Monmouth Loyalists Join British Army at Sandy Hook

The British invasion fleet, carrying 25,000 soldiers, arrived at Sandy Hook on June 29. As discussed in a prior article, some British soldiers landed on Sandy Hook that day. But even before the British Army landed on the peninsula, Monmouth County Loyalists were coming to Sandy Hook to join them.

The arrival of the Monmouth Loyalists was gratifying to British leadership. On June 29, on his arrival at Sandy Hook, the British Army’s commander-in-chief, William Howe, thought the arrival of Loyalists from Monmouth County was important enough to include in his first report back to England. He reported that on June 27 "many Gentlemen, fast friends of the Government” had met with New York’s Royal Governor William Tryon and provided “the fullest information on the State of the rebels." Howe further noted that "sixty men came over, two days ago, from the neighborhood of Shrewsbury, with a few arms, who are all desirous to serve, and I understand there are 500 more in that quarter ready to follow their example."

Monmouth Loyalists Join the British Army

The men to whom Howe was referring had crossed over from Shrewsbury, but were actually from Upper Freehold township. This first party of Loyalists to join the British was led by Elisha Lawrence, the former sheriff of Monmouth County and son of John Lawrence, a leader of the Loyalist insurrection that was underway in Upper Freehold. Lawrence noted that he “joined his Excellency Gen. Howe on his arrival at Sandy Hook, with a party of 60 men, and came aboard the Greyhound.”

On June 30, Lawrence wrote a letter home to William Montgomery, a militia major from Upper Freehold, predicting his imminent return:

I hope you will wait with patience for my return, which I expect won't exceed three weeks at the farthest, and [I] shall return with a power sufficient to show my head in public & do my business - how dreadful is my situation, drove from my house, separated from my family & for my protection obliged to fly on board the man of war.

Lawrence predicted that 45,000 British troops would soon land (the actual number was 25,000) and pledged to conduct his affairs honorably on his return: "Don't fear any losses from me, I am determined to do every man justice... You need not fear any action against you."

On July 1, Elisha Lawrence was named the Lt. Colonel of the 1st Battalion of the embryonic New Jersey Volunteers, which would become the largest Provincial Corps of the British Army. Just a few days later, he was joined at Sandy Hook by another party of Monmouth Loyalists led by John Morris of Manasquan (in Shrewsbury Township). Morris had served as a Lieutenant in the British Army during the Seven Years War before settling near Manasquan. He recalled joining the British Army at Sandy Hook this way:

I exposed myself to every kind of ill treatment in order to support his Majesty and the British Government, and joined the Royal Army on the 6th of July 1776, with a number of men, I brought from New Jersey, as a volunteer without pay, either for myself or for them.

British officer, Stephen Kemble, said Morris brought 58 men with him. Morris would be named the Lt. Colonel of the 2nd Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers.

At least two other parties of Monmouth Loyalists joined the British Army in July. A small party of Shrewsbury Township Loyalists, led by John Taylor of Colts Neck, "joined the British Army the day they landed at Staten Island (July 7)." He was commissioned as a company commander under Morris. And John Longstreet of Freehold, who commanded the so-called “Tory Company” of the Monmouth militia, joined the British on July 15. He noted that most of his militia company "were afterward of the British forces." He became a Captain in Lawrence’s battalion. Other Loyalist associations would continue to form in Monmouth County, though at least one, led by Samuel Wright of Long Branch, would be discovered and foiled before going off to the British.

Finally, a Tinton Falls Loyalist, Thomas Okerson, brought supplies to the British Navy at Sandy Hook and then returned to Monmouth County. He was captured by the militia on July 6 and “was committed to the common Jail of Burlington County.” Okerson would become a Lieutenant in the New Jersey Volunteers.

