the first with a brass field-piece [Joshua Huddy’s Artillery Company ], and kept at long shot for an hour and a half; the man of war at the Hook observing the contest, reinforced the party with four boats of marines, when they came off with their booty without loss. The Raid of Middletown Point With the weakness of the defenses at Middletown demonstrated, Loyalists now attacked Middletown Point. New Jersey Gazette reported on the raid that occurred on May 27: We are informed that on Wednesday morning last, a party of about seventy of the Greens from Sandy Hook landed near Major Kearney's, headed the Mill Creek, Middletown Point, and marched to Mr. John Burrowes's, made him prisoner, burnt his mills and both his storehouses, all valuable buildings, besides a great deal of his furniture -- also took Lt. Col. John Smock, Capt. Christopher Little, Mr. Joseph Wall, Capt. Jacob Covenhoven and several other persons; killed Pearce [Jonathan Pierce] and Van Brackle [John Van Brackle], and wounded another man mortally [Leonard Hoff]. Having completed these and several other barbarities, they precipitately returned the same morning to give an account of their abominable deeds to their bloody employers. A number of these gentry, we learn, were formerly inhabitants of that neighborhood. The Loyalist New York Gazette reported on the raid too, providing additional insights on the raiders: On Wednesday morning, before sunrise, a party consisting of marines from his majesty's ship Amazon and General Skinner's brigade landed at Middletown Point, where they surprised Col. Smock of the rebel militia, Captain Covenhoven of the light horse and one Lieutenant, and Mr. John Burrowes, a person of influence in Monmouth County in New Jersey; they killed three privates, wounded another dangerously, and took four privates prisoner; destroyed Mr. Burrowes grist mill and storehouses, with 5 or 6 hundred barrels of flour, and on Friday all of the abovementioned persons, with other prisoners, were lodged in safe custody in this city, without any substantial loss by the Royal party. The additional militiaman who died was Abraham Lane on June 1, presumably from a wound during the raid. A pro-Revolution lawyer-merchant from New York City, Benjamin Helme, was another raid victim. Helme hid his valuables in Burrowes’s storehouse when the British took New York. Helme’s burned possessions “consisted of household furniture, law books & several valuable papers & manuscripts" with an estimated value of £1000. Antiquarian sources credit John Burrowes, Sr’s daughter, Margaret Forman (another source claims it was Helena Burrowes) with saving her brother by delaying the raiders at the entrance of the Burrowes house. She reportedly refused them her shawl when the Loyalists demanded it as a bandage. They exchanged harsh words and she cursed them. For this, she was hit in the face. The raiders captured John, Sr., and then fired several shots upstairs and into the attic thinking John, Jr., was hiding there. But he had already escaped by swimming the Matawan Creek in his nightshirt. One antiquarian source numbered the raiding party at 200, but that seems too high; the militia party is listed in one antiquarian source as 60 men but that number is not confirmed in original sources. All sources report that the family’s mill and storehouses were burned. One antiquarian account notes that the Burrowes home was spared as an act of mercy to the women of the Burrowes family. Another one suggests that Burrowes’s sponsorship of local whaleboat privateers was among the reasons that the family was targeted. Samuel Forman, Jr., a boy at the time of the raid, later recalled: Some of the Tory invaders had been employed in the erection of the mill, and were personally well known to the citizens, and it would appear their object was, at least, the capture of Samuel Forman [Senior]. They plundered the houses of the settlement, destroying what they could not carry off, boasting that they had assisted in building the mill, and now assisted in kindling the fire to burn it down... Samuel Forman [Senior] eluded their vigilance, but lost heavily by their invasion, for he owned almost all of one side of Middletown Point, and part of both sides of Main Street. In the foray, the enemy burned down two storehouses of Mr. John H. Burrowes, robbed his house, and took him prisoner to New York. After several months, he was exchanged and returned home. The Middletown Point raid is briefly mentioned in two postwar veteran pension applications. Joseph Walling’s widow, Margaret Walling, recalled that her husband “was in the scrimmage [skirmish] at Middletown Point when the mills were burnt - when Leonard Hoff, Jonathan Pierce and John Van Brackle were killed." Joseph Vanderveer recalled "a party of refugees and Tories and British surprised a small guard at Middletown Point & killed some, besides burning a mill & stores at which place.” His militia company arrived too late to battle the raiders. In consequence of the raid and resulting captures, Dr. Thomas Henderson of Freehold (son-in-law of John Burrowes, Sr.) and Capt. Peter Wikoff of Manalapan led a gang of men from Freehold to Middletown where they took William Taylor (son of squire John