USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > A history of Monmouth and Ocean counties : embracing a genealogical record of earliest settlers in Monmouth and Ocean Counties and their descendants, the Indians, their language, manners and customs, important historical events. > Part 19
USA > New Jersey > Ocean County > A history of Monmouth and Ocean counties : embracing a genealogical record of earliest settlers in Monmouth and Ocean Counties and their descendants, the Indians, their language, manners and customs, important historical events. > Part 19
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VISITORS AT THE BATTLE GROUND.
tive years, preached and prayed in that venerated chapel. Dr. Woodhull was born in the parsonage yet upon the battle ground, and is so familiar with every locality and event connected with the conflict, that I felt as if travers- ing the battle field with an actor in the scene."
Mr. Lossing next speaks of a heavy storm which compelled him to take shelter in the oldl Tonnent church ; resting his portfolio on the high back of an old pew he sketched a picture of the neat monument erected to the memory of Rev. John Woodhull, D. D., who died No- vember 22d, 1824, aged 80 years. Ho next refers to Rev. William Tement who was pastor of that flock for forty- three years, and then says :
"When the storm abated we left the church and proceeded to the battle ground. The old parsonage is in the present possession of Mr. William T. Sutphen, who has allowed the parlor and study of Tennent and Wood- hull to be used as a depository of grain and of agricul- tural implements! The careless neglect which permits a mansion so hallowed by religion and patriotic events to fall into ruin is actual desecration, and much to be reprehended and deplored. The windows are destroyed, the roof is falling into the chambers, and in a few years not a vestige will be left of that venerable memento of the 'field of Monmouth.'
" We visited the spot where Monckton fell; the place of the causeway across the morass (now a small bridge upon the main road); and after taking a general view of the whole ground of conflict and sketching a pic- ture, returned to Freehold.
" It had been to me a day of rarest interest and pleasure, notwithstanding the inclement weather, for no battle-field in our country has stronger claims to the reverence of the American heart than that of the plains of Monmouth.
" The men and women of the Revolution, but a few years since numerous in the neighborhood of Freehold, have passed away, but the narrative of their trials during the war have left abiding records of patriotism upon the
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
hearts of their descendants. I listened to many tales concerning the Pine Robbers and other desperadoes of the time, who kept the people of Monmouth county in a state of continual alarm. Many noble deeds of daring were achieved by the tillers of the soil and their mothers, wives and sisters ; and while the field of Monmouth attested the bravery and endurance of American soldiers, the inhabitants, whose households were disturbed on that memorable Sabbath morning by the bugle and the cannon peal, exhibited in their daily course the loftiest patriotism and manly courage. We will leave the task of recording the acts of their heroism to the pen of the local historian."
The following item we find published in a magazine : " Attention has lately been called to the condition of the grave of Colonel Monckton, in the burial ground of the Freehold Meeting House, in Monmouth county, N. J. It should be properly cared for, for Monckton, though a foeman to the Americans when he fell mortally wounded at the battle of Monmouth, was a gallant officer, and a man of irreproachable moral character."
COLONEL MONCKTON AND THE ROYAL GRENADIERS AT THE BATTLE OF MONMOUTH.
Lieutenant-Colonel Honorable H. Monckton, gen- erally called Colonel Monckton, according to both writ- ten and traditionary accounts was one of the most honorable officers in the service of the British-accom- plished, brave, of splendid personal appearance, and of irreproachable moral character. He was in the battle of Long Island in August, 1776, when he was shot through the body, and lay for many weeks at the point of death. He recovered, and for his gallantry on that occasion was promoted from the Fifth Company, Second Grenadiers. to be Lieutenant-Colonel, and was in command of the battalion at the Battle of Monmouth, in which the First and Second Royal Grenadiers bore a conspicuous part, and in a charge the heroic Monckton and the greater part of the officers of the Grenadiers-the flower of the British army-fell from a terrible fire from the Americans
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VISITORS AT THE BATTLE GROUND.
under General Wayne. The spot where Colonel Monck- ton was killed is said to be about eight rods north-east of the old parsonage of the Tennent Church, and he was buried about six feet from the west end of the church. About thirty years ago a board was set up to mark his grave by William R. Wilson, a native of Scotland, who will long and favorably be remembered by hundreds of citizens of Monmonth and Ocean as a snecessful teacher and for his many good qualities of head and heart. He died at Forked River, in Ocean county, thirty-five years ago, and the respect retained for him by his old scholars near the battle-ground and elsewhere in Monmouth, was evidenced by the fact of their sending for his body and giving it a suitable final resting place in the vicinity of his first labors in this county. Mr. Wilson, or "Dominie " Wilson, as he was familiarly called on account of his once having been a clergyman, deserves a more extended notice than we have space to give.
