USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Old times in old Monmouth > Part 16
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his mother exhibit a tone of high-wrought gratitude that was worthy of her exalted spirit :
Second Letter of Lady Asgill to Count de Vergennes-Outpourings of a Grateful Heart.
Exhausted by long suffering, overpow- ered by an excess of unexpected happiness, confined to my bed by weakness and lan- guor, bent to the earth by what I have un- dergone, my sensibility alone could supply me with strength sufficient to address you.
Condescend, sir, to accept this feeble effort of my gratitude. It has been laid at the feet of the Almighty ; and believe me, it has been presented with the same sincerity to you, sir, and to your illustrious sovereigns. By their august and salutary intervention, as by your own, a son is re- stored to me, to whom my whole life was attached. I have the sweet arsurance that my vows for my protectors are heard by the Heaven to whom they are ardently offered. Yes, sir; they will produce their effect before the dreadful and last tribu- nal, where I indulge in the hope that we shall both meet together-you to receive the recompense of your virtues ; myself, that of my sufferings. I will raise my voice to that imposing tribunal; I will call for those sacred registers in which your humanity will be found recorded-I will pray that blessings may be showered on your head-upon him, who, availing himself of the noblest privileges received from God-a privilege no other than di- vine-has changed misery into happiness, has withdrawn the sword from the inno- cent head, and restored the worthiest of sons to the most tender and unfortunate of mothers.
Condescend, sir, to accept this just tri- bute of gratitude due to your virtuous sentiments. Preserve this tribute, and may it go down to your posterity as a testi- mony of your sublime and exemplary beneficence to a stranger, whose nation was at war with your own, but whose ten- der aff ctions had not been destroyed by war. May this tribute bear testimony to my gratitude, long after the hand which expresses it with the heart, which at this moment only vibrates with the vivacity of grateful sentiments, shall be reduced to dust ; even to the last day of my existence, it shall beat but to offer you all the re- spect and all the gratitude with which it
THERESA ASGILL.
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OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTH.
LADY ASGILL TO MAJOR GORDON.
A Grateful Mother to a True and Tried Friend of her Son.
SIR :- If distress like mine has left any expression but for grief, I should long since addressed myself to you, for whom my sense of gratitude makes all acknowl- edgments poor indeed. Nor is this the first attempt ; but you were too near the object of my anguish to enter into the heart-piercing subject. I constantly pray- ed to Heaven that he might not add to his sufferings the knowledge of ours. He had too much to feel on his own account, and I could not have concealed the direful effect of his misfortune on bis family, to whom he is as dear as he is worthy to be so. Unfit as I am at this time, by joy almost as insupportable as the agony be- fore, yet sir, accept this weak effort from a heart deeply affected by your humanity and exalted conduct, as Heuven knows it has been torn by affliction. Believe me, sir, it will only cease to think in the last moments of life, with the most grateful, affectionate, and respectiul sentiments to you. But a fortnight, since, I was sinking under a wretchedness I could no longer struggle with. Hope, resignation, had almost forsaken me. I began to experi- ence the greatest of all misfortunes-that of being no longer able to bear them .- Judge, sir, the transition the day after the blessed change takes place. My son is released ; recovered ; returned; arrived at my gate; in my arms. I see him unsub- dued in spirits, in health ; unreproached by himself, approved by his country in ; the bosom of his family, and without anx- iety, but for the happiness of his friend; without regret, but for having left him behind. Your humane feelings that have dictated your conduct to him, injured and innocent as he was, surely will participate in our relief and joy. Be that pleasure yours, sir, as well as every other blessing that virtue like youts and Heaven can be- stow. This prayer is offered up for you in the heart of transport, as it was in the bit- terness of my anguish. My gratitude has been soothed by the energy it has been offered with. It has ascended to the throne of mercy and is, I trust, accepted. Unfit as I am, for nothing but susceptibil- ity so awakened as mine could enable me to write ; and exhausted by too long anx- iety ; confined at this time to a bed of sickness and languor-yet I could not
suffer.another interval to pass, without this weak effort. Let it convey to you sir. the most heartfelt gratitude of my husband and daughters. You have the respect and esteem of all Europe, as an honor to your country and to human nature, and the most zealous friendship of, my dear and worthy Major Gordon,
Your affectionate and obliged servant, THERESA ASGILL.