Taylor and the leader of a Loyalist association in 1776). They jailed Taylor in the courthouse at Freehold. According to an antiquarian source, this was done "to secure the person of William Taylor, a prominent citizen who was suspected of favoring the Loyalists.” A prisoner exchange was negotiated – William Taylor for John Burrowes, Sr. The imprisonment and exchange of Tayor for Burrowes was – it appears – an extra-legal event. Locally-negotiated prisoner exchanges would become increasingly controversial as the war continued. Beyond Taylor’s capture, tempers ran high after the raid. Abel Morgan, the generally apolitical Baptist minister for Middletown, preached about “the murderous enemies” who killed his congregants (and militiamen) John Pierce and Leonard Hoff. The New Jersey Gazette printed a warning of retaliation: O, ye butchering British monster! We are not obliged to delay retaliating any longer! - Therefore, as you value the safety of your friends on the Island [Brooklyn or Staten Island], do not send another example as that of Middletown [Point], for the consequence may prove fatal to the Tories on the Island, in spite of your efforts to protect them. Retaliation promptly occurred. In early June, a raiding party from Middletown co-led by Captain John Schenck of Middletown and William Marriner (a boatman who had helped capture a British ship in 1776) launched a retaliatory raid against Loyalists in Brooklyn. This counter-attack is the subject of the next article. Related Historic Site : Burrowes Mansion Sources : Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 115; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v3, p 145; Thomas Brown’s pension narrative in, John C. Dann ed., The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980) pp 137-9; The New York (Royal) Gazette, May 27, 1778; Damages by British, Aquacanuck/Essex County Ledger, claim #54, New Jersey State Archives; Forman, Samuel S. Narrative of a Journey down the Ohio and Mississippi in 1789-90 (Cincinnati, R. Clarke and Co., 1888) p 7; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), pp. 529-30; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), pp. 830-1; William S. Stryker, Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War (Trenton: Naar, Day & Naar, 1872); John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, 4 vols, Genealogical Publishing Co, 1970, v3, p140-1; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Pennsylvania Gazette, June 13, 1778 (CD-ROM at the David Library, #24882); Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 394-5; Monmouth, Page in History (Freehold: Monmouth County Bicentennial Commission, 1976) p 17; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 2, pp. 246-7; Koegler ,M.L. Burrowes Mansion of Matawan, New Jersey, and Notations on the History of Monmouth County (Matawan, NJ: Matawan Historical Society), pp. 31, 33, 36, 40-3; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Joseph Walling; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Joseph Vanderveer of Ohio, S.3114. 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 > Violence Again Mars Monmouth County Elections by Michael Adelberg By 1781, David Forman had bullied voters and officials at two prior elections. The group that he led, the Retaliators, again interrupted the 1781 elections. The New Jersey Legislature did not intervene. - October 1781 - In October 1777, David Forman, at the time a general in the New Jersey militia and commander of a regiment of Continental troops, came to the county election with a party of armed men. He “harangued” the crowd and denounced the incumbent county legislators. Voters favoring the incumbents were driven away without voting and a slate of Forman allies were elected. Afterward, the New Jersey legislature investigated the affair, voided the election, and ordered a new one. Forman’s allies were turned out of office in the re-run election. In October 1780, David Forman returned to the county election with a gang of armed men. Allied election judges refused to hold the polls open a second day, long enough for militiamen serving on the shore to come to Freehold and vote. When an incumbent legislator, James Mott, protested the disenfranchisement of men protecting their county, Forman beat Mott in front of the crowd. The legislature again investigated the election, but the Forman-allied new delegates provided enough votes in the closely-divided Assembly to preserve the election. Monmouth County’s 1781 Election On October 10, 1781, elections were held across New Jersey for the legislature and county sheriff. In Monmouth County, the election judges recorded the election of Thomas Henderson, Nathaniel Scudder and John Covenhoven to the Assembly and Elisha Lawrence (cousin of the Loyalist of the same name) to the Legislative Council. All four were from inland Freehold or Upper Freehold Townships. No elected delegate was from the county’s four shore townships—Middletown, Shrewsbury, Dover and Stafford—despite over 60 percent of the county population residing in these townships. It is likely that militiamen serving on the shore were unable to vote in large numbers. Henderson and Scudder were active participants in the Association