Refugee Women Listed in Monmouth County Militia Returns

Following April and June raids, the village of Tinton Falls was abandoned. All of its militia leaders were captured or killed, the public and military stores were taken, the buildings were looted or destroyed, and most or all of the livestock from the farms around the village were taken. Robert Morris, the Chief Justice of New Jersey, worried that people were becoming refugees in the inland countryside. He wrote: “Some are quitting their habitations, and others declare they are willing to do so, observing that if they must go on by starving, they had rather do it in the country than in the Provost Jail."

Evidence that this did, in fact, happen is in a militia return compiled by Captain James Green. Green captained the Colts Neck militia, six miles west of Tinton Falls. His June 1780 militia return lists his 95 men and nineteen women—eleven of whom clearly were not from Colts Neck in boldface. (The others probably were not from Colts Neck either, but evidence is lacking.) 

See table 9

The women were not part of Green’s militia company. His decision to include them on his militia return is likely because they (and their families) were living as refugees at Colts Neck; Green was providing rations for them. Each township had Overseers of the Poor, but the Shrewsbury Township Overseers of the Poor in 1778 (1779 township records have not survived) were Joseph Parker, Joseph Throckmorton, and Thomas White—each of whom was either disaffected or residing near the shore. In either event, these men—who likely were neutrals or disaffected—were not politically aligned with families made refugee by Loyalist raiders.

Green’s June 1780 return was compiled a year after the June 10, 1779, Tinton Falls raid, providing evidence that refugees were at Colts Neck for at least a year. It is important to note that none of these women were prosperous at war’s end, and at least three ended the war with less wealth than they had before the Tinton Falls raid (noted with an asterisk).

Other Women in Militia Returns

Seven women are listed in Upper Freehold militia returns from 1778-1780. They are Mary Perrine, Elizabeth Mooney, Elizabeth Rue, Martilla Clayton, Eleanor Reynolds, Elizabeth Mount, and Rebecca Mount. Of the seven, only one—Rue—is likely a refugee. She was from Freehold Township and her husband, Matthias Rue, was killed at the Battle of Navesink in 1777. Two of the women—Mary Perrine and Rebecca Mount were wives of Upper Freehold Loyalists who owned 225 and 200 acre farms with 12 and 11 head of livestock respectively. At war’s end, they were moderately prosperous yeoman farmers. The reason that Colonel Samuel Forman and Captain John Covenhoven (not the legislator of the same name) felt the need to list these women on militia returns is unknown. But the most likely reason is that these women (even the prosperous ones) and their families were displaced for a period of time and in need of support. Perhaps their estates were damaged when the British Army came through Upper Freehold in June 1778.

There might be another case of a woman being included on a militia return. A genealogist, Marjy Wienkop, noted that the Stafford Township militia company of Captain Reuben Randolph lists Jeany Sutton as serving with him for 35 days at Perth Amboy. While "Jeany" is a female name, it can be wondered if this is a nickname of the French "Jean"—and potentially a male name (although Sutton is not a French name). Assuming that Jeany Sutton was a woman, the reason that Randolph felt a need to include her on his militia return is unknown. Women often went with military companies as “camp followers” but they were not paid for doing so beyond pay earned performing jobs for the soldiers.

While the decimation of Tinton Falls may have forced dozens of people to become refugees, the Battle of Navesink was the event that produced the most deaths and captures of Monmouth Countians. Intermittently throughout the war, Monmouth Countians petitioned the state legislature for assistance for the suffering families of militiamen. On June 5, 1781, the New Jersey Assembly voted to grant half-pay military pensions to the wives of five Monmouth militiamen who died at Battle of Navesink or endured long term imprisonment after the battle. The women were: Isabella Hibbetts [widow of James], Mary Stillwell [widow of Obadiah], Elizabeth Cole [widow of William], Mary Winter [widow of James], and Penelope Davis [widow of Joseph]. The pensions were of a modest monthly amount of £2 S5. It is unknown why these five women were granted pensions while the wives of most of the militiamen killed or captured at the battle went unmentioned.

While the state took like action to support a few women and families rocked by the local war in Monmouth County, militia officers provided support for many other impoverished, vulnerable women. If all of Monmouth County’s Revolutionary War militia returns had survived to this day, it is probable that more women would have been listed on a scattering of additional returns. Militia officers had no authority to provide rations or pay to these women. But under dire circumstances, these officers did what they thought was necessary. There is no reason to think they were punished for exceeding their authority.

Sources: Morris, Robert, “Letters of Chief Justice Morris, 1777–1779,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. 38 (1920), pp. 175-6; Upper Freehold Militia Muster Rolls, National Archives, Revolutionary War Rolls, Coll. 70, p2, 4, 9; Muster rolls posted at the Continental Line, http://www.continentalline.org/articles/article.php?date=0002&article=000202; National Archives, Continental Army Records, Samuel Forman's Militia Regiment; Militia Return, June 1780, Captain James Green, Stryker-Rodda, Harriet, “Militia Women of 1780, Monmouth County, New Jersey,” N.S.D.A.R. Magazine, vol. 113, n. 4, April 1979, pp. 308-12; Harriet Stryker-Rodda, “Militia Women of 1780,” Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, vol. 113 (1979) p 310; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, June 5, 1781, p 34; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File (on file at the Monmouth County Historical Association Library).