Captain John Walton Captures Loyalist Boat

Even before the Declaration of Independence was signed, Loyalists from across the Thirteen Colonies sought refuge with the British in New York. Moses Kirkland, for example, attempted to go from South Carolina all the way to New York in May 1776. The journey to New York was dangerous—Loyalists needed to make the trip without having their identities or purpose discovered. And for those traveling to New York by sea, they also needed the weather to cooperate. The Monmouth County shore was the site of numerous shipwrecks through the Revolution, exacerbated by desperate people sailing small craft in unfamiliar waters.

In early March 1777, a small sailing vessel left Philadelphia. The boat had a two-man crew and carried five (some reports say four) “Scotsmen” on board. The Scotsmen were likely immigrants living in Pennsylvania who were now seeking British protection in New York. The vessel sailed down the Delaware River and proceeded up the Jersey shore.

The Loyalists beached near Manasquan in bad weather (probably the same storm that dropped several inches of snow on Brigadier General David Forman’s men as they marched on Sandy Hook). The first man to come on the grounded vessel was Daniel Randolph, a merchant from Toms River. He alerted the closest militia patrol, which was led by Captain John Walton of the Freehold Township. Walton took custody of the men and boat.

On March 16, David Forman sent Governor William Livingston a letter that was brought to him by Captain Walton. Forman noted that Walton was bringing nine prisoners to the Governor:

Capt. Walton will wait on you with nine prisoners, five of them are Scotsmen from Philadelphia bound to N. York in a small boat, worked by one man and a boy - the boatman & boy denied they were going to New York - all five of the Scotsmen agreed that they were but disagree about what way they obtained the boat - some of them say the boatmen had agreed to go with them - others say they had agreed to take the boat by force if refused, but had not when taken. A certain Samuel Leonard, proven to have professed himself a Captain under John Morris, & Aaron Brown, a person of little importance although a professed Tory are also sent along.

It is noteworthy that, upon capture, the boat’s crew and their Loyalist passengers told different stories about the vessel and its destination. It is also curious that the men were captured and detained in concert with Samuel Leonard, a Monmouth Loyalist and an officer in the New Jersey Volunteers. These details raise the possibility that the vessel’s trip might have had more to it than just carrying a few inoffensive Loyalists to New York.

Two days later, Livingston wrote to David Rittenhouse of the Pennsylvania Council of Safety. He noted that the Monmouth militia (under Capt. Walton) seized a boat at Manasquan and that Walton claimed the boat as a prize because it was bound for the enemy at New York. Livingston briefly discussed the prisoners. Of the boat captain, a man named Borden, Livingston said he "expressed himself in a most violent manner against the Congress” but otherwise professed innocence. Livingston sent the Scotsmen back to Pennsylvania but ordered the two boatmen detained until they could appear before the New Jersey Council of Safety.

In a second letter about the incident, Livingston noted that Captain Walton was carrying the Scotsmen to Philadelphia. The minutes of the New Jersey Council of Safety corroborated the information above; the Council also compensated Captain Walton for the expenses incurred while transporting the prisoners.  The decision to keep the two-man crew in New Jersey to stand before New Jersey’s Council of Safety indicates that the boatmen were believed to be from New Jersey.

The boat captain named Borden was likely William Borden. Borden was one of a half dozen disaffected listed in a March 15 letter from Col. Samuel Forman to John Walton in which Forman directed Walton to take Borden to jail in Philadelphia: “The following persons you are to take to Philadelphia & deliver them to the proper authorities, viz William Curry, John Magee, James Scott, William Borden, George Brewer and James Lawton." That William Borden was part of a larger cohort of prisoners taken on the shore again suggests that the Loyalist boat may have been involved in more than just taking the Scotsmen to New York.

William Borden had a colorful record during the Revolution. He was from a large Quaker family that was largely disaffected. While he leaned Loyalist early in the war, Borden’s loyalties turned dramatically. He joined the New Jersey State Troops in 1782 and was one of three soldiers ordered to convey a captured Loyalist, Philip White, from Long Branch to jail at Freehold. The soldiers, however, abused White and provoked him into attempting a futile escape that ended when the soldiers murdered White. White’s murder provoked the murder of Captain Joshua Huddy in April 1782. Huddy’s murder lit a diplomatic bonfire that reverberated across the American, British and French governments.

Caption: William Borden’s boat and its passengers beached at Manasquan on a patch of shoreline that likely resembled this one at Fisherman’s Cove. The boat and crew were captured by the Monmouth militia.

Related Historic Site: Fisherman Cove Conservation Area

Sources: David Forman to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #4097; William Livingston to David Rittenhouse, in Carl Prince ed., Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, p 284-5; Selections from the Correspondence of the Executive of New Jersey, From 1776 to 1786 (Newark, NJ: Newark Daily Advertiser, 1848) pp. 32-3; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) pp. 7, 9; Samuel Forman to John Walton, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #1062.