for Retaliation , a vigilante society devoted to eye-for-an-retaliation for every misdeed committed against a member of the society. Covenhoven was the co-founder of the Monmouth County Whig Society —which was devoted to preserving the value of currency and conducting itself legally. He and Lawrence were, presumably, not allied with the extra-legal actions of the Retaliators. As respected elder-statesmen, they likely enjoyed the deference of county voters. The next month, three Identical Monmouth County petitions were sent to the New Jersey Legislature, signed by 83 men. The petitioners expressed concern about both the election and the actions of the Retaliators. They wrote: While the enemy is yet formidable & almost at our door, there is tyranny set up against us, equally dangerous to liberty with that which we are fighting against; a set of men of the title of a Committee of Retaliation has formed a combination to trample all law underfoot that clashes with their measures, & under the pretense of retaliating for crimes committed and injuries done by the Refugees to any of the Associators. The petitioners then discussed the Retaliators sending out armed parties to practice vigilantism: Some they have imprisoned, from some they have taken goods & from others money; & when those injured have attempted to right themselves by law, they have been abused, their lives threatened & some unmercifully beaten by those persons who have taken their property; officers of justice have been prevented from doing their duty & threatened for attempting it. Specific Retaliator actions are discussed in the next article. The petitioners then discussed Retaliator misconduct at the recent election: At the late election, when a number of men (some in arms) appeared in a hostile manner, threatening all such persons at they called Tories and [ London] Traders , if they should vote; A writing was put up at the Court House to the same effect; several persons were inhumanly beaten, some of them after they had voted, and some of them drove away who were legally entitled to vote, and went away without voting, not thinking themselves safe, as they did not confine their abuse to people they judged disaffected, but beat and abused several… and at the close of the election, one of the inspectors was attacked going down the stairs, and most barbarously beaten. The petitioners concluded that the Retaliators were “corrupting the morals of the people & encouraging many others to plunder for their own gain, and committing other crimes with impunity.” They requested “speedy and effectual relief against so dangerous a Combination.” While David Forman was not specifically named in the petitions, there can be no doubt that, as the Chairman of the Retaliators, he played a role in the election day violence. Timing doomed the anti-Retaliator petitions. On October 15, as the petitioners were gathering signatures, Nathaniel Scudder was killed in a skirmish with Loyalist raiders. He was the only man to serve in the Continental Congress to die in combat, and there was an outpouring of sympathy in favor of Scudder. The New Jersey Legislature ordered a new election for Scudder’s replacement without acknowledging the election protests or petitions. On November 29, Thomas Seabrook—a Middletown militia officer who relocated to Freehold after Loyalist raiders attacked his home and bayoneted his son —was elected to replace Scudder. Seabrook was also a Retaliator. The author’s prior research demonstrates that the Retaliators continued to operate without an effective check on their vigilantism into 1783; violence and controversy would mar the county election again in 1785 Related Historic Site : New Jersey State Museum Sources : The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, October 23-26, 1781, p 3-8; Larry Gerlach, New Jersey in the American Revolution 1763-1783 A Documentary History (Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1975) pp. 397-9. New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #10948 and 11036, and Collective Series, Revolutionary War, document #114; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File, unpublished, Monmouth County Historical Association; “A Combination to Trample All Law Underfoot”: The Association for Retaliation and the American Revolution in Monmouth County, New Jersey” , New Jersey History , vol. 115, n. 3, 1997, pp. 3-36. Previous Next

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The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > Turning Away the Tea Ship, Nancy by Michael Adelberg This handbill alerted the people of New York City that Captain Lockyer would be permitted to come from Sandy Hook to New York, but strictly supervised while in the city. - April 1774 - On April 19, 1774, a British merchant ship landed at Sandy Hook with a provocative cargo. Five months earlier, Bostonians staged the so-called Boston Tea Party—throwing the East India Tea Company’s tea into Boston Harbor. In response, the Royal Government passed the “Intolerable Acts” to punish the people of Boston and better enforce the tea tax. Colonists throughout the Thirteen Colonies retaliated by boycotting tea and other British goods. Now, the ship, Nancy , hoped