History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 40

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 974

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They had concealed themselves in tall In- dian grass adjoining the field he was about to harrow,-for he had a family and was obliged

to work for their support as he could find time. On his return from his night duty on the bay shore he had hitched his horse to the harrow, and after placing his musket against a tree, started to harrow across the field. When he had reached the opposite side, near the In- dian grass, he turned and started back, when two of the Refugees rose from their hiding- place, fired on him, wounding him slightly, and then rushed on him with their bayonets. Murray, being a very strong and active man, succeeded in wrenching the musket from the hands of one of his assailants and was making a desperate defense, when the third murderer came up with his loaded piece and shot him in the groin. This last wound brought him to the ground, and the cowardly wretches then repeat- edly drove their bayonets through his body, though with his last breath the fearless patriot grimly defied his murderers. He was buried a little east of the Middletown Baptist Church, with the brief inscription on his headstone : " Died in the service of his country." One of his sons, William Murray, was a contractor for the masonry of the court-house erected in Freehold in 1808, and his son, William W. Murray (grandson of the murdered patriot, Joseph), was for a long time engaged in mer -. cantile business in Middletown, and was its post- master for many years. From him, his home- stead in the village passed to his. son, George C. Murray.

An incursion made in the same month (June, 1780) is thus mentioned in a communication of that time: "The noted Colonel Tye, a mulatto, and formerly a slave [of John Corlies] in Mon- mouth County, with his motley company of about twenty blacks and whites, carried off prisoners Captain Barnes Smock and Gilbert Van Mater, spiked an iron cannon and took four horses. Their rendezvous is at Sandy Hook."

A severe fight took place in Shrewsbury township, May 24, 1781, between a party of Refugees and a militia company commanded by Captain Thomas Chadwick. Among the wounded on the American side was Francis Jeffers. On the 21st of June following, Cap- tain Samuel Carhart's company was engaged

1 The place now (or recently, occupied by John Hedden, "near the deep railroad cut in Middletown township.

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with a body of Refugees at Pleasant Valley, services were of great value to the patriot Monmouth County ; several were wounded, among them Walter Hyer, of the Monmouth militia.

On the 15th of October, 1781, a party of Refugees from Sandy Hook landed at Shrews- bury and marched undiscovered to Colt's Neck, where they took six prisoners. The alarm reached the court-house in the afternoon, and a number of people, among whom was Colonel Nathaniel Scudder (M.D.), of Freehold, went in pursuit. They rode to Black Point to try to recapture the prisoners from the enemy, and while they were firing from the bank Dr. Scudder was killed. General Forman was by his side when he was shot. Dr. Scudder was colonel of the First Regiment Monmouth militia, and one of the most prominent, active and fearless patriots of the county. He was buried at Freehold with the honors of war, in pursuance of General Forman's special order to that effect, the original of which order, directed to Captain Walton, was presented by Mrs. Forman to the New Jersey Historical Society in May, 1847.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL DAVID FORMAN Was born at Monmouth Court-House, November 3, 1745. He was the fourth son of Joseph and Eliza- beth (Lee) Forman. He was a first or second cousin of Sheriff David Forman, of Monmouth County, from which latter he was distinguished by the sobriquet of " Black David," given him on account of his swarthy complexion. Their common ancestor was John Forman, who, having been imprisoned in Scotland, and afterwards sen- tenced to banishment on account of his re- ligion, came over with other Scotch settlers about 1685, and found a safe asylum and home in Monmouth County.

Entering New Jersey College at the usual age, David Forman must have left it before the graduation of his class, as his name is not found on the centennial catalogue of that in- stitution. Early in the Revolution he was de- tailed on special duty in Monmouth, to rid the county of the lawless desperadoes-Tories, Refugees and " Pine Robbers "-who infested it more than any other county of New Jersey. .On this, as on other duties assigned him, his

- cause, and it was often remarked by his life- long friend, the Rev. John Woodhull, that David Forman alone was worth more to Mon- mouth County than a force of five hundred men without his leadership. His inveterate enemies, the Refugees, called him "Devil David," and thirsted for his blood with the ferocity of tigers. On the morning of October 16, 1781, while standing on the bank of Shark River, near Shrewsbury, conversing with his companion-in-arms, Colonel Nathaniel Scudder, a shot from a party of these miscreants who were ambushed on the opposite side of the stream missed him, but killed the brave Colo- nel Scudder. In relating this circumstance, General Forman attributed his narrow escape to an involuntary step backward, which he said was the most fortunate step for himself which he ever took, but fatal to his friend and com- patriot.

