History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 24

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 1148

USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth county, New Jersey > Part 24

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1 Minutes of the Provincial Congress and Council of Safety, 1775-76, p. 171.

2 Jnne 15, 1775.

3 The Continental Congress had convened in Philadelphia on the 10th of May. 1775.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

In adopting "the plan for further regulating the Militia, etc.," the Congress

" Resolved, 1. That the several County or (where there is no County) the Township Committees do transmit the names of all the Militia Officers chosen within their respective Districts to the Provincial Congress, or to the Committee of Safety, to be by them commissioned, agreeable to the directions of the Continental Congress.

" Resolved, 2. That all officers above the rank of a Captain, not already ehosen or appointed, pursuant to an ordinance of this Congress made at their last session, be appointed by the Congress or, during their recess, by the Committee of Safety.

" Resolved, 3. That where the inhabitants of differ- ent Townships have been embodied into one Company, Battalion or Regiment, before the 20th day of June last, it is not the intention of this Congress that they should be dissolved, provided they govern themselves according to the rules and directions of the same."

Ten resolutions succeeding those above quoted directed the organization of the militia of the province into regiments and battalions, and the number of each of these organizations to be appointed to the several counties ; established the order of their precedence; prescribed the manner in which they were to be raised, armed and governed ; provided for the collection of fines from " all effective men between the ages of sixteen and fifty who shall refuse to enroll themselves and bear arms," or who, being en- rolled, should absent themselves from the mus- ter, and directed how such fines should be applied. The troops directed to be raised and organized were to be equal to about twenty-six regiments, apportioned to the different counties as follows: The militia of Bergen County to compose one regiment ; of Essex, two regiments or four battalions; of Middlesex, two regi- ments ; of Monmouth, three regiments; of Morris and Sussex, each two regiments and one battalion ; of Burlington, two regiments and a company of rangers ; of Gloucester, three bat- talions ; of Salem, one regiment ; of Cumber- land, two battalions ; of Cape May, one battal- ion ; of Somerset, two regiments ; and of Hunterdon, four regiments. And it was pro- vided " that the precedency of' rank in the militia shall take place in the following order : 1. Essex ; 2. Salem ; 3. Gloucester ; 4. Morris ; 5. Sussex ; 6. Cape May; 7. Monmouth ; 8.

Somerset ; 9. Bergen; 10. Cumberland ; 11. Middlesex ; 12. Hunterdon; 13. Burlington ; and that, when there may be more than one regiment or battalion in a county, the prece- deney shall be determined by the county commit- tee, according to their former seniority."

Besides providing for the organization and arming of the militia, as above mentioned, the Congress resolved :

"That for the purpose of effectually carrying into execution the recommendation of the Continental Congress respecting the appointment of minute-men, four thousand able-bodied effective men be enlisted and enrolled in the several counties in this Province, under officers to be appointed and commissioned by this Congress or Committee of Safety, who shall hold themselves in constant readiness, on the shortest notice, to march to any place where their assistance may be required for the defence of this or any neigh- boring colony."

These " minute-men " were to be enlisted for a term of four months, at the end of which time they were to be " relieved, unless upon ac- tual service." They were given precedence of rank over the common militia of the province, and whenever called into actual service were "to receive the like pay as the Continental Army, and be furnished with camp equipage and pro- visions ; and also be provided for, if wounded or disabled in the service of their country." Their officers were to be nominated by the sev- eral county committees, or (in counties having no general committee) by the township commit- tees jointly, "with assurance that as soon as their companies are completed, they shall re- ceive commissions from the Provincial Congress or the Committee of Safety." The organiza- tion of the " minute-men" was directed to be made in companies of sixty-four men each, in- eluding officers, these companies to be formed into ten battalions for the whole province, and the apportionment to the several counties to be as given below,-viz. : Bergen County to fur- nish one battalion of four companies ; Essex County, one battalion of six companies ; Mid- dlesex County, one battalion of six companies ; Monmouth County, one battalion of six com- panies ; Somerset County, one battalion of five companies ; Morris County, one battalion of six companies ; Sussex County, one battalion of five

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MONMOUTH COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION.

companies ; Hunterdon County, one battalion of eight companies ; Burlington County, one battalion of five companies ; Gloneester and Salem Counties, one battalion of seven compa- nies,-four to be furnished by Gloucester and one by Salem ; Cumberland County to furnish three companies, and Cape May County one company, all to act as " independent companies : at Princeton. of light infantry and rangers."

