The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > The Retaliators Outlast the War by Michael Adelberg The New Jersey Legislature met in different places during the Revolution, including Nassau Hall. In September 1782, the legislature censured Judge David Forman but did not remove him from office. - September 1782 - Founded in the summer of 1780, the Association for Retaliation , was established to exact eye-for-an-eye revenge against Loyalist enemies of the Monmouth County Whigs who joined the association. Over the next two years, the Retaliators would become an active vigilante society denounced by the New Jersey Legislature as: An illegal and dangerous combination, utterly subversive to the law, highly dangerous to the government, immediately tending to create disunion among the inhabitants, directly leading toward anarchy and confusion, and tending to the dissolution of the constitution. However, while the legislature clearly stated its distaste for the Retaliators, it stopped short of forcing a confrontation with the group by declaring it illegal. The Retaliators in 1782 The Retaliators entered 1782 unbowed. Their original chairman and most strident leader, David Forman, was now a judge of the Monmouth County Court of Common Pleas . He stepped down as Chairman of the Retaliators but, according to a subsequent deposition, Forman handpicked his successors at a February meeting of the Retaliators held at the county courthouse: Genl. Forman rose and address’d the people and said he had gone through a great many hardships and dangers, but now he would go through no more; and all that was said to the people was said by Forman whilst he was by, and received over a list of persons in nomination for Retaliators that Judge Forman recommended to the people to choose sd. Committee. The new Chairman, Kenneth Hankinson, had co-invested with Forman on a salt works at Barnegat that became the center of scandal. Hankinson was also at the center of scandalous Loyalist estate auctions in 1779. In January 1782, Hankinson advertised a public meeting of the Retaliators to occur at the county court house on February 16, 1782 to select a new committee to lead the group: Every associator is expected to attend without fail, as the Committee wishes to know the Associators; Should any of the inhabitants who are not yet associators choose to join, we wish their attendance to sign the Association, and have their names accepted. The outrage in Monmouth County following the April 12 hanging of Joshua Huddy by Loyalists likely spiked a wave of vigilante activity from the Retaliators. This led a series of complaints about them to the New Jersey Legislature. On May 25, the New Jersey Assembly recorded reading “several petitions from sd County setting forth the destruction and ravages committed on the property of persons there, by a set of men who call themselves Retaliators, with several papers respecting the same." The Assembly was unmoved, voting 23-8 on May 31 to send the anti-Retaliator petitioners to the courts for redress. There is no record of Retaliator activity through the spring and summer of 1782. Throughout their existence, they were secretive about their acts. But they remained active. The New Jersey Legislature Considers David Forman and the Retaliators Again On September 12, Guy Carleton, the British Commander in Chief in America, wrote George Washington about continued “cruelties in the Jersies.” This was likely a reference to the acts of Retaliators. Carleton wrote about a “suspension of hostilities” that he thought “sufficient to have prevented those cruelties in the Jersies which I have had occasion to mention more than once.” He had drydocked Loyalist raiders and he called on Washington for a “mutual agreement” to restrain extralegal violence. Carleton called for a truce: “I disapprove of all hostilities, both by land and sea, as they only tend to multiply the miseries of individuals, when the public can reap no advantage by success." The same month, the New Jersey Legislature received another set of petitions complaining of the Retaliators. The upper house of the legislature, the Legislative Council, recorded on September 23, receiving a petition from Monmouth County residents "setting forth that they have been very much injured by order of a body of men who style themselves Associators for Retaliation." It does not appear that the Council acted on the petition. Two days later, the Assembly recorded reading "sundry petitions from a number of inhabitants of the County of Monmouth, complaining of the conduct of David Forman, first Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Monmouth, accompanied by an affidavit and two impressment warrants , and praying a hearing." One of these anti-Forman, anti-Retaliator petitions has survived. It is excerpted below: Your petitioners are peaceable inhabitants of this state, who have always contributed their proportion to the support of government, and are, at all times amenable to the laws. that your petitioners have been in a wanton & cruel manner, spoiled of their property by order of a body of men, who title themselves "the association for retaliation" - our doors have been forced open, our houses rifled of our beds & other furniture - our stock drove away, and our teams totally broke up. - we have been deprived of the means of tilling our land - and many of us, who lived in a degree of affluence, now find it difficult to procure sustenance for our families. The petitioners claimed the Retaliators corrupted “good government” and deprived them of legal due process: We have no form of tryal - if any crimes are laid to our charge, we have no chance of defending ourselves, nor any account of how our property, thus torn away, is disposed of. Tho’ diverse of us have been imprisoned, and one [John Taylor] for months, confined in the common gaol, in the course of which time a court of Oyer & Terminer was sitting over his head. Writs of habeas corpus have been disregarded by the Sheriff. In short, every attempt for relief by course of law has been of no effect, owing, as we firmly believe, to the prevailing influence of said association. that the first judge of the court of common pleas, David Forman, esq., has been at the head of the said association. The petitions were referred to the next session. The Assembly reconvened and considered Forman and the Retaliators again on October 29. It re-read "the petitions from Monmouth, complaining of the conduct of David Forman, Esq., of said county, in his official character… ordered, that the petitioners be heard with their evidences before the House." The hearings were held November 18-20: That Forman, first Judge of the Court of Common Pleas has been at the head of the Association for Retaliation, Chairman of their committee, and has signed orders whereby some of the petitioners have been plundered of their property and their person imprisoned; that he still continues as an aider and encourager of the said Associators; and also that he has in several instances granted impress warrants contrary to law. The transcript of Forman’s hearing before the Assembly has survived. Eighteen Monmouth Countians testified. Deponents focused on two allegations against Forman: 1.) That he was “partial” in his role of settling the accounts of a wealthy farmer, Joshua Anderson, whose horse Forman ordered taken; 2.) That Forman, while judge, acted with the Retaliators to extra-legally seize and sell the horses of disaffected county residents, with particular impunity shown toward William Taylor. Four other men who lost horses testified. Hugh Newell recalled appealing to Forman who told him that if he “would come and pay the money he gave for the mare, he should have it.” Taylor lost three horses, he testified that: He applied to said Forman for the creatures & said he would give security for the money, but said Forman said the creatures should not go out of the yard without the creatures being paid for. He [Taylor] said all he wanted was a fair hearing. William Morton testified that Forman accused him of being among “a parcel of traders and wished they were hanging so high that the birds could not smell them.” Morton was permitted to take back his livestock by “giving a bond of fifty five pounds for them” but Forman “blamed the Committee” for its leniency. A fourth man, Garrett Schenck, from a solid Whig family, testified that “Forman ordered a horse pressed” from him, but the horse was returned. Others testified that Forman was active in selling the seized horses at a public auction in Freehold. However, several witnesses testified that Forman was a strong patriot and William Taylor, in particular, was of “bad character.” James Mott, who had been assaulted by Forman at the 1780 county election and was an opponent of the Retaliators, declined to testify against Forman. Mott stated that “he knows nothing against Judge Forman” and called Taylor “a disaffected person ” (which was true). Other witnesses stated that Forman, whatever his outside conduct, had never “withheld justice” or “done injustice” while serving on the bench. The unnamed compiler of the hearing transcript concluded that “I have heard no evidence to convince me that things are sufficient to ground an impeachment.” On November 21, the Assembly concluded: "having taken into consideration the testimony so offered to support the several charges contained in the affidavits and petitions of Joshua Anderson against David Forman" votes were taken regarding Forman and his conduct: 1. Affirming Anderson's petition and the charges against Forman – vote passed "nem. con." (without dissent); 2. On whether to censure Forman for "diverse orders whereby sundry persons have been plundered of their property, and their persons imprisoned, and he still continues an aider and encourager of said Retaliators" -- vote passed 16-13 despite all three Monmouth delegates (Thomas Henderson, Thomas Seabrook, John Covenhoven voting against the censure); 3. On whether to impeach Forman and remove him from the Bench – vote fails 12-17 (all three Monmouth delegates voting against the impeachment). One source claims that an initial vote to impeach and remove Forman passed by a 18-15 but this vote was reversed after Governor William Livingston and some members of the Council came into the Assembly to argue in favor of Forman. At the end of 1782, David Forman had narrowly survived an impeachment hearing and the Retaliators, with whom he was allied, remained intact. The Retaliators’ chairman, Kenneth Hankinson, felt secure enough to advertise the selection of their new board of directors in the New Jersey Gazette , the state’s official newspaper, twice in March 1783: Whereas the time of the Committee of Associators for Retaliation of the County of Monmouth expires, and it being necessary for a new Board to be chosen as there remains some business unsettled: The Associators are requested to meet at the Court House on March 15 to determine on said business and to be prepared for future depredations. Warfare Ends, But the Retaliators Continue By summer 1783, warfare in Monmouth County was finally over. John Bacon, the last active Pine Robber leader, was dead and the other Pine Robbers were scattered. Loyalist refugees, who raided the county with impunity, were disarmed and leaving for Canada . In July 1783, Monmouth County was at peace for the first time in seven years. Forman and the Retaliators, however, remained hostile. On July 11, 1783, Lieutenant John White of the sloop-of-war Vixen , the British guardship at Sandy Hook, took the unusual step of writing directly to David Forman: Yesterday morning, at eleven o'clock, I sent three men in a small boat for a cask of water, near the watering place, near Mr. Stout's at the Highlands; on their arrival they were made prisoners by a party of armed men, one of the men has been liberated and is since on board, who informs me that he has been beat most unmercifully, indeed his bruises are sufficiently conspicuous; what has become of the other two I cannot learn, I have therefore taken the liberty of acquainting you with the matter. White then flattered and threatened Forman concurrently: I am confident you would never give sanction to such an affair, and in the fullest hope that you will take the proper methods to bring the offenders to punishment, and to prevent the retaliating that might be the consequence of such unwarrantable proceedings. Meanwhile, animosities within the county’s Whig leadership continued. Asher Holmes, a political rival of Forman and Hankinson, had invested with them in a salt works on the Jersey shore early in the war. Now, he and Hankinson argued over a business relationship gone bad. Holmes heatedly wrote: I have never had title or anything to show for my share of the salt works built on the plantation formerly of [Trevor] Newland, nor could obtain salt sufficient to salt my porage, except what I paid a dear rate for, and you and company have had the total use of said works. I now demand interest of my money, or rent for a share, with a proper acct of how my money was laid out; if not, pay me my money with interest due thereon, as I have undoubted right. We do not know exactly when the extralegal violence and scandals of the Retaliators finally ceased. As discussed in another article, isolated instances of violence against Loyalists and disaffected continued into the post-war period. So did the animosities between Machiavellian and Due Process Whigs. These activities would go on at least into fall 1785 when violence and voter intimidation again rocked the county’s annual election (as it had in 1777 , 1780 , and 1781 ). Related Historic Site : Nassau Hall Sources : Guy Carleton to George Washington, G. Robinson, The New Annual Register, or General Repository of History, Politics and Literature, London, 1782, p160-1; Journals of the Legislative Council of New Jersey (Isaac Collins: State of New Jersey, 1782) p29; Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, September 25, 1782; The petition complaining about David Forman is in Leonard Lundin, Cockpit of the Revolution the War for Independence in New Jersey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950) p 292; Petition, New Jersey State Archives, Collective Series, Revolutionary War documents, #32; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, October 29, 1782, p 13; Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, November 19 and 21, 1782; New Jersey Assembly Hearing Transcript, Rutgers University Special Collections, Uncataloged Manuscript, David Forman; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; New Jersey Gazette, March 12, 1783; New Jersey Gazette, April 16, 1783; John White to David Forman, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #8405; Asher Holmes to Kenneth Hankinson, John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, 4 vols, Genealogical Publishing Co, 1970, v3, p341. 