Richard Lippincott Hangs Joshua Huddy

As discussed in a prior article, a 100-man Associated Loyalist party attacked the village of Toms River on March 24, 1782. They overwhelmed the small guard of New Jersey State Troops defending the village. A dozen state troops, including the commander, Joshua Huddy, were captured and jailed in New York. A week later, the Loyalist partisan, Philip White, was captured near Long Branch, separated from the other Loyalists taken, and murdered by his guards. The Chairman of the Associated Loyalists, William Franklin (New Jersey’s last Royal Governor) supported eye-for-an-eye retaliation for such atrocities. Huddy, because of his role in hanging a Loyalist years earlier, was an ideal target for a retaliatory killing.

Regardless of what Franklin believed, it was risky to take an officer out of a British prison and kill him outside the law. The British Commander in Chief, General Henry Clinton, refused to condone eye-for-an-eye retaliation, and his distaste for the Associated Loyalists was longstanding. So, it appears that the Board of the Directors of the Associated Loyalists issued orders that would enable Huddy’s execution without actually authorizing it—at least in writing.

Richard Lippincott Orders

As the Board considered retaliating for the death of White, a report came in from Monmouth County. The Loyalist Clayton Tilton (formerly of Shrewsbury), who was captured in Monmouth County on the same day as White, was sentenced to death. After White’s murder, there was worry that more Loyalists would perish and this report added immediacy to those worries.

It is unclear exactly what happened next. But based on the majority of evidence presented in the May 1782 court martial trial of Richard Lippincott, it appears that Franklin discussed Tilton’s endangered status with two embittered Monmouth County Loyalists—Samuel Taylor and Lippincott. Lippincott was a “captain” in the Associated Loyalists who had taken a Whig vessel and led incursions into Monmouth County. He was likely regarded as a man of action.

According to his testimony at Lippincott’s court martial, Samuel Taylor informed William Franklin of the murder of Philip White and the death sentence on Clayton Tilton. Taylor proposed two actions: 1.) conduct a prisoner exchange for Tilton, and 2.) hang Huddy in retaliation for White. According to Taylor, Franklin discussed a plan with Lippincott on April 8. Lippincott was apparently willing to conduct a prisoner exchange and hang Huddy, but he also wanted to raid Freehold and capture the vigilante leader David Forman if it was practicable. Lippincott wrote up the plan and presented it to the Board of Associated Loyalists.

The extra-legal execution of Huddy was beyond the pale for some on the Board of Associated Loyalists. Samuel Blowers, a Board member, would later acknowledge only some of what Lippincott proposed:

Captain Lippincott then proposed to make an expedition against the Jerseys with a view to force the gaol in Monmouth County, with a party of about thirty Loyalists, and to rescue Clayton Tilton, or if that was found impracticable, to make an attempt to seize General Forman.

Tench Coxe of the Board was forthright in his opposition to the execution of Huddy. Upon seeing Lippincott’s plan in writing, he reportedly stated: "We have nothing to do with that piece of paper, Captain Lippincott, keep your papers to yourself, the Board does not wish to see them or have them read." The written plan to execute Huddy was apparently withdrawn, but the execution was nonetheless verbally authorized by William Franklin, Chairman of the Board. Samuel Taylor believed this, telling another Loyalist that Huddy’s hanging “was by order of Governor Franklin."

Encouraging an execution without issuing a written order was not new for Franklin. In December 1780, Captain Thomas Crowell of the Associated Loyalists was presented with this scenario. Crowell testified that Franklin wanted him to hang one of three Whig prisoners under his care if his prisoner exchange with Monmouth County’s Asher Holmes failed:

It was proposed to have executed one of them by way of retaliation, the Board of Directors having promised the Deponent that Orders should be given for the purpose, but ...the Order was not given, nor did the execution take place; but he (the Deponent) in consequence of the Declaration made by the Board of Directors, dated 28th December 1780, should have thought himself justifiable in executing one of those Prisoners.

We do not know exactly what Franklin told Lippincott, but it is reasonable to assume that Lippincott was instructed to execute Huddy on the Navesink Highlands—a place where Huddy’s dead body would be quickly found. The conclusion of Lippincott’s court martial was that Lippincott was not guilty of murder because he had a “verbal order” to hang Huddy.

