History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 39

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 39

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Baeon, 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 siek 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.

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 eseaped, 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- eount 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 eharge 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

The militia of Monmouth and Burlington Counties were continually on the look-out for Baeon, 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 | Reckless wounded, but is likely to recover. On

213

MONMOUTH COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION.

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-

most historie 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 ers who were with Bacon in the action at the , cause of Liberty." Brave as a lion, an uncom- bridge, and are now in Burlington jail, some of , promising patriot and an officer in the service,1 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 and murder, and not infrequently bringing them 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- I 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 Huldy for relief: ing mentioned, the party came to a small tay- ern kept by William Rose, between West Creek and Clamtown, now Tuckerton (Burlington County), where they reconnoitred, and discov- "Joshua Iluddy signs his name as Captain to a petition front the militia officers of the county of Monmouth to the Legislature, which is dated the 12th of May, 1777. ered Bacon sitting in the house with his rifle between his knees, but with none of his party in " 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. 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 " 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 iu the Artillery. 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 Goy- 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

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 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

" I find a petition to the Legislature from the people of Monmouth, dated December 10, ITSI, recommending Cap- tain Joshua Huddy as a proper person to command a gaard to be stationed at Tom's River. On examining the minutes of both Honses 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 the l'etition he was ordered to that post hy 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."

214

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

the attempts they made to accomplish that design.

One of these attempts (and one which very nearly proved successful) was made about the Ist 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- Philadelphia Gazette.

The firing at Huddy's house had raised an munication (dated September 9, 1780) to the alarm in the neighborhood, and intelligence of

" Seventy-two men attacked him at his resi- nearest guard-station, upon which Ensign Vin- dence at Colt's Neck.2 They were under the cent and his small party of militia immediately command of Lieutenant Joseph Parker and 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. 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 Vincent and sixteen of the State Regiment

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 erossed 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 attack was carried without delay to the

Captain Huddy's last fight was at Tom's River, which, in the time of the Revolution, 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

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

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

215

MONMOUTH COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION.

old Cranberry Inlet, opposite the mouth of the band trade between Cranberry Intet and New 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.

York, and to assist the patriot privateers in guarding the prizes which they brought into the old inlet from time to time. The block-house was garrisoned by detachments of the Monmouth At the little village of Dover (now Tom's River) there was erected, soon after the opening of the war, a block-house of logs, surrounded by a low stockade. This work stood on a militia and State troops, commanded at different times by several different officers, among whom were Captains Ephraim Jenkins, John Stout, James Mott and Joshua Huddy, the last-named slight elevation of ground, a short distance north ' being the most famous of all on account of his tragic fate, which made his name familiar in every part of America.

of the bridge, and about twenty rods east of the road leading to Freeholdl, on land now be- longing to Captain Ralph B. Gowdy and Thomas Singleton.3 The stockade was built of logs, seven feet high, set perpendicularly in the ground and pointed at the top. It was nearly square, and every few feet between the logs was an opening large enough to sight and discharge a firelock. On one side of this inclosure was the block-house or barracks, and on the other side a little room, half concealed under ground, which was called the powder magazine. ()n each of the four corners of the stoekade, raised high on a strong, well-braced bed of logs, was a small brass cannon mounted on a pivot, and this was intended to be the main protection against an assaulting force. No method of ingress or exit was ever made in this rude fort, and a scaling-ladder was a constant necessity.

This work and the contiguous village were occupied by the Americans during the greater part of the war as a military post, for the pur- pose of defense from Refugee raids against the salt-works in the vicinity, of checking contra-

1 " The block-house was at that time a very prominent object in the little village. On Jake's Branch, a half-a mile south of the place, stood the old saw-mill and flour- mill of Paul Schenck and Abram Schenck, now the property owned by John Aumack. On the northeast corner of what is now Water and Main Streets was the public inn kept by ! Abiel Aikens. There were also a few houses, in which lived Captain Ephraim Jenkins, Aaron Buck, Mrs. Sarah Stud- son (widow of Lieutenant Joshua Studson, who was killed December, 1780. while on duty on the coast), Daniel Ran- dolph, David Imlay, Jacob Fleming and Major John Cook. The manager of the salt-works lived in the town near his store-house. This was about all the village where this fight took place. To a small wharf on the river-bank one of Captain Adam Hyler's barges was tied, in which some traffic was made along the coast between this point and the Raritan River at Brunswick, where he resided .- Adjutant- General William S. Stryker.

