USA > New Jersey > New Jersey as a colony and as a state; one of the original thirteen > Part 5
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During the latter half of the year 1780 six hun- dred and twenty-four were called for in defense of the frontiers. Under Major Samuel Hayes about two hundred and fifty men were stationed in Bergen and Middlesex, north of the Raritan River; about the same number under Colonel
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Asher Holmes were in Monmouth and Middlesex; while Major Samuel Westbrook had about one hundred men in Essex. In 1780 the Legislature made the utmost endeavor to complete the conti- nental line by calling out six hundred and twenty- four men on June 14 and eight hundred and twen- ty men on December 26. In 1781 the force in Sussex County was increased owing to Indian raids, while upon December 29th of that year four hundred and twenty-two men were called out for a year's service. On the latter call the Salem, Cumberland, and Cape May companies were di- rected to do "duty on land or water."
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UNIFORMS OF BRITISH OFFICERS, 1776-79.
CHAPTER V
THE LOYALIST REGIMENTS
O F the number of Tories in New Jer- sey no completely satisfactory infor- mation ever has been or probably ever will be available, for the rea- son that the line of demarcation between Whig and Tory was not always sharply drawn. Particularly was this true in the case of the non-combatant members of the Society of Friends, who were accounted Tories by the radi- cal Whig element simply because the Quakers would not actively participate in hostilities. Yet the members of the society claimed to be strictly neutral, many claiming to possess Whig sym- pathies.
Notoriously in New York and conspicuously in Philadelphia were there many adherents to the crown-not to mention hosts of secret adherents who claimed to be friends of the movement to secure freedom, and yet who were in league with Tory leaders. Of Eastern Pennsylvania Timothy Pickering said that it was the " enemies' coun- try," while some historians have claimed that the New Jersey Tories represented one-third of the total population of the State. In this estimate, which was made by Whigs, must be included a large number of Quakers.
Stripped of all local prejudice and appeals to passion, the argument advanced by the Tories in the State of New Jersey, though specious, was
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PLAN OF FORT GEORGE : NEW YORK.
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founded upon a strict construction of the system of popular representation as then practiced in England. Over-sea only one tenth of the pos- sible electors voted for members of Parliament; yet as the King represented the royal family and the lords another distinct social element there- fore the house represented the remainder of the people. And as the colonies were an integral part of the empire so were they represented just as nine-tenths of the English population was rep- resented-by implication. Further it was added that the right of petition lay to the throne, and if the English people were satisfied why should the colonists, who had cost the government more for their support than the government had ever received in revenue, demand more recognition than their kinsfolk?
To this the reply was made that, while such an argument might be true, the representation was indirect, and consequently legislation especially designed to advance American interests never secured proper consideration by Parliament. Distance from the colonies, ignorance of their wants and needs, led to apathy or, what was worse, the passage of restrictive laws, not in the interests of the colonists, but in favor of the British workingman, of the crown revenues, or the established church.
Until the arrival of Lord Howe at Staten
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Island early in July, 1776, the Tory element in New Jersey confined its efforts to argument and supporting the three great figures of their cause: William Franklin the statesman, Jona- than Odell the poet, and Cortlandt Skinner the lawyer-soldier. But relying upon the presence of the Anglo-Hessian troops, a partially successful attempt at military organization brought to- gether those whose Tory sentiments were of sufficient strength to warrant their bearing arms. Soon after Howe's arrival sixty Shrewsbury men, inefficiently equipped, joined the royal forces. In a letter the British commander says : " I under- stand there are five hundred more in that quarter ready to follow their example "-a part of that supposedly " enormous body of the inhabitants " of New York and Connecticut and New Jersey who were only waiting " for opportunities to give proofs of their loyalty and zeal for government."
Already in portions of the colony the Tory sentiment found its expression in the organiza- tion of associations, created in opposition to the Whig town and county committees. One of these associations existed in Sussex County, whose members resolved not to pay the tax levied by the province as a war measure or to purchase goods that might be distrained from non-tax pay- ing owners, or to attend militia musters. In Cumberland the committee of safety found it nec.
RECEPTION OF LOYALISTS IN ENGLAND.
