USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Old times in old Monmouth > Part 9
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for him to live, for though no legal hold could be taken of him, yet occasionally some zealous whig, who had occasion to hate refugees, would take him in hand on a very slight pretext, and administer off- band justice. At one time at Lochiel brook, below Waretown, Hezekiah Soper, whose brother was killed by Bacon, gave Wilson a sound thrashing and then nearly drowned him in the brook. At length, finding the place did not agree with him, he left Waretown, and moved over to the North beach, a few miles above the inlet, where he lived a lonesome, miserable life until his death, which occurred some sixty odd years ago.
THE MASSACRE ON LONG BEACH.
Bacon Kills Capt. Steelman, Reuben So- per and Others-Murder of Sleeping Men.
This was the most important affair in which Bacon was engaged. The inhuman massacre of sleeping men was in keeping with the memorable affair at Chestnut Neck. near Tuckerton, when Count Pu- laski's guards were murdered by the Brit- ish and Refugees.
The massacre at Long Beach took place about a mile south of Barnegat light house, and there were we think more men killed and wounded then than in any other ae- tion in that part of Old Monmouth now comprised within the limits of Ocean coun- ty.
A tory paper gives the following version of the affair ;
"A eutter from Ostend, bound to St. Thomas, ran aground on Barnegat Shoals, October 25, 1782. The American galley Alligator, Captain Steelman, from Cape May, with twenty-five men, plundered her on Saturday night last of a quantity of Hyson tea and other valuable articles, but was attacked the same night by Captain John Bacon, with nine men, in a small boat called the Hero's Revenge, who kill- ed Steelman and wounded the first lieu- tenant, and all the party except four or five were either killed or wounded."
In this account the number of Steelman's men is doubtless overestimated and Ba- con's underestimated. When the cutter was stranded on the shoals, word was sent across the bay to the main land for help to aid in saving the cargo, in consequence of which a party of unarmed men, among which were Joseph Soper and two of his sons, proceeded to the beach to render what assistance they could. The party
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worked hard while there to get the goods through the surf on the beach. At night they were tired and wet, and built fires, around which they meant to sleep. It is supposed that as soon as they were all asleep that Bill Wilson who was there arose up slyly, got a boat and rowed off to the main land to inform Bacon how mat- ters stood.
THE LOYALISTS OF OLD MON- MOUTH.
To fairly comprehend the dangers by which our patriotic ancestors were sur- rounded during the early part of the Revolution, it is necessary to remember that those of its citizens who openly or secretly favored the enemy, were not a mere handful of men, but they were num- bered by hundreds, and among them were men of all classes, from the highest to the lowest ; clergymen, lawyers, physicians, merchants. farmers, mechanics and labor- ing men, and unprincipled men of no par ticular profession or business, who rejoiced at the opportunities given by the war for plunder, revenge and ofttimes murder.
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The best class oftories were too honorable to engage in midnight marauding expedi- tions against their former friends and neighbors, but cast their lot with the British, most of them in the military or- ganization known as the " First Battalion New Jersey Royal Volunteers," command- ed by an ex-Sheriff of Monmouth county. They rarely committed acts dishonorable as soldiers, yet their former high standing and influential positions served to exert a most injurious influence on the patriot cause among their former friends and ac- quaintances ; the example of such men served to entice many to the ranks of the enemy and to cause others secretly to wish them well, or a least to strive to re- main neutral at a time when their country most needed their services and in a coun - ty which suffered probably more severely during the war than did any other in the country. When we remember that our patriotic ancestors had to contend with such men, and with bands of marauding refugees, and also lawless robbers scattered through the pines-all in addition to a foreign foe, we cannot too highly extol the determined, vigilant, ceaseless efforts, the wisdom in planning. the skill and bravery in execution, shown by those noble patriots during the long, bloody and at times seemingly hopeless struggle. Though we
may concede that some who deserted their country were in some respects wise and brave, yet they were no match for those left behind.
Ås was the case in the late war for the Union, the Revolution brought out from obscurity men whose abilities were never before known or suspected.
For the first year or two of the war our ancestors were seriously annoyed by Tory sympathizes who remained at home, some of whom had sons, brothers or other rela- tives in the British army. Some of these remained at home because age or other disability unfiitted them for field service. These men for a time endeavored to in- jure the American cause by their insidious wiles wherever and whenever opportunity offered, when their acts came to the knowledge of the whigs, they were at once ordered to leave, while those who remained quiet, though closely watched were rarely molested.