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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 > Shrewsbury Leaders Move Against Their Black Neighbors by Michael Adelberg Many free African-Americans and slaves lived in small clusters of cabins removed from villages of best farmland. Colonial leaders often depicted these Black settlement areas as sources of trouble. - October 1775 - Approximately 10 percent of Monmouth County’s Revolutionary-era population was African American, split roughly evenly between slave and free. Free Blacks faced substantial discrimination—they could not vote or serve in the militia (though they would be permitted to serve in the Continental Army). According to Monmouth County’s tax lists, no African-American owned a large farm—the primary path to acquiring wealth. The large majority of free Blacks were “householders” or “single men” according to the tax lists—meaning they labored for others in order to make a living. Free Black men often lived segregated, in clusters of cabins outside of the county’s villages. Some slaves lived with the free Blacks in these segregated communities, others lived on the family farms of the men who owned them. Monmouth’s wealthy men frequently owned slaves. However, tax lists show that no Monmouth Countian owned more than ten slaves. Runaway slave advertisements from Monmouth County appeared in colonial newspapers a handful of times each year, including one for “Titus” in 1775. It is probable that Titus became a famous Loyalist partisan known as “Colonel Tye.” Anti-Black sentiment bubbled up periodically during the colonial period—court records document sporadic assaults and other crimes against African Americans. The immorality of slavery was frequently discussed during the Revolutionary period; colonists often referred to British policies “enslaving” the colonies. Quakers, particularly numerous in Shrewsbury Township, campaigned for the end of slavery and in 1776, started pressuring members to free their slaves. Steps Taken Against African Americans Predictably, all of this activity emboldened the Black community. In February 1774, residents of Shrewsbury and Middletown authored petitions to the New Jersey Assembly claiming that: There is a great number of Negro men, women and children being slaves, and are daily increasing in numbers & impudence, that we find them very troublesome by running about all times of night, stealing, taking & riding other people's horses & other mischief, in a great degree owing to having a correspondence and recourse to the Houses of them already freed. The 108 petitioners further worried over the “great number of petitions for the freeing of slaves” which were being sent to the Assembly. They called talk of freeing slaves “pernicious to the public” and urged the Assembly to assert that slavery would remain the law of New Jersey. Interestingly, the petitioners included several men who would become leading Loyalists—Rev. Samuel Cooke, Dr. James Boggs, Commissioner John Taylor, Col. George Taylor—and several others who would hold senior positions in the new Revolutionary government—Col. Daniel Hendrickson, Maj. Hendrick Van Brunt, Assemblyman James Mott, and Committee Chair John Burrowes. The militance of the county’s African Americans, particularly in Shrewsbury, prompted a backlash. On October 6, 1775, Shrewsbury’s Committee of Observation noted that “numerous and riotous meetings of Negroes at unlicensed houses is pernicious of itself and may be of pernicious consequences.” It ordered the militia Colonel (Samuel Breese), to report on such events and “to use his militia... to secure the Negroes, and give the names of the delinquents" to the Committee. Ten days later, the Committee went further, instructing Breese to “order parties of the militia to attend such suspected places to search for and apprehend all transgressors of the law." It is noteworthy that the first campaign of the Shrewsbury militia was not against the British, but against a segment of its own population agitating for greater freedom. The Shrewsbury Committee of Observation was not done cracking down on the local Black community. On February 16, 1776, it resolved to disarm all African Americans: “all arms in the hands of or at the disposal of Negroes, either slave or free, shall be taken and secured by the militia officers... until the present troubles are settled, and that such arms shall be lodged in the hands of the Colonel." Two weeks later, the Committee went even further: Resolved, that all slaves, either Negroes, mulattoes or others that shall be found off their master's premises any time of night, may be taken up by any person whatsoever and secured until a fine of ten schillings be paid... and in failure of payment of such fine, the slave shall be delivered to the Minute-men to be kept under guard until he shall receive lashes on the bare back. The actions of the Shrewsbury Committee occurred as events outside the county were causing waves within it. In November 1775, the Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, declared that “all indentured servants, negroes or others” owned by rebels would be freed from their bonds if they sought British protection and supported the British war effort. Meanwhile, many New Jersey slaveholders were indeed freeing their slaves. Historian James Gigantino estimated that 17% of New Jersey’s slaveholders freed at least one slave in his/her will and others did not wait for their death to free one or more slaves. Contested manumissions led to complicated litigation during and immediately after the American Revolution. New Jersey was the last northern state to outlaw slavery. An 1804 law created a gradual emancipation process. Related Historical Sites : none Sources : New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Manuscript Collection, Manuscripts, box 14, #17; Proceedings of the Committees of Freehold and Shrewsbury, Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, First Series, 1846, pp. 191-2; Proclamation of Lord Dunmore, Nov 11, 1775, Africans in America, www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part 2; Jim Gigantino: Slavery, Abolition, and African Americans in New Jersey’s American Revolution in James Gigantino, ed., The American Revolution in New Jersey: Where the Battlefront Meets the Homefront (New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2015), pp 52-5; Proceedings of the Committees of Freehold and Shrewsbury, Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, First Series, 1846, pp. 191-3; Proceedings of the Committees of Freehold and Shrewsbury, Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, First Series, 1846, pp. 192-3 . Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > The Establishment of the Associated Loyalists by Michael Adelberg In 1780, New Jersey’s last Royal Governor, William Franklin, established the Associated Loyalists, a vigilante group. Potentially, 20% of the Associated Loyalists were from Monmouth County. - November 1779 - By the middle of 1779, thousands of Loyalists had been living as refugees in New York for more than two years—and they were frustrated. The British Army had stopped campaigning in the North and the navy had lost control of the waters outside of Sandy Hook. The confiscation and sale of Loyalist estates spiked their resentments, and so did a steady diet of reports of rebel abuse in New York newspapers. This May 1779 report is just one example. Continental authorities were reportedly "chaining men together by dozens and driving them like cattle, flinging them into loathsome jails, confiscating their estates, shooting them in swamps and woods, hanging them after mock trials; and all because they would not abjure their rightful sovereign." Officers, whether British or Loyalist, believed rebels were guilty of abuses against peaceable Americans whose only crime was remaining loyal to their King. Patrick Ferguson, a British officer who commanded and conversed with Loyalists daily (and raided Monmouth County twice) similarly observed: Ravages everywhere wantonly committed, without regard for sex or age, friend or traitor, and consequent alienation of every thinking mind from the Royal cause. Most of the houses are indiscriminately plundered, beds cut up and windows cut to pieces, the man robbed of their watches, shoe buckles and money, while their wives and daughters have their pockets and clothes torn from their bodies, and the father and the husband who does not survey all of this placid countenance is beat or branded with the name traitor or rebel. Establishing of the Associated Loyalists William Franklin, the son of Benjamin Franklin and last Royal Governor of New Jersey, emerged as the leader of an aggrieved set of Loyalists. In early 1779, the Loyalist Andrew Elliot wrote about the illegal lumber trade from New Jersey: "The refugees [are] all employed in cutting wood on rebel lands by which they make money and help keep the town well supplied; they wish much to be embodied under a command of their own." Franklin would soon provide Loyalists with “a command of their own.” On May 29, 1779, Franklin proposed a plan to General Henry Clinton, commanding British forces in America, to establish "a Board of Intelligence” through which Loyalists would be "united & employed for the purpose of procuring, digesting & communicating intelligence of the designs & motions of the enemy." The Board would take testimonies under oath, inspect captured letters, issue rewards for intelligence, maintain spies in rebel territory, and report useful intelligence to the British. While it is unclear if Clinton approved of this plan, the Board began forwarding intelligence to him in June. The Board of Intelligence soon gave way to a bolder endeavor. In November, Franklin and colleagues established the Board of Associated Loyalists. The Board sought broad powers to maintain its own: armed bodies, conduct raids, and capture and exchange prisoners. Clinton responded with suspicion. He did not ban the group, but limited its powers in two key respects. Clinton wrote that Associated Loyalist “descents” (raids) required the approval of a British officer and he further warned Franklin that "any persons whatsoever who shall attempt to pass the King's ships or posts or make a descent on the enemy, excepting on the above terms, shall be treated as disaffected persons or robbers." Clinton acquiesced to the Board regarding taking rebel prisoners and negotiating prisoner exchanges, but required that all exchanges be subject to the British-Continental negotiated prisoner cartel. Over time, the Associated Loyalists pushed past these rules. Historian Edward Tebbenhoff estimated that as many as 4,000 men participated in the Associated Loyalists but that, on any given day, the Associated Loyalist could only muster a fraction of their associators—as these men were employed in other pursuits. It is unfortunate that no list of Associated Loyalists has survived. On November 10, Franklin evaded Clinton’s request for a list, writing: “They are so scattered and have been so fluctuated from the practice of engaging themselves under different officers under different excursions that it is impossible to ascertain their numbers." While aspects of the Board’s powers remained at issue, the Associated Loyalists moved ahead. On November 24, the Board’s Secretary, Daniel Coxe, wrote Clinton about the Board’s formation. With false-sincerity, he stated: "We trust our conduct will always be such as to merit your Excellency's patronage and encouragement." A similar letter was sent to Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot, commanding the navy in America, two weeks later. The formation of the Associated Loyalist may have pushed Clinton to do more to govern Loyalists in New York. He wrote on December 15: "I have appointed Colonel Morris [Roger Morris] and William Bayard… to be inspectors of Refugees, from them chiefly, I will know what objects they desire and deserve." Clinton also complained about “a class of these men of more ardent & enterprising disposition, whose zeal & courage I have not been able to bend to useful purposes.” He went on: Their wish is to ravage from their oppressors the property which had often in the past been their own. Such dispositions, as they have induced the capture of obnoxious persons, militia, of forage wood and cattle, I was willing to encourage; but fearing indiscriminate depredations... I have endeavored to restrain their irregularities and invited proposals for introducing a certain discretion and subordination; these efforts have not yet had the wished for effect. However, it was not until spring 1780 that the Associated Loyalists publicly emerged. In March, they conducted a lottery to raise money for suffering Loyalist families; in June, they published a letter in the New York Gazette about the need for "the proposed association of Loyal Refugees." The emergence of the Associated Loyalists was watched in Monmouth County. On or about July 1, the county’s vigilant Revolutionaries founded their own extra-mural group to punish enemies, the Association for Retaliation . The Associated Loyalists, sometimes calling themselves "the Board of Refugees," advertised meetings in the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury twice in October 1780. The delay likely was because of continued tensions with General Clinton. Tebbenhoff notes that Clinton had to be ordered to cooperate with the Associated Loyalist by British Secretary of State George Germain. It was not until December 1780 that