On the board prepared and set up by Mr. Wilson was inscribed :
HIC JACET. COLONEL MONCKTON, Killed 28 June, 1778. W. R. W.
Mr. Wilson may have been induced to put up the board by noticing that in the reminiscences of the battle published by Henry Howe, who visited the ground in 1842, attention was called to the fact that no monument marked the grave.
In 1850, Benson J. Lossing visited the battle ground and made a sketch of the head-board which was given in his valuable work, the Field Book of the Revolution, and it is also given in a late number of the American Historical Record. Mr. Lossing says that when he visited the grave "the only monument that marked the spot was a plain board painted red, much weather worn, on which was drawn in black letters the inscription seen in the picture given. The board had been set up some years before by a Scotch schoolmaster named William Wil-
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
son, who taught the young people in the schoolhouse upon the green near the old Meetinghouse." In speak- ing of Colonel Monckton he says : "At the head of his grenadiers on the field of Monmouth, he kept them silent until they were within a few rods of the Americans, when waving his sword he shouted, "Forward to the charge!" Our General Wayne was 'on his front. At the same mo- ment " Mad Anthony" gave a signal to fire. A terrible volley poured destruction upon Monckton's grenadiers and almost every British officer fell. Amongst them was their brave leader. Over his body the combatants fought desperately until the Americans secured it and bore it to the rear."
CAPTAIN MOLLY PITCHER.
HER BRAVERY AT FORT CLINTON AND MONMOUTH- HER SAD END.
From various articles relating to this noted woman the following are selected :
"The story of a woman who rendered essential ser- vice to the Americans in the battle of Monmouth is founded on fact. She was a female of masculine mould, and dressed in a mongrel suit, with the petticoats of her own sex and an artilleryman's coat, cocked hat and feathers. The anecdote usually related is as follows: Before the armies engaged in general action, two of the advanced batteries commenced a severe fire against each other. As the heat was excessive, Molly, who was the wife of a cannonier, constantly ran to bring her husband water from a neighboring spring. While passing to his post she saw him fall and on hastening to his assistance, found him dead. At the same moment she heard an of- ficer order the cannon to be removed from its place, com- plaining he could not fill his post with as brave a man as had been killed. "No," said the intrepid Molly, fixing her eyes upon the officer, "the cannon shall not be re- moved for the want of some one to serve it ; since my brave husband is no more, I will use my utmost exer- tions to avenge his death." The activity and courage
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TRIAL OF REV. WILLIAM TENNENT FOR PERJURY.
with which she performed the office of cannonier during the action, attracted the attention of all who witnessed it, and finally of Washington himself, who afterward gave her the rank of lieutenant and granted her half pay dur- ing life. She wore an epaulette and was called over after Captain Molly .- How's Collections.
Lossing in the Field Book of the Revolution thus mentions Molly Pitcher :
" Captain Molly was a stout, red-haired, freckled- faced young Irish woman with a handsome, piercing ove. The French officers, charmed by the story of her bravery, made her many presents. She would sometimes pass along the French lines with her cocked hat and get it al- most filled with crowns."
The same writer visited the locality of Forts Mont- gomery and Clinton on the Hudson, where Molly Pitcher ended her days and there found old residents who "re- membered the famous Irish woman called Captain Molly, the wife of a cannonier who worked a field piece at the battle of Monmouth on the death of her husband. She generally dressed in the petticoats of her sex with an artilleryman's coat over. She was in Fort Clinton with her husband when it was attacked in 1777. When the Americans retreated from the fort, as the enemy scaled the ramparts her husband dropped his match and fled. Molly caught it up, touched off the piece and then scampered off. It was the last gun the Americans fired in the fort. Mrs. Rose remembered her as "Dirty Kate," living between Fort Montgomery and Buttermilk Falls, at the close of the war, where she died a horrible death from syphilitic disease. Washington had honored her with a lieutenant's commission for her bravery on the field of Monmouth nearly nine months after the battle, when reviewing its events."
