Crackdown on Militia Delinquents in Shrewsbury Township

by Michael Adelberg

- August 1780 -

Prior articles show how Monmouth County’s local war grew especially desperate in summer 1780. Irregular Loyalist raiding parties, such as the Black Brigade, penetrated the county’s shores and took off a dozen militia officers and many other leaders. Monmouth Countians, largely unable to attack enemies shielded behind British lines, set their sights on internal enemies instead. The Retaliators, a vigilante society, practiced eye-for-an-eye retaliation, mostly against the kin of Loyalists rather than actual Loyalists. Continental soldiers took 160 head of livestock from people living near the shore based on alleged or past disaffection outside of the legal system.

Militia service was compulsory in Revolutionary New Jersey. So, the same men judged disaffected (and punished for it) were also required to serve in the militia. In Monmouth County’s three Atlantic shore townships—Shrewsbury, Dover, and Stafford—many men skipped militia duty; some likely did not serve at all. Documentation is best for Shrewsbury Township where the original militia Colonel, Samuel Breese, resigned due to the “backwardness” of locals who “secreted” themselves in order to avoid serving. Several shore township militia companies were unreliable long into the war.

Frustration with militia delinquents was expressed throughout the war. A May 1779 Monmouth County petition noted the suffering of Whigs (supporters of the Revolution) and then discussed militia delinquents:

Many of the inhabitants capable of bearing arms who refuse to turn out with their neighbors, possess the common enemy, have by staying at home injured both persons and estates. Now they are subject to only a trifling punishment, whilst they that obeyed their Country's call not only hazard their lives but have lost almost their whole estates.

The petitioners called for “just relief” without specifying what it might be. There are a few surviving documents showing “trifling” fines for militia delinquency in 1778. The data below summarizes:

Date / Township / # of Delinquents / Punishment

February 1778

Middletown

$50 fine

March 1778

Middletown

$50 fine

June 1778

Shrewsbury

Amount not listed

If these returns are typical, delinquency rates commonly ranged between 15 and 45 percent.

The New Jersey Legislature was aware of poor militia turnout in parts of the state and the desire to more strictly punish delinquents. It was also aware of difficulties raising men for the Continental Army. To address both problems, the legislature nearly passed a law in March 1780 that would require delinquents to serve a year in the Army. In June, it passed a milder law that required six months of army service for delinquents. The law would sunset in a year unless re-passed.

Historian Mark Lender wrote about the law, and noted that it only raised 200 men for the Army—a small fraction of the state’s militia delinquents. Militia officers were, it appears, reluctant to cooperate with the Army to identify and gather up delinquents. The New Jersey Assembly received several protests against the law, including one from the Shrewsbury Quaker Meeting. Their petition set forth “that the militia bill now in force, more especially that passed sixteenth day of June last, proves very grievous in the manner they have been executed against some of the persons belonging to the meeting." The law was not renewed.

Meanwhile, Monmouth County militia leaders started taking a tougher stand against militia delinquency. In June 1780, the Middletown militia company of Captain Barnes Smock (recently captured) identified sixteen delinquents, including Lt. Tunis Vanderveer and Stephen Seabrook (bayoneted three years earlier in a Loyalist raid). Interestingly, the men were fined £10 rather than $50. The conversion of the fines from inflationary dollars to stable pre-war pounds suggests that the June 1780 fine was more considerable than prior fines. £10 was roughly half the value of a good horse. In July, Captain Daniel Hampton listed 23 delinquents from his company, but the fine amount is not listed.

On August 4, Captain Thomas Bennett wrote his Colonel (Daniel Hendrickson, leading the Shrewsbury militia) about "being unable to come at this time with my return, am under the necessity of writing to you and sending my return." Bennett also wrote about some men in his company: Thomas Truax "has been unable for some months past to do any work and consequently unfit for military duty" and "Philip Lewis's wife and William White's wife are both in a condition not to be left alone" so they were excused from service. Only fourteen of Bennett’s men were listed as "present and fit for duty."

Two weeks later, an unnamed Middletown militia officer compiled, "A List of those of Warned on the Alarm of August 17, 1780, to march after Colo. Tye." Only two militiamen answered the alarm; sixteen were delinquent. A week after that, Governor William Livingston wrote Colonel Hendrickson:

I cannot observe but with great concern that of 27 men lately called from your Regiment to rendezvous at this place [Morristown] by the first of this month, not one of them have appeared, and I should now order them to be immediately detached.

Hendrickson was further ordered to prepare 27 more men for deployment the following month.

Crackdown on Militia Delinquents in Shrewsbury Township

The reprimand from the Governor ignited a crackdown on militia delinquency in Shrewsbury Township. Hendrickson started convening courts-martial for militia delinquency at the inn of Lydia West in Colts Neck. Colts Neck was the furthest inland and safest village in the township, but even with this, a Loyalist raiding party attacked Colts Neck as the courts-martial were being held. The court’s five officers Capt. Stephen Fleming, Lt. Jacob Fleming, Lt. Ephraim Buck, Lt. Hendrick Vanderveer, Lt. Hendrick Van Brunt, were not, however, endangered by Loyalist raiders at this time.

