Pine Robbers Menace Dover and Stafford Townships

In Monmouth County’s southern townships of Dover and Stafford (present-day Ocean County), the majority of inhabitants were ambivalent or opposed to the Revolution. The residents of the Little Egg Harbor, just south of Monmouth County, may have been even more disaffected. Lured to the profitable London Trade, disaffection flourished in these townships (disaffected men held several local offices).

In October 1778, snipers harassed Kasimir Pulaski’s Continentals as they marched north (after being decimated at Osburn Island). In December 1780, Lt. Joshua Studson was killed in a boat near Toms River while intercepting a London Trading vessel. Pine Robber activity, centered in Shrewsbury Township in 1778-1779, and then moved south into Dover and Stafford Townships under new and resourceful leaders—William Giberson (originally from Upper Freehold), William Davenport (likely from Gloucester County), and, most notoriously, John Bacon (possibly from Arneytown on the border of Upper Freehold and Burlington County). Another Pine Robber leader, Joseph Mulliner, operated in Little Egg Harbor Township, just south of Monmouth County (see appendix for summary of Mulliner’s outlaw career).

The Growing Pine Robber Threat

The Pine Robber threat in southern Monmouth County and Little Egg Harbor Township (just south of Monmouth County) built through the second half of the Revolution. Job Clayton of the Monmouth Militia recalled in his postwar pension application that the Pine Robbers were "concealed through the extensive pines of the lower part of the county, and sprung out of them, plundered and robbed and murdered the inhabitants." Mary Throckmorton, wife of the militiaman, Job Throckmorton recalled her husband providing intelligence to the militia to inform an attack on a Pine Robber gang:

The enemy had been to Burlington County and stole a number of horses & secured them in William Parker's Cedar Swamp, six miles off, the enemy had got information from their Tory friends that we was laying in wait for them… retook said horse and the thieves attending them.

The attack, however, only aroused the Pine Robbers. Afterward, the Throckmorton family left the shore and relocated to Englishtown for its safety.

An August 1780 newspaper report from Philadelphia reported the robbery of four houses just over the county line in Burlington County: John Black Jr., Clayton Newbold, William Newbold, and Caleb Shreve. The report continued, "Colonel William Shreve, with a number of inhabitants immediately set off in pursuit of the villains and overtook them at Borden's Run on the verge of the Pines.” The report continued, "one of the robbers, it is said, is taken to Monmouth Gaol." From this, it can be inferred that the captive either was from Monmouth County or was taken by Monmouth militia.

Abraham Osborn, living in present-day Howell, also recorded after the war that "he was robbed by the Tories of his horses, cattle and furniture" in 1780. In March 1781, James Allen was robbed by a Pine Robber gang that included Nathan Lyon and Joseph Wood. Allen compiled a "memorandum of articles plundered from the house of James Allen" in 1784. His itemized losses demonstrate that Pine Robbers, while politically motivated, were also common thieves:

cloth coat (£5 S10),

one pair of buckles and breaches (£1 S10),

musket, cartridge box & bayonet (£3 S10),

pair of shoes (S7),

pair of silver buckles (£1 S17),

gold ring (£1 S4),

3 silver teaspoons (S15),

3 oz. of unwrought silver (£1 S5),

one boat (£7 S2),

2nd boat (£6),

pair of stockings (S6),

3 cambric stocks (S6),

2 shirts (S7 each),

2 handkerchiefs (S10),

one Morocco Leather pocket book (S15),

one razor (S7).

Allen’s follow up note about Lyon demonstrates the familiarity that often existed between Pine Robbers and their victims:

He [Lyon] lived about 1 3/4 miles from James Allen, when he was robb'd; that the robbers came to the house in the night -- that Nathaniel Lyon was with them -- he knew him afterwards and recognized that it was the same -- he was Lyon with a pair of breaches of Allen's -- that a few days afterward, he saw one Joseph Wood (as people say his name is), one of the men that was there that night with Lyon.

Privateers also interacted and occasionally clashed with Pine Robbers, as when a party of Cape May militia captured a London Trading vessel at Shark River, lost it to a party of Pine Robbers at the mouth of Little Egg Harbor, and then retook it on Osborn Island.