THE REMARKABLE TRIAL OF REV. WILLIAM TENNENT FOR PERJURY.
The remarkable trial of Rev. William Tennent. of
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
the old Tennent Church, for perjury, took place at Tren- ton in 1742 before Chief Justice Robert Hunter Morris.
The indictment upon which Mr. Tennent was tried was one of a series of indictments all growing out of the same transaction-the alleged stealing of a horse by the Rev. Mr. Rowland ; and the individual who was the cause of all the woes and perils which befel the unfortunate gentlemen who were supposed to be implicated, was a notorious scoundrel named Tom Bell, whose exploits would not suffer by a comparison with those of Jonathan Wild or Jack Sheppard. He was an adept in all the arts of fraud, theft, robbery and forgery. But his chief amusement consisted in traveling from one part of the country to another personating different individuals and assuming a variety of characters. By turns he was a sailor, a merchant, a lawyer, a doctor, a preacher, and sustained each character in such a way for a time as to impose on the public. The late Judge Richard S. Field, in a paper read before the New Jersey Historical Society in 1851, reviewing the reports of this remarkable trial, furnished quite a list of the misdeeds of this villian.
By far the most brilliant of all Tom Bell's achieve- ments was unquestionably that out of which grew the in- dictment of Rev. William Tennent for perjury. It so happened that Bell bore a striking resemblance to the Rev. Mr. Rowland, a popular preacher of the day, and a friend and associate of Whitfield and the Tennents.
One evening Bell made his appearance at a tavern in Princeton dressed in a dark grey coat. He there met John Stockton, Esq., father of Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who, coming up to him, at once accosted him as the Rev. Mr. Rowland, and invited him to his house. Bell assured him that he was mistaken-that his name was not Rowland. Mr. Stock- ton acknowledged his error, and told him it proceeded from the very close resemblance he bore to that gentle- man. This link was enough for Tom Bell. It at once occurred to him that here was a chance for playing one of his tricks. The very next day he went into what was
TRIAL OF REV. WILLIAM TENNENT FOR PERJURY.
then the county of Hunterdon and stopped at a place where the Rev. Mr. Rowland had occasionally preached, but where he was not well known. Here he introduced himself as Mr. Rowland, was invited to the house of a gentleman in the neighborhood, and asked to preach on the following Sabbath. He consented to do so, and notice to that effect was accordingly given. When the day arrived he accompanied the ladies to church in the family wagon, while the master role alongside on a very fine horse. As they approached the church, Bell sud- denly discovered that he had left his notes behind him, and proposed riding back after them on the fine horse. This was at once agreed to, and Bell mounted the horse, rode back to the house, rifled the desk of his host and took his departure, leaving the assembled congregation to wonder what had become of the Rev. Mr. Rowland.
We may imagine the satisfaction which Bell must have derived from this exploit. Mr. Rowland was a noted preacher of great pungency and power, and thundered the terrors of the law against all impenitent sinners. He was called by the professed wits of the day "Hell Fire Rowland." He was literally a terror to evil-doers, and therefore it may be presumed an object of peculiar aver- sion to Tom Bell. The idea then of bringing such a man into disgrace and at the same time of pursuing his favorite occupation must have been doubly pleasing to him.
Rev. Mr. Rowland was at this time absent from New Jersey. He had gone for the purpose of preaching in Pennsylvania or Maryland in company with Rev. William Tennent and two pious laymen of the county of Hunter- don by the names of Joshua Anderson and Benjamin Stevens, members of a church contiguous to the one at which Tom Bell proposed to officiate. As soon as they returned, Mr. Rowland was charged with the robbery of the horse. At the next term of Oyer and Terminer for Hunterdon county an indictment was preferred against him.
Great was the excitement produced by this event,
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
owing in part to the peculiar state of the Colony at the time. Through the labors of Mr. Whitfield and his asso- ciates, among whom were Messrs. Tennent and Rowland, a great revival of religion had taken place in the Provinces But there was a party in the Colony who were very hostile to this religious movement, who de- nounced its anthors as fanatics and enthusiasts, and some of whom did not hesitate to brand them as hypo- crites and imposters. Conspicuous among this party was the Chief Justice, Robert H. Morris, who, whatever claim he may have had to respect, was certainly not dis- tinguished either for religion or morality. To such men this charge against Mr. Rowland, one of the preachers who were turning everything upside down, was of course occasion of great triumph and rejoicing, and the most strenuous efforts made to procure his conviction. The Grand Jury at first refused to find a bill against him, but they were reproved by the Court and sent out again. They again returned without an indictment, but the Court sent them out a second time with threats of pun- ishment if they persisted in their refusal, and then they consented to find a true bill.