Documentation on the courts-martial is confusing, but at least two courts were held at West’s tavern in late August. The first one fined 25 men from Captain James Green’s company a total of £7,115. Five men were fined £500, the largest amount. Other men were fined as little as £5. No document explains this variation but it is probable that fine size was impacted by the length of the delinquency (an entire month vs. a day) and by individual circumstance. It is also possible that alleged acts of disaffection or the acts of Loyalist kin may have increased the size of the militia fine.

A second court fined 32 additional men on August 31, with the largest fines of £500 being imposed upon six men. However, another document dated August 31, lists 135 men fined for delinquency across the entire regiment. This document notes that officers were "commanded to levy on the goods & chattels of the several delinquents... and dispose of said goods and chattels by way of public vendue." The crackdown continued in September. Another court martial at West’s tavern occurred on October 4 (for delinquencies in September). Fourteen men were fined £2,346. The largest fine was again £500.

Attention shifted to collecting fines. According to a list of "Warrants Granted for the Collection" of militia delinquency fines, a staggering £38,429 (approximately the value of twenty mid-sized estates) was owed by Shrewsbury militia delinquents. Fine collectors were selected for each of Shrewsbury’s eight militia companies. The data below shows the collectors for each company:

Company / Aug. Collector / Sept. Collector / Note

Capt John Bennett

Sgt. Joseph Bishop

Bishop serves two companies

Lt. Hendrick Hendrickson

Joseph Van Note

Only officer to serve as collector

Thomas Wainwright’s District/ Jacob Fleming

Abraham Probasco

Jacob Hart

Wainwright resigns, taken; Hart serves two companies

Capt. Thomas Chadwick

John Russell

William Hendrickson

W. Hendrickson serves two companies

Stephen Fleming's District

“not named”

George Brinley

Fleming is absent, likely captured

Capt. James Green

George Brinley

William Hendrickson

W. Hendrickson serves two companies

Capt. Daniel Hampton

Joseph Bishop

Bishop serves two companies

Capt. Joseph Cosgrove

Sgt. Ruliff Schenck

Jacob Hart

Hart serves two companies

The data reveals strains in the Shrewsbury militia. Only three of the August collectors were collectors for the same company in September. One company had no collector in August. Two companies had no captain in August and one captaincy remained vacant in September. By September, three collectors were serving for two companies each. Given the flux, it is improbable that fine collection went well. Adding to the militia’s woes was a profound lack of ammunition. An October appeal to the New Jersey Assembly complained that there were only four dozen cartridges for the entire Shrewsbury regiment—though the state did send more war materials in November.

It is easy to imagine that collectors were reluctant to go into some neighborhoods and that many delinquents were uncooperative. At least once, a militiaman was fined in error. Daniel Covenhoven of Middletown was a good militiaman who was captured and jailed for a year and a half in New York. He was paroled home in January 1781. As a condition of his parole, he was not allowed to serve, but was fined nonetheless. He wrote Governor Livingston in protest:

My circumstances will not permit me to turn out in the militia, being now upon my parole, as the enclosed deposition will show, and having been fined by the Court Martial for refusal upon sd principles, I would appeal to your Excellency for redress.

Existing documents do not reveal how much of the massive fine total was ever collected. A “return of delinquents” compiled in November 1780 for the Middletown militia company of Capt. William Schenck lists eight delinquents. They were only fined £10 each. It is unknown why the largest Shrewsbury militia fines were 50 times that amount. Because no returns exist from militia companies outside of Shrewsbury for the months of August and September, it is impossible to know if the massive fines of the Shrewsbury regiment were mirrored in the other two regiments.

State Law Improves Punishments for Militia Delinquents

In January 1781, the New Jersey Legislature considered uncollected militia delinquency fines. Minutes from their deliberations note that Monmouth County was specifically discussed: "the County of Monmouth shall on account of its present circumstances have one common treasurer to the three regiments, to be appointed by the officers of the said regiments jointly." Following deliberations, the legislature passed a law to enhance fine collection. The law is summarized below:

Sergeants of each company were required to go to the homes of militiamen and determine that each man had arms to attend the militia. Arms would be made available to men lacking arms. Once supplied, men would unable to skip service due to lack of arms;
To encourage greater militia participation, half of all collected militia fines would be distributed as a bounty to men who attend the militia muster;
Four days a year, there would be a general muster of all militia companies (first day of April, June, September, November) for completing a muster roll and inspection of the men;
Regimental colonels were required to file bi-annual reports on the condition of their regiments;
Every militia delinquent was ordered to appear before a local magistrate to pays fines or arrange a schedule for paying fines.