to land its cargo of 698 tea chests (twice the amount destroyed in the Boston Tea Party) in New York City. If the tea was landed and sold, it would be a major breach in the colonial boycott. It had been a difficult voyage for the Nancy . A newspaper account noted that the ship was “without her mizen mast and one of her anchors, which were lost in a gale of wind.” In the 1700s, ocean-going ships bound for New York commonly stopped at Sandy Hook, which separates the open ocean from the sheltered waters of lower New York Harbor. Here, ships received fresh water after the long ocean voyage and secured a pilot to guide the ship around lower New York Harbor’s shallows and into the city’s piers. Captain Benjamin Lockyer of the Nancy summoned the resident pilot at Sandy Hook, William Dobbs, to board the ship and guide it to New York. Dobbs, an employee of the City of New York, refused to cooperate. Dobbs was closely tied to the city’s leaders based on prior employment of the administrator of the city’s almshouse; he would serve in the Continental Army as a sergeant from 1776-1781, including being put on-call to guide French fleets four times. Dobbs gave Lockyer a letter “from sundry gentlemen of this city, informing him of the determined resolution of the citizens not to suffer tea on board of his ship to be landed.” Lockyer responded by requesting a personal passage to New York “to procure the necessaries [for his crew] and make a protest.” Dobbs was unmoved. The newspaper report further noted that “the pilot would not bring up the Captain [to New York].” The Nancy sat at Sandy Hook without fresh provisions or a pilot to navigate the shallows of New York’s lower harbor. A few days later, a sloop “with a committee of citizens” came to the Nancy . It is impossible to know exactly what transpired between this committee and Captain Lockyer, but the committeemen declined to let the Nancy pass to New York. Further, at least some of these committeemen remained after the meeting: “a committee of observation was immediately appointed to… remain there near the tea ship till it departs for London.” However, a handbill was printed and circulated in New York stating that Lockyer, but not his ship, would be allowed to come to New York: The long expected TEA SHIP arrived last night at Sandy-Hook, but the pilot would not bring up the Captain until the sense of the city was known. The Committee were immediately informed of its arrival, and that the Captain solicits to come up to provide necessaries for his return. The ship to remain at Sandy-Hook. The Committee conceiving it to be the sense of the city that he should have such liberty, signified it to the Gentleman who is to supply him with provisions, and other necessaries. Advice of this was immediately dispatched to the Captain; and whenever he comes up, care will be taken that he does not enter the custom-house, and that no time be lost dispatching him. Lockyer was apparently permitted to come to New York, but was strictly supervised while in the city and only permitted to purchase items needed to enable the Nancy ’s departure. After five days at Sandy Hook, the Nancy pulled up its anchor and limped away. The senior-most British official in New York, Lt. Governor Cadwallader Colden, complained that he never knew that Lockyer or his ship was at Sandy Hook. He blamed Lockyer for not requesting his help. While surviving documents discuss the Nancy ’s difficult time at Sandy Hook from a New Yorker’s perspective, it is important to remember that dozens of Monmouth Countians regularly sailed the waters around Sandy Hook. Each day, they ferried goods from Monmouth farms to New York in barges and sloops; they fished the banks off Sandy Hook and sold their catch in New York. These Monmouth Countians would have seen the Nancy . Further, Monmouth Countians were likely in the committee that visited Captain Lockyer and the subsequent Committee of Observation. They had it within their power to assist the Nancy with supplies or pilot services and chose not to do so. Many later accounts of this event liken the boycott of the Nancy to the Boston Tea Party. Some narratives suggest that the Committee detained Lockyer and took control of the ship. Original sources do not support these details. The stiff-arm given to the Nancy was not a second Boston Tea Party. The Nancy ’s tea chests were not thrown overboard and Lockyer was permitted to purchase a narrow set of provisions. This discipline was not evident a few days later when a mob gathered in New York and then proceeded to the docks to sack the ship London after it was learned the ship was carrying eighteen tea chests. The decision to turn away the Nancy was a strong expression of colonial solidarity. It also appears to be the first instance of Monmouth Countians participating in the anti-British agitation that immediately preceded the American Revolution. Soon, the people of Monmouth County would form their own committees to coordinate further dissent and seize vulnerable British ships . Related Historical Site : Fraunces Tavern Sources : The Parliamentary Register Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons (London: J. Debrit, 1775) vol. 1, p70; Pennsylvania Packet , April 25, 