From June 1780 into 1782, a 30-man guard of state troops was posted at Toms River, the lone village in the shore townships that solidly supported the Revolution. Yet, this guard was too small to exert influence beyond the village. In May 1781, Colonel Samuel Forman, commanding the undersized militia of Dover and Stafford townships, wrote Governor William Livingston:

The refugees [Loyalists], joined by a number of residents from Burlington County have drove Ensign [David] Imlay & some militia from the boundary of Little Egg Harbor to Hankins; our men have killed one & wounded two mortally. A reinforcement is demanded of me; I have ordered thirty five mounted [men] to their assistance for twelve days.

Forman requested 150 Burlington County militia join him in a campaign against the Pine Robber gang that chased off the militia. He was angry that the leaders of Burlington County allowed disaffection and London Trading to fester on the shore: “The complaint lodged with me is bitter against the County of Burlington... the illicit trade is so much esteemed that their lives are endangered for it."

The Loyalist attack may have been prompted by Imlay’s killing of the Pine Robber, Richard Bird. Bird was reportedly found in a cottage and was shot through a window without being given a chance to surrender. Zachariah Hankins, formerly disaffected, now serving under Imlay, would later report that Imlay’s posse "surprised and took a gang of Tories under the notorious Richard Bird, near Toms River, when Bird fell. It was always believed that Captain Imlay himself killed Bird."

Pine Robber Gang Fights Off Militia and Threatens Toms River

Six months later, Forman was still complaining about the disaffected living around Little Egg Harbor. On November 7, he wrote Governor Livingston about "the lower part of Monmouth” and “more particularly Burlington.” He further wrote: “The refugees come and go unmolested & repeatedly [are] joined by the inhabitants in their mischiefs under the cover of night." Forman discussed his inability to muster the disaffected into the militia, "My adjutant was beaten exceedingly last Monday night on the presumption that he had been to review that part of the regiment the preceding day; his son was also beaten shamefully on that same day." Forman called for a 40-man party to march against the disaffected neighborhood and arrest the assaulters. They would then remain as a guard. It did not happen.

As Forman was lobbying the Governor, the Whigs of Dover and Stafford petitioned the state legislature. A November 1781 Stafford Township petition read:

We do suffer on several accounts for want of militia or Continental guard to protect them from the ravages & devastations of the Refugees which they are committing every day by taking and treating in an inhumane and savage manner, & on the other hand they are censured by their own people for harboring and secreting them & holding a correspondence with those creatures.

A Dover Township petition in December discussed:

Several armed boats with a number of men are fortifying on Osburn's Island near Egg Harbor meeting house, with a view as we conceive to receive deserters from the American Army… also that a quantity of provisions is conveyed from that place to New York. - now we petitioners beg a guard to be stationed, to prevent such unlawful proceedings.

At the bottom of this petition is an extraordinary unsigned statement about government inaction:

I am extremely sorry so little attention is paid to the petitions of the inhabitants of this county by the legislature vizt. the legislature became immune of all human feeling for this suffering county - every year since the commencement of the war, we have paid dearly for the inattention of the legislature -- it is a most notorious faith & yet unaltered - does not this legislature know, for instance, their men in service [State Troops] expires, do they not know the difficulty & length of time it takes to recruit a number of men? March the legislature down to the lines, that they might see & feel a little of what these inhabitants have - it May be said where is the militia? - the militia is worn out.

Captain Andrew Brown of Dover Township also wrote Livingston regarding “the precarious situation of the well affected inhabitants of this place.” He wrote of large Pine Robber gang at Little Egg Harbor:

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.

The militia gunboat Flying Fish "was attacked by a superior force and narrowly escaped capture.” Brown continued:

They have a number of boats down there now and we having nothing to oppose them but this one, whose force is not equal to them. I would wish and pray that something may be done to drive them from the shore by land or water, and that a guard may be continued at this place.

Livingston wrote George Washington about the situation on the lower Monmouth shore on January 2, 1782. The Pine Robbers, he said, “have several armed boats, with a number of men, are fortifying Osborn's Island near Egg Harbor.” They “receive deserters from the American Army & for the greater convenience of conveying provisions to New York, which already go from that neighborhood in immense quantities.” Livingston was blunt about the inadequacy of the local militia:

That part of the State is so disaffected or intimidated that the Refugees have reigned in it. Guards of our militia are, whether for want of pay or other cause, procured with the greatest difficulty, and when obtained are, for want of discipline & unfitness of their officers, not infrequently corrupted after being stationed on the lines by the alluring profits of illegal trade.