The new law, by bringing magistrates into the process, likely regularized the collection of fines. Militia delinquents faced consequences for repeated delinquency. On January 14, 1782, an auction was held to pay the delinquency fines of Peter Hulsart, a tailor from Freehold. The auction notice read:

Give notice that there will be sold on Thursday, the fourteenth of January next, at two o'clock in the afternoon at the house of William Mount, a cow and a bed, it being for fines as delinquent of Lt Hendrick Vanderveer's company, who did not turn out for his monthly tour of duty.

A second auction in July 1782 was held against Hulsart to auction off "horse and horned cattle” to pay off his additional militia delinquency fines.

In May 1782, Sheriff (and militia officer) John Burrowes deputized John North to collect militia delinquency fines from sixteen men: "You are hereby empowered to collect upon my company for not turning out in monthly duty April last.” The largest fine was £20 and a second fine was £15. The other men were fined £10 or less.

In August 1782, Colonel Samuel Forman ordered Captain John Covenhoven to call out two classes of Dover militia. Forman noted upcoming court martials under Captain Samuel Brown to fine militia delinquents. He warned Covenhoven that disaffected shore residents would quit the militia camp if not watched by an officer: "Never let such a thing be known at night again, as the men will go and return for want of an officer." He also warned that Colonel Asher Holmes, the senior colonel for the county, was insisting on the collection of militia delinquency fines:

Col Holmes is now on his command, that now comes under his direction, do press the collecting of the money from the militiamen. I am drummed hard. Don't forget last year's money, I really want that too & it ought to be doubled.

Militia delinquency was a complicated problem. If delinquency fines were “trifling” or not collected, more delinquency would result. If the fines were draconian, resentments against the new government would grow. After being too lax, militia fines were clearly too draconian in August 1780. It is not a coincidence that the shift to draconian fines coincided with the rise of the Retaliators, the vigilante society. The same desperate circumstances that drove people to mete out punishing fines led other men to embrace vigilantism. The 1781 state law may have created a reasonable path for addressing militia delinquency—but delinquency persisted through the end of the war.

Caption: By summer 1780, Monmouth militia was regularly skirmishing with Loyalist raiders. In parts of the county with poor militia turnout, officers cracked down on delinquents with massive fines.

Related Historic Site: Captain Joshua Huddy’s Homestead and Marker

Sources: Petition, Monmouth County Historical Association, J. Amory Haskell Collection, folder 22, Document A; List of Militia Delinquents, Monmouth County Historical Association, Cherry Hall Papers, box 15, folder 7; List of Militia Delinquents, Monmouth County Historical Association, Cherry Hall Papers, box 6, folder 6; Captain Stephen Fleming, Muster Roll, New Jersey Historical Society, Holmes Family Papers, box 5, folder 6; Mark Lender, “The Enlisted Line: The Continental Soldiers of New Jersey”(Ph.D. diss., Rutgers University, 1975) p 90; Muster Roll, National Archives, Collection 881, R 593, 640. Barnes Smock, Muster Roll, National Archives, Collection 881, R 593, 640; Captain Daniel Hampton, Militia Return, New Jersey Historical Society, Holmes Family Papers, box 5, folder 4; Thomas Bennett to Daniel Hendrickson, New Jersey Historical Society, Holmes Family Papers, box 5, folder 4; “A List of Those Warned Out…”, New Jersey Historical Society, Holmes Family Papers, box 4, folder 2; William Livingston to Daniel Hendrickson, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 11, August 29, 1780; List of Militia Delinquents, New Jersey Historical Society, Holmes Family Papers, box 5, folder 5; Militia Court Martial List, New Jersey Historical Society, Holmes Family Papers, box 5, folder 5; Militia Court Martials, Holmes Family Papers, Revolutionary War Series, Court Martials, New Jersey Historical Society; Warrants Granted for the Collection of Fines, Holmes Family Papers, Revolutionary War Series, New Jersey Historical Society; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, November 8, 1780, p 20-21; Return of Delinquents, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, New Jersey, folder 58, #122; Discussion of militia delinquency fines are in Anderson, John R. "Militia Law in Revolutionary New Jersey." Proceedings of the New Jersey historical Society, vols. LXXVI and LXXVII (July 1956 and January 1959), p 14; Daniel Covenhoven to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 14, February 15, 1781; New Jersey’s 1781 militia law is discussed in Anderson, John R. "Militia Law in Revolutionary New Jersey." Proceedings of the New Jersey historical Society, vols. LXXVI and LXXVII (July 1956 and January 1959), pp. 16-8; Auction Advertisements, Rutgers University Special Collections, Holsart Family Papers, folder: A2; John Burrowes to John North, Monmouth County Historical Association, J. Amory Haskell Collection, folder 12, Document M; Samuel Forman to Captain John Covenhoven, National Archives, Collection 881, R 640.