USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1 > Part 39
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Monmouth and proceed without delay, in order to quell the aforesaid insurrection, and to disarm and take prisoners whomsoever they shall find assembled with intent to oppose the friends of American free- dom ; which prisoners so taken they shall forthwith bring before this Congress, and the said officers are empowered to take such measures as they shall think necessary for this service."
In November, 1776, when Washington was retreating across New Jersey to the Delaware, pursued by the exultant troops of. Lord Corn- wallis, Richard Stockton, one of the New Jersey members of Congress, returned to his home at Princeton to take measures for the protection of his family from the advancing army of the British. For this purpose he removed them, together with some of his property, to the house of his friend, John Covenhoven, in Monmouth County, which he supposed to be a secure place because away from the line of the enemy's march. But on the night of the 30th of No- · vember, Covenhoven's house was attacked and plundered by a party of Refugees, and Coven- hoven and Stockton were taken prisoners and carried, by way of Perth Amboy, to New York. They remained there confined until the early part of 1777, but the hardship and exposure of the journey in the intense cold, and of the subse- quent imprisonment, were such that Mr. Stock- ton never recovered from their effects, which caused his death in 1781.
On the 13th of February, 1777, a severe fight occurred between a large body of Refugees and a detachment of the First Battalion of Monmouth militia, under Colonel Nathaniel Scudder. Among the companies of the battalion taking part in the engagement were those of Captain Hankinson, Captain Barnes Smock and Captain . Samuel Carhart. Second Lieutenant John Whitlock and Privates Alexander Clark and James Crawford were among the killed. The Refugees took a number of prisoners, among whom were Matthias Rue (died in New York, February 28, 1777), William Johnson, Obadiah Stillwell (died prisoner in New York, April 13, 1777), Joseph Goodenough, William Cole (died prisoner in New York, March, 1778), James Winter (died prisoner in New York, March 4, 1777), Joseph Davis (died prisoner in New York, . March 11, 1777), James Hibbetts (died prisoner -
in New York), Lambert Johnson (died prisoner in New York, March 25, 1777), Jonathan Reid.
In Shrewsbury township, on the 3d of Oc- tober, 1777, Colonel Daniel Hendrickson, with a detachment of his battalion (the Third Mon- mouth Militia) fought a body of Refugees who came to plunder the patriots of the vicinity. In the fight, Captain John Dennis, of the militia, was taken prisoner to New York, where he died of his wounds, January 16, 1778.
On or about the 1st of April, 1778, a body of Refugees, principally belonging to Skinner's Royal Greens, came in two or three small ves- sels from Sandy Hook to Squan Inlet and Shark River, for the purpose of destroying the salt-works at those points, which (with other works at Tom's River and a number of other places on the New Jersey coast) had been built after the commencement of the war to supply the demand for salt, which could not then be had from other sources. An account of this Refugee raid is told as follows, in a letter from Monmouth County to Collins' New Jersey Gazette:
" About one hundred and thirty-five of the enemy landed on Sunday last, about ten o'clock, on the south side of Squan Inlet, burnt all the salt-works, broke the kettles, etc., and stript the beds, etc., of some people, who, I fear, wished to save them. They then crossed the river and burnt all except Derrick Longstreet's. After this mischief they embarked. The next day they landed at Shark River, and set fire to two salt-works, when they observed fifteen horsemen heave in sight, which occasioned them to retreat with such precipitation that they sunk two of their boats. The enemy consisted chiefly of Greens, the rest Highlanders. One of the pilots was the noted Thomas Oakerson." Soon after this the Refugee bands destroyed the salt- works at Tom's River, and made other raids along the shores of Raritan Bay, one of which latter was thus narrated in the Gazette of that time :
"June 3d, 1778 .- We are informed that on Wednesday morning last a party of about seventy of the Greens from Sandy Hook landed near Major Kearney's, headed the Mill
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Creek, Middletown Point, and marched to Mr. John Burrowes, made him prisoner, burnt his Mills and both his Store-Houses,-all valuable buildings,-besides a great deal of furniture. They also took prisoners Lieutenant-Colonel Smock, Captain Christopher Little, Mr. Joseph Wall, Captain Joseph Covenhoven and several other persons, and killed Messrs. Pearce and Van Brockle, and wounded another man mor- tally. Having completed these and several other barbarities, they precipitately returned the same morning to give an account of their abominable deeds to their bloody employers. A number of these gentry, we learn, were formerly inhabitants of that neighborhood." The Major Kearney here mentioned, whose residence was near the site of the present town of Keyport, was one of those (of whom there were a considerable number in the northeastern part of Monmouth County) who, while secretly favorable to the patriot cause,1 were obliged to feign adherence to the British in order to save their property from destruction by marauding parties of Refugees from Staten Island or the enemy's vessels in Sandy Hook Bay. On this occasion, one of the major's negroes, who had been secretly instructed by his master in the part he was to play, rushed into the room where the major was entertaining his unwelcome guests, and in an excited manner gave the in- telligence that a great number of rebel soldiers had just arrived at Middletown Point. Upon this, the Refugees retreated precipitately, as above mentioned, without having fully accom- plished the objects of their foray.