Thus Mr. Rowland was subjected to the ignominy of a trial. A clear case was made out on the part of the prosecution. A large number of witnesses swore posi- tively that he was the identical person who had commit- ted the robbery. On the other hand, the defendants called as witnesses Messrs. Tennent, Anderson and Stevens, who testified that on the very day on which the robbery was committed they were in company with Mr. Rowland at some place in Pennsylvania or Maryland, and heard him preach. An alibi being thus clearly proved, the jury without hesitation acquitted him.
But still the public mind was not satisfied. The per- son whose horse had been stolen and whose house had been robbed was so convinced that Mr. Rowland was the robber, and so many individuals had, as they supposed, seen him in possession of the horse that it was resolved not to let the matter drop. Messrs. Tennent, Anderson
ยท).)-
TRIAL OF REV. WILLIAM TENNENT FOR PERJURY.
and Stevens were therefore arraigned before the Court of Quarter Sessions, of Hunterdon, upon the charge of having sworn falsely upon the trial of Mr. Rowland, and indictments were found against each of them for perjury. These indictments were all removed to the Supreme Court. Anderson, conscious of his innocence and un- willing to be under the imputation of such a crime, de- manded his trial at the next term of Over and Terminer. What evidence he offered in his defence does not appear, but he was convicted and condemned to stand one hour on the Court House steps with a paper on his breast whereon was written in large letters, "This is for wilful and corrupt perjury." The trials of Tennent and Stevens were postponed.
Tennent we are told, being entirely unused to legal matters and knowing no person by whom he could prove his innocence, had no other resource but to submit him- self to Divine will, and thinking it not unlikely that he might be convicted, had prepared a sermon to preach from the pillory. True, he employed Mr. John Coxe, an eminent lawyer of the Province to assist, and when he arrived at Trenton he found Mr. William Smith, one of the most distinguished members of the New York bar, who had voluntarily attended on his behalf; and Mr. Tennent's brother Gilbert, who was then pastor of a church in Philadelphia, had brought with him Mr. John Kinsey, an eminent lawyer of that city, to aid in his de- fence. But what could they do withont evidence ? When Mr. Tennent was desired by his counsel to call on his witnesses that they might examine them before going into Court, he declared he knew no witnesses but God and his conscience. His counsel assured him, that however well founded this confidence might be, and however im- portant before a heavenly tribunal, it would not avail him in an earthly court. And they therefore urged that an application should be made to postpone the trial. But this he would by no means consent to. They then in- formed him they had discovered a flaw in the indictment and proposed that advantage should be taken of it. (Mr.
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
Stevens took advantage of this flaw and was cleared.) Mr. Tennent resisted with great vehemence, saying it was another snare of the devil, and before he would consent to it he 'would suffer death. In the meantime the bell summoned them to the Court. While on the way to the Court House Mr. Tennent is said to have met a man and his wife who stopped and asked if his name was Tennent. He said it was, and begged to know if they had any busi- ness with him. They replied, "You know best." They then informed him that they resided in a certain place in Pennsylvania or Maryland, and that upon one occasion he in company with Rowland, Anderson and Stevens had lodged at their house; that on the following day they had heard him and Rowland preach ; that some nights before they left home. they had each of them dreamed that Mr. Tennent was at Trenton in the greatest possible dlistress, and that it was in their power, and in theirs alone to relieve him ; that this dream was twice repeated and in precisely the same manner to each of them, and that it made so deep an impression on their minds that they had at once set off upon a journey to Trenton, and were there to know of him what they were to do. Mr. Tennent handed them over to his counsel, who, to their astonishment, found that their testimony was entirely satisfactory. Soon after, Mr. John Stockton, who mis- took Tom Bell for Rev. Mr. Rowland, also appeared and was examined as a witness for Mr. Tennent. In short the evidence was so clear and conclusive, that, notwith- standing the most strenuous exertion of the Attorney- General to procure a conviction, the jury without hesita- tion acquitted Mr. Tennent.
TOMS RIVER DURING THE REVOLUTION.
