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 > Privateer Captain William Gray Clashes with London Traders by Michael Adelberg While dozens of privateers took British ships near Sandy Hook, they mostly ignored the Loyalist gallies that rowed or sailed in their midst. William Gray, however, took two Loyalist boats in 1782. - January 1782 - As noted in prior articles, in 1779, large numbers of privateer vessels from New England began “cruising” the sea lanes to and from Sandy Hook, capturing vulnerable British/Loyalist shipping. While there is a great deal of documentation of the larger prizes they took and their periodic showdowns with British naval vessels, there is little documentation about the encounters between these privateers and the Loyalist boats that sailed the same New Jersey shoreline and violently clashed with local militia. Dozens of small Loyalist vessels carried out the so-called London Trade , bringing the farm goods and lumber of disaffected New Jersians to British buyers at Sandy Hook and New York. Yet there is almost no documentation of the interactions between New England privateers and London Traders. Perhaps the privateers were more interested in larger prizes than small trading vessels, but it is also likely that there were actions that simply went undocumented because the prizes were small and they were taken into small inlets where nobody wrote up a report for a newspaper. Captain William Gray Attacks London Traders For this reason, the actions of the Massachusetts privateer, Dart , captained by William Gray, is unusual. Gray’s capture of two vessels, and attempted capture of a third, in January 1782, is well documented. On February 6, 1782, the New Jersey Gazette reported that on January 19: Arrived at Toms River, the schooner Dart privateer, from Salem, Captain William Gray, and brought in with him a sloop prize taken from the Black Jack, a galley belonging to New York; and the next day his boat, with seven men, went in pursuit of a brig which was near the bar, but neither boat nor men have been heard of since. The final piece of the New Jersey Gazette report is noteworthy: “The next day his boat, with seven men, went in pursuit of a brig which was near the bar, but neither boat nor men have been heard of since.” According to antiquarian sources, which vary on the details, Gray went to Dillon's Island in Barnegat Bay and gave chase to a London Trading boat owned by William Dillon, though Dillon was not in it. Gray captured the boat, Lucy, when it grounded outside Cranberry Inlet. They brought it into Toms River. The next day, Gray, with eight men in a whaleboat pursued a Loyalist brig, which was, ironically, being piloted by William Dillon. Gray’s boat and the London Traders kept up a running fire all the way to Manasquan. Despite being outnumbered, Gray attempted to board the brig. In the resulting melee on the deck of the brig, Gray and six of his men were captured. Gray was jailed in New York for four months (another source claims six) before being exchanged. (Note: One antiquarian source suggests that Gray was victorious in this third encounter with London Traders.) A New Jersey Admiralty Court announcement from Abiel Aiken (the court’s agent at Toms River ) advertised that a court would be held on March 16 at the house of James Green in Freehold to hear Captain William Gray’s claim (in absentia) on the sloop Lucy "taken on her voyage from Egg Harbor to New York" with a cargo and "a Negro man named York." The claim was against William Dillon. Before the war, Dillon was a boatman from Toms River. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to death at the 2nd Monmouth Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1778, but was pardoned. Dillon returned to Toms River and rowed out to a British party later that year when it raided the port to reclaim the vessel, Love & Unity . While Dillon had a role in capturing Gray, he lost his boat and slave. He may have desired revenge for the losses and prior abuses. Dillon returned to Dover Township two months later as a guide for a raiding party of Associated Loyalists that razed Toms River . This is the subject of another article. It appears that Gray exacted revenge on Monmouth County Loyalists after his release. Thomas Brown of Dover Township was the son of Captain Samuel Brown, one of a half-dozen Monmouth County militia officers who blurred the lines between militia service and privateering. Thomas Brown recalled an action against the Pine Robber gang of William Davenport in June 1782. His Dover militia company, in the row vessel named Civil Usage, planned to attack William Davenport’s Pine Robber gang at Clam Town (present-day Tuckerton). The Dover militia used themselves as a decoy by rowing through Little Egg Harbor and lured a Pine Robber galley to attack them. Gray's privateer brig then closed on the Pine Robbers. Brown recalled: "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." Davenport and the defeat of the Pine Robbers at Forked River is the subject of another article. Other New England Privateers along the Disaffected Monmouth Shore With the exception of Gray, it is remarkable how little documentation exists of New England privateers clashing with local disaffected and Loyalists on the lower Monmouth shore. This is despite the fact that New England privateers would have come in contact with the disaffected residents of this region dozens of times as they came into New Jersey’s inlets for supplies or to escape storms and British warships. Privateers towing prizes into Chestnut Neck (the inland village up the Mullica River from Egg Harbor) or Toms River would have routinely passed small clusters of cabins and boats used by London Traders and Pine Robbers. Yet it appears that an informal détente existed much of the time between privateers and disaffected shore residents. Privateers and disaffected were on different sides in the war, but both were fundamentally opportunists. There apparently was little to be gained from hostilities. The experience of the Rhode Island sloop, Providence , at Clam Town in November 1779 is telling. The ship’s surgeon, Zuriel Waterman, recalled coming into Little Egg Harbor on November 4, where he: "went on shore at Foxborough Isle.” The island and the disaffected family living there did not impress Waterman: It has but one wretched house upon it, being mostly a marsh spot of rising ground where the house stands; it is 7 miles distant from a little village called Clamtown and fronts the entrance of the [Egg] Harbor. The house is inhabited by one Moses Mulliner, his wife, 2 daughters and a son. Waterman spent two days on the island, during which time nine crew deserted. On November 6, Waterman "went to Mulliner's to get some rum... came to anchor at Mulliner's house." After purchasing what they could from Mulliner, Waterman and other officers went to Clamtown. They "stayed and drank chocolate and played checkers, delaying some time until after dark." On November 9, the officers re-provisioned their vessel, while noting that "articles are very scarce and dear." Waterman took the time to write down the exorbitant prices the privateers were charged for purchasing in Continental dollars . The New Englanders paid: gallon of rum - $80, pound of sugar - $7, pound of coffee - $7, pound of gunpowder - $40, bushel of potatoes - $12, pair of shoes - $60, 1 turkey - $15. Waterman further noted the exchange rate of $1 of specie for $30-40 Continental dollars. However, the privateer officers found some solace on November 12 when they "sold our runaway [sailor's] clothes at vendue, amounted to above £100." Despite spending more than a week in the epicenter of the London Trade and the lair of a large Pine Robber gang, no shots were fired between the privateers and the disaffected locals. The Providence left Little Egg Harbor on November 13. Related Historic Site : Cedar Bridge Tavern Sources : William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 79; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, (Bayonne, N.J.: E. Gardner and Son, 1890) pp. 80-84; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930, February 6, 1782; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 79-80; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930, February 13, 1782; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 79; William MacMahon, South Jersey Towns (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1973) p 305; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p91; John C. Dann, The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980) pp 143; Zuriel Waterman, Rhode Islanders Record the Revolution: the Journals of William Humphrey and Zuriel Waterman (Providence: Rhode Island Publications Society, 1984) pp. 73-7. 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 Baptists Reset Their Congregations by Michael Adelberg The Upper Freehold Baptists met at the Old Yellow Meeting House. Despite a succession of ministers, they were unwavering in their support of the Revolution throughout the war. - March 1777 - On the eve of the American Revolution, Monmouth County had a large Baptist congregation in Middletown (248 congregants) and a smaller one at Imlaystown in Upper Freehold (78 congregants). The two meetings were served by a single minister, Abel Morgan. He lived and preached in Middletown, but preached at Imlaystown one Sunday a month. The prior minister for the Upper Freehold meeting, David Jones, was an outspoken supporter of independence. While visiting Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1775, Jones preached, “Defensive War in a Just Cause, Sinless.” His sermon was published and widely distributed. After this, Jones was unable to safely return to Upper Freehold—which would soon be the scene of a Loyalist insurrection . Jones served as a chaplain in the Continental Army during the war and never returned to Monmouth County. When Upper Freehold was rocked by a second and more severe Loyalist insurrection in December 1776, the Baptist meeting suspended operations. After a period of irregular entries, on March 1, 1777, the congregation’s Deacon, Thomas Farr, recorded, “No meetings—these are troublesome times indeed.” The war years were hard on the congregation—it admitted twelve new members in 1776 and eleven new members at war’s end in 1783, but it only admitted a total of fifteen new members in the six years in between. Baptist Meeting Purges Loyalists While the Upper Freehold congregation was pro-independence from the start, the Middletown congregation only supported the Revolution after a “purging time” in 1777. On May 10, the meeting moved against its active Loyalist members. The church book recorded three votes: 1. In the first place was to consider whether we believe it justifiable, in sight of Holy God, to joyn [sic] the free States of America, to the utmost of our power, in defense of our rights and privileges, against our cruel enemies, who is now fighting against us with fire and sword, to deprive us of them. – Agreed. 2. Whether the standing of our Church does not call for a purging time, when we are so divided in judgment and in practice, and further, whether or not those members have standing in our church, that do side with the enemy, ought to be laid under censure. – Agreed. 