Davenport’s Pine Robbers Routed at Forked River

By 1782, most Pine Robber activity consolidated into gangs headed by John Bacon and William Davenport. The geographic footprint of the two gangs overlapped—with both gangs active between Toms River and Little Egg Harbor. This raises the possibility that the gangs were not distinct, but melded into each other depending upon the opportunity of the moment. John Bacon’s rise is discussed in another article.

The Rise of William Davenport

William Davenport was not from Monmouth County. His name does not appear in Monmouth County tax lists, militia rolls, or court documents. The earliest record of William Davenport might be in the minutes of the New Jersey Council of Safety (which investigated disloyal New Jersians before the state’s courts were functioning). On March 27, 1778, Council considered the disloyalty of ten men from Gloucester County. Davenport is listed in one of the entries: "That Jacob Jones, Gunrod Shoemaker, William Davenport, Thomas Smith and a negro man belonging to John Cox be discharged, the former four on taking the oath to government prescribed by law.” The light punishment suggests that the Council did not believe Davenport to be particularly dangerous. That would change.

It cannot be stated with certainty that the disaffected William Davenport brought before the Council of Safety became a Pine Robber leader. Many documents discuss the activities of Davenport the Pine Robber, but none of these documents assign him a first name. So, while it is probable that the Pine Robber “Davenport” was William Davenport of Gloucester County, this is conjecture.

By late 1780, Davenport was leading a Pine Robber gang in Stafford Township. Thomas Brown, the son of militia Captain Samuel Brown, recalled in his postwar pension application fleeing the family house on Davenport’s attack. A few nights later, Davenport returned:

They robbed it of everything of value that it contained, forced his wife and children to leave it, and then burnt his house, barn and shop, and other buildings to ashes.... and they burnt a valuable schooner belonging to Captain Brown, lying in Forked River.

The Brown family relocated to Woodbridge for safety. According to Brown’s narrative, Davenport's gang continued to rob local Whigs: Clayton Newbold, John Block, Caleb Shreve, and John Holmes "were all robbed of large quantities of silver plate, money, clothing, other articles, and a number of Negroes, the marauders took their booty to Clam Town [present-day Tuckerton]."

Another Stafford Township militiaman, Thomas Randolph, recalled that he "was in a skirmish with a scouting party of the enemy & refugees" in which he "was taken prisoner [by Davenport] & carried to Tuckerton & released." And a Burlington County militiaman, John Ingersoll, recalled being in a party with two boats, sixteen men each, when his men ran afoul of Davenport:

Followed along the coast until we came to Barnegat Inlet. We ran in and landed on Cranberry Beach. We fell in with a large body of refugees, they were far superior in number to us and they succeeded in taking us prisoners. They handcuffed and conveyed us on to a prison ship then lying in the North River, opposite the City of New York, whose name was the Scorpion.

Fear of Davenport reached a crescendo in December 1781. A series of letters and petitions from the residents of Toms River described Davenport’s gang menacing the village. Captain Andrew Brown, commanding a Dover Township militia company wrote:

The refugees are this time more numerous in this quarter than has been known since the start of the war. I am well informed that they are fortifying at Little Egg Harbor where they have made a stand for a considerable time.

Letters from Toms River Whigs (supporters of the Revolution) estimated Davenport’s gang between 50 and 70 men. This made Davenport’s gang roughly twice the size of the small local militia units commonly arrayed against them—even the State Troop detachment at Toms River was only 25 men. Despite this, the arc of Davenport’s career suggests that he was a cautious leader who robbed and plundered individual homes in preference to engaging with bodies of the enemy.

The Death of William Davenport

On June 5, 1782, the New Jersey Gazette reported the defeat of Davenport’s gang. It described a June 1 attack on the saltworks of his old rival, Samuel Brown (who had returned from Woodbridge):

On the morning of the 1st, one Davenport, a refugee, landed with about 40 whites and 40 blacks, at Forked River, and burnt Samuel Brown's salt-works, and plundered him; they then proceeded southward toward Barnegat, for the purpose of burning the salt works along the shore between those places. Thus, they are conciliating the affections of the Americans!

Davenport’s attack was important enough to be reprinted in newspapers as far away as Maryland.

Several antiquarian sources discuss the death of Davenport shortly after his gang plundered Brown’s saltworks. They next moved to the house of John Woodmancy but apparently did no damage (as the Woodmancy family was known to be disaffected). The Pine Robbers continued to move south in two barges (with no cannon). They were surprised at Waretown by a militia gunboat proceeding down Oyster Creek. The gunboat closed on the slower barges.

Davenport, according to several secondary accounts, stood up to give orders. The militia fired their cannon at the lead barge, killing Davenport instantly. One of the barges—perhaps overloaded with plunder—overset. The Pine Robbers, though they must have outnumbered the militia, waded into the water and fled. They hiked back toward their base at Clam Town, receiving food and shelter from the Quaker, Ebenezer Collins, at Barnegat.

There is no document that names the militia unit that killed Davenport. It may have been the Burlington County militia company of Captain Enoch Willetts. John Ingersoll's veteran’s pension application details that this company manned a privateer gunboat that patrolled from Cape May to Shark River through much of 1782. John Ingersoll, serving under Willetts, wrote of one of the voyages:

We set sail from Cape May and again landed at Shark River. We staid at Shark River for two or three days, when we spied a refugee boat close in with the beach, steering apparently for Delaware. As they came opposite the Inlet wherein we lay, they gave [us] three cheers [mistaking them for London Traders]. We put to sea and gave chase. We kept up a steady and well directed fire for about four miles, when they endeavored to run their boat into Squan Inlet, but in their attempting to do so they ran her ashore and fled. Before we could get on shore, they had concealed themselves in the woods which were near by. We took their boat, in which we found a six pounder mounted on her stern, together with a quantity of dry goods, with hardware and one barrel of rum, which we took.

The ”40 blacks” in Davenport’s gang merit discussion. The white Pine Robbers who served with Davenport and Bacon were largely from Dover and Stafford townships in Monmouth County and Little Egg Harbor Township in Burlington County. Based on tax lists, these townships had only a small number of African-Americans, making it unlikely that 40 African Americans Pine Robbers were “home grown” in those townships. It is known that the “Black Brigade” ceased raiding as an organized group in fall 1780, after the death of their leader, Colonel Tye. It is also known that Davenport’s first attacks began in late 1780. This raises the possibility that many men from the Black Brigade left Sandy Hook for the lower Monmouth Shore and re-emerged with Davenport as Pine Robbers.

While Davenport’s gang was routed, they suffered few deaths or captures. This is an important detail because it meant that John Bacon continued to have access to a pool of committed Loyalist partisans. The research of David Fowler, who documented Pine Robber activity more than anyone, demonstrates that 1782 was among their more active years. Bacon would remain an active Loyalist partisan into 1783.

Related Historic Site: Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (New York)

Sources: Minutes of the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey, (J. Lyon: Jersey City, 1872) pp. 220-221; Thomas Brown’s pension application in John C. Dann, The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980) pp 141-3; Private Correspondence: Jack Fulmer, Veteran's Pension Application of John Ingersoll of New Jersey, pp 4; Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application of Thomas Randolph of New York, National Archives, p36-7; Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 39; Maryland Gazette, June 30, 1782; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; William Fischer, Biographical Cyclopedia of Ocean County (Philadelphia: A.D. Smith, 1899) p 59; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 80; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987).