1774; Peter Force, American Archives , (Force and Clarke: Washington, DC, 1837) Series 4, vol., 1, p247; New Jersey Archives, 1st Series, Documents Relating to the Colonial, Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey , vol. 29, pp. 348-50; Handbill titled “To the Public.” at: https://www.alamy.com/history-of-the-united-states-new-yorks-tea-party-handbill-about-boycotting-the-ship-loaded-with-english-tea-newly-arrived-in-sandy-hook-new-york-april-19-1774-image211094009.html ; The New York Tea Party, https://www.frauncestavernmuseum.org/the-new-york-tea-party ; New York Almanak , https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2018/06/1774-patriots-new-yorks-tea-party/ ; Genealogical webpage on William Dobbs: https://familypedia.fandom.com/wiki/William_Henry_Dobbs_(1716-1781) . Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > Monmouth Loyalists Pardoned for Continental Army Service by Michael Adelberg Abraham Clark was a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress in 1777. He supported three imprisoned Loyalists insurrectionists who sought pardons in exchange for enlisting in the Continental Army. - April 1777 - The Continental government had two interrelated problems in early 1777. First, it had several hundred Loyalist prisoners who needed to be sheltered, fed, and guarded. Daily, these men consumed resources that were needed by the threadbare Continental Army. Second, the Army was thousands of soldiers short of expectations with respect to filling its ranks. Offering Loyalist prisoners pardons in exchange for Continental Army service—though fraught with complications—was a way to alleviate both problems at once. The idea of pardoning prisoners for enlisting into the Continental Army and Navy was not unique to Monmouth County’s jailed Loyalists. It was implemented at different times and in different ways across the colonies. Moving Monmouth County’s Loyalists into the Continental Army was first proposed by Owen Biddle, a Continental commissary officer in Philadelphia, to Governor Willilam Livingston in February 1777. Livingston did not respond directly, but informed Biddle that Nathaniel Scudder, a committeeman and militia officer from Freehold, would soon be visiting Philadelphia to assess the Monmouth prisoners. Nathaniel Scudder visited the Continental prison In Philadelphia and identified Monmouth Loyalists taken on January 2 at Freehold (at the “First Battle of Monmouth ”) and other Loyalists taken by Francis Gurney’s regiment on January 6 at Upper Freehold and January 9 at Shrewsbury. Scudder did not endorse enlisting insurrectionists in the Continental Army in exchange for a pardon. Governor Livingston confessed frustration on how to proceed, "we know not what to do with them [the prisoners] at present." However, Livingston soon had a mechanism for considering these Loyalists. Beginning in earnest in April, Governor Livingston convened a Council of Safety for the state of New Jersey (discussed in another article) which examined dozens of Monmouth Loyalists, including several who were confined in Philadelphia. Jailed Insurrectionists Allowed to Join the Continental Army Some jailed Monmouth Loyalists wished for a pardon in exchange for serving in the Army. On March 30. 1777, Congressmen Abraham Clark and Jonathan Sargent, two of New Jersey’s delegates to the Continental Congress, wrote Gov. Livingston: The enclosed petitions from three of the Jersey prisoners [John North, William North, James Journee] were presented to Congress & referred to us. We have visited them in the hospital & find they have had the small pox very favorably. They are almost fit to go to work & very pressing for a discharge. We can find no cause of their detention. The three prisoners were transferred to New Jersey and appeared before the Council of Safety on April 14; they promptly took Loyalty oaths to the state. But the Council did not immediately pardon them, perhaps because it was considering the status of several other Monmouth Loyalists in similar circumstances. On May 19, Lt. Gilbert Imlay of David Forman’s Additional Regiment wrote the Council of Safety about fifteen Loyalists (including North, North, and Journee) who wished to join in the Army: A number supposed to be dangerous & disaffected to the Government were apprehended in the beginning of January last, in the county of Monmouth, by virtue of and orders from one of the generals in the Continental service [Israel Putnam], and sent to Philadelphia, in which place they have been since confined. Several of the prisoners have been enlisted in the United States [Army] on condition that they be released or set at large from their present imprisonment; and that practice & caution are taken to enlist only those as are either really innocent or stand accused on only petty offenses. Imlay noted that "Major Seabrook [Thomas Seabrook], who is now at this place, can if called upon, bear evidence in favor of the person aforementioned." Seabrook would formally request that the fifteen Loyalists "be released from confinement & permitted to join the company in which they have enlisted." If Imlay and Seabrook were seeking to bring Loyalists into David Forman’s Additional Regiment, they were