3. Whether or not David Burdge and Elias Baly [Elias Bailey], who have left this State and gone over to the enemy ought to be debarred from communion in our church, yea or nay. – yea. The meeting took other acts as well. John Taylor and James Grover were summoned to answer for their roles in administering British loyalty oaths. Edward Taylor and Mary Bailey were warned to “forebare talking so much against the present state, and in behalf of the enemy.” James Mott, Richard Crawford, John Walling, and Samuel Bray were appointed to counsel and monitor the disaffected congregants. Sixteen other congregants signed on to support them. The Middletown Baptists met again on May 24 to consider removing John Taylor and James Grover: The church laid before said Taylor and said Grover the charge, which was that they had sworn so many of their brethren and neighbors to swear true obedience to King George; the church then asked them whether they justified themselves in acting that part - they answered they did justify themselves, but was sorry they had done it because things had not turned out as they expected - upon hearing the whole affair, the church agreed to a man, except Edward Taylor, and then told said Taylor and said Grover they was disbarred from communion with the church. The congregation’s minister, Abel Morgan, was initially cautious toward disaffected members. As late as December 1777 he warned of "dispersion among the churches” and “discord and contention among neighbors" without directly criticizing Loyalists. But Morgan’s voice grew stronger after the British Army passed through Middletown following the Battle of Monmouth. They occupied and vandalized the Baptist meeting house and forced Morgan to preach in the woods. A year later, Morgan preached: “Our continent is filled with tears and blood, ravages and desolations abound, perpetrated by the English troops and, if possible, by the more wicked combinations of traitors among ourselves." Other Disturbances in the Congregations The Baptists of Upper Freehold never needed to purge the meeting of Loyalists, but the congregation did discipline several members. On June 16, 1777, it suspended “Candice, a Black woman… disguised with liquor” from the congregation. In December 1778, the meeting again moved against three members for poor attendance and acting with “no sense of guilt.” Another round of suspension in 1781 was meted out for non-attendance and drinking. The congregation never needed to punish any of its members for Loyalism. However, the Upper Freehold Baptists needed to find a new minister. In June 1777, they invited John Pittman, “a very promising young man," to be the congregation’s minister. It appears that Pittman relocated from Philadelphia to Imlaystown in September (as the British Army was threatening invasion of that city). Pittman co-served the Baptist meetings at Imlaystown and Cranbury. In March 1780, Pittman received luxury goods from Boston. This caused an argument with Joseph Cox, from one of the meeting’s leading families. The bad feelings escalated when Pittman insulted Joseph’s brother, Thomas Cox: Thomas Cox entered the following complaint or charge against him, that Mr. Pittman had represented him [Thomas Cox] as his worst enemy, and Mr. Pittman not giving him satisfaction was forbid preaching in the meeting house & warned to go out of the dwelling house. Pittman returned to Philadelphia in 1781. The next minister, John Blackwell, was not found until late 1782. As for Abel Morgan, he grew ill in 1784. The Middletown congregation recognized him as an “infirm” and hired a servant to tend to him. Morgan died in 1785. Related Historic Site : Old Yellow Meeting House Sources : Upper Freehold Baptist Records, Rutgers University Special Collections, reel 1; David Jones, Journal of Two Visits to Some Indian Nations on the West Side of the Ohio River, 1772-3 (Burlington, NJ: Isaac Collins, 1774) p V-VIII, 11; Defensive war in a just cause sinless. A sermon , preached on the day of the continental fast, at Tredyffryn, in Chester County, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N11160.0001.001/1:2?rgn=div1;view=fulltext ; Jones, David, 1736-1820.Baptist Meeting Minutes, John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v2, p 273; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v2, p 273; Upper Freehold Baptist Records, Rutgers University Special Collections, reel 1; R.T. Middletditch, "Abel Morgan of Middletown", The Baptist Quarterly, 1874, vol. 8, p331-2; American Baptist Magazine and Missionary Intelligencer (Boston: James Lording, 1829) vol. 3, p443-444; Upper Freehold Baptist Records, Rutgers University Special Collections, reel 1; R.T. Middletditch, "Abel Morgan of Middletown", The Baptist Quarterly, 1874, vol. 8, p332; Norman H. Maring, Baptists in New Jersey: A Study in Transition (Valley Forge, Penn.; Judson Press, 1964) pp. 57-8, 69, 74; Upper Freehold Baptist Records, Rutgers University Special Collections, reel 1; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County, (Peck: Philadelphia, 1885) p 635; Upper Freehold Baptist Records, Rutgers University Special Collections, reel 1; Monmouth County Historical Association, Church Book, Upper Freehold Baptists (typescript); R.T. Middletditch, "Abel Morgan of Middletown", The Baptist Quarterly, 1874, vol. 8, p334. 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 > Anglican Reverend Samuel Cooke Flees Shrewsbury by Michael Adelberg Rev. Samuel Cooke preached at the Christ Church in Shrewsbury, which he led until his plainly-stated Loyalist views made it unsafe for him to remain in Monmouth County. - May 1775 - At the start of Revolutionary agitation, Reverend Samuel Cooke was arguably the most influential man in Shrewsbury Township. For a decade, he led the county’s Anglican congregation at Shrewsbury and smaller congregations at Middletown and Freehold. He lived in a comfortable home in Shrewsbury immodestly named “the Glebe.” As anti-British agitation swept the colonies, Cooke led the resistance. He wrote that, for a half year, “he prevented any committee from being chosen in Shrewsbury.” But the winds were blowing against Cooke’s public support of the British government. Cooke Leaves Shrewsbury for England As sentiments turned against the British, Cooke felt unsafe. He wrote that "he rec'd several threats before he came away, this hastened his departure.” Cooke left for England in May 1775. In his final sermon at Shrewsbury's Christ Church, Cooke alluded to the mixed motivations of Continental leaders in a sermon titled, "The Duty of Mutual Love Enforced by God's Example.” In an apparent swipe at the Continental movement, Cooke warned against following leaders with “secret intentions” and "pretended love.” He urged his congregants to be wary of men “where nothing but self interest is at their bottom." Cooke’s departure was hastened by a clash with Josiah Holmes. Holmes was a former magistrate who was stripped of the office by the Governor for showing sympathy for the rioters who closed the county courts in 1770 and 1771. Holmes was a church warden at the Christ Church and he challenged Cooke’s political influence over the congregation. Later in the war, Cooke would write of Holmes, "He broke out, took the lead as a Committeeman, and joining with a few Presbyterians created all the disturbances in his power against me." Cooke had Holmes removed as a church warden in 1775, but Holmes remained influential. He returned to the Christ Church after Cooke’s departure. There is little documentation of Cooke’s time in England. He wrote fondly of the Loyalism of his flock in Shrewsbury: “few of them have, indeed, swerved from the path of duty.” He also noted the minority status of Anglicans in Monmouth County: “the congregation of the Church of England is small in comparison to the number of dissenters.” Cooke was known by Philip Van Courtland, one of New York’s wealthiest Loyalists, who referred to him as “the worthy Doctor of Kings” and urged a colleague in England to send Cooke his “sincerest respects.” Cooke’s Return to America Cooke returned to America in June 1776. He wrote that “he came home in 1776, hoping that the confusion in the colonies would subside.” Cooke soon learned that returning to Shrewsbury would be dangerous. Instead, he joined the British Army as deputy chaplain to the Brigade of Guards, a British Army unit. Cooke stayed in the Army until the end of the war. In May 1780, he from New York wrote about the "great numbers of the inhabitants of Shrewsbury, both church people and Quakers, here within the King's lines." He also remained in contact with at least some former congregants in Shrewsbury. Of them, he wrote: “Those who remain conform no farther to the present tyranny than is absolutely necessary for their safety, and to exempt themselves from confiscation and jail.” His Loyalist compensation application to the British Government was supported by William Franklin (the last Royal Governor of New Jersey) and Courtland Skinner (the commander of the Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers). This proves that Cooke was on good terms with the most important Loyalists at war’s end. Cooke’s family, however, stayed in Shrewsbury. He wrote that he "was compelled to leave behind his large & helpless family, with but slender support.” The family initially owned two farms – 165 and 50 acres – and two slaves. That did not last. In May 1779, Cooke’s was in the first group of Loyalist estates sold in Shrewsbury. His daughter, Mary, was permitted to purchase some of the family estate (another source claims the estate went to Cooke’s son). But Cooke’s main estate was purchased by his old rival Josiah Holmes who, according to Cooke, “took possession of the Glebe and continues to live in it with his family.” After the War Cooke was not immediately replaced. The Anglican (now Episcopal) minister at Spotswood, William Ayres, attempted to serve the Monmouth County congregations, but the war years were hard on him. A 1785 report on the Episcopal Clergy in New Jersey noted that Ayres was “afflicted with insanity” for much of the war, but had recovered his mental health by 1785. Records from the Christ Church note the assignment of a “Mr. Beach” as Reverend in 1782, but it is unclear if this was a permanent assignment. The next long term minister was Henry Waddle, appointed in 1787 after serving the church as its “Lay Delegate” in prior years. Waddle was an early leader of the county’s Revolutionary militia, but he soured on military service early in the war and was permitted to weather the war as a non-participant. After the war, Cooke settled in New Brunswick, Canada, and was appointed Chaplain to the military garrison at Saint John. At least one of his children stayed in Shrewsbury and a son settled on Staten Island, where he, according to genealogical sources, apprenticed as a mason. In 1786, Samuel Cooke became the first rector of the Episcopal Church at Fredericton and in 1791 was named Commissary to the Bishop of Nova Scotia. Reverend Cooke died a few years later. His canoe overset in the St. John River on May 23, 1795. His son, Michael, died while attempting to save his father. Related Historical Sites : Christ Church Sources : Records of the Shrewsbury Christ Church, Shrewsbury Christ Church; Dennis P. Ryan, "Six Towns: Continuity and Change in Revolutionary New Jersey, 1770-1792" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1974) p 167. Ryan, New Jersey's Loyalists (Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1974) p 11; Dennis P. Ryan, "Six Towns: Continuity and Change in Revolutionary New Jersey, 1770-1792" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1974) pp. 46-59; United Empire Loyalists, Loyal Directory: http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Info ; Monmouth County Historical Association, Vault, Shelf 4, Christ Church (Shrewsbury) - Vestry Book; Leonard Lundin, Cockpit of the Revolution the War for Independence in New Jersey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950) p 68; Hugh Edward Egerton, The Royal Commission On The Losses And Services Of American Loyalists, 1783-1785 (London: Kessinger, 2010) pp. 35-7. See also Rutgers University Special Collection, Loyalist Compensation of Application of Samuel Cooke, D96, AO 13/108, reel 8; Frederic Parris, "The Case of Rev. Samuel Cooke: Loyalist," Monmouth County Historical Association Newsletter vol. 3, May 1975; Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn.: Meckler, 1984) p 174; Monmouth County Historical Association, Samuel Cooke Papers, sermon #7; Great Britain, Public Record Office, Audit Office, Class 13, Volume 54, folio 633-634; Journals of the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the State of New Jersey, 1785-1816, (New York: John Polhemus, 1890), p 34;"Six Towns: Continuity and Change in Revolutionary New Jersey, 1770-1792" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1974) pp. 169-76. Ryan, New Jersey's Loyalists (Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1974) p 19; Anglican Church at Shrewsbury, Christ Church, October 7, 1782, Monmouth County Historical Association, Vault, Shelf 4, Christ Church (Shrewsbury) - Vestry Book; Rev. Samuel Cooke's United Empire Loyalist bio: Minister at Shrewsbury before the war; becomes the Rector of the first church of Fredericton, NB after the war -- United Empire Loyalists, Loyal Directory: http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Info ; Cooke’s 1780 letter is in Dennis P. Ryan, "Six Towns: Continuity and Change in Revolutionary New Jersey, 1770-1792" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1974) pp. 169-76. Ryan, New Jersey's Loyalists (Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1974) p 19; Journals of the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the State of New Jersey, 1785-1816, (New York: John Polhemus, 1890), p 112-113; Peter W. Coldham, comp., American Loyalist Claims (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1980), p 465. Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn. and London, 1984) pp. 830-1. 