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essary to place in close confinement those instru- mental in raising a party among the ignorant and unwary whose purpose was to oppose the measures adopted for the redress of grievances, and to recommend to the assemblies, conven- tions, commissions, or councils of safety measures to " frustrate the mischievous machina- tions and restrain the wicked practices " by disarming and keeping in safe custody those who had traduced the conduct and principles of the friends of American liberty. In Salem during the months of January and February, 1776, there were " disturbances," while the committee at Elizabethtown represented that many persons were moving into the province "who may per- haps be unfriendly to the cause of American freedom."
Under Colonel (later Brigadier-General) Cort- landt Skinner recruiting officers, appointed by Howe for the Jerseys, were directed to organize the provincial troops. With headquarters on Staten Island, the rendezvous for Tories, traitors, and deserters, General Skinner made a desperate attempt to raise two thousand five hundred men. By May, 1777, he had secured about five hundred. One year later this number was increased to one thousand one hundred. Mainly from New Jersey, five hundred and fifty additional volunteers were sent to South Carolina. In the early summer of
SEAL OF NEW YORK IN 1777.
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1778 a complete roster of the six battalions of New Jersey volunteers was printed in Rivington's army list and republished in the late Adjutant-General William S. Stryker's monograph, "The New Jer- sey Volunteers (Loyalists) in the Revolutionary War." In 1777-78, in spite of the inducements held out by Howe during his winter occupancy of Philadelphia, only "174 real volunteers from Jersey, under Colonel Van Dyke," joined the provincial regiment, while in 1779 the New Jer- sey brigade had been reduced to four battalions. In 1782 only three battalions appear, skeleton regiments being sustained until the close of the Revolution.
The operations of these loyalist regiments were confined largely to guerilla warfare throughout the portions of New Jersey most exposed to at- tack. From Staten Island and New York for- age raids accompanied by plundering and mas- sacre were of constant occurrence along the fertile and easily accessible valleys of such rivers as the Passaic, Hackensack, Raritan, and smaller streams. The north shore of Monmouth County, through their efforts, was in a constant state of unrest, while the low hills of Somerset and Hun- terdon Counties were subjected, less frequent- ly, to marauding visitations of "Skinner's Greens," as the regiments were called.
Associated with these regiments, possessing a
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semblance of military organization, real or as- sumed, was a disjointed band of land-pirates known as the " Pine Robbers." Aided and abet- ted by the board of associated loyalists in New York City, whose most active spirit was William Franklin, the deposed governor of New Jersey, these "Pine Robbers," among whom were many refugees, raided the tidewater regions of Mon- mouth, Ocean, Atlantic, Salem, Gloucester, Cam- den, and Burlington Counties, their depredations being yet vividly remembered in local tradition. In contrast to their outlawry and murders the Hessian was a messenger of peace. These "Pine Robbers," most of whom were Jerseymen, were actuated by a spirit of such utter depravity that even those who hired them were said to have been in awe of their consummate wickedness. Their main purpose was to steal and murder, wreaking vengeance upon the homes and per- sons of unprotected Whigs. Hiding by day in the recesses of the " Pines " or amid the dunes of the seashore, they rode at night, says a recent writer, upon missions at which justice and humanity stood aghast. The record of their depredations aroused such a spirit that when one of the band was captured he was instantly killed, without an attempt at trial. Fagan, probably the most notorious of the "Robbers," was hung from a tree until, swinging in the wind, the flesh drop-
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ped from the bones and the skeleton remained a warning to all future criminals.
Of the organization of the loyalist regiments material of a personal character has been pre- served; a portion of its recital may throw some light upon those whose military ardor led them to take an active part. Of the long line of New Jersey loyalists many were sincerely attached to their King, ultimately sacrificing their homes and fortunes to the cause, and under the strain of poverty and social ostracism were buried in forgotten graves or died in the far away wilder- ness of the Canadian provinces. Others, think- ing the Revolution a failure, hoped by a show of devotion to the crown to secure a reward; others were merely hired assassins.
Foremost appears Brigadier-General Cortlandt Skinner, always a consistent loyalist, the last attorney-general of New Jersey under the crown, while among his lieutenant-colonels was Isaac Allen, whose property at Trenton was con- fiscated. After the war Colonel Allen became a member of the provincial council of Nova Scotia. Joseph Barton, captured at Staten Island in August, 1777; Stephen de Lancey, of New York, who for some unknown reason was commissioned in New Jersey, and with Governor Franklin was held prisoner by Governor Trumbull, of Con- necticut; Edward Vaughan Dongan, "a young
DE LANCEY ARMS.