David Forman became a member of the Coun- cil of State, and was a judge of the Common Pleas for many years. When nearly fifty years of age he removed from Freehold, which had been his home 1 during the trying period of the Revolution, to Chestertown, Md. On the 10th of September, 1796, he left Chestertown and journeyed to Natchez, Miss., to attend to a large estate which he owned there. On the 19th of the following March, at Natchez, he had a fit of apoplexy, from which he remained in a state of complete insensibility for three days, and which terminated in paralysis of his left side. In this condition he remained until the 12th of August following, when, finding his health and strength considerably improved, he went to New Orleans to take passage by sea for New York, hoping to reach his home. He sailed from New Orleans on the 20th of August, but the vessel on which he had taken passage was captured in the Gulf by a British privateer, and sent to New Provi- dence, in the Bahamas. As soon as the vessel was taken, General Forman gave up all hope of ever again seeing his family, knowing that he should not be able, in his enfeebled condition, to

I His home in Freehold is now the property of Henry Brinckerhoff, Esq.

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survive the delay and privations which were then inevitable. This despondency and anxiety proved too much for his strength, and on the 12th of September, 1797, he died, at the age of fifty-two years.

On the 8th of February, 1782, a party of about forty Refugees, under command of Lieu- tenant Steelman, made a raid on Pleasant Val- ley. They took twenty horses and five sleighs, which they loaded with plunder ; and they also captured a number of prisoners, viz. : Peter Cov- enhoven, Esq. (who had been taken prisoner by the Tories in 1779), Garret Hendrickson, Samuel Bowne and his son, and Jacques Denise. At Garret Hendrickson's house a young man named William Thompson slipped away from them, and went with all possible speed to carry the information to Captain John Schenck, of Colonel Asher Holmes' regiment. Captain Schenck promptly collected his men and started in pursuit. They overtook and attacked the Refugees, and in the fight which ensued the young man Thompson was killed and William Cottrell wounded. Twelve of the Tories (three of them wounded) were taken prisoners, but in re- turning, Schenck's men unexpectedly came upon a detachment of sixteen Refugees, commanded by one Stevenson, and a sharp fight resulted, in which eight of the prisoners escaped ; but Schenck finally captured the entire Tory party (making in all twenty-one prisoners), together with nine- teen horses and some sheep, which had been taken from some of the inhabitants.

Captain John Bacon was one of the most noted and desperate of the Tory bandits who in- fested Monmouth County during the later years of the Revolution, his field of operations being mostly in that part of Monmouth which is now Ocean County, though he at times carried his depredations northward to the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers. In April, 1780, he, with his gang, robbed the house of John Holmes (Up- per Freehold) and also the houses of John and William Price. Afterwards, at Manahawkin, they attacked a party of patriots, killing Linus Pangborn and Sylvester Tilton, of Colt's Neck. At Long Beach, near Barnegat, Bacon and his men attacked a company of twenty-five militia

when they were asleep, killing the leader, Cap- tain Steelman and a private named Reuben Soper, and wounding the lieutenant, as also more than half the men of the company.

One of the many desperate acts committed by John Bacon during his bloody career was the killing, at old Cranberry Inlet, of Joshua Studson, of Tom's River, who had been a lieu- tenant in the Monmouth militia, and on the 14th of June, 1780, was appointed lieutenant of Captain Ephraim Jenkins' company, Colonel Asher Holmes' battalion, State troops. Six months after receiving the latter appointment he was killed by Bacon under the following circumstances : Three men, named, respectively, Collins, Webster and Woodmansee, then liv- ing in Dover township, Monmouth County, having heard that all kinds of farmers' produce could be sold, at high prices in silver money, to the British in New York, concluded to try the venture of loading a whale-boat with "truck" and taking it to the British post for sale. They were not Refugees, nor were they active Tories even, but they were avaricious men, undertak- ing the expedition purely for gain, and would, doubtless, have preferred to sell their boat-load to General Washington's officers if they could have done so at as remunerative prices as they expected to realize by taking it to the enemy at New York. Under these circumstances and with these intentions they loaded their boat in Tom's River, passed out through old Cranberry Inlet, reached New York in safety, sold their produce at satisfactory prices, and were about setting out on their return voyage when Captain John Bacon made his appearance and insisted that they should take him as a passenger to Tom's River, which they consented to do, though much against their inclination, for they knew that if they should be overhauled by any patriot craft, his presence in their boat would tell heavily against them.