One of the many Monmouth County men who deserted the cause of their country in the dark days of the Revolution was Stephen Ed- wards, a young man of Shrewsbury township, who, in September, 1778," left the county and joined the Associated Loyalists in New York. Not long after his defection he received orders from Colonel George Taylor, of the Loyalists (also a renegade, and a former resident of Mid- dletown), to return to Monmouth as if on a
visit, but really for the purpose of ascertaining the positions and strength of the militia detach- ments and other American forces through the county, for which service he was furnished with written instructions. The fact of his coming being immediately ascertained, and its purpose suspected by the commanding officer of the troops here, orders were given to Captain Jon- athan Forman, of the light-horse, to arrest him.
Under these orders, Captain Forman went, on a Saturday night, to the residence of Ed- wards' father, near Eatontown, and there found him in bed, with a woman's night-cap on his head and his wife by his side. The captain was not in the least deceived by the disguise of the night-cap, and, on looking under the bed, he found Edwards' clothes, and in them the written instructions. Forman was well ac- quainted with Edwards, and the two families had been on terms of intimate friendship; and now the captain told his prisoner frankly, and yet with much emotion, that he was sorry he had found him, for that Colonel Taylor's writ- ten instructions marked him for the fate of a spy, though Edwards declared that he was not such, and could not in any way be so re- garded. He was, however, taken at once to Monmouth Court-House, where, on the follow- ing day (Sunday), he was brought before a court-martial, tried and convicted as a spy, and hanged as such at ten o'clock on Monday morn- ning. His heart-broken father and mother, wholly ignorant of the terrible swiftness of military punishments in time of war, had gone to the court-house on that same morning, anx- ious to learn of their son's fate; and they took his remains back with them to the homestead.
A Refugee raid into the northeast part of the county, in the spring of 1779, was noticed in a communication of that time, as follows: " April 26, 1779 .- An expedition, consisting of seven or eight hundred men, under Colonel Hyde, went to Middletown, Red Bank, Tinton Falls, Shrewsbury and other places, robbing and burning as they went. They took Justice Covenhoven and others prisoners. Captain Burrowes and Colonel Asher Holmes assem- bled our militia, and killed three and wounded
1 It was so claimed by him, but his sympathy with the patriots was regarded with doubt and suspicion by many.
"Some accounts incorrectly give 1780 as the year of this occurrence.
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fifteen of the enemy. They, however, succeeded | We, the subscribers, inhabitants of the County of in carrying off horses, cattle and other plun- Monmouth, actuated solely by the principles of self- preservation, being of opinion that the measure will be strictly justifiable on the common principles of war, and being encouraged thereto by an unanimous der." In May, two or three weeks after this affair, two or three hundred Refugees landed at Middletown, on a raid for plunder, but were resolve of the honorable the Congress, passed the 30th driven off without doing any very serious damage.
