Prosecution of Loyalists Intensifies in Monmouth County

On April 12, 1782, a Loyalist party hanged Joshua Huddy on the Navesink Highlands. A note pinned to Huddy’s chest proclaimed the execution an act of retaliation for the killing of the Loyalist, Philip White, two weeks prior. The hanging of Huddy escalated to the highest levels of the Continental, British and French governments and included the near-hanging of a British officer in retaliation for Huddy.

Locally, the leaders of Monmouth County vented their outrage through Monmouth County’s courts. David Forman, formerly focused on military affairs, leveraged his recent appointment as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas to move the county’s courts toward an aggressive anti-Loyalist posture. In May, the Court of Common Pleas restarted the Loyalist estate confiscation process and the county convened a new Court of Oyer and Terminer that was the most punitive court in four years.

Monmouth County’s Sixth Court of Oyer and Terminer

Monmouth County’s first court of Oyer and Terminer (January 1778) was restrained in its punishments; the second Court of Oyer and Terminer (June 1778) was stoked by the punishing raid against Middletown Point and the imminent invasion of the British Army. That court meted out twelve death sentences, resulting in six executions (six men were pardoned). The Third (July 1779), Fourth (December 1780), and Fifth (November 1781) Courts of Oyer and Terminer were all less punitive.

The Sixth Court of Oyer and Terminer was presided over by a five-judge panel comprised of four veteran local judges—Peter Forman, Denice Denice, Richard Cox, Joseph Lawrence—and David Forman, new to the bench. As was the custom, a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Isaac Smith in this case, attended the court. The court heard 178 indictments, only the Second Court of Oyer and Terminer had a larger docket. Table 16 lists the 23 men who were tried for crimes that had the potential to carry a death sentence. Six are recorded as receiving a death sentence, one was found not guilty. Nine of the other sixteen men appear in later documents, demonstrating that they were not executed.

At the misdemeanor level, the court took on a number of pre-war squires known to be disaffected. It found Edward Taylor (a longtime rival of David Forman) guilty on two counts of perjury and imposed on him an unusually large £200 for a misdemeanor fine. Two other disaffected former officeholders—James Wardell and Daniel Grandin—were charged with seditious words, but the outcome of their cases is not known. Wardell was further charged and found guilty on two counts of trading with the enemy (fined £30). Another disaffected former officeholder—Daniel Hendrickson of Middletown (not the militia colonel of the same name) was also charged with perjury but found not guilty.

As with prior courts of Oyer and Terminer, women were tried for misdemeanors at the Sixth Court of Oyer and Terminer. However, the number was lower than at previous courts. The seven women were: Widow Abigail Parker (fined £5); Esther Wilson (charges dropped), Cornelia Johnson, Hannah Davis, Phoebe Brown, Charity Stout (fined £10), and Deborah Leonard (not paying bail from a prior charge).

A few prominent Whigs were tried and fined. Elias Longstreet, the captain of the first Continental Army company raised from Monmouth County, was found guilty of assault and fined £10. Captain Stephen Fleming of Shrewsbury Township was charged with an unnamed misdemeanor. Daniel Hendrickson, Jr., son of the militia colonel, was convicted of two unnamed misdemeanors—fined £3 and a whopping £500 for the second count. His brother had been killed by Loyalists in March—raising a likelihood that young Hendrickson did something very ill-advised while grieving.

Fines were the common punishment for misdemeanors, but there were two exceptions: David Jones of Stafford Township was sentenced to twenty lashes and Michael Howland was sentenced to nine months in jail. The rationale for these unusual sentences is not offered, but it is likely that these were poor men who it was presumed would be unable to pay a fine. They have also been flight risks.

Concurrent with the Sixth Court of Oyer and Terminer

Concurrent with the court, David Forman issued warrants to impress horses from eight disaffected Monmouth County residents. On May 20, he directed a former Continental Army officer, Abraham Woolley, "You are hereby, in the name of the State, to impress three good saddle horses from Thomas Thomson, Joshua Anderson, John Anderson, Benjamin Covenhoven, Jacob West or either of them." Similarly, on June 2, Forman directed Constable Peter Sutton, "You are hereby, in the name of the State, to impress a good saddle horse from John Anderson, son of Joshua, Solomon Combs, David Covenhoven, [and] Thomas Thomson." (Thomson was the subject of an impressment order twice.) Forman would later be reprimanded for these orders—lacking the authority to act on behalf of the State.

As the court convened, men were left in jail without being charged. 24 petitioners claimed:

We have no form of tryal - if any crimes are laid to our charge, we have no chance of defending ourselves, nor any account of how our property, thus torn away, is disposed of tho’ diverse of us have been imprisoned, and one [John Taylor] for months, confined in the common gaol, in the course of which time a court of Oyer & Terminer was sitting over his head - Writs of habeus corpus have been disregarded by the Sheriff - in short, every attempt for relief by course of law has been of no effect.

The petitioners blamed the irregularities on David Forman’s “prevailing influence” as “the first judge of the court of common pleas” while also leading an extra-legal vigilante society, the Association for Retaliation. Petition signers were some of the same disaffected squires charged at the court, including Daniel Hendrickson (of Middletown) and Edward Taylor.