Lippincott’s Landing in Monmouth County

On April 8, the Board of Associated Loyalists formally authorized Lippincott to take the three most prominent men captured at Toms River—Huddy, Daniel Randolph, Jacob Fleming—and attempt to negotiate a prisoner exchange for Tilton. The next day, on April 9, the Board of the Associated Loyalists approved a (revised) proposal from Lippincott:

The Board, having information that Capt. Clayton Tilton, now a prisoner in Monmouth County jail, is in danger of being sacrificed to the violent resentments of the rebels, and that a party of Loyalists under Captain Lippincott proposes to attempt his relief by forcing the jail or by seizing General Forman or some violent rebels in that county.

The Board then agreed to request “fifteen stands of arms, eight hundred cartridges, thirty spare flints, and five days provisions for thirty men” under Lippincott. Lippincott was issued a passport to go to Sandy Hook and into New Jersey. Huddy was not mentioned in the approval of Lippincott’s mission.

Franklin promptly requested military wares for Lippincott from General Oliver DeLancey; he did so without mentioning Huddy:

Captain Clayton Tilton of the Associated Loyalists was lately taken prisoner by a party of rebels in Monmouth County. From the report made to the Board, we have reason to believe Capt. Tilton will speedily fall sacrifice to the resentment of the Rebels, to whom he rendered himself obnoxious for his Loyalty & Activity, unless he is relieved by the immediate action of the Loyal Refugees. To effect this relief, a party of Refugees, propose to make an attempt to force the jail or seize General Forman, a violent persecutor of Loyalists in the County.

Franklin asked for the supplies quickly, "as the party must set off this evening to save him [Tilton]." Franklin ordered Lippincott to rescue Tilton who "is in great danger of losing his life" and "save him by forcing the gaol or seizing General Forman.” Lippincott was told to “make your descent on the Jersey shore, proceeding with the greatest secrecy and dispatch to Freehold, the gaol of which you will force, and relieve the prisoners therein." It is unclear if Franklin genuinely expected Lippincott to raid Freehold (fifteen miles inland, and well-guarded) with only thirty men, or whether this was a ruse to conceal the real purpose of Lippincott’s mission.

Franklin also issued a letter to the Commissary of Prisoners to turn Huddy, Randolph, and Fleming over to Richard Lippincott: "Sir--Deliver to Captain Richard Lippincott the three following prisoners: Lt. Joshua Huddy, Daniel Randolph and Jacob Fleming, to take down to Sandy Hook to procure an exchange of Captain Clayton Tilton and two other Loyalists."

No document lists Lippincott’s entire party. Lippincott claimed he had 25 men. By cobbling together information from various sources, it is possible to identify almost half of the men in Lippincott’s party:

• Samuel Taylor (who advocated for the hanging),

• John Tilton and Ezekiel Tilton (brothers of Clayton),

• Timothy Brooks (a Pennsylvania Loyalist who likely participated in the attack on Toms River),

• Moses (an African American loyalist who had been captured with Philip White but escaped),

• Aaron White (brother of Philip White),

• John Fennimore, John Worthly, and Isaac (African-American) (with Philip White at Long Branch).

Huddy was loaded in irons on his hands and feet for his transport from New York to Sandy Hook—an unnecessary punitive act. John Tilton (a Monmouth County Loyalist and brother of Clayton Tilton) testified about this at Lippincott’s court martial, but attempted to explain it away:

Joshua Huddy was put in irons on board the sloop, Dolphin. He [Tilton] asked Huddy whether he [Huddy] thought it was good usage or not, to which Huddy answered he thought it was not, but he expected to be exchanged in a few days.

Tilton also claimed that Huddy threatened revenge against the Loyalists who had loaded him in irons:

He [Huddy] hoped to have the killing of him, the deponent, and a good many others. The deponent then asked if he [Huddy] would hang him in case he fell into his hands, as he did the late Stephen Edwards, to which he [Huddy] replied that he did not hang Edwards, but only tied the knot and put it round his neck, and greased the rope that it might slip easy.

Edwards was a Loyalist captured at Eatontown in 1777. He was hanged without a proper trial—an act that outraged Loyalists.

Daniel Randolph later stated that on April 8, he, Huddy, and Jacob Fleming were "carried immediately on board a sloop, put down in her hold & ironed, the aforesaid Huddy having irons on both feet and both hands, and a certain refugee named John Tilton told Capt. Huddy that the aforesaid Capt Huddy was ordered to be hanged." Randolph said the men were "confined below deck until the 12th."  That day, Huddy was told "to prepare to be hanged for having killed Philip White." Huddy replied that "he was not guilty of having killed Philip White, and should die an innocent, in a good cause, and with uncommon composure of mind and fortitude, prepared himself for his end."

