Major John Burrowes and His Actions at Middletown Point

Loyalists raided the Monmouth shore throughout 1778, and Monmouth County’s Whig (supporters of the Revolution) had little recourse. Willam Marriner raided Brooklyn once, and privateers along the Atlantic shore took some British ships, but Sandy Hook—the centerpiece of British power in the local war around Monmouth County—was seemingly invulnerable. That changed when the British weakened their military presence in the fall of 1778. Then, on December 15, Captain John Burrowes of Middletown Point successfully raided Sandy Hook, capturing or burning three vessels and capturing fourteen prisoners. This is the subject of another article.

John Burrowes, Jr., (“Captain Burrowes”) was a captain in the Continental Army—commissioned in January 1777 in David Forman’s Additional Regiment to raise a company of Monmouth Countians for the defense of Monmouth County. His father, John Burrowes, Sr., was taken by Loyalist raiders in May 1778, just weeks after Forman was stripped of command and the regiment was pulled out of Monmouth County. Captain Burrowes was merged into the main body of the Continental Army. After the Battle of Monmouth (June 28, 1778), however, he was permitted to stay home and report on British movements in the Raritan Bay and at Sandy Hook.

John Burrowes, Jr., at Middletown Point

After his successful raid of December 15, Burrowes entered the Raritan Bay again in early February. In collaboration with a New Brunswick privateer, Alexander Dickey, he took a captured Loyalist vessel and brought it into New Brunswick. The specifics of the capture are unknown, but it can be determined that the capture was controversial because Burrowes was arrested. He wrote his senior general, Lord Stirling [General William Alexander], on February 3, 1779:

I have to inform your lordship that I am arrested on account of the sloop Brunswick for not delivering her up, by the request of Genl. Maxwell [William Maxwell], which I could not do; Capt. Dickey, one of the owners, was the person that brought the order for the delivery of the vessel; I told him [Maxwell] I could not do it, except by an order from his Excellency [Washington], your Lordship or Governor Livingston, he then told me he would wait on your Excellency and get an order, which I thought he had done till five or six days after, when I was taken by the sheriff - I thought proper to let your Excellency know.

The fate of the vessel is unknown but, presumably, the charges against Burrowes were dropped because he was home at Middletown Point by early April. On April 2, Burrowes reported on cannon fire at Sandy Hook: "There is a very heavy firing at the Hook this morning which I am to believe is the arrival of more of their vessels.” Burrowes also discussed his role purchasing oysters for Stirling: “I have not had it in my power to procure any oysters for your Lordship on any terms, as the oystermen will not go out for fear of the enemy, a King's galley yesterday drove all the fishermen off the shore & lays there yet."

Burrowes wrote Stirling again on April 5 and promised to "start for the [Navesink] Highlands immediately and make all the discoveries possible." He also expressed frustration in transmitting his reports to Stirling, "The militia Light Horse are dismissed, I am obliged to send my letters to Bordentown, to be forwarded [from there]."

Three weeks later, Burrowes, and fifteen men under him, joined with the Monmouth militia to hang on the flanks of a 700-man British-Loyalist raiding party that landed at Shoal Harbor and marched on Tinton Falls. A Loyalist who was with the raiding party, Joseph Mount, visited family in Middletown after the raid and was arrested by Burrowes. On May 6, Burrowes wrote Stirling about interrogating "a person [Joseph Mount] that was taken when the enemy were over at Middletown.” Mount told Burrowes about British troops in New York, “he says General Clinton with 7,000 troops were on board of the fleet and going on a secret expedition, how true that may be, I cannot tell." This is Burrowes’ last surviving letter to Stirling from Middletown Point in 1779.

John Burrowes, Jr., Returns to the Continental Army Camp

In June, he returned to the main body of the Continental Army after almost a year at home. He was recommended for promotion to Major on July 22, but this occurred as the New Jersey regiments were being consolidated, forcing George Washington to write Congress’ Board of War:

A Board of Gen. Officers were of opinion upon the question being put, that it would be best to consider them as forming a particular line and for the Officers to be promoted accordingly. I do not however recollect that any promotions took place, while they remained in this situation, and perhaps it may be best as the line is reduced and several Regiments are incorporated into one, that they should be Regimental. There is an instance in which it has been so. If the Board please, they may appoint Capt. Burrows to the Majority in Spencer's [Colonel Oliver Spencer].

After some delay, the promotion to major occurred. That summer, Burrowes led two companies of New Jersey Continentals into northwest Pennsylvania as part of General John Sullivan’s campaign against the Iroquois. Burrowes returned with his men to the Continental camp at Morristown in late 1779 and spent a miserable winter there. He likely proposed returning to the Raritan Bay region, where he had been valuable in the past.

On April 22, 1780, Washington sent Burrowes to New Brunswick:

You will march the detachment under your command to Brunswick - the object of it is to guard a quantity of flour deposited there until it can be brought away -- when the wagons begin to move it, you will be pleased to give me notice & also when the whole is near taken away - as a additional motive for the enemy to make some attempt there.