presumably doing so with Forman’s approval. As discussed in a prior article, recruiting for Forman’s regiment was going badly and the potential of recruiting a large chunk of the 200+ jailed Monmouth Loyalists might double the size of the regiment. Forman was struggling to recruit even 100 men when a full-strength regiment was roughly 600 men. The Council of Safety heard from Seabrook and approved pardons for the fifteen Continental Army enlistees. On May 21, Gov. William Livingston wrote to the Pennsylvania Board of War about the Loyalists: The prisoners hereafter mentioned, confined in your goal, were apprehended January last in the County of Monmouth as disaffected; and are said to have enlisted in the service of the United States, on condition of being sett [sic] at liberty. Livingston proposed having Major Thomas Mifflin bring the prisoners back to New Jersey, where Livingston would free them contingent on their enlistment. The selection of Mifflin was not accidental; Mifflin led Pennsylvania troops in defeating the Monmouth Loyalists five months earlier. The prisoners were returned to New Jersey on May 23. For an unknown reason, only seven of the prisoners agreed to enlist at that time. The eight others were returned to jail. Confusion among the enlistees continued. On May 27, the New Jersey Council of Safety recorded that four of the enlistees--John Sears, Stout Havens, Richard Margison, Richard Barber--had "declared they had altered their minds and did therefore refuse to comply with their former engagements; wherefore they were remanded to the Guardhouse.” All four of these would cause trouble later in the war: Sears and Margison would be convicted of treason and jailed in Morris County; Havens would incited for harboring enemy combatants tried before the New Jersey Supreme Court (verdict unknown); and Barber would become a London Trader and associate of the Pine Robber , John Bacon. Lt. Imlay marched off with only three recruits (North, North, and Journee). The Loyalists who reneged on their promise to enlist were, by and large, treated roughly. Stout Havens remained in jail even after "friends testified in his favour" on June 4. Five others claimed the right to favorable treatment as prisoners of war (as opposed to domestic traitors) based on joining George Taylor’s Loyalist militia . This status was denied by the Council of Safety because "none of them had been engaged more than a fortnight" in that militia. They remained in jail as criminals not subject to prisoner exchanges negotiated between the armies. Seven of the twelve Loyalists were ultimately convicted of treason by the Council of Safety and, on June 19, transferred to prison in far-off Morristown, too far from home to receive regular visits from friends and family. Later in the War The idea of paroling prisoners in exchange for Continental service was raised again later in the war. For example, on January 1, 1781, New Jersey’s Chief Justice, David Brearley, a former Continental Army officer from Upper Freehold, wrote the New Jersey Legislative Council (the Upper House of the legislature) that: At a Court of Oyer and Terminer lately held in the County of Monmouth, Benjamin Lee was convicted of rape upon Sarah Phillips, and Henry Sellers of robbery, for which the death sentence was passed against them, and requesting a pardon for them upon condition that they enlist and serve aboard one of the Continental frigates. Brearley supported the proposal. Lee was not granted a pardon and was put to death; the fate of Sellers is unknown. As for the three Monmouth Loyalists who joined the Continental Army in exchange for a pardon—John North, William North, and James Journee—they took different paths through the war. John North served his three-year enlistment in the Continental Army without incident. He then served in the Monmouth militia. In January 1782, he joined the State Troops and was one of three men assigned with taking a captured Loyalist, Philip White, from Long Branch to the county jail at Freehold. The three guards harassed White into attempting an escape and then murdered him when he ran. White’s murder prompted Loyalists to execute Captain Joshua Huddy, a retaliatory act which nearly led to the execution of a British officer, Charles Asgill, in retaliation for Huddy. The “Huddy Affair ” reverberated across the highest levels of the Continental, French and British governments. North was indicted in the Monmouth courts for riot in November 1782, though the particulars are unknown. William North served in Forman’s regiment but left in 1777. He is listed as deserted in the muster rolls of the New Jersey Volunteers in January 1778. This suggests that he deserted the Continental Army in 1777, collected a bounty for joining the New Jersey Volunteers, and then returned to the Continental Army where he received lenient treatment because he returned on his own. After his three-year term in the Continental Army, he served in the Monmouth County militia. He is listed as a “Single Man” in the 1784 tax rolls—suggesting that he was a poor laborer unable to own land at war’s end. James Journee served his three-year enlistment and returned home. He became a Lieutenant in the militia. He is listed as owning 