History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 37

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 37

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John Brown Lawrence was a lawyer and a member of the Provincial Council of New Jer- sey. On account of his official relations to the royal government he was arrested by the com- mittee and imprisoned in Burlington County jail, charged with holding treasonable intercourse

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with the enemy. On that charge he was brought to trial and acquitted. After the war he re- ceived from the British government a large tract of land in Canada, and settled upon it. His son was that celebrated Captain James Lawrence who commanded the American frigate "Chesa- peake " in her encounter with the British frigate "Shannon," whose last words were " Don't give up the ship," and whose monument, with that of his brave lieutenant, Ludlow, may be seen on left of the main entrance to Trinity Church-yard, in the city of New York.

Clayton Tilton, of Shrewsbury, was a Tory who joined the corps of Loyalists and received a commission as captain. Hle was taken prisoner by the Americans in the spring of 1782, at or about the time when Philip White was captured. He was confined in the jail at Freehold, but was soon exchanged for Daniel Randolph, Esq., who was made prisoner with Captain Huddy at the Dover block-house. It is supposed that he went with the British when they evacuated New York, as mention is made of a person of the same name, a New Jersey Loyalist, having mar- ried the widow of Thomas Green, at Musquash, New Brunswick, soon after the close of the war.

Elisha Lawrence, son of Jolin, the surveyor, and brother of Dr. John Lawrence, was born in 1740. At the outbreak of the Revolution he!

.John, late of Upper Freehohl." At the close of the war he left New York with the British, retaining his rank of colonel, and was retired on half-pay. The English government granted him a large tract of land in Nova Scotia, to which he removed, but finally went to Eng- land, and thence to Cardigan, Wales, where he died.

Thomas Leonard, a prominent citizen of Freehold township, was denounced by the ! Committee of Safety for his Tory proelivities. and every friend of freedom was advised to sever all connection with him for that reason. He joined the British in New York, and at the close of the war went to St. John's, New Brunswick.

Joseph Holmes, by adhering to the Royalists, lost £900. At the close of the Revolution he went to Nova Scotia, and settled at Shelburne.

John Lawrence, of Upper Freehold, Mon- mouth County, was born in 1709. He was a justice of the court and a surveyor, and in his last-named capacity he ran the division line between East and West Jersey in 1743. It was known as "Lawrence's Line," in contra- distinction to "Keith's Line " of 1687. Being advanced in years at the beginning of the

John Wardell, of Shrewsbury, an associate judge of Monmouth County, sided with the Revolution, Mr. Lawrence did not bear arms, Tories and took refuge in the British lines. His but he accepted from the British the important name is among those whose property was sold under confiscation in 1779. He had been a neighbor, in Shrewsbury, of the notorious Cap- tain Richard Lippincott, and was on the most intimate terms of friendship with him.

service of issuing Royalist protections to such Americans as he was able to induce to abjure the cause of their country and swear allegiance to Great Britain, for which he was arrested by the committee, and confined for nine months in Burlington jail. He died in 1794, at the age of eighty-five years.

John Lawrence, Jr., M. D., son of John

was sheriff of Monmouth County. Early in the, Lawrence, was born in 1747, graduated at war he joined the enemy and raised (chiefly by his Princeton, studied medicine in Philadelphia, own efforts) about five hundred men, over whom and became a somewhat prominent physician of Monmouth County. In 1776 he was arrested by order of General Washington, and was or- dered by the Provincial Congress of New he was placed in command, and was commis- sioned by the British, colonel of the First Bat- talion, New Jersey Royal Volunteers. In 1777 he was taken prisoner on Staten Island by Col- Jersey to remain at Trenton on parole, but he onel Ogden, acting under orders of General Sul- was afterwards permitted to remove to Morris- livan. In the list of persons of Upper Free- town. As his father and brother were holding positions under the British, he was narrowly hold whose property was confiscated and ad- vertised for sale in 1779 are the names of watched as a suspected Tory and a dangerous "Elisha Lawrence and John Lawrence, sons of person. Soon afterwards he joined the British

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

in New York, where he praetieed medicine, and was also captain of a company of volunteers for the defense of the city. After the close of the war (in 1783) he returned to Monmouth County, where he lived ummolested. He died at Trenton, April 29, 1830.