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 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 > New England Privateers Prey on Shipping at Sandy Hook by Michael Adelberg The Connecticut privateer, Oliver Cromwell, was one of a few dozen New England privateers to capture British/Loyalist ships off Sandy Hook. These privateers took at least 20 prizes in 1779 alone. - June 1779 - As discussed in prior articles, privateering along the New Jersey shore blossomed in the spring of 1778 when the British naval presence weakened, making ships coming to New York City vulnerable . In 1778, most of the privateers along the New Jersey shore were small Philadelphia vessels and boats manned by New Jersey militia . Privateers were, by nature, opportunists seeking the greatest possible prize at an acceptable level of risk. In New England, ship captains embraced privateering and went long distances to prey on British ships in Europe and the Caribbean. It was inevitable that New England privateers would prey on British ships bound for New York as well. New Jersey historian, Franklin Kemp, counted the ships taken off the New Jersey shore during the Revolutionary War. He counted 194 prizes (of which 24 were shipwrecks taken by militia). Kemp’s tabulations are the most complete accounting of New Jersey’s Revolutionary War maritime events, but he did not review New England newspapers or have access to Internet-privateer datasets—rich sources of maritime incidents. So, Kemp’s work, while admirable, undercounts the number of captures and particularly undercounts New England privateer activity. This article seeks to fill that gap. New England Privateers at Sandy Hook, 1777-1778 A few New England privateers were active off Sandy Hook as early as 1777; two maritime events are documented. Thomas Dunbar of Stonington, Connecticut recalled boarding the 14-gun privateer, Revenge , under Captain William Jager, and taking “the schooner Experiment , bound from N. York to Halifax & sent her into Mystic." However, the Revenge was soon captured by a larger British ship. Captain Timothy Shaler of Connecticut, sailing in the Lion , was also active off the New Jersey shore in 1777. On April 17, he captured a supply ship, Hazard , with a cargo of coal, off Sandy Hook and towed the prize toward Egg Harbor. However, a British frigate, Mermaid , was dispatched from Sandy Hook and pursued Shaler. The privateer and her prize grounded in the shallows north of Egg Harbor (Stafford Township) where the Mermaid destroyed both vessels. In May, the Pennsylvania Journal advertised the sale of “the remains of the brigantine Hazard … captured by Captain Timothy Shaler" with 6 swivel guns, small arms and equipment, food stuffs. The Pennsylvania Evening Post advertised the sale of the wrecked Lion , "her hull and some spars & c. now lie on Long Beach" including, "eight excellent double fortified four pounders” and other combat-related materials. In 1778, as in 1777, New England privateers were occasionally on the Monmouth shore. Captain Nathan Post sailing in the Revenge (probably a different vessel from Captain Jager’s above) captured two prizes near Sandy Hook in June 1778. One was carrying cargo of indigo and the second a cargo lumber—probably a London Trading vessel from New Jersey. The capture of these vessels was important enough to merit a report from General Philemon Dickinson, commanding the New Jersey militia, to George Washington. Dickinson wrote: Two valuable Prizes were sunk into Toms River, two days ago, by a small New England Privateer, part of the Cargoes, consists of one hundred & fifty hogsheads Rum—this small Privateer within five weeks past, has taken Prizes, to the amount of, One hundred & fifty thousand pounds. The other documented incident involving a New England privateer in 1778 is the confusing case of the sloop, Active , commanded by Gideon Olmstead. Olmstead captained a Connecticut sloop that went to Egg Harbor before sailing for Sandy Hook. On its way, it was intercepted and taken by a larger Loyalist vessel, Tyrol . However, Olmstead led an uprising against the four-man prize crew and claimed that he re-took his vessel. According to one of his men, Thomas Clark: “They succeeded in securing the [Loyalist] captain crew under the deck, and intended to run the sloop in Egg Harbour." However, because Active was still flying British colors, the Pennsylvania privateer Convention took it before she could reach Egg Harbor. The Pennsylvanians brought Active to Philadelphia as a prize. Olmstead and Captain Houston of the Convention engaged in years of litigation over the fate of the vessel. Solomon Drowne, sailing on the Massachusetts privateer Hope , recalled capturing a snow loaded with rum from Jamaica as it neared Sandy Hook (the year of the incident is not stated): She sails very heavy and Captain Munro is very sanguine in the belief we shall make a prize of her. There seems to be something awful in the preparation for an attack, and the immediate prospect of an action. She hauls up her English colours. I take my station where I remain not long before I hear the huzza on deck in conveyance of her striking [surrender]. Send our boat for her Captain and papers. She sailed from Kingston, Jamaica, upwards of 40 days since, in a fleet, and was bound for New York, Captain William Small commander. She has ten men on board and four excellent 4 pounders. Hope towed the prize toward Egg Harbor, but then lost the prize: "About sunset, sail seen from the masthead which excites no small anxiety. Cast off the snow [to escape]." New England Privateers at Sandy Hook, 1779 Starting in June 1779, a half-dozen of Connecticut privateers began regularly “cruising the lanes” into Sandy Hook. The New London privateer, Beaver (65 crew, 12 cannon) was the most prolific, taking seven prizes in 1779. Twice, Captain William Havens of the Beaver teamed up with other privateers to capture larger prizes, including the Otter on July 1 with a valuable cargo of Caribbean rum. In 1779, New England privateers, including vessels from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, took at least twenty prizes off Sandy Hook. Their activity was greater in 1779 than any other year. See c hart 3. The largest prize taken in 1779 was the 16-gun Belona , taken by the pairing of the Beaver and the Hancock . Three other times, two or three privateers combined to take a prize. But tandem attacks did not always work. On June 5, 1779, the Hancock (80 crew, ten cannon) teamed up with Oliver Cromwell , with a crew of 140 men and 18 cannon. They attacked the HMS Daphne 20 leagues from Sandy Hook, a vessel about the size of the Oliver Crowell . The privateers shot down one of Daphne ’s masts, but the battle was then joined by two Loyalist privateers, Union and Delaware , which crippled and took the Oliver Cromwell . The Virginia Gazette reported: The ship Oliver Cromwell, owned by the state of Connecticut, and the privateer Hancock, were cruising some leagues south of Sandy Hook, they fell in with three British cruising ships and a brig; one of the ships was a very fast sailor, and coming up with the Oliver Cromwell, they engaged for near two hours, in which time the Oliver Cromwell shot away the main top mast; but the other ships coming up she was obliged to strike [surrender] after making a gallant defence. The Oliver Cromwell mounts 20 guns and had about 130 men. The Ship which engaged her appeared to be larger, but her force we did not learn. Massachusetts privateers also prowled the lanes into Sandy Hook. The Jason , under Captain Manley (120 men, 18 cannon) on June 23 came on the Hazard , a 16-gun Loyalist vessel approaching Sandy Hook. After a two-hour battle, Jason had one dead, three wounded; 30 were killed or wounded on the Hazard . A sailor on the Jason, Joshua Davis, recalled: The Captain ordered the helm hard-a-port, which brought us alongside. Our Captain said 'fire away boys'. We gave them a broadside which tore off her side very much & killed & wounded some of them. The rest all ran below, except their Captain who stood on deck like a man amazed. Our Captain ordered Lt Frost to go out on the driver boom and get on board her, and send the Captain on board of us, and keep the prisoners below. Captain Manley sent the prize back to Boston and then captured another vessel, Adventurer , immediately afterward, which it towed home. Davis described taking this second prize: When we got disentangled [from the Hazard], we bore away for the other privateer that began to run from us. We gave her a few shot from our bow chasers... Our Captain told them to come aboard, they answered 'Our boat won't swim', our Captain answered 'Then sink in her. You shall come on board or I will fire into you.' They then came on board. The surge of captured vessels fed the growing rift between Loyalist and British leaders. William Smith, Chief Justice of the Loyalist government in New York, wrote on August 14, 1779: “How scandalous is the conduct of the [British] Administration and the naval officers under them? The [Loyalist] privateers' business languishes and owners are selling out at a rate of six vessels in a week." He wrote of the New England privateers off Sandy Hook: "The rebels make this their cruising ground, and send several armed vessels in concert, there is a want of naval strength there." By October, privateering off Sandy Hook lightened due to worsening weather and fewer vessels coming in. The Boston Independent Chronicle reported on the Beaver spending three weeks off Sandy Hook with “blowing weather almost the whole of the time,” but taking no prizes. The one opportunity to take a vessel was fouled by weather. Beaver “brought to a schooner which had been taken by the enemy, but it being very windy, and a large sea going, they could not board her." New England Privateers at Sandy Hook, 1780 through War’s End The first prize taken off Sandy Hook in 1780, was by Captain William Treen of Rhode Island. Sailing in the Black Snake , Treen captured the vessel Dispatch and towed her into Egg Harbor. However, on his next voyage, Treen was chased by the Royal Navy’s frigate, Galatea . Black Snake grounded on a sandbar off Deal. As the frigate sent a boarding party, Treen’s 33 sailors crowded into a boat that overset in the rough water. One account claims the men drowned; another claims the men made it to shore where they were taken by a guard of New Jersey Volunteers. The British took the vessel. Treen returned to Sandy Hook later in the war in the galley, Skunk , and took a number of small prizes. The demise of the Black Snake was part of a larger campaign by the British navy to re-assert control of the sea lanes to Sandy Hook. On May 1, the Loyalist New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury , reported on "the following prizes were brought in by his Majesty's ships Iris and Delaware , taken last week within a few leagues of Sandy Hook." This crackdown included taking at least seven privateers, including three with crews of 100 or greater. However, the crackdown (the subject of another article ) did not last. On May 17, the Royal Gazette reported that "a large ship from London for New York was captured off the Hook, after an obstinate action for four hours, by two New England privateers." Two days earlier, the Gazette & Weekly Mercury reported that privateer sloops were cruising the Sandy Hook lanes again and had taken at least one prize. Some of the prizes taken in 1780 were remarkable—as when Captain Elisha Hart, in the Connecticut privateer Retaliation , captured a small sloop transporting a company of Loyalist soldiers to Sandy Hook. However, 1780 was the only year of the war where New England privateers lost more engagements (11) than they won (9). New England privateers were never again as successful as they were in 1779—though they continued to capture vessels into spring 1783, a year and a half after the British surrender at Yorktown “ended” hostilities. The New England privateers were not alone. Philadelphia privateers were also active around Sandy Hook and the exploits of Yelverton Taylor and Stephen Decatur are discussed in other articles. Privateers from Baltimore and southern ports were also involved in a few actions off Sandy Hook. Raritan Bay privateers , such as William Marriner and Adam Hyler, also took several small prizes , as did Monmouth County militia. New England privateers were also visitors on the Jersey shore. They purchased provisions and, on a few occasions, teamed with local militia in actions against London Traders and Pine Robbers . As discussed in other articles, Revolutionary War privateering changed the Jersey Shore Region—creating boomtowns at Little Egg Harbor and Toms River —and bringing people and capital to the shore as never before. New England privateers played a significant role in raising up this formerly sleepy and poor region. Related Historic Site : Connecticut River Museum Sources : Franklin Kemp, The Capture of Enemy Vessels by Ground Troops in New Jersey (-----) pp 16-7; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Thomas Dunbar of CT, www.fold3.com/image/#18457531 ; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/pl/Br/British%20Prizes%20April%201777/Experiment%20%5bunknown%5d%20%5bunknown%5d.html Pennsylvania Journal, May 14, 1777; PA Evening Post in William Morgan, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1970), vol. 9, p 179; Philemon Dickinson to George Washington, Philemon Dickinson to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 15, May–June 1778, ed. Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006, pp. 371–372; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 207-8; The Case of the Sloop ‘Active’, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 16 (1892), pp. 387-8; The Journal of Gideon Olmstead. Edited by Gerard W. Gawalt and Charles W. Kreidler. (Washington, DC: Library of Congress) p 58; Thomas Clark, A Naval History of the United States (Philadelphia: M. Carey, 1814) vol 2, p59-60; Franklin Kemp, The Capture of Enemy Vessels by Ground Troops in New Jersey (-----) pp 16-7; Thomas Collier, An Account of the State Cruisers (New London: New London Historical Society, 1892) p14; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, p 107; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/H/Hancock%20Connecticut%20Sloop%20%5bChester%20Hinman%20Richards%20Champlin%20Richards%20Chester%5d.html; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 1, pp. 85-6; Charles O Paullin, The Navy of the American Revolution (Chicago: The Burrows Brothers Co., 1906) pp. 370, 390; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 54-5; Connecticut Journal, June 30, 1779; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/B/Beaver%20Connecticut%20Sloop%20%5bDodge%20Havens%20Scovell%5d.html; and http://www.awiatsea.com/pl/Am/American%20Prizes%20April%201779/Hunter%20Sloop%20%5bRobert%20McLarty%5d.html; The Journal of Gideon Olmstead. Edited by Gerard W. Gawalt and Charles W. Kreidler. (Washington, DC: Library of Congress) pp. 77-8; Virginia Gazette, July 10, 1779; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/R/Revenge%20Connecticut%20Sloop%20%5bConkling%20Post%20Parker%5d.html ; Gardner Allen, Naval History of the American Revolution (NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1913) p408; Independent Ledger (Boston), July 5, 1779; Joshua Davis, Journal, Gardner W. Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution (1912, 1940, reprinted New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962), pp. 409-10; Independent Ledger (Boston), February 8, 1779; William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971) pp. 154-8; Connecticut Gazette, August 25, 1779; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 64-5; Gardner W. Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution (1912, 1940, reprinted New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962), p 414; The Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen, An American Refugee in England from 1775-84 (NY: C.S. Francis, 1842), p592; Connecticut Gazette, October 20, 1779; Independent Chronicle (Boston), October 28, 1779; Independent Ledger (Boston), November 29, 1779; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 65; William Nelson, Austin Scott, et al., ed., New Jersey Archives, 1901-1917, (Newark, Somerville, and Trenton, New Jersey, 1901-1917) vol. 3, p 616; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Thomas Dunbar of CT, National Archives, p6; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, p 338; The capture of the Black Snake is discussed in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 70-1; British captures are summarized in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 72; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, p 343; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/Y/Young%20Cromwell%20Connecticut%20Schooner%20%5bWattles%20Hilliard%20Wattles%20Buddington%20Hilliard%20Reed%20Cook%5d.html; and http://www.awiatsea.com/pl/Am/American%20Prizes%20October%201781/Betsey%20Schooner%20(John%20Robinson).html ; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, p 394; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, pp. 364, 370. William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 74; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 4, p 384; Connecticut Gazette, May 26, 1780; Christopher Prince, Autobiography of a Yankee Mariner (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2002), p234; Thomas Collier, An Account of the State Cruisers (New London: New London Historical Society, 1892) p16; Independent Ledger (Boston), June 5, 1780; The battle between the Trumball and the British vessel is discussed in William S. Hornor, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold, N.J.: Moreau Brothers, 1932), p 74; Virginia Gazette, June 28, 1780; The captures made by the Retaliation are discussed in Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 205-6; The capture of the Hazard is discussed in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 74; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; The capture of the Otter is discussed in Records and Papers of the New London County Historical Society, vol. 1, p20; Thomas Collier, An Account of the State Cruisers (New London: New London Historical Society, 1892) p17; American Journal (Providence), July 26, 1780; Narrative of the sloop Retaliation in Thomas Collier, An Account of the State Cruisers (New London: New London Historical Society, 1892) p18-19; Solomon Drowne, Journal of a Cruise in the Fall of 1780 in the Private-Sloop of War, Hope (Berkley: U of California, 1872) pp. 11-2; The action of the Viper are in American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/V/Viper%20Massachusetts%20Ship%20%5BWilliams%5D.html ; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 194-8; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, p 181; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/R/Raven%20Connecticut%20Schooner%20%5bOlmsted%20Hollister%20Buckland%5d.html ; American Journal (Providence), May 12, 1781; Providence Gazette, August 25, 1781; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/V/Viper%20Massachusetts%20Ship%20%5BWilliams%5D.htm ; Journal of Christopher Vail, Library of Congress, Series 7E, item 146, reel 54; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 87-9; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; The attack on the Polly is discussed in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 78; The voyage of the Rainbow is in Thomas Collier, An Account of the State Cruisers (New London: New London Historical Society, 1892) p24 and Massachusetts Spy, September 6, 1781; Fair American’s prize noted in American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/F/Fair%20American%20Connecticut%20Brigantine%20%5bChamplin%5d.html ; Providence Gazette, September 8, 1781; American Journal (Providence), October 18, 1781; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 246-9; Providence Gazette, May 25, 1782; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, pp. 214-6; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Nathaniel Prentice of CT, www.fold3.com/image/# 25868821; Norwich Packet, August 15, 1782; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post; William Treen discussed in Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 53-5; American War of Independence at Sea - American Privateers: http://www.awiatsea.com/Privateers/M/Modesty%20Rhode%20Island%20Sloop%20%5bArnold%20Brown%5d.html ; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Middlebrook, Louis, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1925) vol. 2, p 232; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906. 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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 > William Clark and the Raritan Bay Horse Thieves by Michael Adelberg Horse theft was a capital crime during the Revolutionary War. This sketch from Pennsylvania shows a posse chasing a horse thief. William Clark led a gang that took dozens of horses. - May 1781 - There is little known about William Clark’s early life. While an antiquarian source claims he was from Dover Township, his father (Dr. William Clark) was a physician in Middletown Township. So, William Clark (Jr.) likely grew up in Middletown. Perhaps he lived in Dover Township before the war—but he is not listed as owning land in the 1773 tax list for that township. His wife and children were in Middletown by the middle years of the war. The Clarks of Middletown were disaffected from the Revolution (another Clark family from Freehold Township solidly supported the Revolution). Dr. Clark was accused of illegally trading with the British in early 1777 and jailed in Freehold until November when he petitioned for his release. Dr. Clark’s 1779 estate was only 13 acres and one head of livestock—a very modest estate. Dr. Clark was likely a physician to prominent disaffected families along the Raritan Bayshore, such as Kearney’s of Keyport and Amboy. As their fortunes dropped, so did Dr. Clark’s. William Clark (Jr.) was also disaffected. His wife, Mary Tilton, was from a disaffected family that included Clayton Tilton, an active Loyalist raider, and other Loyalists. William Clark was arrested for high treason in January 1778 and convicted at the 2nd Court of Oyer and Terminer in June. But in an act of mercy afforded to a young man from a “good” family, he was permitted to sign a pledge of good behavior, post a bond, and was released. The Raritan Bay Horse Thieves The earliest documentation of robberies committed by Clark is a January 1782, New Jersey Supreme Court record that discusses a robbery committed by four Clark family members in January 1780. Elizabeth Pritchard was robbed of £29 of household goods and livestock by a gang consisting Nicholas Clark, Robert Clark, Andrew Clark, and James Clark. Two years later, the gang was convicted of trespass and breaking & entering "for taking away and conveying her goods & chattels to very great damage." The Raritan Bay Horse Thieves are discussed in a June 1780 report printed in a New York newspaper. The New York Packet reported: On the 19th instant, three spies and horse thieves were hanged at Headquarters near Morristown; they were taken in Monmouth County by some of our militia. The gang consisted of five, one was killed, and another made his escape. They were harbored by a Quaker, who is now in custody, and it is expected that he will in a few days receive the reward his conduct deserves. The prisoners were William Hutchinson, John Clawson, and Lewis Lacey. Lacey was from a modest Middletown family. Hutchinson and Lacey were from families that included other Loyalists. Horse thieves were particularly detested in agrarian America because horses were essential to working the farm and transporting people. The New Jersey Legislature specifically enumerated horse theft as a capital offense; the theft of other animals was not. Unlike other Loyalist raiders, such as the Black Brigade , the Raritan Bay horse thieves were not linked to “man-stealing” or arson—though stealing horses was a capital crime in its own right. By this time, William Clark was associated with these and other Loyalist irregulars based on Sandy Hook. Clark’s growing infamy prompted Middletown’s magistrate, Peter Schenck, to move against Mary (still residing in Middletown) in May 1781. Schenck wrote Governor William Livingston: I beg leave to request a favor of your Excellency - A certain Mary Clark, with two children, resides in sd township, her husband, William Clark, is on Staten Island. Said woman and children are very good [but] have no means of support to subsist on. She makes an application to the town for support. She may be willing to go to her husband, provided your Excellency permits her passing there; sd Township being overburdened with poor, seek her passage from sd Township over to Staten Island, with her children and what small matter of effects she might have. Schenck noted that people in Middletown wanted to remove Mary Clark for their own safety: We would not trouble your Excellency with sd request did we not conceive it would save the town from great cost and also may be a means of preventing sd [William] Clark, in a great measure, from coming amongst us, as he is a great villain - and has kept many in fear of being taken off by him, amongst which I include myself. While Mary Clark followed a trickle of Loyalist women from Monmouth County into British lines, Dr. Clark, William’s father, remained in Middletown. Deprived of family, he apparently suffered on his undersized estate. In September, the Loyalist New York Gazette reported that Dr. William Clark had died "from rebel cruelty." The specifics of Dr. Clark’s demise are not stated. On June 21, 1781, a massive raiding party of at least 1,000 men marched through Middletown. As the local militia left their posts to resist the incursion, horse thieves on Staten Island took advantage. Asher Holmes, commanding the Middletown militia, reported on June 22 that the prior day: "a party of refugees from Staten Island in boats landed at Shoal Harbor and took eight or ten horses" while the militia was diverted. In July 1781, Silas Condit of the New Jersey Legislature wrote Governor Livingston: We have direct information from N. York and Staten Island, the trade of horse stealing flourishes amazingly, and I think it advisable and for the good of the State to offer a pretty handsome reward for apprehending Caleb Sweezey, Isaac Sweezey, Nathan Horton, junior, James O'Hara, John Moody and there is one Giberson from Monmouth whose Christian name I am not certain of... a number may be