Captain Huddy took command of the block- house and post at Tom's River, with his com- pany, about the first of the year 1782. About the 20th of the following March, rumors of a probable attempt to capture this post reached the brave Huddy, who, with his company? of two non-commissioned officers and twenty-three privates, made immediate preparations for a stubborn defense.

Late in the evening of Saturday, the 23d of March, Captain Huddy received information that an attacking party of British and Refugees had arrived at the month of the inlet. IIc notified the people of the village, and some of them came in to assist in the defense. Late in the night he sent a reconnoitering party down the river, but they returned without having seen the enemy, who had landed from their boats and were advancing up the road under guidance of a renegade wretch, named William Dillon, who, some time before, had been imder sentence of death at Monmouth Court-House as a spy, but was pardoned, and immediately went back to the Refugees, and soon afterwards piloted a British party into Cranberry Inlet for the ro- capture of the "Love and Unity, "3 a British

2 The following was the roll of the block-house garrison at that time, viz. :

Captain Joshua Huddy ; Sergeants David Landon and Luke Storey : Matrosses, Daniel Applegate, William Case, David Dodge, Jamas Edsall, John Eldridge, John Farr, .James Kennedy, James Kinsley. Cornelius McDonald, James Mitchell. John Mitchell, John Morris, John Niver- son, George Parker. John Parker, Joseph Parker, John Pellmore, Moses Robbins, Thomas Rostoinder, Jacob Still- wagon, Seth Storey, John Wainright and John Wilbur.

3 " Friday, Sept. 18, 1778 .- Two British armed ships and two brigs came close to the bar off Tom's River [Cran- berry Inlet], where they lay all night. Next morning, be-

216

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

vessel, which had been taken by the American privateeers. And now he was engaged in simi- lar treason to his country by guiding its enemies on their bloody errand against Huddy and his command.

At daylight on Sunday, the 24th, the British party, of about one hundred and twenty men, exclusive of a reinforcement which they had received of the gang of the Pine robber Daven- port, whose headquarters were in the wilderness of old Dover township. Huddy's force had been inereased by four or five men from the village and vicinity, yet the assailants outnum- bered them about five to one, so that resistance seemed hopeless. But he returned a defiant answer to the summons to surrender; where- upon the assault was commeneed, and the fight continued until Huddy's ammunition was ex- hausted, and he was at last compelled to sur- render.

The Royal Gazette, the Tory newspaper of New York, published by the notorious Riving- ton, gave the following, as " The authentic ae- count of the expedition against the rebel post on Tom's River, New Jersey, under the Honor- able Board of Associated Loyalists "

" On Wednesday, the 20th inst. [March, 1782], Lieutenant Blanchard, of the armed whale-boats, and about eighty men belonging to them, with Captain Thomas and Lieutenant Roberts, both of the late Bucks County Volun- teers, and between thirty and forty of the other Refugee Loyalists, the whole under com- mand of Lieutenant Blanchard, procceded to Sandy Hook under the convoy of Captain Stewart Ross, in the armed brig ' Arrogant,' where they were detained by unfavourable others are wounded, but it is thought none of

tween seven and eight o'clock, they sent seven armed boats into the inlet, and retook the ship " Washington," formerly the " Love and Unity," which had been taken by the Americans ; they also took two sloops near the bar, and captured most of the erews The captain of the ship and most of his officers escaped to the mainland in one of the ship's boats. After they got ashore, a man named Robert MeMullen, who had been condemned to death at Freehold, but afterwards pardoned, jumped into the boat hurrahing for the British, and rowed off and joined them. Another Refugee, named William Dillon, who had also been sentenced to death at Freehold and pardoned, joined this party of British as pilot."-Collins' New Jersey Gazette.

winds until the 23d. About 12 o'clock on that night the party landed near the month of Tom's River and marched to the bloek-house at the town of Dover [now Tom's River], and reached it just at daylight. On their way they were challenged and fired upon, and when they eame to the works they found the rebels, con- sisting of twenty-five or twenty-six twelve months' men and militia, apprized of their eoming and prepared for defenee.