Though the names Loyalist or Royalist would properly include all who favored the cause of the Crown. yet they were often lim- ited to the more honorable class who joined the Royal Volunteer organization, to distin- guish them from the small marauding band> commonly known as Refugees .- Among the most prominent of these loy- alists, were some noticed below ; it will be seen they numbered among them men of wealth, position, and learning; one suc- ceeded in raising five hundred men to follow him over to the enemy, and it is not a little curious to find that from two of these tories, descended certain men who, in after years, nobly served our coun- try in many a hard fought battle.
In this connection it is well to add, that as an offset to the Tories who left Mon- mouth and other parts of our state, to join the enemy, there were a large number of whigs, who came here and into other decided patriotic counties, from Long and Staten Islands, when the British took pos- session of those places.
Another fact should not be lost sight of, as it furnishes additional evidence of the peculiar troubles the patriots had to con- tend against, and that is, that many lead- ing men who sided with them in this and other counties of the state, during the first year or two of the war eventually abandon- ed them and went over to the Royalists. Of some of these and their alleged reasons we shall endeavor to speak in .another chapter.
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OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTH.
For much of the following we are en- debted to Sabine, but we have added many items from other sources which we deem reliable.
NOTICES OF PROMINENT LOYALISTS.
THOMAS CROWELL, of Middletown, joined the Loyalists and was commissioned Cap- tain. His property was confiscated and advertised to be sold at the house of Cor- nelius Swart in Middletown, March 22d. 1779. During the war Governor Franklin, of the Refugee Board, ordered him to exe- cute, without trial, a Monmouth officer, probably one of the Smocks, but the refugees who captured him protested so earnestly that the order was not executed.
LAWRENCE HARTSHORNE, of Shrewsbury, made himself so obnoxious as a Royalists, that he was compelled to fly to New York. He was a merchant and gave the British valuable information.
JOHN TAYLOR, formerly Sheriff of Mon- mouth County, a gentleman of great wealth was born in 1716. When Lord Howe arrived in this country to offer ternis of reconciliation, he appointed Mr. Taylor " His Majesty's Lord High Commissioner of New Jersey." This office, as well as the fact that all his children adhered to the Crown, and were in the British army, made him obnoxious to the whigs. He was indeed once tried for his life but ac- quitted. Ilis property was applied to public use, but not confiscated, since he was paid for it in Continental money, yet such was the depreciation of that cur. rency that payment was little better than confiscation. He died at Perth Amboy, in 1798, aged 82 years. His grandson was the celebrated Commodore Bainbridge, his daughter Mary having married Dr. Bain- bridge, father of Commodore's William and Joseph Bainbridge. A Dr. Absalom Bain- bridge wassurgeon in " Skinner's Greens," the Royalist organization, elsewhere no- ticed.
WILLIAM TAYLOR, son of the above named John Taylor, had his estates confiscated, but after the war he purchased them again. He was a lawyer by profession and at one time Chief Justice of Jamaica .- He died at Amboy 1806.
COLONEL TAYLOR, Of the New Jersey Roy- alists who sent Stephen Edwards as a spy into Monmouth, was from Middletown .- It is possible that he may have been one of the Taylors whose property was con- fiscated· and advertised to be sold at Mid- dletown, March 22d, 1779. He may have
been a son of the John Taylor mentioned above, as it seems he had more than one son in the British service.
REV. SAMUEL COOKE, D.D., of Shrewsbury, Episcopal minister, was educated at Cain's College, Cambridge, England, and came to America as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in September, 1751, locating in Shrewsbury as successor of Rev. Thomas Thompson, in the care of the churches in Freehold. Middletown and Shrewsbury .- The Revolution divided and dispersed his flock. As a minister of the Church of England he thought it his duty to con- tinue his allegiance to the Crown, and joined the British in New York. At the Court Martial trial of Captain Richard Lippencott, in New York, in June, 1782. he was a witness and styled " Reverend Samuel Cooke, clerk, deputy chaplain to the brigade of guards." His property we believe was confiscated and advertised to be sold at Tinton Falls, March 29th, 1779. In 1785, he settled at Fredericktown, New Brunswick, as rector of a church there. In 1791. he was commissary to the Bishop of Nova Scotia. He was drowned in crossing the river St. John, in a birchen canoe, in 1795. His son who attempted to save his life perished with him.