Rev. Samuel Cooke, D.D., Episcopal elergy- man at Shrewsbury, was educated at Cambridge, England, and came to America as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- pel in Foreign Parts, in September, 1751, loeat- ing in Shrewsbury as the successor of the Rev. triotism gave way, and he became in sympathy,

Thomas Thompson, in charge of the churches at Freehold, Middletown and Shrewsbury. The Revolution divided and dispersed his congrega- tions. As a minister of the Church of England he thought it his duty to continue his alle- gianee to the crown, and joined the British in New York. At the court-martial convened in June, 1782, for the trial of Captain Richard Lippincott for the murder of Captain Joshua Huddy, he was a witness, and was styled " the Reverend Samuel Cooke, clerk, deputy chap- lain to the brigade of guards." His property in Monmonth County was advertised to be sohl, under confiscation, at Tinton Falls, March 29. 1779. In 1785 he settled at Frederiektown. New Brunswick, as rector of a church there. In 1791 he was commissary to the bishop of Nova Scotia. He was drowned in erossing the St. John's River in a birch-bark canoe in 1795, and his son, who attempted to save his life, per- ished with him.

Lawrence Hartshorne, of Shrewsbury, made himself so obnoxious as a Royalist that he was compelled to leave the county and go to the British at New York. He was a merchant and gave the enemy mueh valuable information.

Colonel George Taylor, of the New Jersey Loyalists, was a resident in Middletown, and quite prominent on the patriot side in the be- ginning of the war, but soon afterwards went over to the British, and was rewarded by a eol- onel's commission. He was a son of Edward Taylor, who was a member of the Colonial Assembly in 1775, and a leading member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey in 1775 and 1776; but when his son, Colonel George Taylor, deserted to the enemy, the father's pa-

if not in sceret aets and services, an adherent and supporter of the Royalist eause. The suspi- cion with which he was regarded by the patriots is expressed in the following notifieation, ad- dressed to him by General David Forman :

" MIDDLETOWN, MONMOUTH Co., July 2, 1777.

"SIR :- Several complaints have been made to me respecting your conduct, particularly for acting as a spy amongst us, and from several corroborating cir- cuinstances, especially that of giving information to a party of Tories and British, commanded by your son, George Taylor, late militia Col. in this county, now a Refugee, by which means your son and his party escaped the pursuit of a body of militia sent to attack them ; I do therefore enjoin it upon you that von do for the future confine yourself to your farm at Middletown, and do not re-attempt traveling the road more than crossing it to go to your land on the north side of said town, unless by liberty obtained from the legislative body of this State, or this order be reealled, under the risk of being treated as a spy.

" Yours, &c., " DAVID FORMAN, " Brig .- Gen."

Thomas Crowell, of Middletown, joined the Loyalists and was commissioned captain in that On the 26th of November, 1777, the Conneil of corps. His property was confiseated and or- Safety " Agreed, that Edward Taylor and Jere- dered to be sold at the house of Cornelius Swart, miah Taylor, of Middletown, and George Taylor in Middletown, March 22, 1779. During the war, Governor Franklin, president of the Board of Loyalists, ordered him to execute, without trial, a Monmouth County officer (one of the the 3d of December following, the Couneil Smoeks ?), but the Refugees who captured him made sneh earnest protest that the order was not enforced. and Josiah Parker, of Shrewsbury, be sum- moned to appear before the Couneil as persons disaffected to the present Government." On "Agreed, that Edward Taylor give a Bond in £100 to stay within a mile of the College at Princeton, and not depart beyond these limits without the leave of the Council of Safety, & that he be set at liberty when Thos. Canfield, a prisoner at New York, shall be discharged by the Enemy and suffered to return home." On the 27th of May, 1778, " Agreed, that Edward

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Taylor be discharged from the Bond he gave to ' confiscated, but purchased it again after the war. the Council of Safety Some time in the beginning He was a lawyer by profession, and was at one time chief justice of Jamaica. He died at Amboy in 1806. of December last & have leave to return home for 3 weeks upon entering into another Bond to return within that time to this town [Prince- The Tories of Monmouth County (more par- ticularly than those of any other part of New Jersey) became troublesome and dangerous from the very beginning of the war of the Revolu- tion, as appears from the records of the Council of Safety and of the Provincial Congress. Tory- isin was rampant in the county as early as 1775, and it increased so rapidly in boldness and ac- tivity 1 that early in the following year the sub- jeet received the special attention and action of the Congress of New Jersey, the minutes of which body show the following entry under date of July 3, 1776 : ton] & remain here until the future order of the Council of Safety, unless he shall in the mean time procure the releasement of John Willett, now a prisoner in New York." June 13, 1778, " Mr. Edward Taylor having procured the re- lease of John Willett upon parole that whenever required to do so he shall repair to whatever place any of the King of Great Britain's Com- manders-in-Chief shall judge expedieut to order him ; AAgreed, that the said Mr. Taylor be dis- charged from his bond and have liberty to return to his place of abode until the said John Willett shall be recalled into the enemy's lines ; when the said Edward Taylor is to return to Princeton, there to continue within a mile of