" The post into which they had thrown them- selves was six or seven feet high, made with large logs, with loop-holes between, and a num- ber of brass swivels on top, which was entirely open ; nor was there any way of entering but by elimbing over. They had, besides the swivels, muskets, with bayonets, and long pikes for their defence. Lieutenant Blanchard sum- moued them to surrender, which they not only refused, but bid the party defiance; on which he immediately ordered the place to be stormed, which was accordingly done, and though de- fended with obstinacy, was soon carried. The rebels had nine men earried in the assault, and twelve made prisoner, two of whom are wounded. The rest made their eseape in the confusion. Among the killed was a major of the militia, two captains and one lieutenant. The captain of the twelve months' men sta- tioned there is amongst the prisoners, who are bronght safe to town. On our side, two were killed,-Lieutenant Iredell, of the armed boat- men, and Lieutenant Inslee, of the Loyalists, both very brave offieers, who distinguished themselves in the attack, and whose los> is much lamented. Lieutenant Roberts and five them are in a dangerous way.

"The town, as it is called, consisting of about a dozen houses, in which none but a piratical set of banditti resided, together with a grist and saw-mill. were, with the block-house, burned to the ground, and an iron cannon spiked and thrown into the river. A fine, large barge (called Hyler's barge) and other boat in which the rebels used to make their excursions on the coast, were brought off. Some other attempts were intended to have been made; but the ap- pearanee of bad weather and the situation of

217

MONMOUTH COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION.

the wounded (being withont either surgeon or medicines) induced the party to return to New York, where they arrived on the twenty-fifth."

Immediately after the surrender of the stock- ade and its garrison, the Refugees proceeded to burn the little village, in which all the houses were destroyed, except two,-those of Mrs. Studson and Aaron Buck. The latter was a prominent Whig; but his wife was a niece of having executed his will under the gallows, and Dillon, the British guide, and that was doubt- 1 Jess the reason for sparing the house. Mrs. 'a few minutes later, he was launched into eter- Studson was the widow of Lieutenant Studson, i nity? On his breast the murderers fastened a

who had been murdered by the outlaw, John Bacon; and the lieutenant in command of the British party had enough of humanity to inter- fere and save her house. Captain Ephraim Jenkins, who was one of the killed in the fight, lived at Tom's River, and had volunteered to help defend the block-house. His house was burned, and his family scattered to be cared for by strangers. Abiel Jenkins was another whose house was burned. He lost all his property during the war, and in his old age (1808) the Legislature passed a bill for his relief.

Among the prisoners taken with Captain Huddy were Jacob Fleming and Daniel Ran- dolph, Esq., of Tom's River,-the latter of whom had been a resident of the village at Monmonth Court-House. Their captors took them to New York, and lodged them in the noted Sugar-House prison, from whence Huddy was taken, on Monday, April 1st, 1782, to the prison of the provost-guard in the city, and there closely confined until Monday, April 8th, when he, with Daniel Randolph and Jacob Fleming (who were soon afterwards exchanged for the Tories, Aaron White and Captain Clay- ton Tilton) were taken on board a sloop1 and

" NEW YORK, April 8th, 1782.

" SIR, Deliver to Captain Richard Lippincott, the three following prisoners : Lieutenant Joshua Huddy, Daniel Randolph and Jacob Flemming, to take down to the llook, to procure the exchange of Captain Clayton Tilton and two other Associated Loyalists.

" By order of the Board of Directors of Associated Loyalists.

"S. S. BLOWERS, Secretary."

" To Mr. Commissary ('halloner."

placed in irons. They were kept ironed on board the sloop until Tuesday evening, April 9th, when they were transferred to the guard- ship at Sandy Hook, and there confined between decks until Friday, April 12th, on the morning of which day Huddy was taken by a party of Refugees to Gravelly Point, and there hanged at about ten o'clock in the forenoon of that day, signing it on the head of the barrel from which,

placard, bearing this inscription :

" We, the Refugees, having long with grief behield the cruel murders of our brethren, and finding no- thing but suel measures daily carrying into execu- tion, we therefore determine not to suffer withont tak- ing vengeance for the numerous cruelties ; and thus

It will be seen by the wording of this order that the hanging of Captain Huddy was not contemplated by Lippin- cott's superior officers. but that it was their intention to have him exchanged for Captain Tilton, and Randolph and Fleming to be exchanged for "two other Associated Loy- alists."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 39

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