THOMAS LEONARD, a prominent citizen of Freehold, was denounced by the patriot committee for his Tory principles and every friend of freedom advised to break off' all connection with him on that account. He went to New York and after the war went to St. Johns, New Brunswick.
JOSEPH HOLMES, by adhering to the Tories, lost £900. After the war he went to Nova Scotia and settled at Shelburne.
ANDREW BELL, a name familiar to our older citizens on account of its frequent recurrence in deeds relating to Proprietor lands, joined the British army as secretary to Sir Henry Clinton. A diary kept by him up to the battle of Monmouth is pre- served in the library of the New Jersey Historical Society. He died in 1843 .- Though we believe he was not a resident of Monmouth yet he was well known and influential throughout the county.
JOHN LAWRENCE, of Monmouth county, was born in 1709. He was a justice of the court and a surveyor, and ran the division line known as " Lawrence's line," between East and West Jersey. Advanced in life at the beginning of the Revolution he did not bear arms, but accepted from the enemy the important duty of granting
Prtuit by 9. Stuart
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OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTHI.
British protections to such Americans as he could induce to abjure the cause of their country and swear allegiance to Great Britain, for which he was arrested by the Americans and confined in Bur- lington jail for nine months. He died in 1794 aged 86 years. We propose to refer to John and Elisha Lawrence, in giving the proceedings of the patriot meetings in Upper Freehold and elsewhere in the county in 1774-5, and in other chapters.
ELISHA LAWRENCE, son of the above, was born in 1740 At the beginning of the Revolution he was Sheriff of Monmouth County ; he zoon joined the British, and raised by his own efforts chiefly, five hun- nrea men whom he commanded, and was commissioned by the British, Colonel of the First Battalion, New Jersey Royal Volunteers. He was taken prisoner on Staten Island by Colonel Ogden under General Sullivan in 1777. His property was confiscated and advertised to be sold at Wall's Mills, April 5th, 1779. At the conclusion of the war he left with the British army, retained his rank as Colonel and retired on half pay. He was awarded by the British Government a large tract of land in Nova Scotia, to which he re- moved, but finaliy went back to England, and from thence to Cardigan, Wales, where he died. He married Mary Ash- field, of New York.
JOIN LAWRENCE, son of the above named John, and brother of Elisha, was born in 1747, graduated at Princeton Col- lege, studied medicine in the Philadelphia Medical College and became a physician of repute. In 1776 he was arrested by order of General Washington, and or- dered by the Provincial Congress to re- mam at Trenton on parole, but leave was afterwards given him to remove to Morris- town. As his father and brother held office under the British, he was narrowly watched. Fired at, after much annoyance (says one account-apparently a fory one) by a party of militia, he retired to New York among the British, where he practiced medicine and commanded a company of volunteers for the defence of the city. After the war in 1783, he re- turned to Monmouth, where he lived un- molested. He died at Trenton, April 29th, 1830. In the list of names of persons in Upper Freehold whose property was con- fiscated and advertised to be sold at Wall's Mills, April 5th, 1779, are found the names of "Elisha and John Lawrence, son of John."
JOHN BROWN LAWRENCE was a member of Council and a lawyer. Because of his official relations to the Crown, he was ar- rested and imprisoned in Burlington jail for a long time on the charge of holding treasonable intercourse with the enemy but was tried and acquitted. He went to Canada after the war, where he received a large tract of land. His son was the celebrated Commodore Lawrence of " Don't give up the ship " fame, and Com- modore Boggs, distinguished in the late rebellion, was a descendant.
CLAYTON TILTON, of Shrewsbury, joined the loyalists and was commissioned as Captain. He was captured by the Ameri- cans in the spring of 1782, about the same time that Plul White was, and confined in Freehold jail, but shortly exchanged for Daniel Randolph, Esq. He probably went to the British Provinces at the close of the war, as mention is made of a certain Clay. ton Tilton, a loyalist from New Jersey, marrying the widow of Thomas Green, at Musquash, New Brunswick, shortly after the war.
JOHN WARDELL, of Shrewsbury, an asso- ciate judge of Monmouth, on account of his tory proclivities, sought refuge within the British lines. His property was con- ficated and advertised to be sold at Tinton Falls, March 29th, 1779. He was a neigh- bor and warm friend of Captain Richard Lippencott.
CAPTAIN RICHARD LIPPENCOTT, THE REFI- GEE WHO HANGED CAPTAIN HUDDY.
