New Jersey Council of Safety Moves on Monmouth Loyalists

In the early months of 1777, New Jersey emerged from a period of British occupation during which thousands of its citizens declared allegiance to Great Britain. In a number of counties, and particularly Monmouth County, civilian law enforcement and the courts were non-functional. The New Jersey Legislature stepped in to fill the breach; seizing on the example in neighboring Pennsylvania, it established a new Council of Safety on March 15, 1777.

The New Jersey Council of Safety was a twelve-man board chaired by Governor William Livingston. Its appointed members included Dr. Nathaniel Scudder of Freehold. The Council would investigate the conduct of New Jerseyans suspected of undermining the New Jersey government or working against the Continental war effort. The Council had the power to overrule local government officials, call the Legislature into session, and detain enemies of the state. A subsequent law gave the Council the ability to appoint and remove local officials, but this controversial new power caused the Legislature to time-limit the Council’s existence to one-year from this expansion of power (to September 20, 1778).

Council of Safety Early Docket Dominated by Monmouth County Cases

The Council began meeting in early April 1777. It immediately focused on Monmouth County—which dominated the Council’s docket through the month. The Council’s earliest examinations concerned the Loyalist associations that fed the Loyalist insurrections in Upper Freehold, Freehold-Middletown, and Shrewsbury down the shore in December 1776. Depositions were taken regarding the conduct of Loyalist leaders, and lists of disaffected followers were compiled.

The council also took an interest in the failed attempt of Samuel Wright and Henry Weatherby to raise recruits for the (Loyalist) New Jersey Volunteers. After amassing testimony against him, Weatherby was detained and brought before the Council on April 26; in exchange for signing a loyalty oath and posting a £300 bond for his future good behavior, he was released. Wright remained at large and was never brought before the Council. Only a few of the Loyalists and disaffected named in the depositions were brought before the Council. The rest were, presumably, administered loyalty oaths locally.

The first Monmouth Countian punished by the Council of Safety was not Weatherby, but Moses Mount of Upper Freehold. The Council sent him to the Burlington County jail on April 10 for “maliciously and falsely saying and doing things encouraging disaffection... spreading false rumors concerning the American forces." Six days later, Mount petitioned for clemency:

Your petitioner being sensible of his past misconduct and with a sincere heart that wishes well to the American cause, he begs your Excellency & Honorable House would favor him with another hearing & he hopes to convince your Excellency that his past misconduct was not so much owing to himself as to some designing people.

Mount testified against other disaffected and was released. He supported the Revolution afterward.

On April 10, after hearing from Moses Mount, the Council began considering Upper Freehold Loyalist associations led by Richard Robins and Anthony Woodward. It heard a confession from Thomas Fowler, a Loyalist insurrectionary recently captured by the Whig, Lewis Bestedo, and from Bestedo himself. It also heard from prominent Whigs Abraham Hendricks, William Imlay, and Alexander Montgomery of Upper Freehold. All three men gave testimony against members of the Woodward family. The evidence from these witnesses led the Council to declare that two prisoners, Jesse Woodward and Richard Robins, had committed treason; they were sent to prison in far-off Sussex County. Ring-leader Anthony Woodward was not tried because he was behind British Lines—though the Council would try and convict him of treason in June 1778 when he was captured.

The Council was also concerned with the conduct of Captain Henry Waddle of Freehold. Waddle was an active militia leader early in the war—the first man to march the Monmouth militia outside the county (to defend Amboy from a rumored British attack in July 1776). He apparently became disaffected in the latter months of 1776. With Joseph Leonard, they hid Monmouth County’s records from the new County Clerk, Kenneth Anderson. The records ended up in the hands of Loyalists during the December 1776 insurrections and were lost to the new Monmouth County government. On April 11, Waddle responded to a summons to appear before the Council stating that a gout flare-up prevented his travel:

I am extremely unhappy in being prevented by a severe fit of gout (which I am now confined in my room) from waiting on your Excellency & Council, as I think I can clear myself to the satisfaction of every one injurious suspicion. I hope your Excellency & Council will favour me with the reasons which they have for suspecting me & with the name of the accuser, that I may come prepared for my defence.

Waddle never voluntarily appeared before the Council. He was arrested on July 19 and detained for five weeks. On August 30 he appeared before the Council, signed a loyalty oath to the New Jersey Government, and was released.

Later in April, the Council tried four of Middletown’s most prominent pre-war citizens—John Taylor, James Grover, Daniel Hendrickson (of Middletown, not Shrewsbury’s militia Colonel), and Revaud Kearny. Taylor, who led the Middletown Loyalist insurrection, sought to get his friend, Grover, excused from appearing before the Council. This was despite the admission that Grover administered British protection papers during the Loyalist insurrection:

He [Grover] still continues in a poor state of health, I am told has not been out of his house since he was taken; he has been a friend of the American cause, and I believe he is still so, which, if I am not misinformed, he can bring convincing proofs of. I am told he is accused of taking submissions, which I believe to be a fact, he is situated on the water and if he refused, he might have been taken prisoner himself. He did sign certificates as a Magistrate and had been one of many years, tho' he had often told me that when a new commission was issued, he would not qualify [refuse office]. He is a man of seventy years, has taken oath before Genl. Putnam, and is expected to remain quiet with his family.

Kearney was charged with "maliciously and advisedly reviling the Honorable Congress of the United States and of measures adopted by the same Congress… and encouraging disaffection & manifestly tending to raise tumults and disorders in the State of New Jersey." Taylor and Kearney appeared before the Council, posted bonds for their future good behavior, and were released. Grover, having already taken an oath, was not compelled to appear before the Council. Kearney went home to Keyport, where he retired from public life, but remained openly disaffected. His diary notes several wagers with leading Whigs over the outcomes of war-related events.