the Associated Loyalists published their charter. In it, they noted that since start of the war: It has been often wished that some regular and efficient system was adopted for employing the zeal of that class of his Majesty's loyal subjects who were unwilling to become soldiers, though ardently inclined to take up arms and contribute towards reducing the rebels. The Board would coordinate Loyalist paramilitaries "for the purpose of annoying the sea-coasts of the revolted provinces, and distressing their trade, either cooperation with his Majesty's forces or by making diversions in their favour." The Board would conduct raids and take prisoners. They declared that "all captures made by associators will be their entire property." They noted that "the prisoners they take will be exchanged only for Associated Loyalists as the Board may name." Despite their independence, Associated Loyalist raiding parties would be supported with British ships, provisions, and hospitals. William Franklin was named to chair their seven-person board. Monmouth Countians in the Associated Loyalists In January 1781, the Board commissioned captains to raise companies of men; three--Richard Lippincott, Thomas Crowell, and Clayton Tilton—were Monmouth Countians. Lippincott reported on February 16 that he had raised 52 men, with two junior officers, Lieutenant John Woodward and Ensign John Irons. Since all three officers were from Monmouth County, it is probable that all or most of the 52 men were too. That same month, Franklin wrote that the Associated Loyalists numbered 500-600 men. If Crowell’s and Tilton’s companies were half the size of the Lippincott company, then roughly 100 Monmouth Countians were in the Associated Loyalists—nearly 20 percent of their membership—a remarkable figure from a single county, given that Associated Loyalists were recruiting from four states. Despite the large participation of Monmouth Countians in the Associated Loyalists, only a few postwar Loyalist compensation claims mention them. This is likely because the group fell into disrepute after Lippincott hanged Captain Joshua Huddy of Colts Neck (detailed in other articles). Lippincott’s application contains only a brief mention of the Associated Loyalists; John Leonard testified on behalf of Lippincott, "that he [Lippincott] was an officer with the refugees of New York & frequently was out with parties." Besides Lippincott, only one other Monmouth Countian explicitly discussed service in the Associated Loyalists. Jesse Smith, formerly of Shrewsbury, had William Franklin testify to his service. Franklin noted that Smith "was a very active and zealous partisan… particularly serviceable in bringing into New York, Lord Cornwallis' [Gen. Charles Cornwallis] men after the surrender at Yorktown.” Smith also “produced supplies for the navy & garrison at New York from the Jersies.” Franklin also noted Smith’s sacrifice: He was several times dangerously wounded; that I recommended him to Admiral [Robert] Digby who furnished him with twenty-five staves of arms, ammunition & provisions for the purpose of bringing off British prisoners kept by the rebels; that he is now greatly disabled, having had his right arm broke & several shot still remaining in him, which gives him great pain and renders him unfit to get his living by manual labor. All three Monmouth County captains were active. Thomas Crowell took prisoners, engaged in prisoner exchange negotiations with Colonel Asher Holmes of the Monmouth County militia, and was warned by the New Jersey legislature regarding his mistreatment of prisoners. He refused to hang Captain Barnes Smock in retaliation for abuses against Loyalists but testified in support of Richard Lippincott when Lippincott did so a few months later. Clayton Tilton was captured and indicted for murder in 1781. Rebecca Shepherd, wife of militia captain Moses Shepherd recalled his capture after the war: Samuel Carman came and & informed her husband that Clayton Tilton, a refugee of notoriety, was off & at home, her husband, John Truax and several more of his men went and took him - and brought the prisoner to their house. Tilton was exchanged and then attempted to negotiate another exchange. In March 1782, he led the incursion into Monmouth County that went badly and resulted in the capture of Philip White, who was subsequently murdered by his guards. Tilton was loaded in irons and convicted of High Treason, but exchanged. Like Crowell, he also testified about rebel cruelties at Lippincott’s court martial trial. Lippincott was the most active. In April 1780, he was in a raid that resulted in the murder of John Russell, Sr., and near death of John Russell, Jr. (the subject of another article.) He raided Toms River in early 1781, but was unable to take the ship that prompted the attack. He raided Manasquan in March and defeated the militia party there, and then captured a vessel near Egg Harbor. He captured a Monmouth County leader in April and then launched another raid from Sandy Hook in May. He attempted to negotiate a prisoner exchange in November without success. In April 1782, with the verbal approval of the Board of Associated Loyalists, he hanged Captain Huddy . The Disrepute of the Associated Loyalists The Associated Loyalists were known to the governments of New York and New Jersey, both of which appealed to the Continental Congress for help. The New York Assembly, in July 1781, wrote to Congress that parties of Associated Loyalists "come in small crafts to plunder, burn and destroy all in their power and carry into captivity unarmed citizens or lay them under parole.” It called on Congress “to stop the inroads and incursions of the Associated Loyalists." In December, Thomas Henderson of Freehold wrote the Continental Congress for the New Jersey Assembly. He called the Associated Loyalists "a new fangled body of Executioners” and further wrote: For the declared intention of distressing the Country [they] have commissioned a body of ruffians for the express purpose of plundering and destroying the well-affected inhabitants and kidnapping the most active defenders of the Country... and of carrying them into the loathsome dungeons of New York where, deprived of the necessities of life, they linger out a few days of painful existence till nature, overpowered by hardships, finds its relief to its sufferings in death. Henderson wanted Congress to threaten the British with eye-for-eye retaliation so that "the vengeance of an injured people may fall on British officers.” He called for New Jersey’s delegates to "press Congress not to make any empty declarations of purposes never to be executed." Henderson personally delivered the report to Congress. It is impossible to know the full activity of the Associated Loyalists. Newspaper accounts and the Board’s minutes mention their larger raids, including one against Toms River in March 1782. From these sources, we know that they raided north into Connecticut and Westchester County, east to the Hamptons on Long Island, and into New Jersey from Bergen to Monmouth counties. But small groups of Associated Loyalists made descents that were not explicitly authorized by the Board and went undocumented. For example, the small raid of Long Branch that led to Philip White’s capture would have gone undocumented were it not for White’s capture and murder being a prelude to Huddy’s hanging. Franklin claimed that the Associated Loyalists "occasioned alarm among the Rebels" because his men had "zeal to suppress the rebellion, heightened by the remembrance of the many insults & injuries they received." This ‘zeal” and “remembrance” of past injuries would push the Associated Loyalists to commit murder. In April 1782, Lippincott took Captain Huddy out of jail in New York, brought him to the Navesink Highlands, hanged him, and left his corpse swinging with a note proclaiming the act a retaliation for the murder of White, three weeks earlier. Retaliation was not a new idea in April 1782. After the surrender at Yorktown six months earlier, Franklin worried that the Loyalists with Cornwallis would “suffer death on account of their allegiance to the Crown” unless Clinton adopted a policy of retaliation. Franklin urged a proclamation: That retaliation shall be allowed to take place in the fullest context possible; or if this should be thought proper with respect to the British Army, that the Loyalists and refugees may have free permission to take and detain prisoners, & retaliate for the particular injuries they or their friends may sustain. Historian William Benton called the Associated Loyalists a "private army for personal reasons." In reality, the Associated Loyalists were much less than an army. They were a set of coordinated gangs tolerated by a British command unwilling to make the hard choice of reining them in. On the other side, the same dynamic existed between Monmouth County’s Retaliators and the New Jersey government. Related Historic Site : Harbor Defense Museum (New York) Sources : William Franklin to Henry Clinton, William Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, vol. 58, 60; Wallace Brown, The Good Americans: The Loyalists in the American Revolution, (New York: Morrow, 1969), p. 133; Ferguson quoted in North Callahan, Royal Raiders: The Tories of the American Revolution (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963), p 10; Joseph Williams discussed in Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn. and London, 1984) p 934; Elliott’s letter is in B. F. Stevens, ed., Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America, 1773–1783, [25 vols., London, 1889–1898], vol. 1, #115; William Franklin to Henry Clinton, William Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, vol. 74; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Henry Clinton to Lord Germain, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v99, #26; The lottery is noted in Wallace Brown, The Good Americans: The Loyalists in the American Revolution, (New York: Morrow, 1969), p. 107; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, October 2, 1780, October 23, 1780; Transcript of the Court Martial of Richard Lippincott, microfilm, Library Congress; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Edward H. Tebbenhoff, “The Associated Loyalists: An Aspect of Militant Loyalism,” New-York Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 63 (1979), pp. 118-25, 127-39; William A. Benton, Whig-Loyalism: An Aspect of Political Ideology in the American Revolutionary Era (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1969) p 197; Loyalist compensation claims of Richard Lippincott and Jesse Smith in: Jones, E. Alfred. The Loyalists of New Jersey, (Newark, N. J. Historical Society, 1927) p 200. Rutgers University Special Collections, Great Britain Public Record Office, Loyalist Compensation Claims, D96, AO 13/111, reel 10; Rebecca Shepherd’s narrative is in National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John Truax; George W. Kyte, “Some Plans for a Loyalist Stronghold in the Middle Colonies,” Pennsylvania History, vol. 16 (1949), p 179-87; William Franklin to Henry Clinton, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v93, reel 2, #454; Howard Peckham, Sources of American Independence: Selected Manuscripts from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) pp. 502-3, 529, 559 note; Clements Library, Proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists, January 1781, p. 6; Howard Peckham, Sources of American Independence: Selected Manuscripts from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) pp. 604-7; Rutgers University, Special Collections, Loyalist Compensation Applications, Coll. D96, PRO AO 13/18, reel 6; William Franklin to George Germain, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, reel 12, #382, 399; William Franklin to George Germain, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, reel 12, #382, 399; George Germain to William Franklin, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v178, #455; New York Assembly to Congress, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, New York State Papers, v2, p430; The New Jersey Assembly’s report on the Associated Loyalists is in the Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, December 15, 1781, p 58; Franklin‘s estimate is in North Callahan, Royal Raiders: The Tories of the American Revolution (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963), pp. 244-5. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > The First Monmouth County Court of Oyer and Terminer by Michael Adelberg After a year and a half of inactivity, the Monmouth County courts reconvened at the county courthouse with a Court of Oyer & Terminer that heard charges against 94 men and 11 women. - January 1778 - Monmouth County’s courts ceased functioning in spring 1776 when the Royal government broke down. While courts were re-established under New Jersey’s Constitution of July 1776, there is no evidence that they met in Monmouth County—probably because so many of the officers of the court were Loyalists or disaffected. Monmouth County’s missing legal papers —taken during the Loyalist insurrections of December 1776—further hamstrung any attempt to re-convene the courts. Historian Richard Haskett wrote that much of New Jersey did not have functioning courts under the new government until early 1778. Each county was expected to convene Courts of General Sessions quarterly for ordinary crimes and Courts of Oyer & Terminer as needed for particularly consequential and political crimes. Haskett noted many problems with these early courts: novice judges, poor records, rulings not enforced by civil officers, and war intrusions. In lieu of courts, Loyalists and political criminals in Monmouth County were arrested by military units—such as those commanded by David Forman, Charles Read, Adam Stephen, and Francis Gurney—and sent to far-off prisons without trial. In 1777, the New Jersey Supreme Court heard a few cases regarding Monmouth County crimes and the New Jersey Council of Safety emerged as the primary vehicle for trying political prisoners. But punishments from the Council of Safety were often temporary until the courts could meet. Convening the First Court of Oyer and Terminer On December 7, the Council of Safety authorized a Court of Oyer and Terminer for Monmouth County to convene on January 20, 1778. The court was advertised in the state-supported newspaper, the New Jersey Gazette , on December 17. Local judges were assigned under Chief Justice Robert Morris of Middlesex County. There were three township magistrates: John Longstreet, Peter Schenck, Thomas Forman. Twenty grand jurors were also selected: William Tapscott David Forman* Hendrick Smock Henry Green, Jonathan Pierce Gilbert Van Mater Garrett Hendrickson Peter Covenhoven Joseph Stillwell* Cornelius Covenhoven Jacob Van Dorn Aucke Wikoff* Thomas Hunn* John Schenck* Joshua Anderson Elisha Walton* John Holmes Peter Imlay Richard Crawford Tobias Hendrickson Only six of the grand jurors held military officer commissions (see asterisk above). The aversion to military officers was likely deliberate. State authorities likely wanted to ensure that the court would be perceived in a dispassionate civil court (in contrast to the impromptu military tribunals convened in 1777). The constables and coroners for each of the six townships were required to attend and give testimony. However, three constables (Zephaniah Morris, Peter Johnson and Edward Wilbur) and one coroner (Jonathan Brown) never appeared. Brown was fined £3 for not appearing. The court convened at Freehold on January 20 and continued meeting until February 7. On January 23, the New Jersey Council of Safety ordered that the three Upper Freehold Loyalists it had jailed at Morristown—Thomas Fowler, Jesse Woodward, Richard Robins—should be transferred to Freehold for trial. The Proceedings of the First Court of Oyer and Terminer Fortunately, the docket and some other legal papers of the First Monmouth County Court of Oyer & Terminer have survived. There were 105 total indictments. The outcome of most of these indictments is unknown, but 22 men are documented as convicted. See Table 5 . Many defendants were charged with non-specific “misdemeanors.” Given the Court of Oyer & Terminer’s focus on political crimes, and corroborated by records from subsequent courts, it can be safely assumed that most misdemeanors brought before this court were for going behind enemy lines or illegally trading with the enemy. Riot & Trespass was the charge applied to many of the Loyalist insurrectionists who led “riotous” parties of men in breaking into the homes of Whigs and confiscating their guns, horses and wagons. Trespass was used to describe when a person was charged with going onto private property and taking or damaging something of value on that private property. Two future Loyalists, Josiah Giberson and Guisebert Giberson were charged with “cattle stealing” but it is unknown if they were convicted. David Taylor was charged with Riot & Trespass; he pled not guilty, and then the docket notes that he "leaves home without trial." He likely fled behind British lines. Samuel Miers and Jacob Wardell were convicted of crimes, but they were permitted by the court to “invoke act of grace.” They took loyalty oaths and were released without future punishment. Three local Revolutionary leaders were indicted. Captain John Burrowes and Estate Forfeiture Commissioner William Wikoff were both charged with trespass by Margaret Holmes; they were found not guilty. Captain Joshua Huddy, however, pled guilty to two separate assaults against Charles Gilmore and Benjamin Luffburrow; he was fined £15, less than Loyalists convicted on similar charges. Eleven of the 105 indictments were issued against women. Of these eleven, the following women were convicted of misdemeanors: Christian Crowell fined £3], Catherine Farrow [fined £3], Sarah Grover [fined £10, Phoebe Johnson [fined £5], Sarah Roberts [fined s20], Deborah Taylor [fined £3], Huldah Van Mater fined £3]. One woman, Theodocia Grover, had her case dismissed. Christian Crowell was the wife of Thomas Crowell, who captained a Loyalist boat, and Deborah Taylor was the wife of Colonel George Taylor, who led Loyalist raids into Monmouth County in 1777. However, the majority of these women were not the wives of Loyalist combatants. Huldah Van Mater was the wife of a prominent Loyalist, but also the sister of Asher Holmes, Colonel of Monmouth County’s First Militia regiment. In 1776 and 1777, hundreds of Monmouth County Loyalists participated in insurrections, raids, property confiscations, and acts of violence against their neighbors. The First Court of Oyer & Terminer for Monmouth County was the first in-county opportunity to exact justice (and revenge) against these perpetrators. Despite the increasing resentments against Loyalists and their disaffected allies, no individual was sentenced to more than one year in jail; the majority of fines were less than the cost of a reliable horse (roughly £20). Given the potential precedent set three months earlier by the extra-legal hanging of the Loyalist, Stephen Edwards, the court showed remarkable restraint—even leniency—in its sentencing. This would contrast significantly with the second Courts of Oyer & Terminer which meted out several death sentences. Related Historic Site : Old Salem County Courthouse Sources : Richard C. Haskett, “Prosecuting the Revolution,” in American Historical Review, vol. 49 (April 1954), pp. 580-1; Catalog of the Exhibition: Joshua Huddy and the American Revolution, Monmouth County Library Headquarters, October 2004 (Monmouth County Archives); David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 59, 64; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 1, p 514; Morristown National Historical Park Collection, reel 39, Monmouth Legal; Monmouth Courts; Morristown National Historical Park Collection, reel 39, Monmouth Courts; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder -January 1778; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 195; State Auditor Acct Books, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Treasury, State Auditor's Account Book, Sheriff Fines, Monmouth County, reel 181, pp. 195-203. 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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 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 > Pulaski's Legion and the Osborn Island Massacre by Michael Adelberg Patrick Ferguson was among the most energetic officers of the Revolutionary War. His attack on Pulaski’s Legion was among the most brutal Revolutionary War incidents to occur in New Jersey. - October 1778 - On October 5, 1778, a 1,000-man British-Loyalist raiding party reached Little Egg Harbor (called Egg Harbor at the time), just south of Monmouth County. They blocked the harbor entrance and, with disaffected locals as guides, 300 men in four galleys went upriver to Chestnut Neck, New Jersey’s privateer boomtown . Brief cannon-fire from the boats scattered the local militia from the town. On October 8, the valuable British merchant ship, Venus , and ten other vessels were unloaded and then burned, as were the warehouses and the town’s unarmed fort. Some smaller vessels escaped by upriver, but the success of the attack was near-total. The raiders returned to the mouth of Mullica River at Egg Harbor. One of their larger ships, Granby , grounded in the harbor and this may be why the raiders stayed in Egg Harbor for the next week. During that time, the raiders sent out parties to destroy nearby salt works (a favorite target of Loyalist raiders) and take unwitting privateers entering the harbor. British leader, Edmund Burke, received a report that the raiders then razed “three salt works, and several stores were destroyed. The Raleigh , a fine American frigate was taken.” The British also sent a party to Cranberry Inlet (the entrance to the shore’s second busiest privateering port of Toms River ) to capture another vessel. Even before the raiders razed Chestnut Neck, American forces were moving to defend the area. Thinking the attack would be made against Elizabethtown, Governor William Livingston mistakenly sent militia from several counties in the opposite direction of the attack. However, George Washington had better intelligence and ordered the new Legion of Kasimir Pulaski (officered by Europeans but manned by Americans) and the artillery regiment of Thomas Proctor to defend Egg Harbor. By October 8, a formidable collection of American forces neared the area: 250 men under Pulaski, 220 men in Proctor's Artillery Regiment with cannon, 50 Philadelphia militia, and 300 Monmouth militia under Samuel Forman. But the American forces were uncoordinated—arriving at different times, from different directions. Pulaski left Trenton for Egg Harbor on October 6 and, according to the New Jersey Gazette "marched for that place with all his troops in high spirits and with great alacrity." Lacking the strength to attack the British, Pulaski camped ten miles north of their ships, on Osborn Island—a swampy piece of land at the edge of Egg Harbor and the southern tip of present-day Ocean County. Local histories say they stayed in the homes of John Ridgeway and Jeremiah Ridgeway, members of a disaffected Stafford Township family. Though most of the recruits into Pulaski’s legion were Marylanders and Pennsylvanians, at least one Monmouth Countian enlisted in the Legion as they marched to Osborn Island. Joseph Coward enlisted for eighteen months and probably guided the Legion to its camp, where they arrived no later than October 10. Jonathan Pettit of Egg Harbor would later submit a claim for feeding Pulaski’s men with 40 fowls, 1 barrel of cider, and 2 1/2 yards of new cloth (total value L20 S7) "taken by the men under Genl. Pulaski” on October 10. By October 14, a stalemate of sorts existed at Egg Harbor. The British raiding force was too strong to be attacked, but Proctor and Philadelphia militia had moved up the Mullica River to defend the state’s interior. To the north, Pulaski and the arriving Monmouth militia blocked further raids into Monmouth County. (The activity of the New Jersey militia is discussed in another article.) Pulaski’s position was revealed to the British by Carl Joseph Juliat, an officer under Pulaski who deserted to the British. Local teenagers, Thomas Osborn, and Richard Osborn were compelled to serve guides to the British. Well informed about Pulaski’s vulnerable camp, a British-Loyalist party under Captain Patrick Ferguson determined to row ten miles to attack Pulaski’s Legion at night. The Osborn Island Massacre The reports of Count Pulaski to the Continental Congress and Captain Ferguson to General Henry Clinton describe what happened on Osborn Island: Pulaski reported having his camp revealed to Captain Ferguson: “One Juliat, an officer lately deserted to the enemy, went off with them… with three men whom he debauched and two others whom they forced with them.” Ferguson reported similarly: “A Captain and six men from Pulaski’s Legion defected to us” and provided information on Pulaski’s camp. Ferguson opted to attack because “the winds detained us” at Egg Harbor. Pulaski’s description of the attack: The enemy, no doubt excited by this Juliat, attacked us at three o’clock in the morning with 400 men. They seemed at first to attack our pickets with fury, who lost a few men in retreating. Then the enemy advanced on our infantry. The Lieut. Col. Baron DeBose, who headed these men, fought vigorously, was killed with several bayonet wounds, as well as Lieut. De la Boderie and a small number of soldiers and others were wounded. This slaughter would not have ceased so soon if on the first alarm had I not hastened with my cavalry to support the infantry which then kept up a good countenance; the enemy soon fled in great disorder and left behind a great quantity of arms, accoutrements, hats, blades, etc… We took some prisoners and should have taken many more had it not been for a swamp through which our horses could scarcely walk. Ferguson’s account of the attack differs on key facts: At eleven last night 250 men were embarked and, after rowing ten miles, landed at four in the morning within a mile of a defile, which we happily secured, and leaving thirty men for its defence, pushed forward upon the infantry of the Legion, cantoned in three different houses, who are almost entirely cut to pieces. We numbered among their dead about fifty and several officers among whom we learn are a Lieutenant Colonel, a Captain and Adjutant. It being a night attack, little quarter could, of course, be given; so that there are only five prisoners. Pulaski reported that immediately after the battle, he was unable to “cut off the retreat [desertion] of about 25 men, who retired into the country and the woods.” Given the loss of these men and deaths from the battle, he could not launch a significant counter attack. Pulaski did not report that the arriving Gloucester County militia attacked Ferguson’s raiders during its withdrawal, but was badly defeated. Ferguson also discussed the withdrawal, “The rebels attempted to harass us in our retreat but with great modesty, so that we returned at our leisure, and re-embarked in security.” Ferguson reported his losses at only two dead and two wounded. One Loyalist newspaper claimed that 60 of Pulaski’s men were killed, another stated 53. American newspapers reported Pulaski’s losses “at about 30 men killed or missing.” Subsequent accounts reveal additional information on the so-called Osborn Island Massacre. Ferguson reported that his men spared the homes of James Willett and the Ridgeways, who hosted Pukaski’s men: “as the houses belonged to inoffensive Quakers, who may have already suffered sufficiently in the night's confusion." But Ferguson was also callous about killing Pulaski’s Legion “which is entirely cut to pieces.” He explained, “It being a night attack, little quarter could be given.” With accusations building about the brutality of the attack, Ferguson wrote a second account of the attack ten days after his first report: Capt. Ferguson set off in the night in boats with 250 men, rowed ten miles, landed, marched one mile to a bridge, at which he left fifty men, with the rest he marched a mile farther, surprised and cut to pieces the infantry of Pulaski's legion. Our soldiers were highly irritated against this brutal foreigner, who had