Livingston requested a Continental guard "to prevent the well affected in those parts from deserting their habitations... thereby extending the Enemy's lines." Livingston did not mention that Continental detachments in Monmouth County had mutinied in 1779 and traded with the enemy in 1780.

A week later, three letters were sent to Governor Livingston by Brown (again), Major John Cook—the highest ranking lower shore office—and Abiel Aiken—the Dover Township magistrate. Each described the threat to Toms River. Cook wrote that “we were under arms all nite on information that about thirty refugees being on horse within 7 miles." Brown offered similar information; Aiken was more descriptive. "Our number here is small, the [State Troop] guard that was here was discharged and the militia is very slack coming to our assistance, which is very discouraging."

Cook described the Pine Robber’s moated base on Osborn Island: “The main entrance is by causeway… and a bridge of 12 feet.” They had no cannon on land, but their armed boats had cannon. Cook noted that there were no regular soldiers at the base, but there was 50 to 80 armed men. Their base was formidable: “Their boats are armed: the one with a six pounder, swivels, etc., the other with 2 small carriage guns, swivels, etc. By good intelligence another large armed boat went thro' the bay last Sunday to join them.”

Brown noted additional challenges with attacking Osburn’s Island:

Whenever they are attacked or are apprehensive, they fly to their boats and proceed to the beach to the house of one Tucker, where the principal rendezvous is, and where we cannot come at them by water... as for the inhabitants in the neighborhood, they are no better than the refugees, as they do countenance and trade with them.

Brown sized up the enemy:

There [sic] numbers are forty to one hundred at times, and they have not less than five arm'd boats, some of which carry from a three to six pounder swivels and small arms, which are frequently plying from thence to New York to protect their trading boats.

Aiken estimated that the Pine Robbers have 70 men and 5 boats which "are constantly plying up and down the bay and supporting illicit trade." He wrote that the Pine Robbers are based at Clam Town (modern-day Tuckerton), opposite Osburn’s Island, and their biggest boat has "one six pounder in the bow and three swivels on the sides."

Cook and Brown wrote that the Loyalists were led by William Davenport (of Gloucester County) and Samuel Ridgeway (from one of Stafford Township’s leading families). Cook also complained that some of the Loyalists were criminals who were “pardoned by your Excellency and broke gaol, etc." Brown wanted to attack the Pine Robber base: “If we don't visit them, they will visit us.” However, he lacked the men to make an attack: “our number being small, the enlist'd men's being out and the militia very slack coming in." This is a reference to State Troop terms expiring at the end of the year.

On January 11, Governor Livingston considered the three letters and forwarded them to Lord Stirling [William Alexander], commanding the New Jersey Line. The letters were carried by Elisha Lawrence, the former militia Lt. Colonel over the Dover and Stafford militias. Livingston wrote that Lawrence had “recently been on the spot with the command of a party of our militia to dislodge the Enemy. He is a member of our Council & the greatest confidence may be reposed of him."  Lawrence and Stirling apparently discussed a campaign against the Loyalist base.

Re-Assessing the Pine Robbert Threat

However, George Washington quashed the campaign on January 13, writing Livingston that the Pine Robber threat was exaggerated. Washington had received contrary information from Colonel David Forman:

Had I found the report to be well-grounded, I should have concerted my measures to dislodge them. From the best information I have been able to obtain, particularly from General Forman who is now in town, no lodgment was ever made on Osborn's Island or any other place.

Washington acknowledged that the lower shore was a center for London Trading and bluntly expressed frustration with the persistent problem:

A constant intercourse is carried on by water between the refugees and inhabitants, but no force which I could spare would prevent it, as they would, if kept out of one inlet, use another for their purposes. It is in vain to think the pernicious and growing traffic will ever be stopped until the States pass laws making the penalty death... We are, I believe, the only nation who suffer their people to carry on commerce with their Enemy in times of war.

Livingston was likely caught off-guard by Washington canceling the campaign based on intelligence from Forman (who might have been assumed to support a campaign against Pine Robbers). The Governor likely consulted with Monmouth County leaders before responding to Washington on January 26:

Relative to the affair of Egg harbour: As the facts upon farther enquiry appeared to be very different from the information I had at first received, it could not be expected that your Excellency should pursue such measures as I had hoped.

Livingston acknowledged “your Excellency’s good intentions & am glad to find that the enemy have not yet dared to venture on so bold an attempt, ’tho’ they do infinite mischief in that part of the country.” Livingston concurred with Washington’s assessment regarding leniency toward London Traders: “I heartily concur with you in sentiment that it ought to be made capital [a capital offense].”