This refugee who obtained such unen- viable notoriety for hanging Captain Josh- ua Huddy, was born in New Jersey in 1745, and died at Toronto, Canada, in 1826, in his 82d year. At the breaking out of the war he was a resident of Shrewsbury township. Early in that memorablestrug- gle he left Monmouth and went to New York and expressed to the Board of Asso- ciated Loyalists a desire for authority to raise a company, which was given him by the Board upon his signing the usual articles requiring him to obey the orders of Governor William Franklin, its Presi- dent. On account of his activity in the Royal service, his property was confiscated and advertised to be sold at Tinton Falls, March 29th, 1779. He appears to have had many relatives among both the pa- triots and loyalists. The character he bore among the adherents of the Royal cause is shown by the following extracts Dur- ing the British Court Martial trial held in New York in June, 1782, to try him for
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the murder of Captain Joshua Huddy, Colonel John Morris, commander of the second battalion of the brigade of New Jersey Royal Volunteers, testified as fol- lows :
" He had known the prisoner (Lippen- cott) many years ; he always supported a good character ever since deponent has known him ; and he always endeavored to serve the Government all in his power, and that with propriety. Deponent has never known him guilty of plundering or any action of that kind."
John Wardell, late of Shrewsbury town- ship, and formerly an associate judge of Monmouth, testified that "he had been acquainted with Lippencott more than ten years ; that he was his neighbor and was always looked upon as a peaceable, inoffensive man."
Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooke, the noted Epis- copalian clergyman who settled in Shrews- bury in 1751, where he remained until the breaking out of the Revolution, and to whom reference is made in other chapters, at the time of Lippencott's trial was depu- ty chaplain to the brigade of guards in the British service ; upon being sworn he said :
" He had not known Lippencott before the rebellion, but has been acquainted with him upwards of three years since Lippencott has been within his Majesty's lines. That he has been particularly ac- quainted with him. and has every reason to think his character stood as fair as that of any refugee within his Majesty's lines."
After the Revolution, Lippencott went to England to claim compensation for his losses and services. He obtained the half pay of captain for life, and the grant of 300 acres of land at York, (now Toronto) in Canada, upon which he settled about 1794. His only child, Esther Borden Lippencott, married George Taylor Den nison, and her son, George T. Dennison, some twenty odd years ago, was a member of the Canadian parliament. Sabine, in the first edition of his history of the loyal- ists, having made some remarks not very complimentary to Captain Lippencott, his grandson, George T. Dennison. addressed him a letter in which he endeavored to defend the acts and character of his grand- father. He says :
Edwards ? ) who, found on a visit to his mother's house, was treated by Huddy as a spy. The old man (Lippencott) was re- spected by all who knew him in the coun- try, rich and poor, and was so well known to all old loyalists who settled there, that persons came uninvited thirty or forty miles to pay tribute to his memory ; hun- dreds still living will repudiate the unfa- vorable character as a man and a soldier given him by the American historian .- He was true to his Sovereign both in prop- erty and peril, and nobly maintained the Lippencott family motto, " Secundus dus- busque rectus." Indeed the truth is, as I have always heard it declared by himself and others, that he had the authority from Sir Henry Clinton himself to hang Huddy in retaliation for White.'
As to what Mr. Dennison says in regard to the character of Lippencott after the war, it may be all quite true but it has but little to do with the hanging of Huddy during the war. Mr. Dennison is in error in saying that Sir Henry Clinton authoriz- ed the execution. On the contrary he was so indignant at the act that he atonce ordered Lippencott to be Court Martialed, and Sparks, the historian, says that while in London, he saw original letters from Sir Henry Clinton and his successor, Sir Guy Carleton, expressing in the strongest terms their indignation at Huddy's mur- der. The fact probably is, that Mr. Den- nison errs only in the name of the person ; it is probable that his grandfather stated that he had the authority of his superior officer to hang Huddy, and from this Mr. D. inferred that this superior officer was Sir Henry Clinton. Who this superior offi- cer really was will be seen by extracts we shall hereafter give from official British records. which show quite conclusively how far Lippencott was responsible for the murder of Huddy. It will be seen that Lippencott was not the only guilty party ; as to whom the most guilt should be at- tached may be judged from the evidence produced on his trial.
THE NEW JERSEY ROYAL VOLUNTEERS.