carrying on this business with too great success, and I think we ought to give encouragement to such as may take pains to apprehend them, for without it, they are not likely to be taken. Livingston acted on August 8 when he placed bounties on the head’s of four dangerous robbers. On August 15, the New Jersey Journal advertised Livingston’s bounties: $200 on the heads of Caleb Sweezey, O'Hara, Moody, and Guisebert Giberson for their "atrocious offenses, diverse robberies, thefts and other felonies." A bounty was not put on Clark’s head. Perhaps this was because Clark was not tied to a specific violent act or because of the higher social status of his family. But his father was “suffering” in Middletown at this time—probably from extra-legal retaliation . The precise crimes of the men with bounties are not listed in surviving documents, but, for some, it may have been a combination of robberies committed along the Atlantic shore (as part of Pine Robert gangs ) and activity as a Raritan Bay horse thief. It is easy to imagine that a Pine Robber, while delivering taken goods to Sandy Hook and Staten Island, joining a group of thieves forming to raid Middletown and taking horses. Clark’s Dover Township ties make this that much more likely. The bounties coincided with quick actions against three Loyalists: Caleb Sweezey was promptly caught and convicted of counterfeiting, but escaped from the Monmouth County jail on September 4. He was indicted for murder in 1782 but never caught. James O’Hara was killed by a posse on August 8 (the same day that Livingston signed the bounty order). John Moody was the brother of the famous Loyalist partisan, James Moody. He was caught and jailed; he was hanged November 21. Interestingly, the bounty on Guisebert Giberson was a mistake. On October 9, the bounty on his head was rescinded and placed on the head of his nephew, the Pine Robber leader, William Giberson. Other horse thieves penetrated deep into Monmouth County. On November 2, Major Elisha Walton (a leading Retaliator and the antagonist to disaffected residents in the landmark Holmes v Walton litigation) was robbed of a horse, taken from his farm near Freehold. He offered a £3 reward for the return of the horse and an £10 reward "for the horse & thief." The thieves were likely John Thomson and Joshua Pierce. The New Jersey Gazette reported on December 19: John Thomson and Joshua Pierce were convicted of horse stealing and robbery, Richard Bell of Robbery, and were all sentenced to be hanged on Saturday last, -- We hear that Thomson and Pierce were executed accordingly, but that Bell was respited for a few days. Prior to their hanging, Chief Justice David Brearley (of Upper Freehold) recommended a pardon for Pierce “on account of his youth.” But the recommendation was apparently not acted upon. The Raritan Bay horse thieves likely participated in two February 1782 raids into northern Monmouth County—one against Pleasant Valley and the other against Colts Neck. The first of these raids resulted in the capture of several men, nineteen horses and five sleighs of plunder. The second raid featured, according to the New Jersey Gazette , “sundry sorties upon the sheep and the calves, making great numbers of them prisoner.” It is unknown if Clark, himself, participated in either raid. As is so often the case with outlaws, William Clark was finally caught. On July 3, 1782, the New York Gazette , printed a June 20 letter: William Clarke, the noted horse thief, is no more. He was shot somewhere in the vicinity of Woodbridge on one of his customary excursions. This man was an early refugee from Jersey, and has since the Fall of 1776 taken off upwards of one hundred valuable horses from the County of Monmouth, and other counties, for which he found ready sale on Long Island and New York. He had eluded the strictest vigilance of our guards and scouts for upwards of five years, although it is pretty certain he passed at least half that time within our lines. According to the letter, Clark was lured into an ambush by a "friend" who informed him that two horses were available for easy taking, while a militia party laid in wait. Clark was killed with an associate "one Miers, of the same profession." An antiquarian source claims that Clark led at least a dozen raids from Sandy Hook and Staten Island and "stole upwards of one hundred valuable horses which he sold to the Royal Army." Another antiquarian source discussed the “Raritan Cowboys” (a gang of Loyalist horse thieves) without specifically naming Clark. Perspective Surviving documents do not well detail the Staten Island-based Loyalists who raided Monmouth and Middlesex Counties for horses. A direct connection between these men and other Loyalist irregulars—including the Pine Robber gangs of the Jersey shore—is undocumented. While Clark focused on the Raritan Bayshore of Monmouth and Middlesex counties while the Pine Robber gangs of 1781-1782 laired fifty miles south, they may have had links. William Clark had contacts in Dover Townships (a center of Pine Robber activity) and the August 1781 bounties put out by Governor Livingston include men who were probably associated with both Raritan Bay horse thieves and the Pine Robbers. Only a handful of the specific horse robberies of the Raritan Bay horse thieves are documented. The sad reality is that there was so much violence and kidnapping in Monmouth County in 1781 and 1782 that the robbery of a horse, of itself, was not newsworthy. As such, the activities of Clark and his associates weew vastly under-reported. While the claim that Clark was involved in the theft of “upwards of one hundred” horses is likely exaggerated, it is probable that he was involved in the theft of at least few dozen or more. This would have made Clark and his colleagues a very real threat to the people of northern Monmouth County and coastal Middlesex County. Related Historic Site : Kearney Cottage Sources : Summons Clark and John Schenck (role unknown), NJ State Archives, NJ Supreme Court Collection, Case # 29412; New York Packet article printed in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 407; William Nelson, Austin Scott, et al., ed., New Jersey Archives (Newark, Somerville, and Trenton, New Jersey: 1901-1917) vol. 4, p 465; Peter Schenck to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 14, May 22, 1781; Silas Condict to Willaim Livingston, Susan Burgess Shenston, So Obstinately Loyal, James Moody (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000) p 119; David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 203; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Asher Holmes to William Livingston, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 224-5; Kenneth Scott, Rivington's New York Newspaper: Excerpts from a Loyalist Press, 1773-1783 (New York: New York Historical Society, 1973) p 273; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Thomas Wilson, Notices from New Jersey Newspapers, 1781-1790 (Hunterdon House, 1820) p 17; David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 214; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Information on Clark and other horse thieves is in 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 > Monmouth Loyalists Captured at King's Mountain by Michael Adelberg October 7, 1780, one thousand Loyalists, including a dozen from Monmouth County, were surrounded and defeated at King’s Mountain, SC, by a rowdy collection of local militia and frontiersmen. - October 1780 - In November 1778, a British fleet and army left Sandy Hook and landed in Georgia, beginning the invasion of the southern states. Savannah fell on December 29 with the loss of only a few men. New Jersey Loyalists participated in the Savannah campaign, but it does not appear that Monmouth County Loyalists participated in that action. A year later, in New York, Major Patrick Ferguson called for volunteers from existing Loyalist regiments to go south with him. He raised 123 men from New Jersey and New York regiments (other New Jersey Loyalists drifted into other new Loyalist units ). Ferguson was among the most energetic officers in the British Army; he had previously led two significant actions around Monmouth County (against Little Egg Harbor and Osborn Island in October 1778 and against a Continental Army unit stationed at Tinton Falls in April 1779). Commonly called the “American Volunteers” or “Ferguson’s Regiment,” Ferguson left with his men for Georgia on December 26, 1779. The American Volunteers had four company commanders from the New Jersey Volunteers; one of them, Captain John Taylor was from Monmouth County as was Lt. William Stevenson, serving under Captain Samuel Ryerson. They had enlisted in the 1st and 2nd battalions of the New Jersey Volunteers early in the war. Despite the many difficulties experienced by both battalions and the fall from grace of the regimental commanders who recruited them (Elisha Lawrence and John Morris). Taylor and Stevenson served continuously through the war. Taylor brought 23 men with him into Ferguson’s regiment, including seven with Monmouth County surnames (Sergeant John Campbell, Corporal John Evans, and Privates Levi Hall, Peter Hawn, John Evans, Malachiah Bonham, Jesse Tabor); Stevenson brought 13 men, including eleven with Monmouth County surnames (Corporal Randal Insley, and privates Samuel Babcock, John Crane, John Hurley, Lawrence Kerr, John Hays, Mordecai Starkey, Robert Thomson, Wiliam Thomson, Wiliam Vaughn, Samuel Young). On March 5, 1780, Ferguson’s American Volunteers marched from Savannah for Charleston, South Carolina, as a part of a larger British Army. The American Volunteers participated in the attack on Charleston which surrendered on May 12. It was a devastating loss for the Continental Army—not only did it lose the most important city in the South, but the entire Continental Army defending the city surrendered and was taken prisoner. The American Volunteers did not stay long in Charleston. Two weeks later, with other Loyalist units, they headed inland to pacify rebels and rally local Loyalists. On June 22, they established their inland headquarters at the village of Ninety-Six. The ranks of the American Volunteers swelled with new recruits and they now marched with newly-organized Loyalist militia from the Carolinas. In September, Ferguson’s command, now numbering near one thousand men, separated from the rest of the army and headed northwest. An unnamed officer wrote of their march: We were separated from all the army, acting with the militia; we never lay two nights in one place, frequently making forced marches of twenty and thirty miles in one night; skirmishing very often; the greatest part of our time without rum or wheat flour-rum, a very essential article, for in marching ten miles we would often be obliged to ford two or three rivers, which wet the men up to their waists. The Battle of King’s Mountain On October 5, the American Volunteers camped at King's Mountain, a flat rock eminence surrounded by forest on all sides. While Ferguson was a capable leader, this was a terrible mistake. The Loyalists were surrounded by an unexpectedly large collection of rebel militia and frontiersmen. The attackers had the cover of trees and brush, while the Loyalists were mostly in the open. The Battle of King’s Mountain on October 7 was a route. Ferguson and nearly three hundred of his men were killed. The rest were taken prisoner. An unnamed officer with Ferguson described the battle: We remained till the seventh of October, when we were attacked by two thousand five hundred Rebels, under the command of Gen. Williams. Col. Ferguson had under his command eight hundred militia, and our detachment, which at that time was reduced to a hundred men. The action commenced about two o'clock in the afternoon, and was very severe for upwards of an hour, during which the Rebels were charged and drove back several times, with considerable slaughter. Rebel lines bent but never broke. The Loyalists were surrounded and forced to surrender. After the Battle of King’s Mountain The prisoners, including Captain Taylor and Lieutenant Stevenson, were marched 40 miles into North Carolina. The guards were abusive and not numerous enough to effectively guard or supply the prisoners. During the march, many prisoners ran off. On November 5, Taylor and Stevenson escaped with an unnamed third officer. They walked 200 miles back to Ninety-Six where they arrived on November 23. A week later, they composed an account of their trek: We were close confined with the rest of the prisoners till morning, on the 8th inst., marched under guard till night without any provision to Bragenstaff Plantation, where we were marched up to the foot of the gallows, where they made us stand till they executed nine of the prisoners... The next day we were marched off, our men getting no provision and marched 30 miles, the road being very bad after rain, many of the prisoners were so weared out that they were obliged to give out on the road, they [rebels] then rolled them down in the