given out in public orders to his men, never to give any quarter; in consequence of which our people took only five prisoners, all the rest, were left on the spot, the business being done with the bayonet only. Yet even here Capt. Ferguson had an opportunity of exercising his humanity; the houses in which were the baggage and equipage of Pulaski's legion, belonging to inoffensive Quakers, he left them untouched, rather than distress the innocent inhabitants by burning the quarters. Ferguson further noted his need to strike quickly given that “the rebel Colonel Proctor being within two miles with a corps of artillery." British political leader, Edmund Burke, reading reports from America, wrote that Pulaski’s sleeping men “were almost entirely put to the sword.” Burke also claimed that “Pulaski had given orders that no quarter should be given to our troops." Pulaski’s alleged order to grant no quarter seems unlikely since it was Ferguson who launched the pre-dawn surprise attack. Continental Army General William Heath was outraged by Ferguson’s murderous conduct and the weakness of the “no quarter” excuse: They surprised a part of Pulaski's legion in that neighborhood [Osborn Island], whom they handled very severely. The British pretended that they had heard that Pulaski had instructed his men not to give them quarter; they therefore anticipated retaliation. A British captain, Charles Steadman, clarified the controversy over Pulaski’s alleged “no quarter” order: Captain's Ferguson's soldiers were highly irritated by intelligence immediately before received from the deserters [of Pulaski's Legion] that Count Pulaski had given out in public orders to his Legion, no longer to grant quarter to British troops. This intelligence afterwards appeared false; but in the meantime, Captain Ferguson's soldiers acted under the impression that it was true. Ferguson’s party returned to their ships at 10 a.m. on October 15. The invasion flotilla weighed anchor that afternoon but had to leave behind and burn their flagship, Zebra , which had grounded. They had orders raid along the shore on their back. Ferguson recalled that his men were to "employ ourselves” by “looking into Barnegat and Cranberry Inlets, and destroy and bring off any vessels that may happen to be there, and demolish the saltworks, which are very considerable on the shores of these recesses." Slowed by contrary winds, the British did not return to Sandy Hook until October 22. Back on Osborn Island, a mob took young Thomas and Richard Osborn, who had guided Ferguson’s men. According to local histories, the mob would have hanged the Osborns but one of Pulaski’s officers saved them by arresting them. Pulaski wrote on October 16, “Two men who guided the enemy were taken in that operation, I have ordered them to Trenton, with some prisoners and arms.” The Osborns were charged with treason and acquitted on October 30 (presumably because they were forced to assist Ferguson). As for Pulaski, his Legion was decimated and humiliated. They headed north though poor and disaffected neighborhoods where the locals had no love for either European officers or their out-of-state recruits. Pulaski’s difficult march is the subject of the next article.\ Related Historic Site : Little Egg Harbor Friends Meeting House Sources : Franklin Kemp, A Nest of Rebel Pirates (Egg Harbor, NJ: Batsto Citizens Committee, 1966) pp 22-4; Wilson, Harold F., The Jersey Shore: A Social and Economic History of the Counties of Atlantic, Cape May, Monmouth and Ocean (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1953) pp. vol. 216-217; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v3, p477; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Franklin Kemp, A Nest of Rebel Pirates (Egg Harbor, NJ: Batsto Citizens Committee, 1966) pp 3-5, 29-35; Private Correspondence: Jack Fulmer, Personal Map of Egg Harbor; Damages by Americans, Burlington County Ledger, claim #59, New Jersey State Archives; William MacMahon, South Jersey Towns (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1973) p 302; David Fowler, egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 192; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Joseph Coward; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Jacob Davidson; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I42, Petitions to Congress, v 1, p 214; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; William Livingston to Lord Stirling, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 2, p 457; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 12, pp. 981, 984; New York (Royal) Gazette, October 24, 1778; Edmund Burke, An Impartial History of the War in America (R Faulder, London 1780), p 42-3; Patrick Ferguson’s account in Arthur Pierce, Smugglers' Woods, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1960) p 50-1; Franklin Kemp, A Nest of Rebel Pirates (Egg Harbor, NJ: Batsto Citizens Committee, 1966) pp 124-5; Patrick Ferguson to Henry Clinton, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v93, reel 2, #420-37; Szymanski, Leszek, Casimir Pulaski: A Hero of the American Revolution, (New York: Hippocrene Books, Inc., 1993) pp. 211-2, 214; Richard B Martin, Runaways of Colonial New Jersey (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2007) p307; William Fischer, Biographical Cyclopedia of Ocean County (Philadelphia: A.D. Smith, 1899) p 49; Patrick Ferguson, Report, The Scots Magazine, v43, p 29; Patrick Ferguson to Henry Clinton, Great Britain Public Record Office, CO 5/1089, p 151-3; William Heath, Memoirs of the American War, (Boston: Applewood, 1798), p 208; Franklin Kemp, A Nest of Rebel Pirates (Egg Harbor, NJ: Batsto Citizens Committee, 1966) pp 132-3; Frederick W. Bogert, "Sir Henry Raids a Hen's Roost,'" New Jersey History, vol. 98, n. 3-4 (Fall/Winter 1980), pp. 228-31; Richard Henry Spencer, "Pulaski's Legion," Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. 13 (1918), pp. 215-24; William Livingston to George Washington, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, pp. 80-1. Previous Next

The articles in the collection 250 for the 250th: The American Revolution in Monmouth County represent the most complete history of this topic ever assembled. < 250 Home < Previous pg. Next > The Capture of the Venus by Two Privateers and its Aftermath by Michael Adelberg The Declaration of Independence forced Americans to take sides. In the month prior to the Declaration, Monmouth Countians authored and signed nine petitions against independence. - September 1778 - Privateering along the Jersey shore blossomed in 1778—the appearance of a powerful French fleet in American waters forced British ships into a defensive crouch that extended to waters they formerly ruled. Small and mid-sized privateer ships from Philadelphia and New England started prowling the coastal sea lanes to and from New York harbor and taking British and Loyalist ships with impunity. When British ships were wounded by severe storms or grounded on the Jersey shore, local militia took to their boats and took the prize. Newly-established admiralty courts condemned the taken vessels to the capturing captains. Small fortunes were made from a single lucky day at sea. The Capture of the Venus Privateering quickly eclipsed salt-making as the favorite activity of investors from across New Jersey and Philadelphia and more ships put to sea. Just to the south of Monmouth County, the village of Chestnut Neck , a few miles up the Mullica River from Little Egg Harbor (commonly called Egg Harbor at the time) became a privateering boomtown; Toms River in Monmouth County, smaller than Egg Harbor and lacking a direct overland road to Philadelphia, became the shore’s second privateer port. At least initially, the prizes captured by privateers and brought into Egg Harbor were small or middling vessels owned by middling Loyalists in New York—until the capture of the Venus . On September 16, the Loyalist New York Gazette reported the capture of the Venus on the Jersey shore on August 26. "The ship Venus, [under] Capt. Chowne, was taken by two privateers…and carried into Barnegat." The report noted that Thomas Chowne was now confined in the Continental jail in Philadelphia. The privateer vessels were Chance and Sly from Philadelphia. It is unlikely that either of them carried more than 8 guns or crews larger than 30 men. A week later, the Pennsylvania Packet reported again on the capture, noting that the Venus was unloaded at Egg Harbor. The Venus , bound for New York from London, was taken by privateer captain David Stevens of Philadelphia, seconded by privateer captain, Micajah Smith. Venus had "a very valuable cargo” that was further described: [It] consisted of fine and coarse linen, calicoes, chinces, lawns and chambricks, silks and satins, silk and thread stockings, men's and women's shoes, a great variety of medicines and books, hardware, beef, pork, butter, cheese and porter, in short, the greatest variety of all kinds of merchandise. The New Jersey Gazette advertised the sale of the Venus, “with cargo of fine cloth, satins, silks, shoes, medicines, books, beef and pork” at Egg Harbor on September 14. A second advertisement valued the cargo “in the amount to L20,000”—approximately the cost of ten midsized Monmouth County farm estates. The sale, however, did not occur because a New Jersey Admiralty Court had not yet condemned the prize to Stevens and Smith. Consequently, on September 23, the New Jersey Gazette advertised that an admiralty court would be held in Allentown on October 10 to hear Stevens’ and Smith’s claims to the vessel and its valuable cargo —as well as any potential counterclaims. The delay was bad for Stevens and Smith and tragic for hundreds of others at Egg Harbor and Chestnut Neck. A massive British-Loyalist raiding party , more than 1,000 men, launched a punishing raid against the privateer base before the sale could occur. The raiders arrived in Egg Harbor in early October and burned eleven vessels and the village of Chestnut Neck. The details of the raid are the subject of another article, but importantly, retribution for the captured Venus was a key motivation for the raid. The New York Gazette , on October 24, summarized the raid. It also noted that the raid aimed to avenge the capture of the Venus, "a very fine ship from London." The raiders destroyed the Venus and "11 sail of other vessels.” They also destroyed the warehouses holding the Venus’ cargo at Chestnut Neck. Lacking pilots who could navigate the large ship through the narrow river, they had to burn the ship rather than rescue it. If the Venus grounded in river on the way out, any British vessel behind it might be trapped. Perspective Why did the capture of the Venus prompt a reprisal when the capture of so many other vessels earlier in the year did not? There are likely two reasons: First, the Venus was larger than most or all of the vessels taken along the Jersey shore before it; it was the first time that a top-tier merchant vessel was taken. Second and likely more important, Venus ’s cargo of British-made luxury items was a direct blow to British officers and the wealthiest Loyalists in New York. They were probably eagerly awaiting the ship’s landing and the chance to purchase luxury goods in short supply. New York’s most powerful men directly felt this capture. These men had the power to lobby British leadership to conduct the reprisal. On the American side, the capture of the Venus was an important milestone. It marked the first time that regional privateers had taken a ship off the Jersey shore that could be labeled “a very fine ship from London.” It also appears to be the first time that relatively small privateers teamed up to capture a vessel that would have easily fought off either vessel as a single attacker. This lesson—hunting in small packs —would be used by privateers hovering in the sea lanes to and from Sandy Hook for the rest of the war. Caption : Two privateers captured the British ship Venus and brought it into Egg Harbor in September 1778. The map shows a narrow deep-water channel that needed to be used to carry in the big ship. Related Historic Site : New Jersey Maritime Museum Sources : Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 2, p 3395-6; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Franklin Kemp, A Nest of Rebel Pirates (Egg Harbor, NJ: Batsto Citizens Committee, 1966) pp 5-8. 