of October, 1778, wherein they, in the most solemn manner, declare that through every change of fortune they will retaliate, do hereby solemnly associate for the purpose of retaliation, and do obligate ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators, and every of them,
In June, 1779, the patriots of Monmouth County, wearied out and alarmed by the con- stantly increasing depredations and outrages ; jointly and severally, to all and every of the sub- committed by the Refugees and Pine Robbers, banded themselves together for mutual defense against the atrocities of these desperadoes, in an " association," the original articles of which, signed by four hundred and thirty-six persons (among whose names are found those of many of the most prominent families of the county at the present day), is now in the office of the Secretary of State, at Trenton. The articles are as follows :
" Whereas, From the frequent incursions and dep- redations of the enemy (and more particularly of the Refugees) in this county, whereby not only the lives, but the liberty and property of every determined Whig, are endangered, they, upon every such incur- sion, either burning or destroying houses, making prisoners of and most inhumanly treating aged and peaceable inhabitants, and plundering them of all portable property, it has become essentially necessary to take some different and more effectual measures to check said practices than have ever yet been taken ; and as it is a fact notorious to every one that these depredations have always been committed by the Ref- ugees (either black1 or white) that have left this coun- try, or by their influence or procurement, many of whom have near relations and friends that in general have been suffered to reside unmolested among us, numbers of which, we have full reason to believe, are aiding and accessory to those detestable practices.
scribers and their heirs, etc., to warrant and defend such persons as may be appointed to assist this asso- ciation in the execution thereof; and that we will abide by, and adhere to, such rules and regulations for the purpose of making restitution to such friends of their country as may hereafter have their houses burned or broke to pieces, their property wantonly destroyed or plundered, their persons made prisoners of while peaceably at their own habitations, about their lawful business, not under arms, as shall here- after be determined on by a committee of nine men duly elected by the associates at large out of their number, which rules and regulations shall be founded on the following principles, viz. :
"First-For every good subject of this State, residing within the county, that shall become an associator, and shall be taken or admitted to parole by any party or parties of Refugees as aforesaid, that shall come on the errand of plundering or man-stealing, the good sub- ject not actually under or taken in arms, there shall be taken an equal number of the most disaffected and influential residing and having property in the county, and them confine in the Provost jail, and treat them with British rigor until the good subjects of this State, taken as aforesaid, shall be fully liber- ated.
" Second-For every house that shall be burned or destroyed, the property of a good subject that enters with this association, there shall be made full retalia- tion upon or out of the property of the disaffected, as aforesaid.
" Third-That for every article of property taken as aforesaid from any of the associators, being good subjects, the value thereof shall be replaced out of the property of the disaffected, as aforesaid. We do also further associate for the purpose of defending the frontiers of this county, and engage, each man for himself that is a subject of. the militia, that we will turn out at all times when the county is invaded, and at other times will do our proportionate part towards the defence thereof. We, the associators, do hereby direct that a copy of this association be, as soon as the signing is completed, transmitted to the printer of the New Jersey Gazette for publication, and that the original be lodged in the clerk's office. Also, we do request that the associators will meet at the court- house on Saturday, the first of July, at one o'clock in
1 Quite a number of negroes were banded with the Ref- ugees in their depredations. A principal one among these was a mulatto slave of John Corlies, who lived south of Colt's Neck. His name was Titus, and having become a leader among the Refugees, he was commonly known as " Colonel Tye." Many of his followers were negroes who had been slaves in Monmouth County. Titus was a brave man, and far more honorable and generously inclined than were most of the white renegades with whom he was asso- ciated, and some of whom he commanded. He was mor- tally wounded in making an attack on the dwelling-house of Captain Joshua Huddy, at Colt's Neck, in 1780, as else- where mentioned. The negroes who associated with the Refugees had their rendezvous at Refugee Town, on Sandy · Hook.
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the afternoon, for the purpose of electing nine men, as before-mentioned, to carry the said association into effect."
