The Travails of Mary Leonard and Other Loyalist Women

In early 1777, as New Jersey came back under Continental control, authorities moved against remaining Loyalists. In Monmouth County, 200+ Loyalists were jailed and dozens of others were brought before the New Jersey Council of Safety. At least that many Monmouth Countians went behind British lines where the majority joined the New Jersey Volunteers, a Loyalist corps of the British Army. While some Loyalists brought wives and children with them, the majority did not. The Loyalist women who remained at home posed a substantial challenge to leaders struggling to establish competent and just local government.

As noted in a prior article, Monmouth County lacked a functioning local government in the early months of 1777. The county’s senior military officer, Brigadier General David Forman, was not shy about exercising power to fill that gap. It appears that Forman’s first action involving Loyalist women occurred on April 11 when General Israel Putnam asked Forman to exile the families of two prominent Loyalists:

I have sent down, under escort, the families of Mr. Saunders and Dr. [Absalom] Bainbridge, who are going to New York -- should Mrs. Bainbridge choose to stay for the present & then go, you will permit her to remain at her father's house in Middletown.

Forman executed the order and now apparently believed it was within his power to act against other Loyalist women.

Mary Leonard’s Disaffection

Mary Leonard was from the prominent Lawrence family of Upper Freehold. She was the daughter of Robert Lawrence, a judge of the courts under the Royal Government, who retired from public life at the start of the Revolution. She was also the wife of Thomas Leonard, an early Loyalist and major in the New Jersey Volunteers. On February 18, 1777, Thomas was captured and imprisoned somewhere in Pennsylvania. Mary never learned her husband’s location even after she wrote letters of inquiry about him and requested leniency.

However, Mary Leonard was not an apolitical innocent. As she was advocating for her husband she was also speaking with Jane Morris, the wife of Captain Robert Morris of the New Jersey Volunteers. Robert Morris had made himself particularly obnoxious to New Jersey authorities when he raised a company of New Jersey Volunteers recruits from Shrewsbury in December 1776 and nearly raised another company in February 1777 (Morris missed connecting with the ship sent to take the Loyalists to Sandy Hook).

With Robert Morris in hiding, Mary advised Jane to tell her husband not to surrender himself to New Jersey authorities. For this and the nuisance she caused while inquiring about her husband, Mary Leonard was brought before the New Jersey Supreme Court on May 30, 1777. She was indicted as “a pernicious & disaffected woman, a person with a turbulent mind and seditious disposition.” The indictment further read:

Concerning Robert Morris, the husband of Jane, in the presence & hearing of said Jane Morris, did falsely, maliciously and seditiously say & with a loud voice declare "I advise you to inform your husband that the Continental troops and the militia of this State think that he [Robert Morris] is gone off with the King's Party and tell your husband to keep himself secret. I am well informed that the King's troops will be in possession of this country in a few days, and if they [the British Army] find your husband with the Provincials [rebels], they will kill him.

The court declared Mary Leonard’s conduct “to the evil example of all.” Mary’s punishment is unknown but it was apparently light because she remained at large.

As for Thomas Leonard, he was confined in Reading, Pennsylvania. This is known because the Continental Congress recorded reimbursing the state of Pennsylvania for keeping him from March 3 – June 22. His whereabouts between his February 18 capture and March 3 is not known, but he was sent to the prison in Easton after June 22. Mary Leonard was not told of her husband’s new location.

Mary Leonard’s Exile and the Resulting Controversy

Mary Leonard apparently spoke harshly about the state of affairs. She drew the ire of David Forman who, without authority to do so, convened some type of military tribunal and then exiled her to New York. With her husband still confined in Pennsylvania, Mary returned to New Jersey in September without Forman’s permission. By this time, Thomas Leonard’s estate had been rented out by the county’s Forfeiture Commissioners, so she could not have returned to her house.