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 > Yelverton Taylor Takes British Troop Transport by Michael Adelberg The British troop transport, Triton, was disabled in a storm after leaving Sandy Hook. It and its 214 soldiers were captured by privateer Yelverton Taylor. He took the vessel into Little Egg Harbor. - September 1779 - As noted in prior articles, in 1778, there was a sharp increase in privateering on the Jersey shore. Sailors, mostly from Philadelphia but based at Egg Harbour (today’s Little Egg Harbor), took to the sea in small ships to make their living preying on British shipping. Among the most prolific of these early privateers was Yelverton Taylor. By summer 1779, the activity of Taylor and other Egg Harbor privateers was surpassed by New England privateers hovering off Sandy Hook, but Taylor would soon capture the greatest prize taken off New Jersey during the war. Historian Donold Shomette wrote of an ill-fated flotilla that sailed from New York in August 1779 with a mission of transporting thousands of soldiers to South Carolina. The flotilla was buffeted by terrible storms off the Jersey Shore. Badger lost two masts and was attacked by a privateer. After surrendering, HMS Soleby arrived and chased off the privateer. Badger was towed back to Sandy Hook. Three other ships in the flotilla, King George, Craford , and Favorite made it back to New York under the escort of the frigate, HMS Renown . Other ships in the flotilla were less fortunate. The largest transport in the flotilla, Adamant , was lost at sea. Polly was damaged but made it to the Delaware coast before it was captured by a privateer and taken into Philadelphia. Another transport was captured by the 16-gun privateer, Pickering . But the fate of transport, Triton , is best documented. It was taken off Barnegat. The Capture of Triton The New Jersey Gazette and Pennsylvania Gazette reported in early October: On Friday last, Captain Taylor sent into Egg Harbor a transport from New York said to be bound for Halifax with a quantity of dry goods, 214 Hessians, including a Colonel, who are properly taken care of. He was chased into Egg Harbor River by a British frigate; but on his passage up, with the transport in tow, he [Taylor in the schooner Mars] was unfortunately overset by a sudden squall of wind, by which one man drowned. The vessel, it is said, will be got up again. Taylor was accompanied by Captain Stephen Decatur, sailing in the smaller privateer, Comet , which had been captained by Taylor the prior year. Their capture was the British troop transport, Triton . Triton left Sandy Hook on September 14 in a flotilla with two other transports, Molly and Archer . One of the German officers on board, Andreas Wiederhold, provided a detailed account of the vessel’s capture. The flotilla encountered “turbulent weather under persistent rain” and the British ships “quite separated themselves” from Triton in the bad weather.” The storms continued next day, Widerhold recalled: Waves, mountains in height, seemed to devour the ship. Soon we were on top of such a terrible wave, soon we drove between such cruel waves down into the abyss… It was raining and hailing horribly. One of Triton ’s masts broke. The men had to clear the mast and rigging with axes in the rough seas. On September 16, Wiederhold recalled that the sea calmed enough for the men to come on deck. “We saw the miserable state of the ship.” Many men were sick and much of the supplies were waterlogged. Wiederhold concluded, “No man should have to describe such misery.” The next day he wrote that the ship had lost its bearings (though subsequent accounts suggest that they were off Barnegat). Its stores were largely lost, “everything was corrupted and ruined.” That day and the 18th, men came on deck and repaired what they could. On the 19th, a prayer service was held to thank God for delivering the ship from the storm. However, the bad luck of the Triton turned worse. That evening, Wiederhold reported: “6 p.m. of the evening we discovered a ship not more than 3 leagues removed. …I loaded a swivel (which was still left) and fired him 2 times to give a signal that we are flying the English flag… to see whether it was friend or foe. But it was night before we got close.” The men spent the evening discussing what they would do if the vessel was a rebel privateer. Wiederhold wrote about the ship approaching Triton slowly on September 20: “9 a.m. we beheld a ship which seemed to come straight to us; we were happy and believed that it could be an English frigate” to tow us into Sandy Hook. “Because it flew no flag, we could not tell whether it was friend or foe!” On September 21, the vessel closed gradually: “the night was very restless,” the vessel stood landward and “soon came to us from the face.” The Germans determined the vessel to be a rebel schooner and planned their defense. Then the vessel sailed away; it did not return until September 26. By September 25, Wiederhold was more optimistic: “We were … excited to come through the country complete with grazing privateers and to regain the open sea.” With favorable winds, he predicted “we would be happy to be the following day at Sandy Hook.” The optimism was misplaced. He wrote on September 26 of “a sad and unfortunate day.” The guard on the Triton spotted a vessel at dawn. “Everyone dressed and went to the top and all with the hope the vessel is from the friendly port of New York.” The Triton was too wounded to evade an enemy, and Weiderhold wrote of the moment he recognized the vessels as rebel privateers: We were according to the Capt. in so miserable circumstances that they would be unable to turn or evade an enemy. O! We were cheated in our hope because after they came so close and their breeze was felt, we saw a 13 stripes flag, which transformed our joy in suffering… on the right was a schooner named Mars, 14 Cannon, Capt. Taylor commander; that to the left was a shallop named Comet of 10 Cannon, Capt. Decatur commander. What likely happened is that one of the privateers spotted Triton several days earlier and, seeing the size of the transport, sought the assistance of a second privateer before moving against it. By 8:00 a.m. on the 26th, the two privateers were alongside the transport; they were the schooner Mars and schooner Comet . Wiederhold wrote of the transport being defenseless: We were completely unable to defend ourselves since all our cartridges were stuck together and our rifles were useless, and both ships, which remained a considerable distance from us, would have sunk us at the slightest resistance. There was nothing to do but surrender. The Triton sent an officer to Taylor to negotiate a surrender, the terms of which were not honored: They promised to leave the officers with their baggage and the soldiers with their knapsacks, a promise they kept badly. As we left our ship, our chests and boxes had to be opened and they searched them carefully, as well as the soldier’s knapsacks; and whatever they fancied, they took, so that little remained. I protested against this procedure, but received the answer that we should be glad we kept what we did. As privateers, they were entitled to everything. Weiderhold recorded that “the intention of the privateers was immediately to collect us for Philadelphia and the Delaware.” The privateers put the Triton in tow. However, a large ship was spotted in the distance, and, given its size, it was “considered an English ship and it moved always on us.” This forced the privateers to “settle for the entrance of the Little Egg Harbor.” The ships anchored at dusk at the mouth of Little Egg Harbor. Wiederhold wrote of little progress on September 28, perhaps because one of the privateers, Mars , grounded in the shallows of the unmarked harbor. Weiderhold wrote: It went aground on a shoal or a sandbank not more than a good musket shot from us. Since the wind was blowing strong and the waves beat violently against it, all their efforts to get it afloat were in vain. It capsized before our eyes and everything [on it] was lost. All the people on board were sitting on the keel, which was just about even with the surface of the water and over which the waves broke constantly, until they were fetched, little by little, in boats. So, the men “again anchored” at 7 pm. On the 29th, Wiederhold recorded that, “We ran into the little harbor… and dropped the anchor.” Then on the 30th, “Capt. Reiffurth [of the Triton ] and several crew” loaded into a boat and went ashore. On October 1, Wiederhold went ashore with 45 men in a shallop. This occurred even as the shallop grounded and required assistance: “When trying to navigate toward a house, [it] ran aground until a ship's boy steered us off with his oar and directed us to the right channel.” A privateer schooner, presumably the Mars , “remained on sandbank” grounded. The local geography fascinated Wiederhold, who wrote of Little Egg Harbor and its narrow channels: In reality, it isn't a harbor at all, but an expansive place with sandbars, shoals, swamps, large and small morasses, and sandy islands… The channels are so narrow that in many places a ship can only pass in the middle. In others, the ship can sail so close to shore that one can reach out and touch the banks with one's hand. If a boatman is unfamiliar with these channels or does not have a good pilot, it is impossible to pass through. This is true even though one can see another boat 1,000 paces away. By October 2, all of the men on the Triton were brought on shore. Wiederhold recorded that “after all was now ashore” the “surviving” materials were “loaded and driven up the Creek into the country.” However, because “the current was against us” the men sat at “anchor to stay overnight.” In the still wind, the men had to row the shallop upriver through the night. Finally, on October 3, at 7 a.m., the prisoners arrived at the privateer boomtown of Chestnut Neck. The village had been razed by a British raiding party a year earlier but the burnt buildings were likely rebuilt. Wiederhold did not note any destruction. The village was not equipped for so many prisoners. The Germans had to “lie in stables because otherwise [there] no room for them; were nevertheless pleased to be off the miserable ship and on God's Earth.” On October 4, Wiederhold met Major Richard Westcott. Wescott impressed Wiederhold because he was “so polite, so he gave 3 wagons for the sick.” The German officers compensated Wescott with their silver coins. The Germans were then marched overland to Philadelphia. They reached the Delaware River on October 16. The New Jersey Gazette reported that the Triton was not the only British vessel in the convoy to suffer: “four of the transports [were] much shattered, the Renown returned dismasted." One vessel sunk at sea. The capture of the Triton was Taylor’s last recorded capture. From this and other prizes, he had likely accumulated a small fortune, and he would surely receive harsh treatment from the British if captured. Taylor likely retired although his colleague, Decatur, would remain active . Related Historic Site : Dyckman House Museum (Hessian Hut) (New York) Sources : M.D. Learned, Tagebuch des Capt. Wiederholdt, Vom 7 October 1776 Bis 7 December 1780, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1914), p74-88; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 65; Donald Shomette, Privateers of the Revolution: War on the New Jersey Coast (Shiffer: Atglen, PA, 2015); Edwin Salter, A History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, N.J.: E. Gardner and Son, 1890), pp. 119-120; Paul C. Burgess, A Colonial Scrapbook: The Southern New Jersey Coast. 1675-1783 (New York: Carlton Press, 1971), p 170; J.A. McManemin, Captains of Privateers. (Spring Lake, N.J.: Ho-Ho-Kus Pub. Co., 1994), pp. 341-344; Valentine C. Hubbs, Hessian Journals: Unpublished Documents of the American Revolution (London: Camden House, 1980) pp. 81-3; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Hand, JP, The Cape May Navy, (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2018) pp. 71-76. 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 > Daniel Van Mater and Monmouth Refugees in New York by Michael Adelberg British commander-in-chief, Henry Clinton, had to contend with thousands of Loyalist refugees in New York. Supporting these refugees strained British resources through the war. - February 1777 - As discussed in a prior article, hundreds of Monmouth County Loyalists went behind British lines in the first months of 1777. For most of these “refugees ,” life in British-held New York was difficult. Most Monmouth Countians were farmers and landowners—few had the opportunity to remain so in New York. New York was an overcrowded garrison city with continuous shortages of housing, food, and wood. Loyalist men could enlist as soldiers, but most Loyalists of means did not wish to “lower themselves” to a rank & file soldier. There were limited economic opportunities beyond that for men; women and children had even fewer opportunities. The Loyalists who chose to serve in the New Jersey Volunteers are documented in other articles. This article provides a case study of one Loyalist—Daniel Van Mater—who sought a civilian life in New York. He is the best documented Monmouth County Loyalist among those who did not seek military service. Daniel Van Mater as an Active Loyalist Daniel Van Mater was a prosperous farmer before the war. He owned 530 acres of non-contiguous farmland in Freehold and Middletown townships. Van Mater’s wealth was considerable—it included seven slaves and 53 head of livestock. While the majority of the Dutch-descended families of Monmouth County favored independence, Daniel Van Mater strongly opposed it. He went behind British lines shortly after the Declaration of Independence, living with relatives in New York. At least one of his brothers, Chrineyonce Van Mater, became a notorious Loyalist (he helped capture leading Whigs, Richard Stockton and John Covenhoven). Daniel Van Mater returned to Monmouth County on December 17, 1776, and helped raise wagons and corn for the British Army during the Loyalist insurrection . He also led a party that captured a militia officer, Tunis Vanderveer. Another Loyalist, Richard Lawrence, would testify about Van Mater: In December 1776, Mr. Van Mater was active in rendering every assistance to the troops and disarming and taking the rebels prisoner; that he, with some others, took on Tunis Vanderveer, a rebel militia Captain, prisoner, and some privates, and took them to this deponent. When the insurrection collapsed, Chrineyonce Van Mater escaped but another brother, John Van Mater “was taken by the Continental Army and sent to Maryland , 250 miles from his house, where he was confined in close gaol for six months.” Daniel returned to New York. Daniel Van Mater in New York Back in New York in early 1777, Daniel Van Mater visited and assisted some of the Monmouth militiamen who were captured at the Battle of Navesink . On February 20, he wrote David Forman of “being on Long Island with my relations, hearing of our Monmouth men being taken prisoner, went to New York to see them, petitioned for sundry of them to leave their imprisonment.” Van Mater claimed to have negotiated parole for two of the prisoners and wrote “I hope to get more released.” For this service, Van Mater made a request of Forman: I beg the favor of you to admit me to come home to my young family & pray you would consider my age, as I was out from home before you came in our Country to give me your protection - if I had known you had command I should have come home as soon as I could have obtained leave and submitted to your direction. Van Mater acknowledged participating in the Loyalist insurrection and seeking the return of his imprisoned brother, but concluded: I am a friend to my country, I humbly beg your benevolence and clemency & further pray that you will not suffer my property destroyed but protect it; please ask Mr. [John] Covenhoven and [Richard] Stockton of my conduct & friendship when confined, I have acted from