In the First Battalion of Skinner's Royal Greens was a lieutenant named James Moody, who was one of the bravest and most efficient officers in the Refugee organization, and was for that reason often entrusted with the command of their marauding expeditions in the north- eastern part of New Jersey. An account of one of these raids into Monmouth County, led by . this Moody, is found in Collins' Gazette of June, 1779, viz. :
" A party of about fifty Refugees recently landed in Monmouth and marched undiscovered to Tinton Falls, where they surprised and car- ried off Colonel Hendrickson, Colonel Wikoff, Captain Chadwick and Captain MeKnight, and drove off sheep and horned cattle. About thirty of our militia hastily collected and made some resistance, but were repulsed with the loss of two men killed and ten wounded." The two killed were Captain Chadwick and Lieutenant Hendrickson ; and it was said by those present that Moody having taken them prisoners, had placed them in between his party and the militia to screen the former, and that they were shot by him to prevent their escaping. The account of the affair, which was given by Moody himself in a pamphlet1 published by him in England about the close of the war, was as follows :
"On the 10th of June, 1779, Lieutenant James Moody requested a Tory friend named Hutchinson, with six men and some guides, to join him in a raid into Monmouth. Moody had, besides, sixteen men. They started from Sandy Hook for Shrewsbury, and managed to elude the Rebel guard, and gained a place called the Falls [Tinton]. There they surprised and took prisoners one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, one major and two captains, with several other prisoners of lesser note, and without injury to private property, destroying a considerable magazine of powder and arms. With these prisoners and such publick stores as they were
able to bring off Mr. Hutchinson was charged, whilst Moody brought up the rear with his six- teen men, to defend them. They were, as they had expected, soon pursued by double their number and soon overtaken. Moody kept up a smart fire on his assailants, checking and re- tarding them till Hutchinson with his booty had got ahead to a considerable distance. He then also advanced for the next advantageous posi- tion, and thus proceeded from one good spot to another, still covering the prisoners, till they gained a situation on the shore at Black Point where the enemy could not flank him. But just at this time the enemy was reinforced by ten men, so they were near forty strong. Hutchin- son with one man crossed the Inlet, behind which he had taken shelter, and came to Moody's assistance; and now a warm engage- ment ensued, which lasted three-quarters of an hour.
" By this time all their ammunition, amount- ing to eighty rounds, was exhausted, and ten men, only three of whom were unwounded, were in any capacity to follow a charge. The bayo- net was Moody's only resource, and this the en- emy could not withstand; they fled, leaving eleven of their number killed or wounded. Un- fortunately for Moody, his small but gallant party could not follow up the blow, being, in a manner, utterly exhausted by a long, harassed march in hot weather. They found the Rebel captain dead and their lieutenant also expiring on the field. There was something peculiarly shocking and awful in the death of the rebel captain. He was shot by Moody whilst, with the most bitter oaths and threats of vengeance, after having missed fire once, he was again level- ling his piece at him. Soon after the engagement one of the rebels came forward with a handker- chief on a stick and demanded a parley. His signal was returned and a truce agreed on, the conditions of which were that they should have leave to take care of their dead and wounded, while Moody and his party were permitted to return unmolested to the British lines. None of Moody's men were mortally wounded. The publick stores which they brought away, besides those destroyed, sold for upwards of £500, every shilling of which was given by Moody to his
1 " Lieutenant James Moody's Narrative of his Exertions and Sufferings in the Cause of the Government since the year 1776. Authenticated by Proper Certificate. London, . 1783."
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men as a reward for meritorious service and be- haviour."
Afterwards (July 21, 1780) Moody was taken prisoner by troops of Wayne's command. He was first sent to "the Slote," then to Stony Point, then to West Point, thence to Esopus, and thence back to West Point, where Arnold was in command, and at that time preparing to execute his scheme of treason. Arnold treated Moody with great severity (even with barbarity), placing him in a rock dungeon, the bottom of which was covered with water ankle-deep. He was fettered hand and foot, and compelled to sleep on an old door raised on four stones slightly above the water and filth, while the irons on his wrists, being ragged on the inside, gave him intense and continual suffering. His case finally came to the notice of Washington, who ordered him removed to a better place of confinement, took off his irons and treated him humanely. He was soon after brought to trial by court-martial for the killing of Captain Chadwick at Black Point (as before related), contrary to the rules and usages of war. He was found guilty and would have been hanged ; but, knowing the certainty of his doom, he took a desperate chance to effect his escape, and ac- complished it (September 17, 1780) by breaking the bolt of his handcuffs, knocking down a sentinel, seizing his musket and taking his post as sentinel, where he remained undiscovered until he found an opportunity in the excitement to slip away from the provost-guard, and after wandering several days in the woods and once coming very near being recaptured, he reached Paulus Hook (Jersey City) in safety.