RESIDENTS IN THE VILLAGE AND VICINITY.
Major John Cook, who was killed in the action at the Block House, was a captain in the Second Regiment, Monmouth, and appointed Second Major in same regi- ment, October 13, 1777, probably to succeed James Mott,
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TOMS RIVER DURING THE REVOLUTION.
who lived at one time near Toms River. Public sales of privateers and their cargoes were sometimes held at his house. The following notice in reference to the settle- ment of his estate was published in the New Jersey Gazette, January 22, 1783 :
"All persons indebted to the estate of Major John Cook, late of Toms River, deceased, are hereby requested to settle their respective accounts, on or before the 10th day of February next, as this is the last notice they are to expect from
THOMAS COOK,
Administrator.
N. B .- On said day the above administrator will at- tend at George Cook's tavern at Crosswicks, in order to adjust matters agreeable to law ; also to receive all de- mands against said estate that shall be properly proven."
John Coward, before and during the early part of the war, was a prominent business man at Toms River and quite an extensive owner of timber land. He was as- sociated for a time with James Randolph. He died, probably in 1779. His executors were James Randolph and Tobias Hendrickson, who published the following notice in January, 1780 :
"To be sold at public vendue, on Tuesday, February, 1780, at the house of Daniel Griggs at Toms River, seventy acres of very good young green cedar swamp, very handy to water carriage, on the branches of Cedar Creek, late the property of John Coward, deceased. At- tention will be given for several days before the sale at Toms River to show the premises. The land will be sold as best suits the purchasers, as to quantity and attention will be given by
" JAMES RANDOLPH, "TOBIAS HENDRICKSON,
Executors."
James Randolph, just before and during the early part of the war, was perhaps more extensively engaged in lumber and other business than any other person in the vicinity of Toms River. He was an executor of John
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
Coward and at the sale of some timber land belonging to the estate of Coward, in February, 1780, Randolph adver- tised also to sell property of his own as follows :
" The subscriber has for sale a very good farm, in situation convenient for salt works near Toms River, with near three hundred acres of goo.l salt meadows, which will support one hundred head of cattle, and is exceeding handy for fish and oysters. Also a good saw mill with a large quantity of valuable cedar swamp to said mill. They will be sold at private sale before vendue, or on that day, or any day after, when any purchaser shall offer, and a good title made.
"JAMES RANDOLPH. " December 30, 1779."
He probably died about the latter part of 1781, or early part of 1782. The following substance of a notice published in March, 1782, regarding the settlement of his estate, gives an idea of the extent of his business :
"To be sold at public vendue, on Monday, April 29, 1782, at the house of Samuel Forman, inn keeper, Upper Freehold, the following tracts of land of estate of James Randolph, late of Monmouth County:
"One plantation at Mosquito Lane, containing 350 acres, the greater part salt meadows, with a frame dwelling house, salt works, good fishery, &c. One saw mill in Davenport (mouth of Wrangle Creek) near Toms River, goes with two saws, together with pine and cedar lands. Two-fifths of a new saw mill and four- fifths of land adjoining, near James Randolph's late dwelling, held in partnership with Tobias Hendrickson. Eighteen or twenty lots of cedar swamp in Wrangle Creek, Union, Horricone, Lenkers, &c.
"Apply to Tobias Hendrickson, near the late dwelling of James Randolph, or to Benjamin Randolph, Chestnut street, Philadelphia. Signed by Benjamin Randolph and Tobias Hendrickson, who were his executors. Part of his estate, the Mosquito Lane plantation, was again ad- vertised to be sold the following year, June, 1783."
There was a James Randolph in the militia of Mon-
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TOMS RIVER DURING THE REVOLUTION.
mouth, possibly the same.
Daniel Randolph, Esquire, was among the prisoners taken at the Block House in March, 1782. A person of this name lived at Freehold, down to within two years previous to the burning of Toms River. Sales were ad- vertised to take place at his house at Freehold in 1780. The appearance of the same name at Toms River, short- ly after the decease of James Randolph, suggests the pos- sibility of his being a relative, and that he came to Toms River on business connected with the care or settlement of the estate of James.
James Attin must have been somewhat prominent at Toms River in the early part of the war, judging from the following advertisement published in the New Jersey Gazette. He may have been from Middlesex county where the surname was not unusual. His advertisement was as follows :
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