no principle other than to get my brother out of confinement; times are so very precarious. We may slide into errors undesigned and know not how to steer clear of blame. If Forman responded, his letter has not survived. Van Mater stayed in New York. Daniel Van Mater Captured and Impoverished Daniel Van Mater attempted to return home in December 1778. But he was intercepted by a Continental patrol which did not accept his British-issued passport and brought him to Elizabethtown. General William Maxwell wrote George Washington about Van Mater, and the larger British practice of issuing passports to Loyalists: I ordered this Vanmater back immediately and His Lordship [Lord Stirling, William Alexander of the Continental Army] had ordered the others home before, but the inclosed [sic] shows that they had been appointed to come here long before His Lordship knew anything of the Matter & I have good reason to think that they are collecting their friends from different parts and providing passes for them on their arrival here, and refusing all others. In February, Van Mater, back in New York, wrote a memorial (petition) to Henry Clinton, commander-in-chief of British forces in America, on behalf of an unnamed group of Monmouth Loyalists: Since the commencement of the troubles, they have been uniform friends of the Government, on the 18th of December 1776, took their protection under the [Loyalist] Government of New Jersey, have since been obliged to quit their homes and property for services rendered to the Government, have since lived within British lines at a very great expense, without any assistance from the Government. The Loyalists requested "rations to be drawn for ourselves and one servant each” from the British commissary. It is unknown if Clinton responded. Daniel Van Mater petitioned for relief again on September 1, 1782. He discussed his loss of wealth and need to find employment as a streetsweeper and housekeeper for a British officer: Your memorialist has left a very considerable estate, both real and personal, and undertaken the principles of Loyalty to his sovereign, came in a very precipitate manner, with very little cash or property, has long since been constantly borrowing upon his credit, which was naturally his own, has met with a great deal of sickness to himself and family, and which has been very expensive to him... In order to get bread, did hire a horse in Brooklyn, in order to follow some public employment for which said employment gives £150 per annum and ever has kept a card house with a broom and also keeps house for the wife of an officer. Van Mater ended the memorial with a plea for help: “Your Memorialist prays your Excellency will be pleased to take favorable notice of his humble state and grant payment for the guard room and upper room, as he is unable to pay the rent for the whole of these rooms." Van Mater again petitioned for relief after the war as part of the Loyalist compensation process that was set up by the British government. In his application, he discussed: He has been entirely excluded from all the benefits of his property, and experienced considerable embarrassments while at New York, having beside himself four children to maintain - nevertheless, he has never yet enjoyed any allowance whatsoever, only about nine months rations when he first came to New York. The Similar Fate of Dr. James Boggs Van Mater was not the only well-to-do Loyalist to suffer economic ruin during the war. Dr. James Boggs of Shrewsbury, for example, also petitioned for relief after the war. “By the unfortunate issuance of the American war, your memorialist has lost all. That he has a wife and a very large family of children to provide for - that is reduced to great distress.” He stated in a second appeal for relief: He resided in Shrewsbury, in New Jersey and says that he uniformly supported British Gov't. He ever opposed the choosing of Committees , and say he never took an oath or carried arms with the Americans. A number of Loyalists were taken up in Shrewsbury in 1776. The dread of being taken made him fly to Sandy Hook, where he got aboard the Fly , sloop of war. He has continued under the protection of the British troops ever since. He acted as a mate in the Gen. Hospital at New York from July 1777, until Sept. 1783, when he was appointed by Sir Guy Carleton Asst. Surgeon on staff. His pay in both situations has been 7s, 6d per diem [a fraction of his prior income]. His wife, Mary, like other wives of Loyalists , attempted weather the war as a neutral at the family home on Rumson Neck, but in April 1782 she petitioned Governor William Livingston for permission to join her husband in New York, writing: “I have no means of support but what I can derive from my husband, have been plundered and distressed by the Continental galleys, and had so little returned that, but for the assistance of my friends, we must have suffered this winter past." The request was presumably granted as the Boggs estate was confiscated and sold in 1783. Both Van Mater and Boggs had their estates confiscated . Loyalist Women also Suffer in New York While the difficulties experienced by formerly comfortable men like Daniel Van Mater and James Boggs were real, the difficulties experienced by poorer Loyalists, and Loyalist women in particular, were generally greater. This was known by British leaders who were continually petitioned by Loyalist women for poor relief when their husbands were captured or dead. The author’s research documents twenty Loyalist women from Monmouth County emigrating to New York during the war—with complete documentation, the number certainly would be higher. Catherine Reading’s 1781 memorial provides an example of Loyalist women suffering in New York. She wrote of living "genteelly" in Monmouth County with her husband and five children before the war. But she needed to flee to New York because she could not support her family without her husband (who was in New York). Now in New York, she petitioned for rations because her husband had lost his sloop and with it, the ability to support the family. She wrote that her “children are sick and she has no means of support.” She also noted that she has previously been allowed to draw rations but now "must show cause why she could not subsist without them." General James Pattison perceived New Jersey women coming to New York as a nuisance. He wrote in August 1779: “I am really at a loss to say with regard to the Legions of women from the Jersies -- by your description of them, in no other light than as a swarm of locusts who will devour the fair crop of Long Island." Six months later, Pattison banned Loyalist women from entering New York on the pretense that some were spies. He gave the order: “You will not allow any women whatever to cross from the Jersey shore." Meanwhile, Colonel Roger Morris, charged with provisioning Loyalists in need of poor relief in New York, found that 153 as men, 208 women, and 406 children were deserving of relief in December 1779. It is impossible to know how many of these Loyalists were from Monmouth County. Related Historic Site : The Old Stone House (Brooklyn) Sources : Peter W. Coldham, comp., American Loyalist Claims (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1980), p 504. Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn. and London, 1984) p 888; Daniel Van Mater, Rutgers University, Special Collections, Loyalist Compensation Applications, Coll. D96, PRO AO 13/112, reel 11; Daniel Van Mater to David Forman, Rutgers University Library Special Collections, Neilson Family Papers; John Fell's Journal, Brooklyn Historical Society, coll. 1974.225; Daniel Van Mater and James Boggs, United Empire Loyalists, Loyal Directory: http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Info ; William Maxwell to George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 18, 1 November 1778 – 14 January 1779, ed. Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, pp. 426–427; Daniel Van Mater, Memorial, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #1769; Daniel Van Mater’s Memorial, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #5518; Memorial of James Boggs, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Audit Office, Class 13, Volume 17, folio 99; Loyalist Compensation Application of James Boggs, Rutgers University, Special Collections, Loyalist Compensation Applications, Coll. D96, PRO AO 13/112, reel 10; Letter of Mary Boggs, Mary Benjamin, "American Revolution ALS," The Collector, vol. 69, July - Aug., 1956, p 74; Memorial of Catherine Reading, BF Stevens, Report on American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain (London: Mackie & Co, 1906) v2, p117; James Pattison, "Official Letters of Major General James Pattison: Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1875, (New York: The New York Historical Society, 1876.) pp. 237, 367; Roger Morris, "Return of Refugees Receiving Provisions,” Return of Refugees, Online Institute for Loyalist Studies, www.royalprovincial.com : University of Michigan, Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, vol. 86, item 20. table 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 County Prepares for Return of French Fleet by Michael Adelberg In October 1779, British Adm. Marriot Arbuthnot prepared Sandy Hook for attack by the French fleet. Concurrently, pilots were rushed to Monmouth County to guide the French—who never came. - October 1779 - In July 1778, a large French fleet anchored off Shrewsbury Inlet (connecting the Shrewsbury River to the ocean at modern-day Sea Bright). It had the firepower to destroy the British fleet at Sandy Hook but its largest ships, when loaded, sat too deep in the water to enter the Sand Hook channel. Compounding this problem, the fleet—particularly when it first anchored—was not well supported by the Continental or New Jersey government. It took a week to establish a steady flow of provisions and send reputable pilots. Those pilots counseled that the largest French ships sat too deep into the water to cross over to Sandy Hook. So, the French weighed anchor and left for Rhode Island. They eventually headed for the West Indies. In summer 1779, word arrived that the French fleet had left the West Indies and was heading northward. Neither the British nor Continental armies knew the location of the French fleet. In New York, the German Officer Heinrich von Feilitsch wrote: "Rumor is that a French fleet is expected here… it is assumed he [Admiral Charles Henri D'Estaing] will come again to Sandy Hook. Certainly, no one knows the truth." Ships stayed in port. Brooklyn Loyalist, R.W. Parker wrote: "The damned French fleet has disconcerted everything, I did expect to have cheated winter by getting southward, but I now apprehend I shall have to continue here." On September 13, George Washington ordered Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee back into Monmouth County : "I desire that you will, with the remainder of your corps, [go] to the County of Monmouth and take a position as near the coast as you can, without making yourself liable to a surprise." His primary job was to locate the expected French Fleet and establish communications. Gathering Pilots for the French Fleet By early October, efforts were underway to get the best Sandy Hook pilots into Monmouth County. Washington wrote New Jersey Governor, William Livingston, on October 4: It is essential that some good pilots should be ready to go on Board the French fleet the moment it appears perfectly acquainted with the entrance into New York harbor. Wm. Van Drill who resides in your State I am informed is one of the best that can be had. I shall be much obliged to your Excellency immediately to engage Mr. Van Drill to go down to Monmouth and join Major Lee at English Town… If there are any others on whose skill and fidelity we can depend within your Excellency's reach, I request they may be also sent. That same day, Nathaniel Scudder of Freehold, serving in the Continental Congress, wrote Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress. Scudder discussed his absence from Congress and the expected arrival of French fleet, "We expect the appearance of the Count [D’Estaing] at Sandy Hook every hour... Pilots are providing for him as soon as possible -- two of them lodged with me last night, and are gone down this morning." The identity of these pilots is unknown. Alexander Hamilton wrote about other pilots on the 6th: "Mr. Dobbs and Mr. Redfield are engaged to go on Board the French fleet as pilots. The former is well acquainted with the passage of the Hook and the latter with the navigation of the North River.” The pilots were Wiliam Dobbs, the resident pilot at Sandy Hook before the war, and William Redfield of Connecticut. Geroge Washington wrote of them on the same day in a letter to Congress: Two pilots—Capn Dobbs & a Mr Redfield set out a few hours ago for Philadelphia—and I should hope from the measures I have taken—that there will be others immediately with you—or on the Coast of Monmouth, ready to embark on board the Count’s Squadron. At least one prominent pilot was not available. The Loyalist New York Gazette wrote on October 13 about William Fundrum, "a very skillful pilot of our harbor" who had returned to New York. In July 1778 he was "forced aboard the French fleet" and counseled the French against sailing their large warships into the Sandy Hook channel, "he absolutely refused the undertaking as hazardous and impracticable." British Prepare Sandy Hook for Attack Rumors and falsehoods about the French fleet spread rapidly. In New York City, German officer, Johann Prechtel, wrote that "seventeen French warships arrived off Sandy Hook, they then turned back to sea." Colonel Isaac Angell in northern New York wrote on October 7, "We rec'd an account that Count D'Estaing was at Sandy Hook, and had taken all the British shipping and men." On October 9, Colonel David Forman, at Manalapan, predicted that the climactic battle for New York City would soon begin: Reports say the Count is determined for New York -- should that be the case, I have determined with myself once more to have the pleasure to visit with my military friends and share with the fatigue of the attack of New York. At Sandy Hook , as they had in July 1778, the British prepared for the French attack. Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot, commanding at Sandy Hook, wrote General Henry Clinton on October 4 about the need to strengthen defenses: I must entreat your Excellency to strengthen the former batteries [at the Hook] with many more guns than heretofore because my situation is very different from Lord Howe's [in July 1778], both from the weakness of my command and the strength of the enemy; nor will it be possible to make a strong impression without the assistance of a very strong shore battery. Clinton responded affirmatively the next day, "I think Sandy Hook worthy of my own protection.” The enhanced defenses at Sandy Hook were observed by scouting parties on the Navesink Highlands. National Scudder wrote, "They now have a number of men at Sandy Hook, erecting a fort & batteries with heavy cannon." Captain John Walton wrote, "the enemy at Sandy Hook are fortifying there, I believe they expect trouble soon & hopefully they will not be disappointed." Those same scouting parties reported on positions being taken by British warships to concentrate fire on Sandy Hook’s channel. One of those reported was printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette: "Ships lying at the Hook: Russell 74 guns, Capt. Drake; Europe 64 guns, Capt. Edwards; Reasonable 64 guns, Capt. Collier; Renown 50 guns, Roebuck 44 guns" and also "a chain of ships consisting of eleven sail, were to be sunk in the channel" to impede entrance into the harbor. Samuel Culper, Jr., a Continental spy in New York also wrote about the sinking of hulks off Sandy Hook: "The transports which I intimated are taking water and ballast was for the use of the ships at Sandy Hook. The pilots say that it is now very difficult to bring a vessel in, owing to the hulks which were lately sunken there." A week later, Culper reported on four additional hulks being sunk in the channel to block the French entrance. On October 20, George Washington wrote: We are making every preparation in our power for an extensive and perfect co-operation with the fleet (if it comes) while the enemy, whose expectation of it keeps pace with ours, are equally vigorous in preparing for defence. He also wrote of the defenses at Sandy Hook: They have already sunk eight, and have 12 more large Ships to sink in the Channel within the light House… they work incessantly; and will, it is to be feared, render the entrance into the harbor extremely difficult, if not impracticable. Major Lee at Freehold also reported on British defenses at Sandy Hook: The enemy’s strength at the hook consists in two 64, the Europa & Russell—the Raisonable, Renown Roebuck & Romulus. Besides these they have a few frigates & some armed Schooners. They have sunk ten hulks in the outer channel & have more ready to be sunk, some of those sunk have got afloat & reached shore. Not knowing where and when the French would arrive, Continental officers were sent to greet them at Cape May and Little Egg Harbor. Washington ordered Alexander Hamilton to the Navesink Highlands on October 25. On October 26, however, Hamilton was at Great Egg Harbor with General Louis Du Portail, where he wrote that he “established a regular communication with Major Lee [Henry Lee] and with the city [Philadelphia]. If the fleet should appear off the Delaware we can be there in twelve hours after its first appearance, and if at the Hook [Sandy Hook] in less than four days." While Hamilton did not make it to Monmouth County, there were presumably pilots at the Navesink Highlands by October 25. The Continental Congress sent an additional pilot, Captain Patrick Dennis, to Monmouth County on October 29. This occurred even as the British, according to a letter from Lee, began dismantling their defenses at Sandy Hook. "The heavy cannon placed in the batteries at the Hook, to secure the channel, was taken off." By the middle of November, doubts were being raised about the French fleet’s expected arrival. Interestingly, one of those reports came from the prominent Loyalist, William Smith, in New York. On November 16, he expressed doubt that the French would come to New York based on intelligence provided by "people from Shrewsbury." D’Estaing’s fleet did not return to Sandy Hook—Continental and British efforts on both sides of Sandy Hook were in vain. Instead, D’Estaing unsuccessfully besieged the British base at Savannah, Georgia. In spring 1780, new intelligence was received about the French fleet’s expected arrival on the Jersey shore and a new set of preparations were made. Related Historic Site : Sandy Hook Lighthouse Sources : Marine Committee to Henry Lee, National Archives, Collection 332, reel 6, #230; Heinrich von Feilitsch quoted in Bruce Burgoyne, Diaries of Two Ansbach Jaegers (NY: Heritage Books, 1997) p56; Heinrich von Feilitsch quoted in Bruce Burgoyne, A Hessian Officer's Diary of the American Revolution (NY: Heritage Books, 1994) p37; George Washington to Henry Lee, John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 16, pp. 279, 367; R.W. Parker to Seth Norton, Naussau County Museum, Seth Norton Papers, L82.2.48; George Washington to William Livingston, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw160418)); George Washington to Henri D’Estaing In George Clinton, Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, 1777-1795 (Albany: Hugh Hastings, 1904) vol. 1, pp 292-3; Nathaniel Scudder to Henry Laurens, Letters to Delegates of Congress, vol. 14, p22-3 ( www.ammem/amlaw/lwdg.html ); Alexander Hamilton to Congress, The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 2, 1779–1781, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 198–199; The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 22, 1 August–21 October 1779, ed. Benjamin L. Huggins. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, pp. 642–643; George Washington to Congress, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw160434)) ; Isaac Angell, Diary of Isaac Angell (Providence, RI: Preston & Rounds, 1899) p77; David Forman to Nathanael Greene, University of Michigan, Clements Library, Nathanael Greene Papers, box 5, doc 23; Marriott Arbuthnot to Henry Clinton, B. F. Stevens, ed., Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America, 1773–1783, [25 vols., London, 1889–1898], vol. 10, #1007, 1009; John Walton to Congress, Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 104, item 78, vol. 24, #187, 189; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 15, p 1166; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post; Morton Pennypacker, General Washington's spies on Long Island and in New York (New York: Long Island Historical Society, 1939) pp. 63, 258-9; George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw160520)) ; Henry Lee to Alexander Hamilton, The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 2, 1779–1781, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 208–209; George Washington to Henry Lee, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 62, October 25, 1779; Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961) vol. 2, pp. 213-5; George Washington to Lord Stirling, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw170041)) ; Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw170041)) ; Pennsylvania Gazette, November 3, 1779 (CD-ROM at the David Library, #27637); Marine Committee of Congress to Henry Lee, Charles Paulin, Out-Letters of the Marine Committee and Board of Admiralty (New York: Navy History Society, 1914) vol. 2, pp. 124-5; William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971) p 184. 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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 Militia Defeated by New Jersey Volunteers Near Sandy Hook by Michael Adelberg Captain John Dennis’s militia company was stationed in the town of Shrewsbury. The town’s proximity to the British base at Sandy Hook and disaffection of many residents put the militia at risk. - October 1777 - As noted in prior articles, in late September 1777, hundreds of Monmouth County’s most committed patriots mustered under Brigadier General David Forman and left the county to join George Washington’s Army in the defense of the nation’s capital, Philadelphia. Loyalists in the British service, camped on Staten Island and Sandy Hook, had good intelligence into Monmouth County through regular contact with illegal traders and disaffected inside the county. They saw an opportunity to attack while the best defenders were away. New Jersey Volunteers Attack Shrewsbury In early October, while Monmouth County was lacking Forman’s Additional Regiment and its most spirited militia, a company of New Jersey Volunteers (Loyalists) came off Sandy Hook and launched an incursion into Shrewsbury Township. Antiquarian accounts from the 1800s combined oral histories and sources to narrate this attack. According to the plurality of accounts, a company of New Jersey Volunteers under Captain John Taylor came off Sandy Hook to take back the cargo of a beached British vessel. A local militia party under Captain John Dennis was at the village of Shrewsbury, near the beached vessel. The Loyalists turned to attack the militia prior to taking the cargo. After a brief battle, the militia was scattered. The Loyalists captured Dennis and six or nine of his men. A junior officer, John Little, was killed. Dennis was jailed in New York and died three months later. Loyalist newspapers in New York reported on the attack. The New York Gazette offered a brief account that exaggerated the scope of the Loyalist victory: On Thursday last, about 40 men, part of Col. [Elisha] Lawrence's corps, proceeded from the Light House into Shrewsbury; that same night they met with a party of rebel Captain Dennis at Shrewsbury, guarding a schooner lately taken belonging to the Crown. They immediately attacked and took all the Rebels prisoners, and they are now on their passage to this city. The New York Gazette & Weekly Mercury published two similar but not identical accounts of the skirmish. These reports provide additional details on the clash. The reports state that the Loyalists “went in search of some rebel Light Horse that he [Taylor] heard was at Shrewsbury, and soon fell in with a party of militia.” The battle was brief but intense: “a smart firing ensued.” The reports did not mention retaking the cargo of a beached vessel. The reports list the captured militia beyond Captain Dennis; they were: “Lieut. Cook Lester, George Rivets, Abraham Lane, Michael Maps, Cornelius Treat and William Herrell.” One report lists Lieutenant John Little as fatally wounded. That same report notes that John Williamson, in Taylor’s party, was shot in the thigh during the action. Responding to the Attack Dr. Thomas Henderson, a close ally of David Forman who remained in Monmouth County, conveyed news of the attack to Forman, who was leading the Monmouth troops in Pennsylvania. Henderson sent militia Captain Andrew Brown to brief Forman. Brown carried a letter from Henderson: I have the unhappiness to inform you that we have lost a brave man, John Little, who was wounded in a skirmish with the Tories & died soon after. We have also lost Capt. John Dennis & nine of his men were lost by disobeying orders, for particulars, must refer you to the bearer or until I have the pleasure of seeing [you], which I wish speedily to be the case. Henderson also referenced observations made about British ships leaving Sandy Hook. Forman forwarded Henderson's letter to George Washington with a brief note vouching for Henderson’s credibility. Forman called Henderson, "a gentleman that has taken an early & warm attachment to our cause, a man of understanding and good information." On hearing from Brown, at least one Monmouth militia company broke off from Forman and returned to Monmouth County in haste. Tunis Aumack, a member of that company, recalled: He marched part of the way to Germantown in Pennsylvania before the engagement took place, but his company was sent back to drive off the British and Tories who were pillaging along the shore in their absence. Captain John Taylor (not the same man as the John Taylor who led the Middletown Loyalist Insurrection) was a tavern keeper at Colts Neck before the war. He was among the first wave of Monmouth Loyalists who joined the British in July 1776. He served in the New Jersey Volunteers throughout the war and was among the New Jersey Loyalists selected to join the British Army during the Carolina campaign. He was captured at the Battle of King’s Mountain in October 1781. John Dennis was replaced as militia captain by his brother, Benjamin Dennis. Despite the danger, the company continued to station itself in Shrewsbury village. Benjamin Dennis was killed by Pine Robbers in 1779. A third family member, Samuel Dennis, replaced him. In December 1778, Colonel Daniel Hendrickson, commanding the Shrewsbury militia, gave $30 to Rebecca Dennis, wife of Captain John Dennis, to help support the family. The author’s prior research demonstrates that roughly half of the militia officers from Shrewsbury and Middletown, the township’s closest to Sandy Hook, were victimized during the war. Overall, leaders were twice as likely to suffer during the war as the general population. Related Historic Site : The Allen House Sources : Mary Hyde, Jersey at Germantown, New York Times, May 3, 1896, p1-2; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p204; David C. Munn, "Revolutionary War Casualties," Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, vol 55 (1980) p 144; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 1, pp. 473-4; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Tunis Aumock; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Thomas Henderson to David Forman, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 44, October 5 and 9, 1777; Michael Adelberg, “An Evenly Balanced County: The Scope and Severity of Civil Warfare in Revolutionary Monmouth County New Jersey,” Journal of Military History , January 2009, vol. 73, n. 1, pp. 9-48; Daniel Hendrickson, Certificate, Monmouth County Historical Association, Haskell Collection, box 1, folder 10. Previous Next