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gentlemen of uncommon merit"; John Morris, of whom little is known; and Abraham Van Bus- kirk, subsequently mayor of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, also appear among the lieutenant-colonels of the loyalist regiments. In the person of John Barnes, the last loyal high sheriff of Hunterdon County, Trenton furnished a major, "a worthy man and a gallant soldier." Most conspicuous in the list of majors was Robert Drummond, a mer- chant, of Acquackanonk Landing, now Passaic. Between 1770 and 1774 he had served as a mem- ber of the New Jersey Assembly and the Provin- cial Congress, voting against the adoption of the State constitution. As a recruiting officer his services were of great value to General Skinner, his activity leading to the confiscation of his property in 1778. There were among the majors Thomas Leonard, of Monmouth County; Thomas Milledge, a landed proprietor of Hanover Town- ship, Morris County; and Richard V. Stockton, of Princeton, known as the " Land Pilot," who after capture was saved from ignominy by General Washington and later sentenced to death by general court martial for a murder. Associated with these as majors were the scholarly Robert Timpany, of Hackensack, and Philip Van Cort- landt, whose cousin was General Philip Van Cortlandt, of New Jersey, and whose kinsman
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was Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt, of Essex County.
Of ten adjutants and nine quartermasters little beyond their names and military services is known, nor is there much information to be had concerning seven surgeons. John Hammell, who at the opening of the Revolution was surgeon's mate under General Heard's command, went over to the enemy, but, being later captured by General Philemon Dickinson, was committed to jail for high treason. Dr. Uzal Johnson, of New- ark, like Dr. Hedden, forswore his allegiance to the Whigs, although he escaped capture. Of the chaplains Rev. Thomas Bartow had held a like position during the French and Indian War, while Rev. Charles Inglis, rector of Trinity Church, New York, and later Bishop of Nova Scotia, became first colonial bishop of the Church of England.
Captains Peter Campbell and Charles Har- rison were Trentonians, Captain Richard Cray- ford was probably from the County of Cumber- land, while Captain William Chandler was the son of the Episcopal rector of Elizabethtown, Rev. Thomas B. Chandler, D.D. From Middle- town, Monmouth County, came Captain Joseph Crowell, while the notorious Captain Cornelius Hatfield, Jr., of Elizabethtown, only escaped punishment for murder by reason of the terms [Vol. 2]
Charles Jnglis
Charles Inglis, b. in Ireland in 1734; licensed to preach 1768 ; missionary at Dover, Del., 1759 to 1765 ; assistant rector of Trinity Church, New York, 1765 to 1776 ; rector of that church 1777 ; frst bishop of Nova Scotia 1787 ; d. in Halifax, Feb. 24, 1816.
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of the treaty of peace of 1783. As early as July 2, 1776, Captain Joseph Lee, after capture, was ordered to be confined in the common jail at Trenton, as were Captains John Longstreet and Bartholemew Thatcher. Captain Samuel Ryer- son, of Pompton Plains, Captain John Taylor, of Amboy, and Captain Jacob Van Buskirk, son of Lieutenant-Colonel Abraham Van Buskirk, of Bergen County, were among the New Jerseymen holding that office.
Among the names of lieutenants appears that of the brave but vengeful James Brittain. Even a more conspicuous officer was James Moody, who, previous to the declaration of war, was a farmer. A man of decided views, he early es- poused the loyalist cause, which led him into con- stant conflict with his Whig-sympathizing neigh- bors. Joining the provincial regiment, he be- came a lieutenant in 1781, possibly as a tardy reward for his military services, which were of the most unsavory character. " Moody is out " was a cry that struck terror to the hearts of Whig farmers. Engaged in an expedition to capture Governor Livingston, he was subsequently taken prisoner by General Anthony Wayne. The Whigs did not spare Lieutenant Moody in apply- ing the doctrine of lex talionis-an attitude not infrequently taken by the Americans when Tory military officers of New Jersey regiments were
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captured. His "Narrative," which, as General Stryker says, "was believed to have been dictated by him," was printed in London in 1783. A copy with numerous manuscript an- notations by Moody is in the possession of Will- iam Nelson. Other Monmouth County lieuten- ants of lesser note were William Stevenson and John Vought; while the names of An- drew Stockton, suggesting Princeton or Bur- lington, John Throckmorton, probably of Mon- mouth, and John Van Buskirk, from Bergen County, appear on the lists of loyalist lieutenants.