Leaving New York, with Bacon on board, they reached the mouth of Cranberry Inlet in safety, but dared not attempt to go in by day- light. In the mean time the patriotic citizens of Tom's River (there was not a Tory allowed to live there), having heard of the voyage of these men and of their return, and being determined

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

to stop the contraband trade between their river and New York, had notified the American com- mander of the post, who thereupon sent a small party to capture them. The party, which was under command of Lieutenant Studson, took a boat, crossed the bay and concealed themselves behind a point just inside the mouth of the inlet. After dark the whale-boat came in, but no sooner had it rounded the point than, to the consternation of its crew, they saw themselves confronted by the boat containing the American militia, apparently determined on their capture. Lieutenant Studson stood up in his boat and demanded their surrender. The terrified huck- sters, being unarmed (and cowardly, too), were disposed to yield without parley, but Bacon, well knowing what his fate would be if taken, refused to submit, and promptly fired into the crew of the other boat with so true an aim that the brave Lieutenant Studson fell dead. The sudden and unexpected shot of Bacon and the death of Studson threw his men into a momen- tary confusion, and before they could recover and decide what to do the whale-boat had escaped in the darkness. The militiamen re- turned to Tom's River the same night and delivered the body of their leader to his sorrow- · stricken wife.

Bacon, upon landing from the whale-boat, made haste to rejoin his men at their rendezvous in the pine woods. The men,-Collins, Webster and Woodmansee,-knowing they could not re- main at home after this bloody affair, fled to the British army and were forced into that service; but they proved to be of very little use to the royalists, as "they were sick with small-pox and suffered everything but death" during their short stay with the British, as one of them afterwards said. Taking advantage of one of General Washington's proclamations, offering protection and safety to deserters from Clinton's army, they afterwards returned to their homes.

The militia of Monmouth and Burlington Counties were continually on the look-out for Bacon, and they had several fights with him and his gang. One of these engagements was reported to Governor Livingston by Colonel Israel Shreve, under date of " Mansfield, Decem- ber 28, 1782," as follows: "This evening a

party of Horse and Foot returned from the Sea- Shore after several days' search after Bacon and his party. Our Party consisted of six Horse- men and twenty Foot. Not falling in with him where they expected, the party returned by way of Cedar Creek Bridge, in Monmouth County. While refreshing at a tavern near that Place, Bacon and his party appeared at the Bridge. Our people attempted to force the Bridge. None but Lieutenant Benjamin Shreve got over, the second horse being killed on the bridge." Lieutenant Shreve having crossed the bridge, as mentioned in the report, finding himself unsupported, pushed his spirited horse through the banditti and escaped, though closely pursued and fired upon, wounding his horse. He made a long detour through the pines and returned to the party in safety. Another ac- count of this engagement of the militia with Bacon and his band of desperadoes was thus given in Collins' New Jersey Gazette of Janu- ary 8, 1783 :

"On Friday, the 27th ult., Capt. Richard Shreve, of the Burlington County Light-Horse, and Capt. Edward Thomas, of the Mansfield militia, having received information that John Bacon, with his banditti of robbers, was in the neighborhood of Cedar Creek, Monmouth County, collected a party of men and went im- mediately in pursuit of them. They met them at the Cedar Creek bridge. The Refugees, being on the south side, had greatly the advantage of, Captains Shreve and Thomas' party in the point of situation, but it was nevertheless determined to charge them. The onset on the part of the militia was furious, and opposed by the Refu- gees with great firmness for a considerable time, -several of them having been guilty of such enormous crimes as to have no expectation of mercy should they surrender. They were, nevertheless, on the point of giving way when the militia were unexpectedly fired upon from a party of the inhabitants near that place, who had suddenly come to Bacon's assistance. This put the militia into some confusion and gave the Refugees time to get off. Mr. William Cook, Jr., son of William Cook, Esq., was un- fortunately killed in the attack and Robert Reckless wounded, but is likely to recover. On

MONMOUTH COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION.