200 acres in the 1779 tax rolls, suggesting he was from a wealthier family than John and William North. He was indicted for assault in 1780, but the particulars of that assault are unknown. In 1781, he was involved in an attempted prisoner exchange outside of official channels, but the exchange did not occur. Permitting Loyalist prisoners to join the Army in exchange for a pardon, at least in the case of Monmouth County’s Loyalists, produced only three recruits. Given the amount of time invested by several leaders to create the opportunity and the continued shortage of men in the Continental Army, the results of this effort could only be considered disappointing. Related Historic Site : Morristown National Historical Park . Sources : William Livingston to Owen Biddle, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, p 248, 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. 19, 21; Abraham Clark to William Livingston, Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 6, p 310 note 2; Gilbert Imlay to NJ Council of Safety, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #4126; William Livingston to PA Board of War, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, pp. 337-8; 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, 57-8; David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 191; Adelberg, Michael, Biographical File , at Monmouth County Historical Association, Freehold, New Jersey. 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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 > Trevor Newland Pushed toward Disaffection by Michael Adelberg As Trevor Newland’s enemies harassed him, he sought the help of friends in the Continental Army, including Gen. Arthur St. Clair. By 1781, Newland had been harassed into acting with Loyalists. - August 1780 - Trevor Newland was a lieutenant in the British Army during the Seven Years War. After the war, he stayed in America and settled on the Jersey shore near Barnegat. He was one of two retired British officers living in Monmouth County; the other was John Morris, who also lived on the shore—near Manasquan. Morris would become a Loyalist commanding the 2nd Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers , raised from the Monmouth shore. Newland, however, was not destined to be a Loyalist. In 1770, Monmouth County farmers grew angry about a currency shortage that made it hard to pay off mortgages. They rioted and closed the Monmouth County courts in order to prevent foreclosures. One of the county’s magistrates, Josiah Holmes of Shrewsbury, sided with the rioters. The Royal Governor, William Franklin, removed Holmes and replaced him with Newland—presumably because Newland was unsympathetic toward the indebted farmers. Two years later, Newland was indicted for arson, and, then in 1774, he was indicted for extortion. Given these charges and his anti-rioter appointment, it is safe to assume that Newland made enemies inside the county. However, as the war began, Newland had powerful friends outside the county. He exchanged letters with Benjamin Franklin and General Charles Lee (George Washington’s second in command). In 1775, Newland offered his services as an officer to the embryonic Continental Army, but nothing came from it. Then, in early 1776, he offered to help design defenses for New York. He was apparently employed in erecting defenses around New York Harbor, for which he was owed $400. After that, Newland returned home. Instead of joining the Army, he established a saltworks near present-day Waretown. While Newland’s friendly relations with national leaders might have led him into an important office in Monmouth County’s new government, his difficult relationships inside the county worked against it. Newland was not a magistrate in the new government; there’s no evidence he held any office until 1780. A William Newland, the only other man named Newland in county tax rolls, was arrested for participating in the Loyalist insurrections of December 1776 and jailed in Philadelphia for five months. If William was the son of Trevor Newland, this would have worked against Trevor Newland playing a role in the new government. Trevor Newland Runs Afoul of David Forman Newland became a rival of Colonel David Forman when Forman established a saltworks at Barnegat, near Newland’s land. Forman sent soldiers to harvest wood from Newland’s land and also harvested wood from the nearby land of the East Jersey Proprietors . As the dispute built, Newland sent a proxy to Philadelphia, probably to plead his case to the Continental Congress. The trip to Philadelphia led Congress to inquire about money still owed to Newland from his time helping the Continental Army. An unnamed member of Congress wrote General Arthur St. Clair: You will oblige me by giving me the time the payment I spoke to you about was made to Mr. Newland as nearly as you can, as a Person is now waiting with whom I have an Account to settle, that depends upon it. I think the Sum was 400 Dollars. Newland also complained to the New Jersey Legislature, which investigated Forman. As a result of this and other scandals involving Forman, the New Jersey Legislature summoned Forman. Forman resigned his General’s commission in the