British Captain Richard Morris of the guard ship Britannia at Sandy Hook met with Lippincott on the morning of April 10. Morris testified that he understood that Lippincott intended to hang Huddy. He further testified that if the rebels retaliated on Tilton for Huddy’s hanging “he believed one of those two who remained [Randolph or Fleming] would also suffer."

Lippincott landed on the Highlands on April 10. But he did not immediately hang Huddy. Instead, he chose to capture an enemy boat. He would write the Board of the capture on April 10:

I proceeded to Sandy Hook with twenty-five men and received information of a privateer boat being in the Shrewsbury River & notwithstanding the night and a violent storm, I determined to take her; at sunset, ventured the river and proceeded up six miles where I took an eighteen oared whaleboat with one mast, one sail, four oars, one swivel and two blunderbusses.

Hanging Joshua Huddy

On April 12, Lippincott’s men were prepared to hang Huddy; Huddy was permitted to compose his will:

I, Joshua Huddy, of Middletown in the County of Monmouth, being of sound mind and memory, but expecting shortly to depart this life, do declare my last will & testament. First, I commit my soul unto the hands of almighty God hoping he may receive it in mercy & next I commit my body to the Earth, I do also appoint my trusty friend, Samuel Forman, to be my lawful executor, and after all my just debts are paid, I desire that he do divide the rest of my substance, whether by book debts, bonds, notes or any other effects whatsoever, belonging to me, equally between my two children, Elizabeth & Martha Huddy.

Huddy left nothing to his estranged wife, Catherine Applegate.

Witnesses at Huddy’s hanging disagreed on the details. Pennsylvania Loyalist, Timothy Brooks, testified that prior to the hanging, "Captain Lippincott shook hands with Huddy, as he was standing on the barrel." But John Tilton testified that Huddy was defiant, claiming that if he was freed, he would hang Clayton Tilton. Taylor claimed that Huddy begged for his release, saying "he would be their friend & a good subject, but the said Taylor said it was too late, shook hands with him, and Huddy was turned off."

Huddy was hanged on April 12. Huddy’s corpse was left swinging with a note pinned to it that left no doubt about the Loyalists’ retaliatory intentions:

We the Refugees, having with long grief beheld the cruel murder of our brethren and finding nothing but such measures daily carrying into execution. We therefore determine not to suffer without taking vengeance for the numerous cruelties and thus begin and have made use of Captain Huddy as the first object to present to your views, and further determine to hang man for man as long as a refugee is left existing. Up goes Huddy for Phil White.

James Putnam, a New York boatman, met Samuel Taylor shortly after he returned to New York. Taylor put himself at the center of the hanging: "Huddy would not have been hanged had it not been for said Taylor" because "many people at the said hanging were against it, but he, said Samuel Taylor, was determined that Huddy should be hanged.”

Taylor reportedly told Moses, the African American hangman “that if he, the said Negro, did not do his duty, he, said Taylor, would blow his brains out." Timothy Brooks corroborated that the hangman was a black man: Brooks testified that it was a "Negro that did the hanging." Lippincott, who set out to conduct an execution, ensured that Huddy’s blood would be on the hands of a Black man.

After Joshua Huddy’s Hanging

The chain of events immediately after Huddy’s hanging is hard to assemble. But a few acts are certain:

• Lippincott’s party quickly returned to New York without trying to free Tilton or capture Forman;

• While sources disagree on details, a limited prisoner exchange did occur—Clayton Tilton for Randolph and Fleming (some sources suggest that additional people were exchanged);

• The Associated Loyalists delayed reporting events in Monmouth County to British leadership.

As outrage over Huddy’s hanging built in New Jersey, William Franklin finally reported on the proceedings in Monmouth County to General Clinton on April 27, "Randolph & Fleming are both exchanged for Capt. Tilton -- Capt. Lippincott, on his return from Sandy Hook, made the report of a capture of an eighteen-oar barge.” Franklin then singled out Lippincott as the person solely accountable for killing Huddy. According to Franklin, Lippincott “went before the full Board” and stated that:

Huddy had been exchanged (laying emphasis on the word) for Philip White, and that when he came away from the Hook, Randolph was allowed to go to Freehold on his parole, in order to propose an exchange for Tilton, and Fleming for Aaron White, or if that could not be obtained, to offer both Randolph and Fleming for Captain Tilton alone.