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the part of the Refugees, Ichabod Johnson (for whom the government has offered a reward of twenty-five pounds) was killed on the spot ; Bacon and three more of the party are wounded. The militia are still in pursuit of the Refugees and have taken seven of the inhabitants prison- · ers who were with Bacon in the action at the bridge, and are now in Burlington jail, some of whom have confessed the fact. They have also taken a considerable quantity of contraband and stolen goods in searching some suspected houses and cabins on the shore."

Bacon's career of crime was finished on the evening of April 3, 1783, by Captain John Stewart of Arneytown, and Joel Cook, who, with four other men, were out for the especial purpose of hunting him down. Cook was a brother of the William Cook, Jr., who was killed by Bacon's men at the Cedar Creek Bridge fight in the preceding December, and for that reason, especially, he was very bitter in his ha- tred of the outlaw. In the darkness of the even- ing mentioned, the party came to a small tav- ern kept by William Rose, between West Creek and Clamtown, now Tuckerton (Burlington County), where they reconnoitred, and discov- ered Bacon sitting in the house with his rifle between his knees, but with none of his party in sight. Captain Stewart at once entered and demanded his surrender, to which Bacon re- sponded by jumping to his feet and-cocking his gun. Stewart did not fire, but leaped upon Bacon and closed with him in a hand-to-hand fight, which was ended by Joel Cook, who rushed up and drove his bayonet through the body of his brother's murderer. Even after receiving the bayonet wound, Bacon attempted to escape, and was then shot dead by Captain Stewart. He was then thrown into a wagon, with his head hanging out over the tail-board, and with it the party started for Jacobstown. The Gov- ernor of New Jersey had offered a reward of £50 for Bacon dead or alive, but it was stated that Captain Stewart and his party had no de- sire to claim the reward, and that on their arrival at Jacobstown they delivered the body to Bacon's brother, who was regarded as an honest and worthy citizen.

The name of Captain Joshua Huddy is the

most historic of all in the list of Monmouth County patriots who suffered martyrdom in the cause of liberty in the war of the Revolution. He was the eldest of seven brothers, of the New Jersey family of Huddy, and " from the first hour of the war had devoted himself to the cause of Liberty." Brave as a lion, an uncom- promising patriot and an officer in the service,1 he was an inveterate foe to thegangs of Refugee wretches who were so long a scourge to the county of Monmouth, whom he watched with untiring vigilance and pursued with relentless enmity, often thwarting their plans for robbery and murder, and not infrequently bringing them to the punishment they so fully deserved. For these reasons he became an object of their es- pecial hatred,-one whom, more than any other Whig of the county (excepting General David Forman), they wished to kill or capture, and many were the plans they formed and

1 The following abstract of Captain Huddy's military rec- ord was furnished by George C. Westcott, Secretary of State, to Governor Philemon Dickinson, in 1837, to be placed before a committee of Congress on the petition of the daughter of Captain Huddy for relief:

"Joshua Huddy signs his name as Captain to a petition from the militia officers of the county of Monmouth to the Legislature, which is dated the 12th of May, 1777.

"Captain Joshua Huddy is appointed by an act of the Legislature, passed September 24th, 1777, to the command of a company of Artillery, to be raised from the Militia of the State, and to continue in service not exceeding one year.

"In the accounts of the Paymaster of the militia, there is an entry of a payment made on the 30th of July, 1778, to Captain Joshua Huddy, of the Artillery Regiment, for services at Haddonfield, under Colonel Holmes. In the same accounts a payment is also made to Captain Huddy on the first July, 1779, for the use of his horses in the Artillery.