Council of Safety Continues to Hear Monmouth County Cases

Inevitably, the Council would be forced to consider the fate of the 200+ Monmouth Countians jailed in Philadelphia and Fredericktown, Maryland. The first prisoner considered was John Throckmorton of Colts Neck (Shrewsbury Township). He was a junior officer in the Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers before being captured in late 1776, On May 23, John’s father, Joseph Throckmorton, petitioned the Council "on behalf of his son… praying that he might be indulged so far as to have his son removed into this State & confined at his home in Colt's Neck.” Despite offering to post a massive £3,000 for his son’s release the Council never acted on the request. John was likely involved in a prisoner exchange late that year. He rejoined the British Army only to be captured again. Starting in late 1777, the Council started permitting relatives of jailed Loyalists, if they posted bonds, to bring their kin back from Fredericktown.

The Council also considered and ultimately supported a plan to recruit jailed Monmouth Loyalists into David Forman’s Additional Regiment—a time-consuming initiative that yielded only three recruits. The Council intervened on behalf of one the prisoners, Jacob Cooper, by awarding him prisoner of war status, "as it appeared that he had joined the enemy & was enlisted with them before publication of the act for punishing traitors." As a prisoner of war, Cooper would be jailed with British soldiers rather than common criminals, and would be subject to prisoner exchange (prior to exchange, Cooper was paroled home to Shrewsbury after Thomas Curtis of Shrewsbury posted a bond pending good behavior.)

Twice, on December 12, 1777 and on May 29, 1778, the Council of Safety authorized the Monmouth County Sheriff (Asher Holmes) to send Loyalist women into British lines. The husbands of the nine women included Maj. John Antill of the New Jersey Volunteers and two men who would become infamous Loyalist partisans later in the war (John Tilton and Clayton Tilton). It is unclear if the women requested to go to New York or were exiled.

Council of Safety Banishes and Returns Richard Waln

Quakers posed a challenge for the Council of Safety, and New Jersey authorities more broadly. Strict Quakers refused militia service or even paying militia fines—this put them at odds with the new government. But they were also non-violent and not necessarily a threat to the Revolution. Richard Waln, a millowner from Upper Freehold, is an example of a Quaker who was considered by the Council of Safety more than once. In October 1777, Waln was brought before the Council, where he refused to take an oath to the New Jersey government. As punishment, he was banished to British lines (recently-captured Philadelphia). Waln spent eight months there. On June 17, 1778, as the British were quitting the city, Elizabeth Drinker wrote of Waln leaving for New York City: “Richard Waln took leave of us this day… have gone on board one of ye vessels, as also have many of ye inhabitants.” In August, Waln sought to return home to New Jersey, writing the Council of Safety:

When your Petitioner was in Philadelphia (where he had permission to go) he received a message from several Gentlemen in high office in New Jersey informing him that he may come back upon taking the test [loyalty oath]. That being willing to comply herewith & not withstanding any offense, it came that your petitioner has since understood that an application to your Board is necessary -- He therefore requests that you will permit him to return home to his family & estate in New Jersey, & he will detain himself as a good subject.

On August 25, the Council of Safety agreed that Richard Waln could return home if he posted a bond, stayed with his family in Upper Freehold, and agreed to answer any charges against him at the next Monmouth Court of Oyer & Terminer. He was put under supervision of Lt. Colonel Elisha Lawrence (not the Loyalist of the same name). Waln weathered the next five years without serious incident, even hosting a party of sailors walking across New Jersey after a daring escape from prison in New York.

Waln was again in trouble with his neighbors at war’s end. Both houses of the legislature read petitions against him on May 28, 1783. The minutes of the Assembly record that the petitioners set forth:

The great inconveniences that arise to them and others from an obstruction of the floating or rafting of lumber down Crosswicks Creek, occasioned by the mill dam of Richard Waln; and praying leave to present a bill to oblige the said Richard Waln to make proper waterways for rafts to go through.

The petitioners were invited to make their case at the next session of legislature.

Council of Safety Gives Way to County Courts

As 1777 progressed, New Jersey’s counties returned to convening their courts and punishing criminals. The Council of Safety increasingly meted out temporary punishments pending a regular trial in the county courts. On December 7, the Council of Safety authorized the first Monmouth County Court of Oyer and Terminer (the court that heard political and capital crimes) to meet on January 20, 1778.

In 1778, the Council of Safety’s activities tailed off as county courts re-assumed their historical role. When its authorization expired on September 20, 1778, there was no move in the legislature to re-authorize it. The Council ceased to exist.

Perspective

The New Jersey Council of Safety was a useful stopgap put in place during a time period in which the courts were not functioning in much of the State. Its broad powers and lack of accountability to the citizenry made liberty-living New Jersians suspicious of it. However, in balance, the Council carried itself with transparency (including published minutes) and moderation.

Ultimately, the Council considered the political crimes of 47 Monmouth Countians; more than half of these deliberations occurred in April-May 1777. See table in the Appendix of this article. In all but a few cases, the punishments were lenient—most of the political criminals were released upon taking a Loyalty oath or posting a bond. This is consistent with the generally lenient policies of the Continental and British governments in the first half of the war, both of which declared general amnesties for ordinary citizens who were lured into bad conduct by the devious lies of the other side.

Related Historic Site: The Grover House (home of James Grover)

Appendix: Monmouth Countians Brought before the New Jersey Council of Safety

See table 2.

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