Perceptions of Monmouth Loyalists Joining the British Army

Continental leaders in Monmouth County watched the Loyalist defections with concern. David Brearley, the first Colonel of the Upper Freehold militia, reported about this to Samuel Tucker, the President of the New Jersey Convention. Tucker summarized Brearley’s report on July 6:

He [Brearley] supposes that not more than 100 have been over [to Sandy Hook]… 30 more are flying on board the enemy's fleet; our militia is in pursuit & numbers of lesser offenders are coming back to their duty, upon encouragement we have to give, as all appear to have been deluded. The leaders, if they can be apprehended, will be punished.

News of the Monmouth Loyalists joining the British Army reached George Washington, who wrote New Jersey’s new Governor, William Livingston, on July 8, that "Capt. Morris and Elisha Lawrence of Monmouth County came down to the Hook a few days ago with 60 men & are now on Staten Island."

A number of British officers wrote about the arrival of the Monmouth Loyalists as a harbinger of the thousands more Loyalist recruits who would soon flock to them. William Howe’s report on July 6 is a good example:

I have satisfaction to inform your Lordship that there is great reason to expect a numerous body of inhabitants from New York, Jersey & Connecticut, who in this time of universal oppression, only wait to give proof of their loyalty and zeal to the Government; sixty men came over a few days ago with some arms from the neighborhood of Shrewsbury, all desirous to serve, and I understand there are five hundred more in that quarter ready to follow their example.

The Royal Navy’s Captain Marion Bowater on the Centurion wrote from Sandy Hook on July 7:

They desert to us hourly, and what is still better, they bring their arms with them, as Gen'l Howe let them know that ten dollars reward for rifle guns.  All the principal people are with us; five Gentlemen & sixty private men & a stand of colors came over in a vessel from the Jerseys yesterday. [John Morris and his Shrewsbury Loyalists.]

The New Jersey Volunteers would eventually become the largest Provincial Corps of the British Army. Both Lawrence and Morris would return with their troops to Monmouth County to lead a countywide insurrection before the end of the year. However, the New Jersey Volunteers would have an unhappy history; both Lawrence and Morris lost their regiments by the middle of the war.

Caption: The Monmouth County Loyalists who joined the British Army in July 1776 would serve in the New Jersey Volunteers, led by Courtland Skinner, the former Attorney General of New Jersey.

Related Historic Site: Sandy Hook Lighthouse

Sources: John Almon, The Rembrancer or Impartial Repository of Public Events for the Year 1776 (John Almon: London, 1776), 228-9; Monmouth County Historical Association, Haskell Collection, box 15, folder 8; John Morris Loyalist Claim, Rutgers University Library Special Collections, Great Britain Public Record Office, Loyalist Application Claims, D96, AO 13/19, reel 6; Elisha Lawrence Loyalist Claim, Rutgers University, Special Collections, Loyalist Compensation Applications, Coll. D96, PRO AO 13/110, reel 10; Loyalist Claim of John Taylor, Rutgers University Special Collections, Loyalist Compensation Applications, D96, AO 13/112, reel 10; American Archives, 4th Series, excerpted on Http://www.stanklos.net; Peter Force, American Archives,  v1:41; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 82, item 68, #179-81; Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v93, reel 2, #404; Stephen A. Kemble, “The Kemble Papers,” in Collections of the New York Historical Society (New York: Printed for the Society, 1883), vol. 1, p 79; New York Constitutional Gazette, July 6, 1776; Orderly Book, Col. Samuel Miles’ Regt., MG 224, New Jersey Historical Society; Marion Balderston, The Lost war : Letters from British Officers during the American Revolution (New York : Horizon Press, 1975) p 88; William Howe, Narrative of Lieut. General Sir William Howe (London: H. Baldwin, 1780) p50; Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 1, pp. 80-1; John Longstreet, Peter W. Coldham, comp., American Loyalist Claims (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1980), p 12. Jones, E. Alfred. The Loyalists of New Jersey, (Newark, N. J. Historical Society, 1927) p 132.  Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn. and London, 1984) p 501.  Rutgers University Library Special Collections, Great Britain Public Record Office, Loyalist Application Claims, D96, AO 13/18, reel 6; Smith, Paul H., “New Jersey Loyalists and the British Provincial Corps in the War for Independence,” New Jersey History, vol. 87 (1969), p 72.