The Sixth Court of Oyer and Terminer was the first one held in Monmouth County without the threat of Loyalist reprisal. Prior courts were conducted with companies of Continental or state troops stationed at Freehold to provide security. The safer atmosphere was noted by attorney William Paterson who wrote from Freehold on June 2:

We have passed our time more agreeably than we have done at any former court, as we have not been under the most distant apprehension of the enemy. The business, as usual, has been troublesome, indeed we have dispatched more [cases] than I expected we should have done.

The Pardons of Timothy Scoby and William Herbert

Of the Loyalists sentenced to be hanged, it appears that the death sentences on Timothy Scoby and Wiliam Herbert particularly distressed Loyalists. William Corlies, a Shrewsbury Loyalist in New York, wrote William Franklin, head of the withering Associated Loyalists, about Scoby on June 10:

Timothy Scoby, as Associated Loyalist, taken prisoner by the rebels on Sandy Hook, within his Majesty's lines, and William Herbert, also an Associated Loyalist, taken by the Rebels on the beach at the Highlands, near Sandy Hook, where he was going to purchase a little bread for the use of his shallop, have been tried for their Loyalty at a rebel court in Freehold, in the County of Monmouth, and have been sentenced to death, to be executed on the Fourth Day of July next.

Corlies was “well convinced by his friends within the Rebel's lines that the sentence will be carried into execution” called on Franklin to take action “for the preservation of their lives."

Franklin’s Associated Loyalists had been dry docked by the British in the aftermath of hanging of Joshua Huddy. So, Franklin lacked the ability to attack Monmouth County or threaten retaliation. But he promptly wrote to General Guy Carleton, commanding British forces in America, “respecting two Loyalists who were lately made prisoners by the rebels and have been tried for High Treason.” Franklin claimed that “no crime is alleged against them… but their Loyalty.” He complained, “one of them was taken on shore going to purchase provisions, and the other within British lines.” Franklin acknowledged he lacked authority to retaliate, so he put “the whole matter to your Excellency's determination."

Carleton promptly wrote Governor William Livingston, on June 12: "Timothy Scoby, taken prisoner at Sandy Hook, and William Herbert, taken also prisoner on the beach at the Highlands, Sandy Hook.” He appealed to the Governor's "moderation and candor." Carleton drew a connection between his inquiry about Scoby and "General Washington justly demanding inquiry concerning the rash execution of Huddy.” Carleton worried that Livingston might be "informed by misinformation" and that Livingston should not be motivated by vengeance against Loyalists. He then flattered Livingston:

I will take the fullest measure of reliance on you taking such measures as your own prudence shall dictate to place these men out of danger and that you will not suffer the terms of local law to violate general principles or mingle private or mutual revenge with fair and liberal customs.

Scoby and Herbert were spared. 

On June 20, the Judges of the Monmouth Court of Oyer and Terminer wrote to Governor Livingston:

The following persons were capitally convicted, vizt. Richard Phillips and the Negro Jacob for murder, William Herbert & Timothy Scoby for High Treason, the two last, the said Court recommend to your Excellency as the proper objects of mercy, and that they be pardoned accordingly.

It is unusual that the Judges did not provide a rationale for the pardons. It seems probable that the Monmouth County judges knew of Carleton’s interest in Scoby and Herbert. They likely looked to lessen the attention on their other sentences by requesting these pardons.

Two more Courts of Oyer and Terminer would be held in Monmouth County, in November 1782 and July 1783. The November court had 92 indictments, half the number as the May court, but the court did hand down seven death sentences (one more than the May court). The July 1783 Court of Oyer and Terminer had only 36 indictments and no capital convictions.

Concurrent with this court, taxes were effectively collected from the shore region for the first time. James Craig testified (in Jacob Pettinger’s veteran’s pension application) that he and Pettinger were “warned out” in summer 1783 “for the purpose of assisting William Morris on the tax gathering.” They were needed because of “the great number of Tories & disaffected, the taxes could not be gathered without the assistance of the militia.” Craig and Pettinger performed the service "on horseback… for about one month." As the war finally cooled down, normal government functions came into disaffected neighborhoods and the prosecution of Loyalists receded.

Related Historic Site: Monmouth County Historical Association Museum

Sources: New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - May 1782; Orders from David Forman, New Jersey State Archives, Dept. of Defense, Revolutionary War, Numbered Manuscripts, #4360-4361; Library of Congress, William Paterson Collection, Paterson to Cornelia Bell; William Franklin to Guy Carleton, Great Britain Public Record Office, British Headquarters Papers, 30/55, #4768; Guy Carleton to William Livingston, David Library, British HQ Papers, Carleton Papers, #4780; Court Docket, New Jersey State Archives, William Livingston Papers, reel 17, June 20, 1782; Petition, New Jersey State Archives, Collective Series, Revolutionary War documents, #32; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - December 1780; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - November 1781; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - November 1782; New Jersey State Archives, Judicial Records, Court of Oyer & Terminer, box 2, folder - July 1783; Court Records, Monmouth Court of Oyer and Terminer, NJ State Archives, #33980; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Jacob Pettinger.