mud and many of them left there to death and many of them cut to pieces. They still kept marching us till they got us to Moravian Town where they promised to parole us. Taylor and Stevenson recalled, however, that they were not paroled. Fearing for his safety, Stevenson stole a spur to defend himself. He was found out and confined again. Mistreatment from the guards worsened: They knocked down our surgeon for dressing our wounded men and threw a large knife at another. We then thought ourselves not safe among them and they seemed determined to murder some of us, and to prevent that from happening we thought we might as soon trust in making our escapes upon which we concluded to leave. Taylor and Stevenson conclude their memorial by noting that they gave their captors no oath of Loyalty or pledge of future inaction, “That they never did promise or give their word to them [rebels] nor laid themselves on under any obligation of confinement." This was an important detail because it cleared them for continuing to serve in the army. The unnamed third officer with Taylor and Stevenson wrote his own account of being a captive after the Battle of King’s Mountain. It was published in New York’s Royal Gazette in February 1781: The morning after the action, we were marched sixteen miles, previous to which orders were given by the Rebel Col. Campbell (whom the command devolved on) that should they be attacked on their march, they were to fire on, and destroy their prisoners. The party was kept marching two days without any kind of provisions. The officers' baggage, on the third day's march, was all divided among the Rebel officers. The officer described being charged an excessive amount of money for essential food and deprived of water: “the men were obliged to give thirty-five Continental dollars for a single ear of Indian corn, and forty for a drink of water, they not being allowed to drink when fording a river.” And he described cruelty from the guards: “The Rebel officers would often go in amongst the prisoners, draw their swords, cut down and wound those whom their wicked and savage minds prompted.” The officer recalled being told that the prisoners would be marched all the way to Virginia with no opportunity for parole: In consequence of this, Capt. John Taylor, Lieut. William Stevenson and myself, chose rather to trust the hand of fate, and agreeable to our inclinations, set out from Moravian Town the fifth of November and arrived at the British lines on the twentieth. From this town to Ninety Six, which was the first post we arrived at, is three hundred miles; and from Ninety Six to Charlestown, two hundred [miles to Charleston], so that my route was five hundred miles. The officer concluded, “I suffered exceedingly; but thank God am now in Charlestown in good quarters." After reaching Charleston, Taylor and Stevenson were permitted to return to New York. Taylor continued to serve. He is recorded as commanding an undersized company of New Jersey Volunteers (only seventeen men) in April 1782. Stevenson died in New York in 1782. The fate of the Monmouth Countians who served under them is unknown. Related Historical Site : King’s Mountain National Military Park (South Carolina) Sources : Andrew Dauphinee, “Strangely Contaminated: The Loyalists of NJ” (New Jersey State Library, 2022) https://www.njstatelib.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Strangely-Contaminated-Presentatin-Slides.pdf ; Jonas Howe, Major Ferguson's Riflemen — The American Volunteers. The Story of a Loyalist Corps, Acadiensis Vol. 6, No. 4, October 1906, Vol. 7, No. 1, January 1907, and Vol. 8, No. 2, April 1907 ( https://archives.gnb.ca/exhibits/forthavoc/html/Ferguson-riflemen.aspx?culture=en-CA ); Memorial of William Stevenson and John Taylor, Great Britain Public Record Office, Cornwallis Papers, Papers Relating to the American Colonies, 30/11/4, p254-5; Troop Return, Library of Congress, MMC - Courtland Skinner, box 8; The Royal Gazette (New York), February 24, 1781; Bobby Gilmer Moss, The Loyalists at King's Mountain (Scotia-Hibernia, 1998); Adelberg, Michael, Biographical File in the collection of the Monmouth County Historical Association. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > 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

VOLUNTEER The generosity and efforts of our valued volunteers are integral to the ongoing operation of MCHA and its many programs. Volunteers fill a wide variety of roles and opportunities are available to suit multiple interests, time and skill levels. MCHA continuously recruits new volunteers throughout the year. Apply Volunteer Opportunities Internships We do not currently have available internships. If one becomes available, we will post it here! Please email Dana Howell at dhowell@monnmouthhistory.org if you would like your resume to be kept on file. Education / School Program Volunteers Help introduce a new generation of students to the fun and fascinating world of history! A background in education or drama is preferred, but all are welcome! Covenhoven House conducts school programs for 3rd and 4th graders, where we focus on Colonial America and the Revolution. Costumes for this program are provided from our fabulous reproduction wardrobe! We do not use costumes for our Marlpit Hall program, which focuses on the history of slavery in New Jersey. Marlpit Hall receives students grades 3-12, and is a highly rated student experience for all. Historic House Docent Volunteers are needed to staff each of the five Historic House Museums during the summer season, from the beginning of May to the end of September on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 1-4pm. Period clothing is not required, but you can certainly wear it if you like! Training and support are provided for these positions. Museum Docent Docents staff the Freehold Museum by greeting visitors, giving tours and processing admissions. Volunteers work in 3-hour shifts; the current available shifts are from 1-4 Fridays through Sundays. Orientation and instruction for gallery exhibition tours is provided. Bilingual Volunteers MCHA serves a diverse population and has a special need for volunteers who can deliver programs for non- English speaking for visitors. 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Corporate Volunteers MCHA is always excited to collaborate with corporate groups who are interested in volunteering their time. The Association staff can consult with company representatives to identify appropriate and interesting potential projects at one of the five historic properties around the county and help to facilitate successful results. Frequently Asked Questions Is there a specific time commitment required to volunteer? Volunteer hours are at your discretion and contingent on the projects that interest you, ranging from once or twice a year to every week. The Association staff is flexible and willing to work with your schedule to find the ideal situation for each volunteer. What if I have limited knowledge of history? Can I still volunteer? Yes! There is always a need for individuals with a variety of skills. A warm, friendly demeanor and keen interest are often the most crucial skills required to volunteer. 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The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > Monmouth Countians Attack British Baggage Train by Michael Adelberg The heavy wagons of the British baggage train were pulled single-file on Monmouth County’s narrow roads. During the Battle of Monmouth, the baggage train was attacked twice by local militia. - June 1778 - As the British Army marched across New Jersey in June 1778, its baggage train was its most conspicuous feature. Stretching twelve miles, it contained, among other things, war materials, foodstuffs, and the luxury goods of British officers and Loyalist squires. British commander, Henry Clinton, rightly understood that the baggage train was the most vulnerable and monetarily-valuable part of his army. At Freehold on June 27, as Continental forces gathered in his army’s rear, Clinton moved the baggage train to the front of his line of march. On June 28, before British forces turned west to face the attacking Continental Army, the British baggage train advanced eastward toward Middletown . Attacks on the British Baggage Train With the Continental Army west of the British Army, it fell to elements of local militia east of the British Army to menace the baggage train. While documents are not clear on some details, they demonstrate that two unsuccessful attacks were made on the baggage train on the day of the Battle of Monmouth. Lt. Col. Francis Downman, commanding a regiment guarding the baggage train, wrote: Marched through a close woody country for several miles without the least molestation or annoyance from the enemy until 12 o'clock when a party of 15 or 16 militia, taking advantage of our flanking parties being too widely dispersed, broke through the provision train and wounded two or three men and as many horses without halting at all and another party of 40 or 50 made an attempt on the baggage but went off again on the appearance of two companies [of troops]. General James Pattison of British Army also reported two attacks: A party of 15 or 16 militia, finding our flanks exposed, had the audacity to break through our line of baggage, making use of the bayonet against every man or horse they met, but without waiting the consequence of a delay or halt, & a party of forty or fifty made an appearance afterwards, apparently with a design of attacking our baggage, but they were beat back by a part of our rear guard. Additional details on the attacks emerge in other British accounts. John Peebles called the actions “small” and noted the British “had a few men killed & wounded" in the attacks. Loyalist cavalryman, John Simcoe, reported “the baggage was not seriously attacked; but some very small parties ran across it, from one side to the other.” Simcoe reported “dispersing” the attackers but admitted that rumors of additional attacks raised his “public anxiety.” German Officer Bernhard Bauermeister wrote that "several skirmishers got between the wagons and maltreated the drivers and patrols alongside them.” At least two British officers were unimpressed by the attacks. Gen. Archibald Robertson wrote: "An attack was made on our flank of the baggage, but they were repulsed without losing a wagon." British Officer Samuel Johnson concluded, “We pursued our march and gained our object, the heights of the Neversink, without losing a carriage." It appears that the two attacks were led by Monmouth County’s Colonel Asher Holmes, leading Middletown Township militia, and Joshua Huddy, leading a company of New Jersey State Troops raised from Monmouth County. As explained below, scant documentation of the participants involved in Holmes’ attack leaves room for interpretation. Huddy commanded an artillery company, while the attack he led was made by mounted men. This suggests that Huddy’s party was comprised, at least in part, by ad hoc volunteers with access to horses on June 28. One of Huddy’s men, Matthias Hulce, recalled the attack: "Came in contact with a party of the enemy having charge of the baggage with whom a skirmish took place in which four of the militia were killed." A second member of Huddy’s party, Andrew Pharo, recalled: "On the day of the battle, he was in a scouting party when Captain Huddy had several men killed & wounded." Joseph Johnson recalled, "They fell in with Capt. Huddy at or near Colts Neck where he was engaged with a small party of the British, he helped carry off a soldier who was butt by the sword of a horsemen, he died." The most complete account of Huddy’s attack was written by Samuel Carman: At request of Capt. Huddy, about 14 or 15 of Capt. Holmes company volunteered to go on an expedition with Capt. Huddy, they were militia men scouting round the baggage that was in advance of the mane [sic] Army, they charged a party of wagons, bayoneted some their horses, overturned some of the wagons - at this moment, they were charged by a small party of horse, they had 2 men killed but at the moment more of the militia coming up - they had retreated in to a swamp where the horse could not come - but by this time, the advance of the British come up and they retreated off, being too few in number to meet them. The second attack, led by Asher Holmes, was recalled by John Holmes of Middletown, "We continued to harass the enemy for about six miles until we came to Col. Holmes, where we had a smart engagement & we had two men killed & two men wounded." An antiquarian source noted that Holmes’ attack came from Middletown militia – the militia had one killed and several wounded. This source claimed that the British lost five men, which is likely exaggerated. Mark Lender, who exhaustively researched the Battle of Monmouth, concluded that the attackers were Middlesex County militia under the command of Colonel John Neilson of that county. Neilson was a few miles north of the baggage