Whatever arms and accoutrements were oh- tained by the county and township committees were directed to be issued to the minute-men in preference to the militia until the former were armed and equipped, the remainder to be used for arming the militia. It was

"Resolved, That this Congress do recommend to the several County Committees in this Colony that they immediately employ gunsmiths to make such a num- ber of arms as they shall judge to be necessary and wanting in their respective counties ; and that in the manufacture of said arms particular attention be paid to the directions of the Continental Congress.

It was also by the Congress

Ordered, That the several County Committees do appoint one Surgeon to each Regiment and Battalion belonging to their respective Counties; and certify the name of such Surgeon to the next Congress, or to the Committee of Safety, in order to his being prop- erly commissioned."

The above mentioned, with the appointment of Philemon Diekinson as brigadier-general, were all the important military measures adopted at this session.

The Congress adjourned on Thursday, August 17th, after a session of seventeen days, its last act prior to adjourment having been the ap- pointment of Hendrick Fisher, Samuel Tucker, Isaac Pearson, John Hart, Jonathan D. Ser- geant, Azariah Dunham, Peter Sehenck, Enos Kelsey, Joseph Borden, Frederick Frelinghuy- sen and John Schureman as a Committee of Safety to control public affairs during the re- ress.

This was the first Committee of Safety of the province of New Jersey,-a body which came to be greatly feared by those inimical to the canse of America. During the times when the Congress was not in session this committee wielded extraordinary and almost unlimited

power.1 It does not appear, however, that it became necessary for the committee to exercise this power in any very important publie busi- ness in the less than seven weeks which inter- vened between its formation and the reassem- bling of the Provincial Congress. During that interval the sessions of the committee were held

At its August session, the Provincial Con- gress of New Jersey had provided for a new election of deputies from the counties of the province, and under this provision, Monmouth county elected Edward Taylor, John Covenhoven and Joseph Holmes, who, with forty-four other delegate- from the several counties, formed the Second Provincial Congress, which convened in its first session, at Trenton, on the 3d of Otto- ber, 1775.

1 Mr. Charles D. Deshler, in his excellent paper read he- fore the New Brunswick Historical ('lub at its fifth anniver- sary, said of this Committee of Safety : " In effect it consti- tuted a practical dictatorship, residing not in one man in- deed, but in a majority vote of eleven or more persons, who were appointed by the Provincial Congress from time to time. Its members were invariably chosen by the deputies to the Provincial Congress from among their own number, and were men upon whom they could rely for courage, pru- . dence, firmness, activity and sagacity. They exercised, as a committee, all the powers intrusted to or assumed by the Provincial Congress, save that of legislation. They con- ducted all the correspondence and conferences with the Continental Congress and Provincial Congresses of other colonies ; they gave orders for the arrest of suspicious or disaffected persons ; they tried and acquitted or condemned to imprisonment or detention men who were charged with disaffection or neting in concert with, or giving information to, the enemy ; they kept expresses in constant readiness to forward intelligence with all speed : they appropriated publie moneys, commissioned officers in the militia or in the corps of minute-men, held prisoners of war, settled con- troversies between officers, civil and military, acted as a Court of Admiralty, confiscated the property of those who aided and abetted the public enemy, took order for the general security of the Province and for its defense, and in fine, they were the executive branch of the government, as the representatives of the power and authority of the Pro- vincial Congress during its recess. All which they exer- cised (with an ability and integrity that has never been im- peached) till they were superseded, in October, 1776, by the first Legislature under the new State Constitution (adopted July 2, 1786), which invested the Governor and a Council of twenty members with certain powers fora limited time under the title of 'The tiovernor and Council of Safety.'"

130

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

The Congress composed of these members >0 recently elected and fresh from among the peo- ple was the first thoroughly representative body which had convened in New Jersey under the Revolutionary order of things. Among the business transacted by this Congress was the passage, on the 24th of October, of " An Or- finance for compelling the payment of the ten

session, and the subject had received further attention at the session hell in August ; not- withstanding which, a large amount still re- mained uncollected,-payment being refused,- for which reason this ordinance was passed, authorizing more stringent measures against de- linquents and directing the chairman or deputy chairman of any county committee to order the properly authorized persons " to make distress on the goods and chattels" of such delinquents, and to " make sale thereof at public vendue, giving five days' notice thereof by advertise- ment in such town or county."

