Joseph Murray Killed While Tending His Fields

Joseph Murray was born in Ireland and came to America in 1767. He married Rebecca Morris and settled on a small, 43-acre farm in eastern Middletown Township, in between the Raritan Bay and the Navesink River. The location would prove important a decade later because it left the Murray farmstead vulnerable to Loyalist attack from two directions, and gave would-be attackers two potential escape routes.

A Steadfast Supporter of the Revolution

Murray was an early and faithful supporter of the American Revolution. In January 1775, he was among 35 men—including several future militia officers—who voluntarily mustered under David Forman in what may have been Monmouth County’s first militia company loyal to the county’s Committee of Correspondence and state’s Provincial Congress (and not its Royal Governor). 

While many of the privates in Forman’s company transitioned into officer positions as the county militia took shape, Murray remained a private. This is likely a reflection of his small estate rather than a lack of zeal. There is no reason to think that Murray was anything but steadfast in his support for the Revolution despite many of his neighbors hedging their bets and maintaining friendly contacts with Loyalists.

In March 1778, Murray testified before the New Jersey Supreme Court against Joseph Leonard, the former Monmouth County Clerk, for "joining the Army of the King of Britain" a year earlier. Four other people testified against Leonard and four more testified in support of Leonard. The jury chose to convict Leonard "without going into the jury box." A year later, Murray filed a trespass charge against George Taylor, the former colonel of the county militia who turned Loyalist and raised a Loyalist militia. Taylor led several small raids into Monmouth County 1777. Taylor had apparently crossed Murray’s land on one of these raids and Murray decided to file charges against Taylor long after the fact. If Murray did not previously have influential Loyalist enemies at the start of the war, he did now.

According to antiquarian sources, Murray was captured by Loyalists in 1779 and jailed in New York. But he escaped and rejoined the militia in January 1780. He took a horse from Edward Taylor (the disaffected father of George Taylor, still living in Middletown) and under his captain, William Schenck, arrested disaffected men (for reasons not stated).

The Killing of Joseph Murray

On June 7, 1780, Murray was given leave from his officers to return home. He went home, hitched a horse (perhaps Taylor’s horse) to his plow, and started plowing his fields. There, a three-man Loyalist party killed him.

Garrett Hendrickson, Murray’s Lieutenant, stated that Murray, "after being home for a few hours, he was killed by three refugees, near his barn, and left a wife and four small children." Antiquarian sources add that Murray rarely slept at his house due to the danger, but went home to plant his fields before it was too late in the season. He was warned by his neighbors about the danger, and brought a musket into the field with him, but leaned the gun against his fence. Murray was rushed by the raiders as he turned his plow and was furthest from his gun. He was shot by the Loyalists but the wounded Murray then engaged the attackers. Murray was then bayoneted until he fell and died. The raiders were pursued by Murray’s neighbors but not caught.

David Forman, Murray’s old commanding officer, wrote of his death in a letter to Governor William Livingston on June 9: "Joseph Murray was murdered by a party of Refugees while he was at his harrow in his corn field.” Forman argued that in light of “numerous distresses” (including Murray’s killing and a Loyalist raid against Middletown), Livingston needed “to exert yourself in establishing such a guard as will tend to restore, in some measure, the security to the County."  

Forman, writing from Freehold, took the opportunity to tell Livingston that he would not answer Livingston’s statewide alarm for marching men to Springfield to repel the British attack (other Monmouth County senior officers also ignored the alarm).  "We are this minute to march from this village [Freehold to Middletown] & shall not have a single man for its [Springfield’s] defence."

Murray’s wife, Rebecca, stayed on the family farm with her four children. While she was able to weather the war without further incident, it appears that the family suffered a drop in wealth. According to township tax lists, the family owned six horses and cows in 1778 but only three in 1784.

In 1788, new depositions were taken about Murray’s death—this time to determine if Rebecca was eligible for a half-pay military pension. Murray’s militia-mate and neighbor, Thomas Hill, among the first to find Murray’s body after the killing, testified that:

[He] went home with the said Murray and after a short time was going to a neighbor's, a short distance [away], when the deponent heard the report of a gun at the sd Murray's and in a short time after was alarmed with the news that the sd Murray was killed by three refugees, deponent sd he went immediately back when he saw Murray lay dead with his wound [still] bleeding, who had shot & bayonetted in several places.

Rebecca Murray was awarded the pension.

The killing of a middling farmer by a few unnamed Loyalists was a small event that did not merit newspaper coverage. But, put in context, Murray’s killing is an excellent case study of what the Revolutionary War was becoming in Monmouth County. Murray’s killing was not random: he was a known enemy of prominent Loyalists and Murray had recently taken actions that likely re-enflamed Loyalist antipathies toward him. His location near both the Raritan Bay and Navesink River made him an easy target. Murray’s modest estate sealed his fate—a wealthier man with Murray’s service record for would have been a militia officer. He would have been valuable in a prisoner exchange or commanded a ransom. To the revenge-minded Loyalists who went after Murray—taking him was riskier and less satisfying than killing him.

Related Historic Site: Murray Farmstead at Poricy Park

Sources: New York Historical Society, John E. Stillwell Papers, Box: 1730-79, folder: 1770-9; Monmouth County Archives, Loose Common Pleas, box: Common Pleas 1776-1777, folder: 1778; Edwin Salter, Old Times in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 304; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p208; The Monmouth Connection, July 1998, p40-1; Monmouth Democrat, "A Hero of Middletown, New Jersey", November 14, 1895; David Forman to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, p 423. Francis Pingeon, Blacks in the Revolutionary Era (Newark: New Jersey Historical Society, 1975) p22. Monmouth County Historical Association, J. Amory Haskell Coll., folder 3, Document A; Depositions, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #10639; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File, unpublished at the Monmouth County Historical Association.