The following are the names of some of the officers of this noted organization, composed mainly of Jerseymen, who aid- od the British during the Revolution,- The commanding officer was Cortland Skinner, and his brigade was often called "Skinner's Greens." The officers and men were from different counties, chiefly
" Lippencott was naturally a person of the most harmless and quiet disposition. Philip White was half brother to his wife, and Lippencott was exasperated by the butchery of an innocent relative (Stephen] in East Jersey. Most of the Old Mon_
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mouth Loyalists joined. the First battalion of this brigade.
CORTLAND SKINNER, BRIGADIER GENERAL ..
First Battalion.
Elisha Lawrence, Colonel.
B. G. Skinner, 1781.
Stephen Delancey, Lieut. Colonel.
Thomas Millidge, Major.
William Hutchinson, Captain.
Joseph Crowell,
James Moody, Lieutenant.
John Woodward,
James Brittain
Ozias Ausley, Ensign.
Joseph Brittain, “
Second Battalion.
John Morris, Colonel, Second battalion.
Isaac Allen, Lieut. Colonel “ . .
Charles Harrison, Captain, "
Thomas Hunlock, 66 ،،
John Combs, Lieutenant Third Battalion.
Abraham Van Buskirk, Lieutenant Colonel, Third battalion.
Robert Timpany, Major, 66
Philip Cortland (N. Y.) "
Jacob Van Buskirk, Capt.
James Servanier, Lieut.
Philip Cortland, Jr., Ensign "
John Van Orden,
The following named were also officers in this organization :
Elisha Skinner, Lieutenant Colonel, John Barnes. Major, R. V. Stockton, Ma- jor, Thomas Lawrence, Major, John Lee, Captain, Peter Campbell, ditto, John Bar- bara, ditto, Richard Cayford, ditto, Wil- liam Chandler, ditto, Daniel Cozens, ditto, - Keating, ditto. Lieutenants, Troup and Fitz Randolph. Absalom Bainbridge, Surgeon. Peter Myer, Ensign.
LIEUTENANT JAMES MOODY.
In the above list of Loyalist officers will be noticed the name of James Moody, Lieutenant in the First Battalion, in which were so many former residents of Mon- mouth. At the close of the war, Moody went to England, and shortly after his ar- rival there published a pamphlet entitled, " Lieutenant James Moody's Narrative of his Exertions and Sufferings in the cause of the Government since the year 1776 ; authenticated by proper certificates. Lon- don, 1783."
value to the historian, and of much inter- est to the general reader. As a matter of course he strives to depreciate the Ameri- cans and their cause, and to exalt Tories and Toryism to the best of his ability, and on this particular account his narrative deserves a place in our local history, for to obtain a comprehensive view of life and times in the Revolution it is necessary to look at the causes and effects from a Tory stand-point. As during the war all who joined the Americans were not wholly good, so all who joined the British were not wholly bad, and to one who is curious to know what reasons were offered for their course by the more honorable Tories and what versions they gave to scenes in which they were actors, Lieutenant Moody's narrative will have peculiar val- ue. His career, it will be seen, furnishes exciting incidents sufficient to form the ground work for half a dozen modern sen- sational novels. He made many raids in- to New Jersey, and on one expedition in- to Monmouth it was alleged that he caused the death of two Monmouth militia officers under circumstances so contrary to the usual rule of warfare, that when, afterward, he was captured, he was sentenced to be executed, but escaped almost miraculous- ly.
THE FIRST SETTLERS IN OLD MON- MOUTHI.
THE STOUT FAMILY.
Indians on the War Path-Firm Stand of the Settlers-A League of Peace Never Broken.
Among the first whites who permanent- ly settled in old Monmouth, was Richard Stout, who, with his own family and five other families, it is said, located in Mid- dletown in 1648. The history of the Stout family, though familiar to those versed in the ancient history of our state, yet is so remarkable on account of the wonderful preservation of the life of Mrs. Stout, and of so much general interest because their descendants in our county and elsewhere are so numerous, and also because this family were among the first Baptists in New Jersey, that it will bear repeating, especially as it may prove new to many of our readers. The version of the remarka- ble history of Penelope Stont, as given in Benedict's History of the Baptists, is the
As this publication is rare, we propose hereafter to extract the substance which will be found to contain many things of one most familiar to our older citizens
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OLD TIMES IN OLD MONMOUTH.
but believing that many of our readers may wish for preservation both this ver- sion and the one given in 1765, by Smith in his history of New Jersey, we append them with additional items from other sources.
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