Ensign John Brittain was a brother of Lieu- tenant James Brittain. Equally notorious as Lieutenants Brittain or Moody was Ensign Rich- ard Lippincott, who, until 1777, served in the First Battalion. Called to New York, he became a member of the board of associated loyalists, ranking as Captain. For the military murder of Captain Joshua Huddy Richard Lippincott was finally rewarded with a grant of three thousand acres of land upon which a portion of the city of Toronto, Canada, is now built. General Cort- landt Skinner's son, Philip Kearny Skinner, from an ensignship, which he received in 1781, ultimately became lieutenant-general of the Brit- ish army one year before his death, which oc- curred in 1826. Philip Van Cortlandt, Jr., also appears as an ensign in his father's battalion,
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while John Woodward, also an ensign, of Mon- mouth County, was one of the "fighting Quak- ers " of Tory proclivities.
In civil life one branch of the Lawrence family of Monmouth County were ardent Tories. The elder John Lawrence, who ran one of the several division lines between the provinces of East and West Jersey, was arrested by the Whigs and kept in jail, as was his son, Dr. John Law- rence, a graduate of the first class of the Phila- delphia Medical College. Another son was Elisha Lawrence, last royal high sheriff of the County of Monmouth, who, having been active in organizing a corps of loyalists, was made lieutenant-colonel of the First Battalion New Jersey Volunteers. In the skirmishing on Staten Island, August 22, 1777, Lieutenant-Col- onel Lawrence was captured by Colonel Matthias Ogden. Removing to Nova Scotia, and thence over-sea, Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence died at Cardigan, Wales.
Another prominent Tory of the same family name was John Brown Lawrence, of Burlington, a friend of the Rev. Jonathan Odell. One of his sons was Captain James Lawrence, the famous naval commander during the second war with England, and whose death upon the "Constitu- tion " at the entrance of Boston Harbor, June 1, 1813, was made memorable by his dying words:
JAMES LAWRENCE.
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" Don't give up the Ship." By a somewhat peculiar coincidence another loyalist of New Jersey, Dr. Absalom Bainbridge, was the father of a distinguished naval commander of the War of 1812-William Bainbridge, who, in 1812, fought the "Java " from the decks of the " Con- stitution," upon which James Lawrence later died. Dr. Bainbridge's son Joseph was later a chaplain in the navy.
Associated with the loyalist movement were two ministers, both of whom attained conspicu- ous positions in their respective denominations. One was Benjamin Abbott, who, as an earnest revivalist and circuit rider, later spread the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church throughout West Jersey. The other was the Rev. Thomas B. Chandler, of Saint John's Episcopal Church in Elizabethtown, the advocate of an American bishopric and a loyalist pam- phleteer of note. Of the Rev. Doctor Chandler's wife, who was active in Elizabethtown in sup- port of the Tory cause, General William Maxwell is reputed to have said: "I think she would be much better off in New York, and to take her bag- gage with her, that she might have nothing to come back for." General Elias B. Dayton married one of Dr. Chandler's daughters, Bishop Hobart married another, while a third was the wife of William Dayton. A brother of these eminent
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women, William Chandler, was a graduate of King's College (Columbia), received a warrant as captain in the New Jersey Volunteers, and died in England at the age of twenty-eight.
In the distribution of favors among the Tories who suffered at hands of the King's troops was Daniel Coxe, of Trenton, once a member of his majesty's council for New Jersey. After the burn- ing and pillaging of his property by his friends the State of New Jersey confiscated what re- mained, and Daniel Coxe, impoverished and broken hearted, sailed for England in 1785.
To refugees from other colonies New Jersey early offered an asylum. Acting Governor James Habersham, of Georgia, whose philanthropic pur- poses led him to accompany Whitefield to Savan- nah, left his colony about May, 1775, and found a welcome in New Brunswick, where in a home upon the banks of the Raritan he died during the following August. In February, 1776, John Tabor Kempe, the last royal attorney-general of New York, fled to the protection of the British ships in New York Bay, and there, in eulogistic verse, welcomed his brother office holder, Cortlandt Skinner, last royal attorney-general of New. Jersey.