New Jersey militia rather than answer the charges; George Washington transferred Forman’s regiment of troops to Colonel Israel Shreve as a result of the scandal. Newland now was an enemy of the most powerful man in the county, who promptly accused Newland of being an enemy of the new government. Governor Wiliam Livingston concurred with Forman, writing “Mr. Newland is not friendly to our cause.” In October 1779, Newland was arrested and brought before the Monmouth County Court of Quarterly Sessions—its highest regular court. The Justices of the Court, including Peter Forman, were allies of David Forman. Along with Vincent Wainwright and Robert Francis, Newland was released on bond. But the size of his bond, £2,500, was unusually large—bonds were rarely greater than £500. Newland was required to appear at the next Court of Quarterly Sessions but there is no record that his case was re-heard in that court. As pressure on Newland increased, he apparently reached out to external friends in the Continental Army for help. Forman was a colonel in the Continental Army; perhaps a general could make Forman relent. On November 9, General St. Clair wrote Governor Livingston about the controversy between Forman and Newland. "I well remember the order you mention respecting the removal of troops from the salt works.” St. Clair expressed sympathy for Newland, but was unable to intervene in a civil matter. He concluded that New Jersey’s courts should determine if Forman and his allies were encroaching on Newland’s rights: “Mr. Newland must proceed against him in a court of law." Newland’s legal troubles worsened. On August 1, 1780, the New Jersey Court of Chancery heard the case of Samuel Forman, Kenneth Hankinson "and other complaintants" vs. Trevor Newland. Papers served against Newland by Sheriff David Forman (the cousin of Colonel David Forman) subpoenaed Newland "to answer a contempt to which it is alleged he hath committed against the state" and “on matters as shall be then & there be laid to his charge." Writs were served by David Forman and Jonathan Forman against Newland. He was brought before the court for litigation over property claims on his land. Trevor Newland Turns Disaffected Just two months later, the people of Stafford Township showed their support for Newland by electing him to the important role of township tax assessor. As noted in a prior article, the people of Stafford and Down townships frequently elected men who were disaffected from the new government. This show of confidence in Newland would not have swayed his adversaries, but would have given Newland a lever to strike back at his rivals—by assigning a tax to their Barnegat salt works. By 1781, Newland was disaffected—likely as a result of the long feud with Forman and his allies. On January 4, 1781, the Minute Book of the Board of Associated Loyalists recorded: "The board also read several plans and proposals submitted to them by John Griffiths and Trevor Newland." What Newland proposed is unknown, but Newland was indicted for going behind enemy lines in October 1781. At war’s end Newland was still in Stafford Township, but his estate was only 60 acres and three livestock. He had lost his saltworks which were now in the possession of Kenneth Hankinson of Freehold. Hankinson was a partner to the Forman family at the Barnegat saltworks and had replaced David Forman as the head of the vigilante society, the Retaliators . It is impossible to know precisely when Trevor Newland became disaffected. In early 1776, he helped the Continental Army and had friendly relations with at least two generals and the new nation’s leading diplomat (Benjamin Franklin). But Newland had powerful enemies within Monmouth County, including Colonel David Forman, his family, and Freehold allies. They encroached on his land and harassed him in the courts until he became, exactly what they suggested he was—a closet Loyalist. While the taint of disaffection likely ended Newland’s friendly relationships in the Continental government, it may have cemented his relationships with his disaffected neighbors. Related Historic Site : Harbor Defense Museum Sources : William Eisenring, “Monmouth and Essex Counties' 1769–70 Riots Against Lawyers: Predecessors of Revolutionary Social Conflict,” New Jersey History, vol. 112 (Spring/ Summer 1994) pp. 5-8, 17; Bidsquare Action website: https://www.bidsquare.com/online-auctions/early-american-history-auctions/arthur-st-clair-continental-congress-president-and-major-general-ans-2209088 (July 27, 2024); William Livingston to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 14, 1 March 1778 – 30 April 1778, ed. David R. Hoth. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2004, pp. 177–179; Monmouth County Archives, Court of Quarterly Sessions, folder: 1779; New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #13227; NJ State Archives, NJ Supreme Court Collection, Case # 13036; Minutes of the Board of Associated Loyalists, U. of Michigan, William Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, Minute Book of the Associated Loyalists, January 1781, p 4; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File , unpublished, Monmouth County Historical Association. Previous Next