John Burrowes, Jr., Returns to Middletown Point

A month later, Burrowes was sent back into Monmouth County for the last time as an Army officer. On May 24, General Maxwell, commanding New Jersey troops, wrote George Washington about sending Burrowes to purchase whaleboats and take cattle from residents living along the Monmouth shore:

I had Major Burrows, an Officer and 25 Men ordered to set out for Monmouth County this Morning at 7 o’clock. The Major was to purchase two whale Boats that lay at Brunswick, If he could not pick up some along the shore, at Monmouth County where they ought not to be. Coll Dayton [Elias Dayton] informed me he had spoke to Your Excellency about the Boats at Brunswick. The reason of the partys going to Monmouth was the scarcity of meat with us; and I am creditably informed that there are always considerable quantitys [sic] of Cattle brought from the West Jersey, and lodged near the shore to be handy to send off to New York. I have directed the Major if he finds such cattle, that he will apply to the purchaser of the County, and if the people who has them in charge, or the owner, refuse to sell them, that he will have with him a Majestrate [sic] at the same time, and I make no doubt he will give him orders to take them.

The plan was similar to a plan that had caused trouble for Major Henry “Light Horse Harry Lee” months earlier, but with the important addition of partnering with local magistrates. If successful, Burrowes would interrupt illegal trade between the Monmouth shore and Sandy Hook and assist the county’s commissary officers in finding meat for the Army. Maxwell noted that Burrowes would link up with Colonel Jean-Joseph Gimet at New Brunswick before proceeding into Monmouth County.

The same day Washington wrote to "the Officer of General Maxwell's Brigade who is to accompany Colo. Jamet [Gimet] to Monmouth." Washington likely sent the letter before receiving Maxwell’s letter:

You are to accompany Colonel Jemet to the county of Monmouth and to such parts of the coast as he may find occasion to visit. You are well apprized of the disaffection of many of the inhabitants in that quarter and of the necessity with which there will be of guarding against any attempts of their to take you off. It may perhaps add to your security if you can prevail upon some of the well affected gentlemen of the country to accompany you whenever you ride towards the shore.

The letter suggests that Washington already knew of Maxwell’s plan to send Burrowes into Monmouth County to impound cattle (in collaboration with local magistrates). One of Burrowes’s men, Joseph Kelly wrote about being dispatched to Monmouth County in his veterans’ pension:

Information was soon after received from Monmouth by General Washington that the British and Tories from New York City were carrying the people of Monmouth off as prisoners & putting them in the Provost and on board of the prison ships, and stealing their cattle. The Monmouth regulars were anxious to return home when the intelligence was received. General Washington sent us home to protect the coast of Monmouth.

It is unknown exactly how long Burrowes stayed in Monmouth County, but there are hints that he stayed into the summer. This is provided in the muster rolls of his men. Monmouth County enlistees, Lewis Poole deserted on June 7 and Esek Van Dorn deserted on July 1; men were more likely to desert near home. Henry Johnston was wounded and Abel Thorp was sick and kept at Allentown in July. These notations in the muster rolls do not prove that Burrowes stayed in Monmouth County into July, but they establish a probability that Burrowes was in the county with a small party that long.

It is also possible that Burrowes never returned to the Continental Army camp. According to an antiquarian source, he purchased a small privateer vessel, Rebecca, in spring 1780 and was captured. He was then appointed the marshal of the New Jersey Admiralty Court in November 1780—a position that likely was incompatible with serving in the Army at Morristown. He was listed as “deranged” and formally discharged from the Army on January 1, 1781.

However, Burrowes was not deranged, at least not as the term is used today. On January 23, the New Jersey Government trusted him to communicate with the Continental Congress about the mutiny of the New Jersey Line. He helped recruit for the Continental Army later that year and was elected as the Monmouth County Sheriff in October 1781. He served in that role for four years.

Related Historic Site: Burrowes Mansion

Sources: John Burrowes to Lord Stirling, New York Historical Society, MSS John Burrowes; John Burrowes to Lord Stirling, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, reel 55, February 3, 1779; John Burrowes to Lord Stirling, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/P?mgw:13:./temp/~ammem_tAu8 ; John Burrowes to Lord Stirling, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 57, April 5, 1779; John Burrowes to Lord Stirling, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 58, May 6, 1779; Muster Rolls, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, Coll. 166, p8, 14, 20, 31, 39, 149; George Washington to Board of War, Congress, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw150489)); George Washington to John Burrowes, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, series 4, reel 65, April 22, 1780; George Washington from William Maxwell, 24 May 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-01846, ver. 2013-09-28); Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mgw/mgw3b/011/352349.jpg; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Joseph Kelley of PA, www.fold3.com/image/# 26180227; William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 56.