" WHEREAS, authentick information has been re- ceived by this Congress that a number of disaffected persons have assembled in the County of Monmouth, the college until he shall be discharged by the preparing, by force of arms, to oppose the cause of Couneil of Safety or the Executive authority of this State ; he pledging his Faith and Honour nor to do or say anything contrary to the interest of this State or the United States, & to be sub- ject to all the laws of this State already in being, or that hereafter may be made " American freedom, and to join the British troops for the destruction of this country; and it being highly necessary that immediate measures be taken to sub- due these dangerous insurgents: It is therefore unani- mously resolved, That Colonel Charles Read, Lieuten- ant-Colonel Samuel Forman and Major Joseph Haight do take two hundred of the militia of Bur- lington County and two hundred of the militia of

John Taylor, at one time sheriff of Mon- mouth County, and a gentleman of great wealth, was born in 1716. When Admiral Lord Howe arrived in this eounty to offer terms of recon- ciliation (in 1777), he appointed Mr. Taylor " His Majesty's Lord High Commissioner of New Jersey." This office, as well as the fact that his sons adhered to the crown, and were in the British army, made Mr. Taylor very obnoxious to the Whigs. Once he was tried for his life as a spy, but was acquitted. His prop- erty was applied to the public use, but not con- fiscated, as he was paid for it in Continental money ; yet such was the depreciation of that currency that the payment was but little better than confiscation. He died at Perth Amboy, in 1798, aged eighty-two years. His daughter married Dr. Bainbridge, and two of their sons -William and James Bainbridge-were com- modores in the American navy in the War of 1812-15.

William Taylor, son of John, had his property

1 " At one time the Refugees gained the ascendancy, and had possession of the village of Freehold for a week or ten days, but were at last driven out by the Whigs. Some of them took to the swamps and woods, and. like the Pine Robbers, secreted themselves in caves burrowed in the sand, where their friends coverily supplied them with food. The most ferocious of them were hung. Those more mild, or merely suspected, were put on their parole of honor, or sent prisoners to Hagerstown, Md .. to prevent their com- munieating with the enemy, and at the close of the war had their property restored."

This statement, found in Howe and Barber's " Historical Collections of New Jersey." is doubtless unfounded. The court-house and vicinity were held for a time in 1769 and 1770 by a mob, which had gathered to " drive out the law- yers," as they said : and this was probably the origin of the tradition which formed the basis of the above state- ment. But this riot was five years before the commence- ment of the Revolution. During the war, although the Refugees madle raids nearly exerywhere else in the county. they never dared attack the county seat (though at one time such a project was on foot among them), for it was always guarded by troops,-General David Forman's militia. " Light-Horse Harry" Lee's troopers, Major Mifflin's l'ennsylvanians, or some other force sent for that par- ticular purpose.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

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

On the 13th of February, 1777, a severe fight occurred between a large body of Refugees and a detachment of the First Battalion of Monmonth 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) fonght 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 carried, by way of Perth Amboy, to New York. ' Monmouth County to Collins' New Jersey They remained there confined until the early Gazette : part of 1777, but the hardship and exposure of the journey in the intense cold, and of the subse- qnent imprisonment, were such that Mr. Stock- ton never recovered from their effects, which caused his death in 1781.

" 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:

"Jnne 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 Broekle, 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 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.

were a considerable number in the northeastern written instructions. Forman was well ac-

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 quainted with Edwards, and the two families had been on terms of intimate friendship; and now the captain told his prisoner frankly, and vet 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 Monmonth 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. Ilis 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.

2 Some accounts incorrectly give 1780 as the year of this occurrence.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

fifteen of the enemy. They, however, succeeded We, the subscribers, inhabitants of the County of in carrying off horses, cattle and other plun- 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 driven off without doing any very serious damage.

In June, 1779, the patriots of Monmouth County, wearied out and alarmed by the cou- stantly increasing depredations and outrages 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 Rei- ugees (either black 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.

1 Quite a number of negroes were banded with the Reť- ugees in their depredations. A principal one among these was a mulatto slave of John Corlies, who lived south of Colt's Neck. llis 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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History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 37

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