Mary Leonard’s troubles roused her father, Robert Lawrence, who had been staying out of politics. On August 28, Lawrence sent a blistering petition to the New Jersey Legislature about Forman’s conduct respecting to his daughter and other Loyalist women:

David Forman... presumed to banish some women out of this State into enemy lines, whereupon I apprehended that our new & happy constitution had received a very dangerous wound... this induced me to lay before the Governor & Council of Safety.

Lawrence discussed “the arbitrary stretch of power by the said David Forman” and his heated discussion before the New Jersey Legislature about Forman’s authority per an order from George Washington:

To my astonishment, I heard arguments that I never suspected would come from the mouths of free men… David Forman acting under martial law under the pretense of Genl. Washington's orders (which I am far from believing). If it is so, the Gen. surely never expected that David Forman do himself a court martial, without following the rules of either martial or common law.

Lawrence claimed Forman’s conduct resembled that of "some African tyrant." On October 4, the New Jersey Council of Safety, considered Mary Leonard’s conduct and status:

Mrs. Leonard, wife of Thomas Leonard, who acted as a major in the British service & is now a prisoner of the United States, was sent over to New York a while ago by order of Brigadier General David Forman and hath lately returned to this State. She complains of indisposition and requests that she may be permitted to tarry in Monmouth County until she be reinstated in her health, and that she be suffered to pass to Easton to see her husband.

The Council of Safety "agreed, that Mrs. Leonard be permitted to pass to Easton and to remain with him." Its leniency toward Mary Leonard implicitly rebuked Forman’s harsh treatment.

For this and other misdeeds, the New Jersey Legislature launched an investigation into David Forman’s conduct. Forman refused to appear before the Legislature and resigned his commission as a Brigadier General in the New Jersey militia, thereby depriving the legislature of a lever to punish him.

Mary Leonard’s Further Travails

Mary Leonard went to Easton in October, but was not reunited with Thomas. On October 29, she was still searching for him. From Lebanon, Pennsylvania, she wrote Robert Hooper, the jailkeeper at Easton:

Since I left East Town [Easton], I have been indisposed that I have not been able to write till now. I send the enclosed to Mr. Leonard, beg favor that you will forward it as soon as possible. I flatter myself, sir, by the time you have heard from him where his lot is to be, if he should happen to be placed in Reading or East Town, I should esteem it one of the greatest blessings I could enjoy at this time. If he is sent two hundred miles from me, my State of health will not admit my going to him. As you have the character of a Gentleman of great humanity, I make not the least dought [sic] but you will assist and befriend the distressed, as is consonant with your honor.

Thomas Leonard was in Easton when Mary visited that town. This raises the possibility that local jailers deliberately misled Mary Leonard about her husband’s whereabouts. It is also possible that disorganized  jailers misinformed Mary by way of an honest mistake.

On January 6, 1778, Elias Boudinot, the Commissary of Prisoners for the Continental government, wrote Thomas Leonard about Leonard’s request to let Loyalist women go to New York to be with their husbands. Boudinot wrote: “I have received your note about the women who wanted to go from Monmouth to New York.” Boudinot discussed an “Act of our Assembly lately passed gives such persons liberty to sell their effects & go to New York, so I suppose they will embrace the opportunity."

In the same letter, Boudinot admitted to knowing of Mary Leonard’s plight, "I rec'd Mrs. Leonard's letter and feel exceedingly for the unhappy woman." Boudinot wrote Hooper about the Leonards. On February 5, Hooper responded that he was out of the area when Mary Leonard visited Easton. Of Thomas Leonard and other Loyalist officers in Easton, he wrote, “I am in pity to these miserable and unhappy men. Upwards of 26 of them are dead. Easton is by no means a proper place for officers.”

It is unclear where and when Mary and Thomas Leonard were re-united. But Mary Leonard would get into trouble again. In December 1779 she was arrested for bringing “sundry goods, wares and merchandize without any license, permission or passport” from New York into New Jersey. She and Edward Brook (likely the pilot of the boat that carried her) were detained. In July 1780, the Monmouth County Court of Common Pleas found that she owed the state a hefty debt of 5,737 pounds.