The fate of Captain Asgill, while it was suspended in doubt, "filled the public prints all over Europe with anxious wishes for his release ;" and in the year 1785. when the excitement of a former period had subsided, the story of this intended reprisal was made the groundwork of a tragic drama by the celebrated French writer, M. de Sauvigny ; while in Ander- son's History of the American War, pub lished immediately after the peace, the author has deemed the incidents so mem- orable, that he has given a portrait of the young Asgill in the costume of the day.
While Captain Asgill's fate was in doubt, the British instituted a court martindl to try Captain Lippencott, who was supposed to be the principal agent in the murder of Huddy. It will be seen, by extracts from the evidence of witnesses, hereafter given, that Governor Franklin, the President of the Board of Associated Royalists. gave verbal orders for the execution of Huddy, and that he afterwards basely endeavored to throw the whole blame on Lippencott. When Franklin gave the verbal orders, he designated Huddy as a proper subject for retaliation, as he said Huddy had been a chief prosecutor of refugees, and partic- ularly instrumental im hanging Stephen Edwards, the refugee spy. The decision of the court will be given hereafter. It cleared Lippencott-perhaps justly. Il'so, Gov. William Franklin should have been hanged for Huddy's murder. Sir Guy Carleton, who was the British commander at New York, when Lippencott was ac- quitted, appeared disposed to do justly, and assured Washington, "that notwith- standing the acquittal of Lippencott, he reprobated the measure, and gave assor- ance of prosecuting a further inquiry. "- Thanks to Sir Guy, he broke up this Board of Associated Royalists The war was about closing. and the necessities l'or retal- iation about over ; and hence the request of the King and Queen of France, through Count Vergennes, for the release of Asgill, were favorably received.
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OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTH.
PETITION TO CONGRESS OF MARTHA PIATT, DAUGHTER OF CAPTAIN JOSHUA HUDDY, PRESENTED DECEMBER 21ST, 1836.
To the Congress of the United States :- Your Momorialist, Martha Piatt, now residing in Cincinnati, State of Ohio, Respectfully represents :
That she is the only surviving child of Captain Joshua Huddy, who was inhuman- ly put to death by a party of tories under the immediate command of Captain Lip pencott, in the month of April, 1782.
Hler deceased father, ever ready at the call of his country, had for from the com- mencement of the revolutionary war, from his devotion to the cause of liberty, be- come obnoxious to the enemy. lle was made a prisoner of war by the refugees, in March, 1872, while he commanded a block- house in Monmouth county, N. JJ. : having defended that post with great bravery, until his ammunition was entire- ly expended. He was then taken to New York, and detained in close confinement for two or three weeks, when, without form of trial, he was told that he was or- dered to be hanged. In pursuance of this resolution, he was carried over to the New Jersey shore, and executed, in a manner so barbarous, that the anuals of savage warfare do not present an instance of hu- man sacrifice more wantonly cruel.
This act. so dishonorable to the British character. (for Sir Henry Clinton, the Commander-in-Chief, refused to give up the perpetrator of the crime), was not less disastrous to the family of the lamented patriot. who was not permitted to die a soldiers' death, much less to enjoy the last kind offices of those dear to him by the strongest earthly ties. The first in- telligence they received of his decease, was that he had perished on the scaffold. His widow left desolate, with two daugh- ters of tender age, in common with the high-souled females of the revolution, trusted in Providence, and hoped that the country for which her husband's life had been sacrificed, would not forget her or her children,
The subject of Captain Huddy's mur- der, (for such is the appropriate name it deserves,) was referred to the American Congress by Gen. Washington, and the mode of retaliation he adopted unanimous- ly approved by that body ; and the people of New Jersey, roused by the bloody deed to vengeance, addressed a spirit-stirring
memorial to the Commander-in-Chief, de- tailing the facts, and requiring exemplary as well as summary retribution at his hand. While in obedience to these claims, a British officer was selected by lot, as the victim of retaliation, and while the melan- choly interest which youth and innocence associated with the name of Captain Asgill, excited the deep sympathy of the Ameri- can people; while the heart-rending ap- peal of his noble mother to the Count de Vergennes. in behalf of her devoted son, induced the mediation of the French Court to effect his release; the name and fate of Capt. Huddy are only remembered as among the many instances of cruelty incident to a state of war. And the wid- ow and the children of that martyred hero, have been left hitherto without the least token of the gratitude of their coun- try.