"I find a petition to the Legislature from the people of Monmouth, dated December 10, 1781, recommending Cap- tain Joshua Huddy as a proper person to command a guard to be stationed at Tom's River. On examining the minutes of both Houses of the Legislature, I find no action had been taken on this petition ; in fact, there is no mention of it having been presented. The Legislature adjourned on the 29th of December, and did not meet again until May 15, 1782. Huddy was taken by the Tories at Tom's River, on Sunday, March 24, 1782, and it is not unlikely (as the Legislature took no action on ilre Petition) he was ordered to that post by the Council of Safety, which exercised legislative powers during the recess of the Legislature. The minutes of the Council of Safety must be either lost or destroyed, as they cannot be found."

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the attempts they made to accomplish that design.

One of these attempts (and one which very nearly proved successful) was made about the 1st of September, 1780, by a body of Refugees black and white, including among the former the mulatto leader known as "Colonel Tye." The party made an unexpected attack on Hud- dy's house, which was bravely defended by him- self and a girl of about twenty years of age, named Lucretia Emmons.1 The house had been a station for a detachment of the militia, and fortunately the guard had left there several muskets, which the girl now loaded as rapidly as possible and handed to Huddy, who fired them successively from different windows, wounding several of the assailants and causing them to greatly overestimate the number of de- fenders. This caused them to shrink from further direct attack, and they then set fire to the house, which, of course, ended all hope of successful resistance on Huddy's part, and see- ing the flames beginning to spread, he, to save his house, agreed to surrender on condition that they would extinguish the fire, which terms they accepted. The following account of the affair was given in a Monmouth County com- munication (dated September 9, 1780) to the Philadelphia Gazette.

"Seventy-two men attacked him at his resi- dence at Colt's Neck.2 They were under the command of Lieutenant Joseph Parker and William Hewlett, and advanced to the attack about an hour before day. They commenced staving a window to pieces, which aroused Huddy; the girl helped him to defend himself. Mrs. Huddy and another woman tried to per- suade him to surrender, as defense was useless. Colonel Tye, 'one of the Lord Dunmore's crew,' received a severe wound. After Huddy sur- rendered they plundered the house. The fight lasted two hours. Six militiamen came near and fired, and killed their commander. Ensign

attacked the Refugees as they embarked, and wounded Huddy. The firing made confusion in the boats and one overset, and Huddy swam ashore." The letter adds that the Refugees made a silent, shameful retreat, loaded with dis- grace, and that the militiamen made much merriment over the fact that it took seventy-two of the enemy two hours to capture a single man, whom they lost after all.

The Refugee party made a short stay at Huddy's house, and, gathering such plunder as they could easily carry, they moved rapidly away with Huddy as their prisoner and driving before them a number of cattle and sheep be- longing to him and some of the neighboring farmers. All these they lost in fording the streams crossed on their hurried march, so that the amount of booty which they secured was but trifling ; but the capture of their one prisoner, the hated Captain Huddy, was to them a matter of more exultation than if they had brought away a wagon-train loaded with plunder. And if they had been successful in keeping him, they would doubtless have wreaked their cow- ardly vengeance on him then, as another band of Refugee miscreants did, two years later.

The firing at Huddy's house had raised an alarm in the neighborhood, and intelligence of the attack was carried without delay to the nearest guard-station, upon which Ensign Vin- cent and his small party of militia immediately started in close pursuit, and the Refugee party were overtaken before they reached their boats at Black Point. Five of them were killed by the bullets of the militiamen, and during the embarkation, or immediately after they had shoved the boats off, Huddy jumped overboard, and, calling out to his friends of the pursuing party "I am Huddy!" swam to the shore and escaped, though with a painful wound in the thigh, received (as was supposed) from the militia before they recognized him.

Captain Huddy's last fight was at Tom's Vincent and sixteen of the State Regiment | River, which, in the time of the Revolution,

I Afterwards Mrs. Chambers, who was a resident of Free- hold until her death.

"The Huddy house at Colt's Neck was many years after- wards the property of Thomas G. Haight, father of General Charles Haight, of Freehold.

was a favorite base of operations for American privateers, on the lookout for British vessels carrying supplies to their army at New York and at Philadelphia. The reason why those vessels made their rendezvous there was because

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old Cranberry Inlet, opposite the mouth of the stream, was then open, with a good depth of water, and was regarded as the best and most convenient inlet along the Jersey coast, with the exception of that at Little Egg Harbor.

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History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 40

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 974

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 974