CHAPTER VI
THE WORK OF THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS AND THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY
PON the 23d day of May, 1775, there assembled in Trenton the first Pro- vincial Congress of the colony of New Jersey, representatives being present from the thirteen counties of the colony in the following proportions: Ber- gen, five; Burlington, five; Cape May, one; Cum- berland, three; Essex, thirteen; Hunterdon, fif- teen; Gloucester, three; Middlesex, eleven; Mon- mouth, seven; Morris, seven; Salem, five; Somer- set, eight; Sussex, four-in all eighty-seven dele- gates, who, through the action of the committees of correspondence or by direct choice of the peo- ple, brought to the Congress the full force of the sentiment actuating their communities.
Proceeding to an election, the choice of presi- dent fell upon Hendrick Fisher, of Somerset, with Samuel Tucker, of Hunterdon, vice-president. Jonathan D. Sergeant, of Somerset, was chosen secretary, while the two assistant secretaries were William Paterson and Frederick Frelinghuysen, of Somerset.
The attitude of this Congress was one of de- liberation in determining measures to be pur- sued in defending the constitutional rights and privileges of Jerseymen. The president recom- mended that the body support civil authority, " so far as might consist with the preservation of their fundamental liberties," for maintenance of good
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SEAL OF THE BOARD OF WAR
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order and the undisturbed administration of jus- tice. A profession was further made of the " pro- foundest veneration for the person and family of his sacred majesty, George III," with " due alle- giance to his rightful authority and government." The action of the Assembly in selecting delegates to the Continental Congress then in session in Philadelphia was confirmed, and a request was made upon the Continental Congress for direc- tions concerning New Jersey's "line of conduct, in which we ought to act, as may prevent any measures we shall adopt from marring or ob- structing the general views of the Congress."
The work of the Provincial Congress, regulative of existing conditions, but not revolutionary, was directed toward several objects. Early in the ses- sion the non-exportation resolution of the Conti- nental Congress was confirmed, relations with the Friends of Liberty in Connecticut and New York were established, and a form of "association " prepared. This latter document was intended for use among the subscribers in townships. It de- clared that the inhabitants had long viewed with concern the design of the British ministry to raise a revenue in America, and had been deeply af- fected by the hostilities in Massachusetts Bay. Be- lieving that the preservation of American rights and liberties lay in a firm union, with hearts abhorring slavery and "ardently wishing for a
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reconciliation with our parent state on constitu- tional principles," the associators, "under the sacred ties of virtue and honor and love to our Country," would resolve and endeavor to support and carry into execution whatever constitutional measures may be recommended by the Continen- tal and Provincial Congresses. It was also further associated and agreed that support should be given the civil magistrates in the execution of their duty agreeable to colonial law, and that every effort should be made "to guard against those disorders and confusions to which the pe- culiar circumstances of the times may expose us."
Adjourning to the month of August of that year, the Congress, upon its assembling, recog- nized the gravity of the political phase of the sit- uation. The haphazard methods of election of delegates gave place to distinct regulation. The right of electing delegates was laid upon the in- habitants of the county qualified to vote for mem- bers of the House of Assembly. The choice of each county was limited to five delegates or less, the election for the meeting of Congress on Octo- ber 3d to be held in the respective county court houses upon the 21st day of September. "During the continuation of the present unhappy disputes between Great Britain and America " a popular election for delegates to the Provincial Congress, as well as the election of members of county com-
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mittees of observation and correspondence, was ordered for the third Thursday of September, Township committees were directed to be chosen upon the second Tuesday in March.
Having provided for organizing the militia and raising funds for the prosecution of a possible war, various questions of religious and economic importance were passed upon by the Provincial Congress. For the non-combatant members of the Society of Friends the members, according to a resolution of August 17th, " intend no violence of conscience " and recommended to the Society lib- eral contributions " to the relief of their distressed brethren." From Sussex County came the com- plaint that shop goods were greatly advanced in price owing to the situation of the market in Philadelphia and New York, while to relieve the public roads of the presence of strollers, vaga- bonds, and runaway servants, who were engaged in horse stealing and other robberies, Congress, upon August 31st, recommended that the " good people of this Province strictly ex- amine all suspicious persons passing to and fro through the different parts thereof," and if the ex- amination be unsatisfactory such offenders " be dealt with according to the laws of this Prov- ince."
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