Your petitioner appeals to the Justice of Congress. She is now seventy years of age; her mother is dead, and her sister also ; she alone survives to feel anew the horrors of that dreadful moment, when she was told that she was fatherless, and that her gallant sire met the death of a malefactor; while his only crime was his ardent attachment to the cause of American liberty. The gratitude of the country has been long deferred, and though late, your petitioner asks, that in common with the representatives of her deceased sister, she may be allowed such sum in money, and such quantities of land as her father would have been entitled to, had he served until the conclusion of the revolutionary war.
She comunits her appeal to Congress in the full assurance that her claim will not be disregarded. And as in duty bound, &c. MARTHA PIATT.
This petition was presented to Congress December 21st, 1836, and referred to a special committee, consisting of Mr. Storer, of Ohio; Mr .. Buchanan, of Penn .; Mr. Hardan, of Ky. ; Mr. Elmore, ofS. C .; and Mr. Schenck, of N. J., in February follow- ing, reported a bill extending to the heirs of Captain Huddy the benefits of existing pension laws, the same as if he had been in the regular army, and also granting them six hundred acres of land, and also paying the sum of twelve hundred dollars, being the sum due Captain Huddy for seven years' service as Captain of Artillery.
The report of this committee, adopted by Congress February 14, 1837, is so ably written, and contains such vivid pictures
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OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTH.
of Old Monmouth during the war, and of Captain Huddy's services and sacrifices that it is well worth perusal and preserva- tion, and we therefore append so much of it as has not already been quoted.
REPORT ADOPTED BY CONGRESS, IN RELATION TO PETITION OF MARTHA PIATT.
Huddy's services appreciated by Congress- Graphic picture of affairs in Old Mon- mouth ;- Is the nation grateful ?- Elo- quent extracts.
The memorialist is the only surviving daughter of Captain Jushua Huddy of New Jersey, who was a soldier of the war of the revolution. Her father in 1776, was an officer in the militia of his native state, and in the autumn of 1777, was ap pointed by the Legislature to command a company of artillery, who were enlisted for twelve months. In 1779, he was en- gaged in the same duty ; and in 1781. the people of Monmouth County, having re- commeded him for the purpose, he was se- lected to command the post at Toms Riv- er. While gallantly defedning himself against a superior force. he was there taken prisoner in 1782. and reserved for an ign minious death on the scaffold.
The tours of duty thus detailed, are ex tracted from official records, as will ap- pear by papers attached to this report ; but the history of the whole war in that region, if it should be minutely described, was a series of bold and hazardous efforts to sustain the cause of liberty ; in all which Capt. Huddy was eminently cou- spicuous. Brave, patriotic and persever- ing, he perilled his property and his life for his country. and at last perished in ber defence.
were to be met at all points ; and it re- quired the utmost energy, activity and ad- dress to oppose them. Their movements were sudden, and from their intimate knowledge of the country their march was often unknown until their object had been effected. Hence, the most untiring vigi- lance was required to counteract their plans ; and Capt. Huddy became so zeal- ously engaged as a partizan leader, that he was more obnoxious to the tories that any individual in the American service. To these desperate men, it was then all im- portant that one whom they so much dreaded should be deprived of power toop. pose them and no means were left unat- tempted to effect their purpose.
(The report here proceeds to give an account of Capt, Huddy's capture, impris- onment and execution, which we have given elsewhere, after which it says : )
The documents which the committee have annexed to the report. minutely de. scribe the horrid tragedy, and they for- bear to sta e here the incidents which are there recorded in the language of eye wit nesses. There is something so revolting in the mode a brave soldier was doomed to die : something so fiendlike in the laste to sacrifice him without the paiting fare- well of his friends and the consolations of religion that no age however barbarous can furnish a stronger instance of refined, deliberate cruelty. Yet, even here, the devoted sufferer sustained his high rep u- tation for moral firmness and heroic devo- tion to liberty. Mr. Randolph testifies that when the refugees were taking the irons hom Capt. Huddy, to conduct him to the gallows, the brave man said that he should die innocent, and in a good canse; and with uncommon composure and fortitude, prepared himself for his end.' And to use the language of one who assisted at the execution, 'he met his fate with all the firmmess of a lion.' His executioner was a negro.