Was the Pine Robber gang and base on Osburn Island exaggerated? Certainly, there are examples of enemy strength being exaggerated in unrelated reports. David Forman clearly thought his Monmouth County colleagues were overselling the threat to Toms River and he convinced Washington and Livingston accordingly. It can only be speculated why Forman undermined other county leaders, but it is worth noting that Aiken was a known opponent of the Retaliators (the vigilante group led by Forman). So, Forman may have sought the opportunity to quash an action that a rival desperately wanted.

The Pine Robber gangs of Davenport and Bacon operated in Stafford Township in 1782. Davenport’s mixed-race gang was estimated to be 80 men—when it was surprised and routed at Forked River in June 1782. Based on this later report, the size of Davenport’s gang probably was not exaggerated by Cook, Brown and Aiken, though the threat against Toms River may have been. The local leaders were clearly on edge after the village’s state troop guard went home.

Davenport’s gang never came to Toms River, but the residents of Toms River could not have not known this in January 1782. Toms River was indeed targeted by Loyalists—even after a new State Troop guard under Captain Joshua Huddy arrived there at the end of January. The village was razed in March 1782 by Associated Loyalists from New York, guided by local men such as William Dillon with ties to the Pine Robber gangs.

Caption: This map of Little Egg Harbor shows Osborn Island at the southern tip of Monmouth County, where 70 Loyalists camped at the end of 1781. The Loyalists worried shore leaders at Toms River.

Related Historic Site: Little Egg Harbor Friends Meeting

Appendix: The Pine Robber, Joseph Mulliner

Historian David Fowler has extensively researched Joseph Mulliner. He writes that Mulliner was likely from a poor Quaker family, probably from Little Egg Harbor Township in Burlington County. He was likely a London trader and may have interacted with other Pine Robber leaders like William Davenport and John Bacon. In late 1780, Mulliner was indicted for beating a man, and he became an outlaw after that.  Fowler suggests that Mulliner’s gang consisted of about ten hard core members and he had access to dozens of associated London traders and disaffected. In 1781, Muller committed an arson and robbery on the homes of John Watson and the widow Bates of Burlington County.

Mulliner’s documented activities were in Burlington County, not Monmouth. Secondary sources suggest that Mulliner carried a privateer’s commission from the British government. Mulliner was captured by Monmouth County militia and first jailed in Freehold in July 1781. The New Jersey Gazette reported him as “motivated by the devil” and further stated:

This fellow has become a terror of the country. He made a practice of burning houses, robbing and plundering all who fell in his way... when he came to trial, it appeared that the whole country, both Whigs and Tories, were his enemies.

Mulliner was transferred to Burlington County for trial. He was convicted of horse stealing and sentenced to be hanged on August 8. Mulliner’s hanging, on August 16, reportedly drew a hundred spectators. Interestingly, New Jersey Legislative Council (Upper House of the legislature) recommended him for a pardon in September, not knowing he was already dead.

Sources: National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Job Clayton; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Job Throckmorton; Kenneth Scott, Rivington's New York Newspaper: Excerpts from a Loyalist Press, 1773-1783 (New York: New York Historical Society, 1973) p 232; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Abraham Osborn; Robbery Evidence, Princeton University, Special Collections, CO 315, box 5, folder: Monmouth Pleas; Samuel Forman to William Livingston, in Carl Prince, ed., Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 326; Dover and Stafford Township Petition in Carl Prince, ed., Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 328, 356 note; Monmouth County Petition, Massachusetts Historical Society, Monmouth County, NJ, Petition; Andrew Brown to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 356, 358 note; Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 212; Edwin Salter, Old Tims in Old Monmouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) p 40; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - David Imlay; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Gregory of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#  NJ  21671340; William Livingston to George Washington, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 35; John Cook to William Livingston, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, p 358; Andrew Brown to William Livingston in Richard J. Koke, "War, Profits, and Privateers Along the Jersey Coast," New York Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 41, 1957, p 3; Abiel Aiken’s letter is in Richard J. Koke, "War, Profits, and Privateers Along the Jersey Coast," New York Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 41, 1957, p 313; William Livingston to Lord Stirling, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 4, pp. 359, 361, 372; George Washington to William Livingston, John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 23, pp. 444-5; To George Washington from William Livingston, 26 January 1782,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07738, ver. 2013-09-28; David Fowler, Egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 215-225.