But the most important of the measures taken at this session were those which related to the mustering and equipping of the military forces, and to raising the funds necessary for-that pur- pose. One of these [passed October 28th] was 4. An Ordinance for regulating the Militia of New Jersey," which, after reciting in its preamble that " Whereas, The ordinances of the late Pro- vincial Congress for regulating the Militia of this Colony have been found insufficient to answer the good purposes intended, and it ap- pearing to be essentially necessary that some further regulations be adopted at this time of imminent danger," proceeded to adopt and «lireet such " further regulations" as were deemed necessary to accomplish the object for which the previous ordinances had been found insufficient,-viz., the enrollment in the militia of all able-bodied male inhabitants of the prov- ince between the ages of sixteen and fifty years (except those whose religious principles forbade them to bear arms), their muster, equip- ment and instruction in military tactics under command of proper officers. It was not ma- terially different from the earlier ordinances

passed for the same purpose, except that its re- quirements were more clearly defined, thorough and peremptory, and that evasion or non-com- pliance was punished by severer penalties and forfeitures, and these to be rigidly and relent- lessly enforced. One of the provisions of the ordinance was to the effect that every man en- rolled in the militia " shall, with all convenient thousand pound tax from such persons as have , speed, furnish himself with a good musket or refused to pay their quotas." The resolution

firelock and bayonet, sword or tomahawk, a steel levying this tax had been passed at the May ramrod, priming-wire and brush fitted thereto, a cartouch-box to contain twenty-three rounds of cartridges, twelve flints and a knapsack, agreeable to the direction of the Continental Congress, under the forfeiture of two shillings for the want of a musket or a firelock, and of one shilling for the want of the other above enumerated articles ;" also " that every person directed to be enrolled as above shall, at his place of abode, be provided with one pound of powder and three pounds of bullets of proper size to his musket or firelock."

The following extracts from the minutes of the Congress are given here as having reference to military matters at that time in Monmouth county, viz :

" October 12, 1775 .- A petition from the officers of the united regiment of Frechold and Middletown, praying that the officers therein named may be commissioned, was read ; Or- dered, That commissions do issue accordingly. "October 20, 1775 .- The Congress met pur- suant to adjournment. The certificate of the election of officers of the several companies of Militia in the Township of Freehold was read ; Ordered, That commissions do issue to the sev- eral officers therein named.

" The certificate of the election of field offi- vers for the battalion of minute-men for the County of Monmouth was read ; Ordered, That commissions do issue to the officers therein named.

" October 25, 1775 .- Ordered, That commis- sions do issue to Samuel Forman, Esq., Lieu- tenant-Colonel, Elisha Lawrence, Esq., First Major, and James Mott, Esq., Second Major of the Second Regiment of Militia in the County of Monmouth."

The purchase of arms, ammunition, eamp

I31

MONMOUTH COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION.

equipage, artillery and other military necessities for the province, and the furnishing of funds for such purchase by the issuance of bills of credit, were provided for by an ordinance passed October 28th,1 of which the preamble and most important sections were as follows :

" Whereas, It appears essentially necessary at this time of increasing danger that the inhabitants of this Colony should be furnished with ammunition and other military stores, and that this Colony should be put into some proper posture of defence:

". It is therefore Resolved und Directed, That Messrs. Samuel Tucker, Abraham Hunt, Joseph Ellis and Alexander Chambers be, and they are hereby, ap- pointed Commissioners for the Western Division ; and that Hendrick Fisher, Azariah Dunham, Abra- ham Clark and Samuel Potter be, and they are hereby, appointed Commissioners for the Eastern Division of this Colony; which said Commissioners, or the major part of them, are hereby authorized and directed to receive of the Treasurers of this Colony, for the time being, appointed by this Congress, or either of them, all such sum or sums of money as they shall from time to time find necessary to expend for the use of this Colony, pursuant to the resolutions hereinafter mentioned.