Perhaps the annals of the civilized world do not present a more melancholy spectacle than was exhibited in. New Jer- : sey. while the British army, occupied the city of New York. The people were all a The immediate agent in this need of blood, was Richard Lippencott, a native of New Jersey, and then a Captain in the British service ; he was the instrument of a board of associated loyalists in New York, at the head of which was William Franklin, once the royal Governor of New Jersey, and Sampson S. Blowers, formerly of Boston, Secretary. The members of this board, after the murder had taken place, endeavored for a time to deny that arms, their substance wasted by the enemy, their farms untilled their families, dispers- ed. In addition to the constant and har- assing inroads of the British, there was a fhe within her very borders more watch- ful and more relentless than the common enemy. Traitors to American liberty filled the land, willing to sacrifice their former friends to gratify their malignant passions, or to prove their loyalty to their King .- These men combined together for the , they had directed it ; but the evidence ad- avowed object of murder and plunder, duced on the trial of the perpetrator as
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well as on the subsequent publications of the loyalists themselves, abundantly prove that without the courage to act then- selves they had the baseness to authorize the deed to be committed and the mean- ness to attempt the concealment of their privity to its perpetration.
Immediately after the murder, the peo- ple of Monmouth assembled and address ed to General Washington the spirit-stir- ring and oloquent memorial which he afterwards communicated to Congress, with the memorable correspondence which he held on the same subject with Sir Hen- ry Clinton. These documents the com- 'occur ; bus when she found that she was mittee annex, and would recommend their left desoeate and the father of her children
persual, not only as an authentic narra- tive of facts, (which are but little known at the present day, ) but as proud exam- ples of the lofty patriotism which distin- yuished the men of the revolution.
(The committee here recite Washing- ton's measures for retaliation, and the action of the Congress of 1782, given else where, and then continue as follows : )
of fifty years, while the story of Asgill's cap- | even at this late day, requited by some
It is painful to state that after a lapse tivity has been made the theme of the biographer and poet, the memory of the with an epitaph. His country it would
nation of its high duties and are contend- ed to await the judgment of their country- men, however tardy may have been its annoucement.
The children of Captain Huddy were both females, and were left at an early age to their mother's protection. She strug- gled as did the highsouled women of the revolution with the ordinary vicissitudes of war, and sustained himself by the pros- pect of future independence. When her gallant husband was in the field, she knew he was engaged in a holy cause and pre- pared herself for whatever result might
had been cruelty and wantonly murdered, she thenceforward lived but for them .- These orphans after the return of peace were married : one of them with her mother is dead ; the survivor, who is the memorialist, at the advanced age of seven ty years, now resides in the west and asks, ere she joins those who have already de- parted, that the sufferings of her father might be remembered and his services, token of national gratitude.
As Captain Huddy was not in the regu- of the old Congress that would include
murdered Huddy has not been honored lar army there is no one of the resolutions
seem, has outlived the recollection of his , this case, were it a claim for military ser- services and forgotten that such a victim , vice merely. But when it is considered was sacrificed for American liberty. The that he was actively engaged from 1776 resolution of Congress, adopted on the day until 1782 in a most hazardous and import- ant duty, at a time when ordinary zeal would have become cold and ordinary courage crushed, when they regard his ex- pose, his position and his untimely death, the committee can not but conclude that the spirit of these resolutions should be extended to your memorialist; and if there is such an attribute as national grati- tude. it should now be exerted. subsequent to the discharge of Asgill, and which required that, "the British com- mander should be called to fulfil his engage ment to make further inquisition into the murder of Capt. Huddy and to pursue it with all the effect that a due regard of justice will admit," is yet unfulfilled and unrequited ; and the only memorial on the public journals of America, gratitude for the services of the living and the chal- The committee report the following res- olutions for the consideration of the House : acter of the dead are resolutions of retalia- tion-none of sympathy or condolence.