train; he wrote a letter that day stating that he had missed the baggage train because the British took “the most private roads” instead of the main road he patrolled. It is likely that Holmes led men from both counties. Continental Army leaders, engaged with the British Army at the Battle of Monmouth, took little notice of the baggage train attacks. The brief mention of the attacks by Colonel John Laurens is typical: "the militia of the Country kept up a random running fire with the Hessian Jaegers; but no mischief was done by either side." Perspective In isolation, the two attacks on the baggage train were small skirmishes that produced a few casualties on each side. They did not impede the British march. The skirmishing parties that engaged the British at Allentown (and elsewhere) were larger than the parties that attacked the baggage train on June 28. However, when the two June 28 skirmishes are considered in the context of the dozen or so additional skirmishes that occurred during the Monmouth Campaign, in addition to the other obstacles and harassments thrown up by the Monmouth militia, it is easy to see that the chain of activities—in total—sapped British resources and morale. As Simcoe noted, small attacks like these reminded the British that they were in hostile territory and (to borrow Simcoe’s term) greatly increased their “public anxiety.” Related Historic Site: Monmouth Battlefield State Park Sources : John Peebles' American War, 1776-1782 (Stackpole Books) p194; Gen James Pattison, report, Monmouth Battlefield State Park, Battle of Monmouth files: folder - British Sources; Francis Downman, The Services of Lieut. Colonel Francis Downman (London: Royal Artillery Institution, 1898) p64-72; Archibald Robertson, Archibald Robertson: His Diaries and Sketches in America, 1762-1780 (New York: Arno, 1969) p 178; John Simcoe, Simcoe's Military Journal (New York: Bartlett & Welford, 1844) p 72; Samuel Johnson to Lord Amherst, Amherst Manuscripts, U1350 079/22, Kent County Archives (England), Valley Forge National Historical Park (transcribed by Garry Wheeler Stone); Bernard Uhlendorf, Confidential Letter and Journals, 1776-1784, of Adjutant General Major Bauermeister of the Hessian Forces (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1957) p 187; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Matthias Hulce; William Nelson, The New Jersey Coast in Three Centuries (New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1902) vol. 1, p 172; John Neilson to Philemon Dickinson, Monmouth Battlefield State Park, Battle of Monmouth files: folder – Militia; John Laurens, The Army correspondence of Colonel John Laurens in the years 1777-8 (New York: New York Times, 1969) p 194; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Andrew Phares of New York, National Archives, p4; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Joseph Johnson; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Samuel Carman; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John G. Holmes. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > British Army Marches Through Middletown to Navesink Highlands by Michael Adelberg This British Army map of northeast Monmouth County shows Middletown as the midpoint between hostile inland villages like Colts Neck (called “Jewstown”) and safety at Sandy Hook. - June 1778 - As discussed in prior articles, following the Battle of Monmouth (June 28, 1778), the British Army marched east through Middletown on its way to Sandy Hook. It would take the British Army a week to travel only 25 miles. Despite wanting to leave New Jersey, the British commander, General Henry Clinton moved his troops slowly from Middletown. He wrote of waiting there two days "in hopes that Mr. Washington [George Washington] might have tempted to advance to a position near Middletown." Dr. John Campbell of the British Army was more explicit: The army marched without farther opposition, where they waited two days, in hopes that General Washington might be induced to take post near Middletown, where he might have been attacked to [our] advantage. Washington, however, had consulted with Monmouth County leaders , and understanding the inferior ground he would possess, chose not to pursue the British. He sent only a small force led by Colonel Daniel Morgan, accompanied by Monmouth militia , to shadow the British. The British baggage train, with a sizable guard, left Freehold for Middletown even before the Battle of Monmouth began. It was attacked twice on June 28, but the heat was the greater enemy that day. A German Quartermaster officer wrote, "The heat was so enormous today that almost the whole regiment was sick… Many men fainted during the day and some died on the spot." The baggage train stopped at Nut Swamp that evening, three miles from Middletown. The main body of the British Army, after fighting the Battle of Monmouth, rested until midnight and then left Freehold for Middletown. A German Officer Heinrich von Feilitsch wrote, "Our column marched all night… at five o'clock in the morning we halted three miles from Middletown." The British Army entered Middletown in the morning of June 29. John Peebles, a British Officer, described Middletown: "This little village surrounded with hills is about 2 or three miles from Raritan Bay, and about 12 miles from the Light House." The British Camp at Middletown General Clinton established his headquarters at the house of John Taylor, the town’s largest home. Taylor had led a Loyalist insurrection in the township in 1776. The British took most of Taylor’s livestock while in Middletown, but compensated him for the taken animals. According to militiaman Albert Vanderveer, Clinton also “issued a proclamation offering protection to all inhabitants who would not take up arms against them.” At least one family took the opportunity to leave with the British. Israel Bedell’s family left Middletown with the British and settled on Staten Island afterward. The British stay in Middletown did not include the arsons that marred its stay at Freehold. However, there were several incidents. John Truax, a militiaman, recalled that on June 30 "he was robbed when the Army passed through the Country." John Tilton recalled that his family’s Bible was "destroyed by the British in their retreat through Middletown in June 1778." For many middling farm families, the family Bible was the only book they owned and many families recorded births and deaths in it. So, the destruction of the family Bible was an act of cruelty. Antiquarian sources also discuss the looting of two Middletown homes by German soldiers. General William Knyphausen commandeered the homes of Richard Crawford and James Paterson for his senior officers. Both homes were looted of their silver. Women camp followers further reportedly plundered Mrs. Crawford of all her clothes. When the Germans left Middletown, a party of stragglers remained behind at Crawford's and was reportedly surprised by a party of mounted Continentals. The Americans recovered some of the lost goods and killed a local Loyalist guide named Hankinson. Knyphausen also reportedly took Paterson’s seven horses and forced him to accompany the Germans as a guide for two days, before releasing him with one of his horses. Paterson's amiable release led to his arrest for treason (he was found not guilty). The Germans also reportedly burned a barn known as “the Old Fort” because it was a militia meeting place. Middletown’s Baptist congregation , which had purged its Loyalist members a year earlier, was also targeted. Minister Abel Morgan held Sunday service on June 28 with cannon fire from the Battle of Monmouth audible in the distance. However, on July 5, he recorded: “There was no meeting on this Lord's day because of the enemy's passing thro' our town the week past, putting all in confusion by their plundering and ravaging as they went." Morgan wrote again on July 10 about holding a meeting “in mine own barn, because the enemy had took all the seats in the meeting house in town.” He did not preach again until July 19—and then he preached in a barn "because the enemy had took all the seats in the meeting house." Morgan did not preach again in the meeting house until August 30. Three Loyalist officers were court martialed for actions taken after the Battle of Monmouth. Lt. Boswell of the Maryland Loyalists was tried for horse theft. He reportedly “took two horses, property of the inhabitants of the Jerseys… contrary to the General order issued by General Sir Henry Clinton against plundering and marauding." Captain Martin McEvoy of the Roman Catholic Volunteers "behaved in an ungentlemanlike manner, plundering in the Jerseys in taking a horse and a cow, and behaving indecently in parade"—or at least he was accused as such. Captain John McKinnon, also of the Roman Catholic Volunteers, was tried for ungentlemanlike behavior, including "plundering in the Jerseys." McKinnon was found guilty and cashiered from service. A few additional incidents occurred as British forces moved east from Middletown. According to an antiquarian source, Rebecca Dennis, the wife of militia Captain Benjamin Dennis, was struck by a German soldier with his gunstock. Noah Clayton of the Shrewsbury militia recalled being captured by British regulars: “I went to S'berrytown and [was] taken prisoner by the 42nd Regiment of Highlanders, from thence I was taken to New York, where I remained for better than two years." The hot weather that harried the British during the march across New Jersey continued. German officer, Charles Von Krafft, wrote of his camp at “Mittletown” on June 30. The soldiers camped on “a large hill” to lessen the heat, but to little effect. “Huts were built, but owing to the heat, it was almost impossible to breath underneath them." An antiquarian source suggests June 30 was the start of the infamous Pine Robber career of Lewis Fenton (he deserted from the Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers just a few days earlier). Fenton reportedly went to the farm of the Cooper family two miles south of Freehold and demanded food from Mrs. Cooper and her two daughters. However, before Fenton could carry away the food, he was chased off by five German deserters who unwittingly came onto the scene. The Germans took the food and Fenton went into hiding. He assembled a small band in Tinker Swamp near Manasquan that soon robbed widow Harris and her tavern—starting his outlaw career. British Army Moves toward Sandy Hook Irrespective of the disorders, the British continued to occupy Middletown and parts of the army spread east to the Navesink Highlands. A German officer, Jacob Piel recorded that on June 30 "camped in the woods near the Shrewsbury River" and then the Navesink Highlands on July 1. Near there, a meeting occurred between General Clinton and officers of the Royal Navy. Captain Henry Duncan of the Royal Navy wrote of the July 1 meeting: "Anchored outside Sandy Hook, Sir H. Clinton arrived near there and sent off an express requesting to see me as soon as possible… we met Sir Henry at the Neversink." According to Colonel Thomas O’Bierne, who attended the meeting, the officers discussed the arrival of the French fleet off Cape May. As a result, "the utmost expedition was now requisite to take off the troops, that… they might be placed in safety [in New York]." Clinton would no longer dither at Middletown hoping to tempt Washington into attacking. Clinton now moved the entire army toward Sandy Hook. General James Pattison wrote that "we gained the heights of the Neversink" on the evening of July 1. According to antiquarian sources, Henry Clinton used the houses of James Stillwell and Richard Hartshorne as his temporary headquarters while camped on the Highlands. Hartshorne’s house may have been the headquarters of the Monmouth militia a year and a half earlier when it was routed by British regulars at the Battle of the Navesink . The British did not feel threatened by Colonel Daniel Morgan’s regiment and the Monmouth militia that shadowed them. German Capt. [?] Hiendrich wrote that the camp was “naturally secure.” Von Feilitsch, at Middletown on July 1, wrote that "the enemy patrol approached but did not make contact." British Army Officer, Andrew Bell, wrote on July 1 that there was "no firing of any consequence since the action on Sunday." On July 2, O’Beirne wrote: "the enemy did not dare pass the heights of Middletown" and that the British now camped on the Navesink "without molestation." That same day, Captain Hiendrich wrote that his men “lay completely quiet” at Middletown. However, two other British Army officers noted skirmishing at Middletown as the British began to withdraw. On July 1, Peebles wrote that the enemy was “expected” and that skirmishers “are still hovering about us, showing themselves in different places in our front & right, [taking] some popping shots." Johann Ewald, a German officer recalled being in a more considerable engagement at Middletown on July 1: Today a strong enemy corps appeared here from Middletown. A sharp