Franklin claimed to "know nothing" of the hanging of Joshua Huddy beyond Lippincott’s report and took no responsibility for it. His desire to place the blame solely on Lippincott is revealed by Dr. Henry Stevenson who testified at Lippincott’s court martial. Stevenson stated that “the Board of Directors had drawn up an Instrument in writing (which they wished Captain Lippincott to sign) purporting that Captain Huddy was executed without their knowledge or consent." Stevenson stated that members of the Board discussed this certificate and whether "he (Captain Lippincott) might alter it as he thought proper." It is unlikely that Lippincott signed any such statement as it likely would have been presented as evidence at his court martial trial.

As discussed in the next article, the brazen retaliatory killing of Huddy sparked outrage in Monmouth County. Local leaders who feuded before and after Huddy’s hanging, united to escalate the matter to the highest levels of the Continental Government. Congress and General George Washington proposed executing a British officer in retaliation for the killing of Huddy unless the killer (Lippincott) was turned over. The British scrambled to defuse the situation by convening a court martial to examine if Lippincott was guilty of murder. Franklin laid low and then quietly boarded a ship for England. The flurry of actions and protests would escalate to senior officials from the Continental, British and French governments. The so-called “Huddy Affair” would become the most infamous incident in Monmouth County’s local war.

Caption: This sketch shows a proud Joshua Huddy being taken from jail by Loyalists. The brazen hanging of Huddy on April 12, 1782, would become the most infamous incident in Monmouth County’s local war.

Related Historic Site: Captain Joshua Huddy Historic Marker

Sources: Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p224-5; Transcript of the Court Martial of Richard Lippincott, http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/halew/Lippincott.html  ; George Washington Papers, Library of Congress: http://founders.archives.gov/?q=privateer%20AND%20Sandy%20Hook&s=1111311111&sa=&r=27&sr=; Transcript of the Court Martial of Richard Lippincott, http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/halew/Lippincott.html; The Associated Loyalist exchange note is in Edwin Salter, History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (Bayonne, NJ: E. Gardner and Sons, 1890) p 191; Connecticut Journal, May 2, 1782; James Putnam’s Testimony at Richard Lippincott’s Court Martial, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v107, #240-2, 261, 268; Note to Commissary of Prisoners, Library of Congress, Richard Lippincott Court Martial, reel 1, #168-70.; Chronology of the Huddy hanging discussed in Sheila Skemp, William Franklin: Son of a Patriot, Servant of a King (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) pp. 256-9.; William Franklin to Oliver DeLancey, Library of Congress, Richard Lippincott Court Martial, reel 1, #158-65; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p217; Roth’s essay is in Howard Peckham, Sources of American Independence: Selected Manuscripts from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) pp. 515, 552, 554-7, 579; In Kinvin Roth’s essay in Howard Peckham, Sources of American Independence: Selected Manuscripts from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) pp. 578-9; Princeton University Library, Microfilms Collection, #1081.133, Board of Associated Loyalists, April 9, 1782; Testimony of Captain Richard Morris at Richard Lippincott’s Court Martial, Library of Congress, Richard Lippincott Court Martial, reel 1, #31-7; Richard Lippincott’s testimony at his court martial, David Library of the American Revolution, Great Britain Public Records Office, British Headquarters Papers, #4387. Library of Congress, Richard Lippincott Court Martial, reel 1, #186; Joshua Huddy’s will, Catalog of the Exhibition: Joshua Huddy and the American Revolution, Monmouth County Library Headquarters, October 2004; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p219-20; The note pinned to Huddy’s body is printed in David Fowler, egregious Villains, Wood Rangers, and London Traders (Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University, 1987) p 201; Edward H. Tebbenhoff, “The Associated Loyalists: An Aspect of Militant Loyalism,” New-York Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 63 (1979), p 142; Maryland Gazette, May 2, 1782; William Franklin to Henry Clinton, Library of Congress, Richard Lippincott Court Martial, reel 1, #175; Richard Lippincott to Board of Associated Loyalists, Princeton University Library, Microfilms Collection, #1081.133, Board of Associated Loyalists, April 15, 1782; Deposition to John Tilton, Great Britain Public Record Office, British Headquarters Papers, 30/55, #4439; Samuel Blowers’ testimony quoted in Howard Peckham, Sources of American Independence: Selected Manuscripts from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) p 562.