An account of a murdering raid in Monmouth County by the Refugees in 1780 is given as below, in Collins' Gazette of May in that year :
"On the 30th ult., a party of negroes and Refugees from Sandy Hook landed at Shrews- bury in order to plunder. During their ex- cursion a Mr. Russell, who attempted some resistance to their depredations, was killed, and his grandchild had five balls shot through him, but is yet living. Captain Warner, of the privateer brig ' Elizabeth,' was made prisoner by these ruffians, but was released by giving them .two joes. This banditti also took off several
persons, among whom were Captain James Green and Ensign John Morris, of the mili- tia."
There was also present in the house at the time of this occurrence old Mr. Russell's son, John, who was a soldier in the Continental ser- vice, but then at home on furlough to visit his parents and wife. He was wounded by the Refugees, but recovered, and after the Revolu- tion removed to Cedar Creek, in the present county of Ocean, where he lived to an advanced age, always carrying the scars of the wounds he received in his father's house on that mem- orable night, the events of which he often related, in substance as follows :
The attacking party consisted of seven Refu- gees, among whom were Richard Lippincott, Philip White, a man named Gilian and the notorious Farnham, who was afterwards hanged at Freehold: Young Russell saw them through the window as they approached the house, and at one time they were clustered together so that he wished to fire at them, telling his father he was sure they could kill four of them and that if they did so, the three others would run away. His father told him to wait and fire on them as they broke into the house. They did so, and the father fired first, but missed his aim and was then fired on and killed by the Refugee Gilian, who, in another moment, fell dead by a bullet from John Russell's gun. Immediately after- wards John was shot in the side and fell on the floor, pretending to be dead. The Refugees then plundered the house. The mother and wife of John Russell were in bed with the child, who was awakened by the noise of the firing, and cried out in alarm, "Grandmother, what's the matter ?" Thereupon one of the Refugees pointed his musket at the bed and fired, saying, "That's what's the matter." Whether he intended to kill the child or only to frighten it is uncertain. The child was badly wounded, but eventually recovered. As the Refugees were preparing to leave the house one of them pointed his musket at John Russell as he lay upon the floor, and was about to fire, saying he did not believe he was dead, but the piece was knocked up by another (Richard Lippincott), who said it was a shame to fire upon a dying man, and the-
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ball went into the ceiling. After the Refugees had gone, John got up and said to his wife, " Ducky, bring me a glass of whiskey; I'll come out all right yet." His wound was dressed and found to be less serious than was supposed, and in due time he recovered, and before the war was ended he aided in visiting merited retribution on some of the gang who killed his father. He was one of the three guards who had charge of Philip White at the time when the latter was killed in attempting to escape from them as they were taking him from Long Branch to the jail at Freehold, March 30, 1782, as mentioned elsewhere.
In June, 1780, a part or all of the First Bat- talion of Monmouth militia, Colonel Asher Holmes, was on duty on the bay shore, near the Highlands, for the purpose of preventing communication between the British vessels in the bay and the Tories and Refugees in Mon- mouth County. On the morning of the 8th of that month Joseph Murray, of the com- pany of Lieutenant Garret Hendrickson, in the First, having been on picket duty through the preceding night, obtained leave to visit his family, and proceeded to his home, in the town- ship of Middletown,1 where, soon after his arrival, he was murdered by three prowling Refugees. Murray was a farmer, and one of the boldest and most active of the Monmouth County patriots in the Revolution. He had detected and prevented several attempts to sup- ply the British fleet in Sandy Hook Bay with provisions. He had also caused the arrest of one or two of the leading Tories of Middletown · for communicating with the enemy, and like- wise had seized their horses for the use of the cavalrymen of the American army. Thus he had aroused the fear and hatred of the Tories, and it was strongly suspected that some of the leading loyalists of Middletown had instigated or hired the Refugees to waylay and murder him.
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