" And it is further Resolred and Directed. That the said commissioners be, and they are hereby, author- ized and directed to contract with artificers for, or otherwise purchase, three thousand stand of arm> at any price not exceeding Three Pound- Seven Shil-

The sneveeding part- of the ordinance pro- vided for the numbering, signing, counter-ign- ing, counting and inspection of the bills, with various other details, all which were laid out and directed with great minuteness a- a safe- guard against the po -- ibility of irregularity or lings each stand; and also to purchase ten tons of | fraud. And it was further provided by the gunpowder, twenty tons of lead, one thousand car- touch-boxes, at any price not exceeding nine Shil- lings each; a quantity of flints. brushes, priming wire and cartridge paper, not exceeding one hundred Pounds in valne; two chests of medicine, not exceed- ing three hundred Pounds in value; four hundred tents, with camp equipage, etc., not exceeding one thousand eight hundred and seventy Pounds in value; two thousand blankets, not exceeding fifteen hundred Pounds in value; a number of axes, spades, and other intrenching tools, not exceeding three hundred Pounds in valne ; and a train of artillery not exceed- ing five hundred Pounds in value .?

2 Minutes of the Provincial Congress and Council of Safety, 1773-70, p. 246.

2 It was found that the articles named could not be pur- chased for the sums to which the commissioners were limited ; and thereupon, on the 10th of February, 1776, the Congress gave them unlimited authority to purchase. by the following action ; " Whereas, By an ordinance of this Congress, passeil at Trenton the 28th day of October Iast, the Commissioners therein named and appointedl to purchase firearms and military stores were partienlarly restricted in the price to be paid for said firearms, whereby

"AInd whereas, It is absolutely necessary to provide a fund for defraying the above expense, it is therefore Resolved und Directed, That bills of credit to the amount of thirty thousand 3 Pounds Proclamation money+ be immediately prepared, printed and made as follows, to wit : Five thousand seven hundred bills, each of the value of three Pounds; six thousand bills, each of the value of one Pound ten Shillings; tour thousand bills, each of the value of fifteen Shil- lings; and three thousand bills, each of the value of six Shillings; which bills shall be in the form follow- ing, to wit :

". This bill, by an Ordinance of the Provincial Congress, shall pass current in all payments within the Colony of New Jersey for Proclamation Money ; Dated the day of 1775, and shall be im- pressed with such devices as the inspectors of the press hereinafter appointed shall direct ; and when printed shall be delivered to Hendrick Fisher and Azariah Dunham, Esquires, of the Eastern Division, and to John Hart and John Carey, of the Western Division, four of the signers thereof, in eqnal moieties ; one moiety to be signed by the Treasurer and signers of the Eastern Division, and the other moiety by the Treasurer and signers of the Western Division. . . . "

ordinance that " for the better credit and offer. tual sinking of the -aid bills of credit there shall be assessed, levied and raised on the sev- eral inhabitants of this colony, their goods and chattel-, land- and tenement -. the sum of ten thousand pounds annually in every of the years one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, one thon-and seven hundred and eighty-five, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six ;" and the apportionment of this annual tax

the manufactory thereof hath been greatly impedel; for the remedy whereof it is resolved unanimously that the said Commissioners have full power immediately to proceed in contracting for firearms upon the best terms in their power, without any limitation or restriction; and that this Congress will in convenient time pass an ordinance for that purpose."-Minutes Provincial Congress and Council of Safety, 1775-76. pp. 858, 359.

3 The amount was raised to fifty thousand pounds by an ordinance passed February 28, 1776.

4 Proclamation money was reckoned at seven shillings six- pence to the dollar.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

was made identical in the amounts assigned to ' of the Congress of New Jersey to promote the each of the counties with that of the ten thou- sand pound tax, before mentioned, levied at the session of the preceding May.

The question of the enlistment and organiza- tion of two battalions of soldiers in New Jer- sey for the Continental service was among the business brought before the Congress at this session. It originated in the receipt, on the 13th of October, of a letter from the President of the Continental Congress to the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, it being as follows :

" PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 12, 1775.

"GENTLEMEN,-Some late intelligence,1 laid be- fore Congress, seems to render it absolutely necessary, for the protection of our liberties and the safety of our lives, to raise several new battalions, and there- fore the Congress have come into the inclosed resolu- tions, which I am ordered to transmit to you. The Congress have the firmest confidence that from your experienced zeal in this great cause you will exert your utmost endeavors to carry the said resolutions into execution with all possible expedition.