The committee in the consideration of the case, cannot account for the silence of an American Congress upon a claim like this present which the history of the revolution so amply established. It is true, his repre sentatives have made no appeal until they offered their memorial at this session, but it is believed the principles of natural justice are independent of all such agency. If their modesty has hitherto deterred them, it is at least the gratifying evidence that there is an American family who have forborne to remind the Legislature of the
Resolved, That the Congress of the Unit- ed States hold in high estimation and grateful remembrance the service of Cap- tain Joshua Huddy, of New Jersey, in the war of the revolution, and unites in the opinion of the Continental Congress of 1782, that he was wantonly and inhuman- ly sacrificed by the enemy while in the heroic discharge of his duty.
Resolved, That in consideration of the services rendered to his country by Cap- tuin Joshua Huddy, and in the pertor- mance of which he was taken prisoner
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and afteawards executed for no other crime than his devotion to liberty, it is the duty of Congress to appropriate to his children the same sumis they would have received had their lather been a continen- tal officer and had continued in the service until the close of the war; and the whole benefit of the resolutions of September 19th, 1777, and August 24th, 1780, be ex- tended to them.
To carry which resolutions into effect, your committee report a bill.
(The substance of this bill has already been given.)
CAPTAIN ASGILL AND HIS COM. PANIONS.
HUMOROUS ACCOUNT OF A SERIOUS AFFAIR.
In speaking of casting lots among British officers for the purpose of retali i- tion for the murder of Captain Joshua Huddy, extracts were quoted from British writers who endeavored to make out that Captain Asgill's companions acted very unselfishly and generously towards him, but by the following extract it will be seen that their conduct was nothing to boast of. It is from James Smith, one of the authors of that celebrated work " Reject- ed Address." Smith occasionally used 10 visit Colonel Greville, once a somewhat noted character in connection with several literary journals. On one visit the Colonel related the particulars of what he termed the most curious circumstance of his life. He was taken prisoner during the Ameri- can Revolution along with three other officers of the same rank; one evening they were summoned into the presence of General Washington, who announced to , them that the conduct of the British gov- ernment in condemning one of his officers (Cap'am Huddy ) to death a- a rebel com- pelled him to make reprisals; and that much to his regret he was under the ne- nessity of requiring them to cast lots with- out delay, to decide which of them should be hanged. They were then bowed out and returned to their quarters. Four shr of paper were put into a hat and the short- est was drawn by Captain Asgill, who ex- claimed " I knew how it would be, I never won so much as a huit at backgammon in my life." Greville said he then was se- lected to set up with Captain Asgill, under pretext of companionship, but in reality to prevent Asgill from escaping and leav-
ing the honor of being hang d to be set- tled between the remaining three 1
"And whit," said Smith, "dd you say to comfort hne ?"
" Why I r. member saying to him, when he left us, D-nit, old fellow, never mind ; " but it may be doubted, added Sunth. whether Asgill drew much comfort Irom the exhortation
This Colonel Grevill- was the one upon whom Lo d Byron bas conferred a not very enviable notoriety in the following lines :
"Or ba.lat unce the patron and the pile
Of vice an I folly, Greville and Argyle."
-Law Quarterly Magazine London.
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THE REMARKABLE TRIAL OF REV. WILLIAM TENNENT FOR PERJURY.
The remarkable trial of Rev. William Tennent, of the old Tennent church, for perjury, took place at trenton in 1742 be- fore Chief Justice Robert Hunter Morris.
The indictment upon which Mr. l'en- nent was tried was one of a series of in- dietments all growing out of the same tran- saction-the alleged stealing of a horse by the Rev Mr. Rowland ; and the individual who was the cause of all the woes and perils whi h befel the unfortunate gentle- men who were supposed to be implicated, was a no orions scoundiel naned l'om Bett, whose exploits would not suffer by a com- parison with those of Jonathan Wild or Jack Sus ppard. Hewas an adept in all the arts of fraud, thett, robbery and for gery. But his chier amusement consisted in travelling from one part of the country o another personating different individu- als and assuming a variety of ch dracters .- By turns he was a sailor, a merchant, a lawyer, a doctor, a preacher, and sustained each cha acter in such a way for a time as to impose on the public. The late Judge Richard S. Field, in a paper eul before t e N. J. Historical Society mm 1851, re. yiewing the reports of this remarkable trial, furnished qu te a list of the misdeeds o this villian.
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