engagement between the Jaegers and the enemy riflemen, in which three Jaegers were killed and five wounded. Toward evening, the enemy withdrew. Skirmishing, it appears, is in the eye of the beholder. For those not engaged, it was easy to dismiss skirmishing as minor. But when directly engaged, skirmishing could be a “sharp engagement.” Ewald further reported a second engagement on July 2, "although the patrol was cautious, it was attacked unexpectedly by the enemy, and one Jaeger was killed and two captured." By July 3, Henry Clinton had moved the entire army to the Navesink Highlands and the British began moving their baggage onto Sandy Hook—the move would be completed with considerable help from the navy on July 5. The Monmouth Campaign had caused the British Army considerable losses—300 battlefield dead, several hundred desertions, and several dozen more deaths along the line of march from heat and skirmishing. After nearly three weeks of marching, fighting, and enduring many hassles and privations, the soldiers were truly safe again. Related Historic Site : Historic Portland Place Sources : Henry Clinton’s letter printed in New York Journal as printed in Frank Moore, Diary of the American Revolution (New York: Charles Scribner, 1865) v2, p68-9; Abel Morgan’s sermons in Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), pp. 522-3; Stephen Jarvis, An American's Experience in the British Army, Journal of American History, v1, n3, 1907, p452. New York Historical Society, MSS Microfilms, reel 17, Stephen Jarvis Autobiography, p 30; John Campbell, Biographica Nautica, Memoirs of an Illustrious Seaman () p 482; William Stryker, The Battle of Monmouth (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1927) p 232; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John Truax; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John Tilton; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v5, 50-9; Correspondence from Don N. Hagist, British Court Martials; Great Britain, Public Record Office, War Office, Class 71, Volume 87, pages 179-181; Samuel Smith, The Hessian View of America, (Monmouth Beach, N.J.: Philip Freneau Press, 1975) p 20; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p199; John U. Rees, "What is this you have been about to day?" The New Jersey Brigade at the Battle of Monmouth, 2003, Appendix I link: https://revwar75.com/library/rees/monmouth/MonmouthA.htm ; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Noah Clayton; John C. Paterson, The Pine Robbers of Monmouth County, unpublished manuscript in the collection of the Monmouth County Historical Association, 1834, p 1-2; Peter W. Coldham, comp., American Loyalist Claims (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1980), p 534; Journal of Daniel Youngs, Brooklyn Historical Society, New York State-New York City, 1778-1788, coll. 1974.002; Abel Morgan’s sermons in Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), pp. 522-3; Henry Clinton to Richard Howe, Clements Library, U Michigan, Henry Clinton Papers, 6/29/78 & 7/1/78 & 7/3/78; David Library of the American Revolution, James Pattison Papers, reel 1; Mary Hyde, Retreat after the Battle of Monmouth, Spirit of '76, vol. 5, 1899, p253; John Parke’s Account in Pennsylvania Archives, Pennsylvania Historic & Museum Commission, reel 14, frame 0338; Stephen Moylan to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 50, June 29, 1778; John Peebles, John Peebles' American War, p221-8; John Knox Laughton, "Journal of Capt. Henry Duncan" in Publications of the Naval Records Society, vol. 20, 1920, p169-70; Thomas Lewis O'Beirne, A Candid and Impartial Narrative of the Transactions of the Fleet, Under the Command of Lord Howe (London, 1969), pp. 8-9; Francis Downman, The Services of Lieut. Colonel Francis Downman (London: Royal Artillery Institution, 1898) p64-72; Bell, Andrew, "Copy of a journal by Andrew Bell, Esq., at One Time the Confidential Secretary of General Sir Henry Clinton. Kept during the March of the British Army through New-jersey in 1778.” Proceedings of the New jersey Historical Society, vol 6, 1851, p18; Bruce Burgoyne, Journal of the Hesse Cassel Jaeger Corps (New York: Heritage Books, 1987) p43-7; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Albert Vanderveer; Johann Ewald, Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979) pp. 136-7; Mary Hyde, Retreat after the Battle of Monmouth, Spirit of '76, vol. 5, 1899, p254-5Bruce Burgoyne, Diaries of Two Ansbach Jaegers (NY: Heritage Books, 1997) p42-3; Jared Sparks, Correspondence of the American Revolution: Being Letters of Eminent Men (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1853) pp. 152-3; Jones, E. Alfred. The Loyalists of New Jersey, (Newark, N. J. Historical Society, 1927) p 261. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > Defending the Pennsylvania Salt Works at Toms River by Michael Adelberg Often called the “Financier of the American Revolution,” Pennsylvania’s Robert Morris served in the Continental Congress and twice sought to protect the Pennsylvania Salt Works at Toms River. - November 1776 - A prior article discussed the establishment of salt works along the Jersey shore in the early years of the American Revolution. The most ambitious of these salt works was the Pennsylvania Salt Works. It was established at Toms River in July 1776 by Thomas Savadge of Philadelphia with financial backing from the Pennsylvania government. These and other salt works along the Jersey were vulnerable to attack and their defense was a continuous concern. With the Continental Army in retreat across New Jersey in early November, the Pennsylvania government moved to protect its investment at Toms River. On November 2, the Pennsylvania Council of Safety resolved to send "an officer and twenty-five men to the Salt Works at Toms River as a guard, and twenty-five spare muskets and two howitzers, and sufficient amount of ammunition to defend in case of attack." The Continental Congress was also requested to "write to Gov. [William] Livingston of New Jersey for two companies of militia to guard the salt works near Toms River." The Continental Congress acted on this request just three days later but, notably, focused on more than just the defense of the Pennsylvania Salt Works: Resolved, that the President write Governor Livingston and request him to send two companies of militia to Toms River to guard the salt works, and one company to be stationed at or near Shrewsbury to intercept and put a stop to the intelligence said to be carrying on between the Tories and Lord Howe's fleet; that the companies to consist of 50 men each. Meanwhile, Robert Morris, a Pennsylvania delegate in the Continental Congress, advised his state’s Council of Safety: If you were to man Cap Rice’s Galley immediately & send her round to Toms River she would not only save the Salt Works until a proper Land force can be appointed but would also probably be very useful in retaking some of the Prizes the Men of War send along shore for N. York. There is no evidence, however, that Captain Rice made it to Toms River. On November 21, in response to the prompt from the Continental Congress, Governor William Livingston ordered Colonel Isaac Smith of the Hunterdon County militia to Shrewsbury, "You are hereby directed to detach one company of fifty men under your command to be stationed at or near Shrewsbury." Col Bowes Read received orders on the same day to take Burlington militia to Toms River to protect the salt works. With the British Army pushing across New Jersey in late November, it is doubtful that the Hunterdon or Burlington militias reached Monmouth County. The Pennsylvania Salt Works were unguarded in early December when Colonel John Morris and his 2nd Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers re-entered Monmouth County and established Loyalist control over the Monmouth shore. In January, Thomas Savadge wrote about his meeting with Colonel Morris on December 23: When I heard the Colonel and his party were at Toms River, I thought it best to go to him and know the truth of it. When I was introduced to him, he told me he had positive orders from Lord Howe to destroy them [the salt works], but by informing him that ye works were not altogether publick property, he politely told me he would not destroy them or send his party there. Two days later, two noted Tories, John Williams and Joseph Allen, came with orders from General Skinner [Courtland Skinner] to seize the works for the King's use, accordingly, one of them came to the works on the next day and put 'R' for Royal on each building, but Monday morning they decamped in haste and I have seen no more of them since. In the same letter, Savadge reminded the Pennsylvania government that his salt works were still vulnerable: Lord Howe has a galley near completed that carries a brass 18 pounder in her bow & 12 pounder in her stern, with a number of swivels and cohorns, and is intended to lay in Toms River and Barnegat Inlet and in consequence will destroy the works if not prevented by some vessels of the same force stationed in ye bay. The Pennsylvania Council of Safety responded to Savadge’s letter. On February 5, it resolved that “a Captain and a Company of Penns. Regt with two pieces of cannon be sent into New Jersey for the protection of the salt works there [Pennsylvania Salt Work at Toms River], at the expense of this State." Before the Pennsylvania guards arrived, Savadge felt a need to remind the Council of Safety about the problems with the local militia: The militia in this part of the county is by no means calculated for the defense thereof; for more than half of them are Tories and the rest but little better. I am of the opinion that if this part of the county is to be defended it must be by Continental troops who know their duty, or militia of another State. He also reported a rumor about Col. Morris's return, "if this is true, the works are gone." On February 17, the Council of Safety, acting on another nudge from Robert Morris, ordered a guard for the Pennsylvania Salt Works. “Resolved, that the armed boat Delaware , under the command of Richard Eyre, be immediately fitted out and ordered to proceed with all expedition to said works for the defense thereof, until further orders." However, there were delays in readying the vessel and it did not leave for Toms River until March 27. The defense of the Pennsylvania Salt Works was a legitimate concern. An April 1778 British-Loyalist raid destroyed several of the salt works north of Toms River and probably would have destroyed the Pennsylvania Salt Works were it not for a change in the weather inhibiting the raiders. But, in reality, Savadge’s salt work was a failing venture that, despite significant investment, did not produce any appreciable amount of salt. Labor shortages, exacerbated by mandatory militia service, blocked progress and frustrated Savadge. Similar problems would plague the Union Salt Works on the Manasquan River, the other large-scale salt works on the Jersey shore, were it not for soldiers being deployed as laborers. That topic and the demise of the Pennsylvania Salt Works are discussed in other articles. Related Historic Sites : Ocean County Historical Society Sources : William Fischer, The Toms River Block House Fight, March 24, 1782; Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. 14, p419-20; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 193-4; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 419; Peter Force, American Archives, 4th series, vol. 3, pp. 182-183; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 6, p 925; Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 6 January 1, 1777 - April 30, 1777, Robert Morris to Benjamin Rush, p311, n2; Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. I., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1879, pp. 491; Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, p 173, 182-4; William Fischer, The Toms River Block House Fight, March 24, 1782; Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. 14, p420; William McMahon, South Jersey Towns — History and Legend (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1973) p 304; Samuel Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives (Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1902) First Series, vol. 5, p 177; Library Company, Minutes of the Pennsylvania Council of Safety, vol. 2, p114; Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg: Theo. Fenn, 1853) vol. 11, pp. 114; Samuel Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives (Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1902) First Series, vol. 5, p 216; Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 6, p 310 note 2; Library Company, Minutes of the Pennsylvania Council of Safety, vol. 2, p126, 191; Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg: Theo. Fenn, 1853) vol. 11, pp. 126, 191; Clement Biddle to John Hancock, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 83, item 69, vol. 1, #355. DH Previous Next