"The Congress have agreed to furnish the men with a hunting-shirt, not exceeding the value of one dollar and one-third of a dollar, and a blanket, pro- vided these can be procured, but these are not to be made part of the terms of enlistment.

" I am, gentlemen,

" Your most obedient humble servant, " JOHN HANCOCK. " President."

"By order of Congress, I forward you forty-eight commissions for the captains and subaltern officers in New Jersey Battalions.

"TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CONVENTION OF NEW JERSEY.

The resolutions of the Continental Congress referred to in Mr. Hancock's letter were passed by that body on the 9th and 12th of October, recommending to the Congress of New Jersey that it should " immediately raise, at the ex- pense of the continent, two battalions, consist- ing of eight companies," of men for the service, ' from invasion or other causes. They saw fit, and specifying the manner in which they were however, to call an extra session of the Provin- to be enlisted and officered and the pay and cial Congress, as appears by the following ex- allowances they would receive.

A reply was at once sent (October 13th) to ' -viz. : the Continental Congress, expressing the desire

common interests of the colonies as far as lay in their power and to raise the troops as desired, but objecting to the manner in which the field-officers for the proposed battalions were to be appointed. This disagreement resulted in some further correspondence, and the matter was afterwards satisfactorily arranged.

On the 28th of October the Provincial Con- gress passed a resolution recommending to the Continental Congress the appointment and com- missioning of the following-named field-officers for the two battalions to be raised in New Jer- sey,-viz. : For the Eastern Battalion, the Earl of Stirling colonel, William Winds lieutenant- colonel, and William De Hart major; for the Western Battalion, William Maxwell colonel, Israel Shrieve lieutenant-colonel, and David Ray major. These appointments were soon after made, and commissions issued by direction of the Continental Congress.

The Provincial Congress adjourned on the 28th of October, " to meet at New Brunswick on the first Tuesday in April next, unless sooner convened by the President, Vice-President or the Committee of Safety." The gentlemen ap- pointed to form this committee, to act for the public welfare in the recess of this Congres-, were Samuel Tucker, Hendrick Fisher, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Lewis Ogden, Joseph Holmes, Jolin Mehelm, Isaac Pearson, John Pope, Azariah Dunham, John Dennis, Augus- tine Stephenson, Ruloff Van Dyke.

The committee held a five days' session at Princeton, from the 9th to the 13th of January, 1776, at which a number of Tories and disaf- fected persons were severely dealt with, and provision was made for the erection of beacons and the keeping of express-riders in constant readiness to convey intelligence in case of alarm

tract from their minutes, dated January 12th,

" This Committee received several resolutions and determinations of the Continental Congress respect- ing raising one new battalion in this Province, erect- ing and establishing a Court of Admiralty, advising

I Unfavorable intelligence from the Canadian expedition under Generals Schuyler and Montgomery.

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MONMOUTH COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION.

the forming some useful regulations respecting the quires every exertion of the friends of American free- Continental forces raised in this Colony; which requisitions, together with many other important con- verns, render the speedy meeting of a Congress of this ,tal Congress have applied to our body urging the great- province absolutely necessary. This Committee have therefore appointed the meeting of said Congress to be at New Brunswick on Wednesday, the thirty-first day of this instant, January."

The Congress accordingly met at the time and place designated, and commenced business on the 1st of February.

The recruitment of the two battalions which Congress at its previous session had ordered to be raised had proceeded successfully and with rapidity. Lord Stirling, having been commis- sioned colonel of the First or Eastern Battalion, had taken with him to it several of the officers and a considerable number of the men of the regiment of militia which he had previously com- manded, and he found very little difficulty in fill- ing the ranks of his new command. Colonel Max- well's ( Western) battalion was recruited with nearly equal facility. In the last week of No. vember (1775) Stirling established his head- quarters at Elizabethtown to fill his battalion to the maximum, six companies of it having previously been ordered to garrison the fort in the Highlands ou the Hudson River. Lieu- tenant-Colonel Winds was soon after stationed, with a part of the battalion, at Perth Amboy. Colonel Maxwell's battalion was ordered to the vicinity of the Hudson River, and both the Eastern and Western Battalions, having been filled, or nearly so, were mustered into the Con- tinental service in December.

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History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 24

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co. Number of Pages: 1148

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 1148