Other Loyalist Women Suffer during the Revolution

Mary Leonard’s travails are better documented than Monmouth County’s other Loyalist women, but there is reason to think that other Loyalist wives suffered comparably. Below are two other examples:

Christian Crowell was the wife of Thomas Crowell, a prosperous boat owner with a home on the Raritan Bayshore. Thomas Crowell joined the New Jersey Volunteers, then captained a Loyalist privateer. Christian Crowell stayed home as the family estate was inventoried for confiscation. She lost the family’s livestock in 1777--likely confiscated by David Forman’s men. In September 1777, she was brought before the New Jersey Supreme Court and charged with “maliciously and advisedly going over to Sandy Hook" and “returning to Middletown." A Loyalist newspaper reported about the harassments against her:

A Party of Rebel Light Horse went to the House of Capt. Thomas Crowell, of Shrewsbury, in New Jersey, last Tuesday, and robbed him of all his Cattle, Sheep, Hogs and Horses; and told Mrs. Crowell, as soon as they had disposed of what they then took, they intended to return and carry off all her Household Furniture, and then dispose of her House and Plantation at public sale.

She was fined £3 for a misdemeanor in January 1778. In May 1779, the family estate was confiscated and she was forced to rent a cottage from the Overseer of the Poor. After that, according to Thomas, "his wife and family came within British lines for relief."

Rhoda Pew was the wife of James Pew, a boatman on the Raritan Bay who became involved in illegally trading with the British. He became a Loyalist. In November 1777, Rhoda was brought before the New Jersey Supreme Court for boarding a British sloop at Sandy Hook (probably visiting her husband). In January and May 1778, she was convicted of misdemeanors (probably illegally trading with the enemy). She was one of four Loyalist women exiled to New York in May 1778. Her husband was captured later that year and jailed in Freehold; there he was murdered by the prison sentry. In April 1782, Rhoda Pew gave emotional testimony about the cruel behavior of the rebels during the Court Martial of Richard Lippincott (after he hanged Captain Joshua Huddy of Colts Neck).

The author has identified 79 women who, based on various records, suffered for their pro-British sympathies during the war. A table summarizing these women is in the appendix of this article. The table does not include women who were punished in the courts for offenses such as trespass that were not directly unrelated to the war. Nor does the table include women who lost their family estates for the “offense” of having a Loyalist husband And the table does not include women solely for emigrating to Canada at war’s end. It can be conservatively estimated that an additional 100 or more women suffered these outcomes. Nine women are documented as being adjudged for punishment or suffering a negative outcome more than once.

Most of the 79 women in the table were brought before the Monmouth County courts for speaking seditious words or unnamed misdemeanors that were likely traveling behind enemy lines or illegally trading with the enemy. While the courts fined these women, it is worth noting that only one woman—Sarah White—received a fine comparable to the larger fines put on men (White’s fine of £100 was large, but still less than largest fines on men which could be as large as £500 for illegal trade or repeated militia delinquency). Charges ultimately were dropped on three women, but only after arrest, detainment, and court appearances, so these women suffered even when legally exonerated.

Most of these women had Loyalist husbands and, on some occasions, this was enough to bring punishments to them. A few of these women were “punished” by being forced off their Monmouth County farms and becoming impoverished in New York.

Related Historic Site: Parsons-Taylor House (Easton, Pennsylvania)

Appendix:  Negative Outcomes for Loyalist and Disaffected Women

See table 3.

Sources: Israel Putnam to David Forman, Neilson Family Papers, box 1, folder: Rutgersania, Rutgers University Special Collections; Mary Leonard to R.D. Hooper, Monmouth County Archives, The William Livingston Era: Documents of the American Revolution, exhibit at the Monmouth County Library Headquarters, October 2003; New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #36727;Journals of the Continental Congress, June 27, 1777, p504; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 141; Robert Lawrence, Memorial, New Jersey State Archives, Bureau of Archives and History, Manuscript Coll., State Library Manuscript Coll., #129; Mary Leonard to R. Hooper, Monmouth County Archives, The William Livingston Era: Documents of the American Revolution, exhibit at the Monmouth County Library Headquarters, October 2003; Elias Boudinot, The Elias Boudinot Letterbook (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 2002) p38 and 74; New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #34638; Rutgers University Special Collections, Great Britain Public Record Office, Loyalist Compensation Claims, D96, AO 13/108, reel 8; the newspaper account on the harassment of Christian Crowell is posted at United Empire Loyalists, Loyal Directory: http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Info; New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #37510; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 243; Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 243.

Sources for Appendix Table: New Jersey Gazette, June 30, 1783, Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Ann Hendricks, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #35933; NY Gazette & Weekly Mercury, July 7, 1777, Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 1, p 420; New Jersey Council of Safety, Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey 1775-1776 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009) p 172; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Sophia Smith, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #38501; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Hannah Cook, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #34510; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Margaret Mount, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #37027; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Ann Parker, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #37484; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Esther Frost. New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #35286; Joshua Huddy vs. Elizabeth Pritchard Catalog of the Exhibition: Joshua Huddy and the American Revolution, Monmouth County Library Headquarters, October 2004; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Deborah Leonard, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #36641; Upper Freehold Baptist Meeting, December 12, 1778, Upper Freehold Baptist Records, Rutgers University Special Collections, reel 1; Memorial of Deliah Cottrell to Col John Morris, 2/8/79: Memorial of Deliah Cottrell, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #1735; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Valesia Mount, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #37026; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Hannah Davis, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #34862; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Phoebe Brown, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #33972; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Cornelia Johnson, New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #36268; Purdy Wardell to Gov. William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 11, April 12, 1780; Memorial of Catherine Reading in BF Stevens, Report on American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain (London: Mackie & Co, 1906) v2, p117; Maj John Antill to Col John Morris, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #2777; Indictment, State vs. Catherine Clark of Freehold, signed by Attorney General William Patterson – Indictment, Monmouth County Archives, Loose Quarterly Sessions; Monmouth Court of Common Pleas, April 25, 1780, Monmouth County Archives, Common Pleas (Loose); Notable Cases from Monmouth Court of Quarterly Sessions Archives, Court of Quarterly Sessions, folder: 1780; NJ Supreme Court: State vs. Hannah Hyer. New Jersey State Archives, Supreme Court Records, #35964; Notable cases before the Monmouth Court of Quarterly Sessions, Court Docket, Monmouth County Archives, Court of Quarterly Sessions, folder: 1781; NJ Gazette, January 30, 1781, Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 5, p 190; Asher Holmes to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 142; Mary Van Gordon to Henry Clinton, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Headquarters Papers of the British Army in America, PRO 30/55/3345; Peter Schenck to William Livingston, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 14, May 22, 1781; Court Docket, New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - November 1781; Burlington County Court record in Monmouth County Archives, The William Livingston Era: Documents of the American Revolution, exhibit at the Monmouth County Library Headquarters, October 2003; Swarthmore College, Friends Historical Library, reel: MR Ph 585, Shrewsbury Meeting; Jane Milligan, petition, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #4272 and 4278; Mrs. Lewis, memorial, BF Stevens, Report on American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain (London: Mackie & Co, 1906) v2, p428; Mary Boggs to William Livingston in Mary Benjamin, "American Revolution ALS,"  The Collector, vol. 69, July - Aug., 1956, p 74; NJ Supreme Court: State of NJ vs. Sushe Johnson, NJ State Archives: NJ Supreme Court Records, case # 36246; Memorial of John Williams, Great Britain Public Record Office, British Headquarters Papers, 30/55, #4907; Private Correspondence from Joseph Dangler re Monmouth County Court Record, State v. Rosina Throckmorton; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - July 1783; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - June 1778; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - July 1779; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder -January 1778; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - May 1782.