The Capture of the Outlaws John and Robert Smith

Prior articles have demonstrated the rise in violence and felonies during the Revolutionary War in Monmouth County. County courts of Oyer and Terminer were held in 1778 and 1779, resulting in several capital convictions. Pine Robber gangs committed numerous violent crimes along the shore and interior pinelands. Loyalist raiding parties conducted numerous “manstealings”—including more than a dozen militia officer kidnappings in the summer of 1780 alone.

On top of all of this, small bands of British and Loyalist prison escapees and outlaws traversed Monmouth County on their way to and from British lines via Sandy Hook. This was known by state and local authorities. On January 20, 1779, the New Jersey Gazette published a notice about these roving men:

It appears that a constant correspondence is kept up, and traffic carried on between the Refugees of New York and disaffected persons in this State and Pennsylvania, chiefly by way of Shrewsbury. Magistrates and other officers would do well to examine suspicious people traveling to and from that place.

The Capture of John and Robert Smith

On May 27, the Pennsylvania Gazette printed a brief account written from the jail in Philadelphia:

John Smith and Robert Smith, charged with the murder of Mr. Boyd, a collector of the County of Chester, are taken and secured in the gaol of this city. The vigilance of the good people of Freehold in New Jersey on this occasion does them honor, and particularly the Sheriff of Monmouth County, David Forman, Esq., [cousin of Colonel David Forman] whose son, a youth of nineteen, after receiving the fire of Robert Smith, at twenty yards distance, took them both, and drove them before him to the guard.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post further reported that "the two Smiths…were brought to this city.  They were near Shrewsbury on their way to New York. They made their escape by force of arms from the party that first took them, but were afterwards both taken by a single man."

On May 31, Colonel Samuel Forman, commanding the Upper Freehold militia, wrote an account of the same incident that was published in the New Jersey Gazette. He wrote that the family of Sheriff David Forman was at breakfast when:

A soldier almost out of breath burst into the room, and stated that he and another soldier were conducting to the Court House, two men, taken up on suspicion at Colts Neck; they had knocked down his comrade, seized his musket and escaped.

Sheriff Forman rode off for the courthouse to raise a posse while his seventeen-year-old son, Tunis Forman, loaded a musket with bird shot. Tunis was not with his father when "he discovered the men sitting on a fence, who, on perceiving him, ran into a swamp." Tunis pursued the men for a mile. Smith fired on Tunis but missed, then young Tunis Forman “compelled the men to throw down the musket by threatening them with death if he did not instantly comply.” Forman then “drove them to the court house, careful, however, to keep them far apart to prevent conversation." Sheriff David Forman and Tunis brought the men to Philadelphia on May 24, where they were handsomely rewarded.

That day, the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, drew up an order, "in favor of David Forman, Esq., County of Monmouth… for the sum of £20,000, the reward offered by the Board for securing John Smith and Robert Smith."

There are two additional accounts of the capture of John and Robert Smith from the early 1800s. Samuel Forman (not the militia Colonel, but a cousin of Tunis Forman) wrote a memoir that included a mention of the capture:

A cousin of his, Tunis Forman, about seventeen years of age, met two robbers; after one fired at him and missed, he, getting advantage of them in the adjustment of his gun, forced them to throw down their weapons, when he marched them several miles, and lodged them in jail at Freehold; for this brave act, young Forman received a large reward.

In his postwar veteran’s pension application, John Staatesor, a private in the State Troops in May 1780, recalled capturing John and Robert Smith while serving as a sentry at the Colts Neck farm of Captain Jacob Fleming. He found the outlaws on the road and asked them for papers or the countersign. When they produced neither; he arrested them and took them to Fleming's farm. The Smiths were unarmed but carrying bridles in their packs (suggesting they were planning to steal horses). Staatesor was ordered to take them to the county jail at Freehold. However, the next day, while being walked to Freehold, the Smiths escaped their two guards. That is when the Forman family was alerted, leading to Tunis Forman’s remarkable capture of the two outlaws.

Other Out-of-County Outlaws

The capture of John and Robert Smith is the best-documented incident of Monmouth Countians capturing roving outlaws heading to New York, but it certainly was not the only such incident. Historians Harry Ward and David Fowler both noted a connection between Upper Freehold Loyalist partisans, John Woodward and Samuel Woodward, and the notorious Doane Gang of Pennsylvania. They collaborated in robbing John Hart, the Burlington County Collector in October 1781, taking £2,000 in currency. Elizabeth Woodward sheltered members of the gang. Burlington County court papers read, “The jurors here conclude that Elizabeth Woodward… did conceal Moses Doane, Nathan Tomlinson and divers others" while they were armed with "guns & pistols and other weapons" despite knowing them to be "notorious thieves and robbers."

The Pine Robber, Lewis Fenton, on the day after the Battle of Monmouth, sought to rob the Cooper family south of Freehold only to be chased off by a band of German soldiers, deserted from the British Army, who may have had more ambitious larceny in mind. Later in the war, Lt. Colonel Klein, a German officer who deserted the British for the Continental Army, was arrested in Monmouth County while attempting to illegally go to New York. African Americans were also lured to Sandy Hook by British promises of freedom. One example was documented in the New Jersey Gazette, which advertised: "taken up at Toms River on July 20th [1779] a Negro man who called himself John Thomas, but made his escape."

Over the course of the war, there are more than a dozen documented cases of military officers picking up deserters from British ships at Sandy Hook. The first deserter was taken in Monmouth County on May 14, 1776, three weeks before the Declaration of Independence was signed. As the British Army traversed Monmouth County during the Battle of Monmouth campaign, hundreds of deserters wandered parts of the county. No doubt, they committed many petty crimes on their way toward eventually surrendering. British navy deserters came over from Sandy Hook throughout the war. Loyalists from as far away as South Carolina came through the county on their way into British lines.

Colonel Lewis Nicola recorded taking up deserters from the Hunter, a guard ship at Sandy Hook: five on June 14, 1779, six more on August 12, three more on September 10, and seven more on January 12, 1780. On April 5, 1779, Continental Army Captain Walter Finney reported chasing a Loyalist party near Shrewsbury. The Loyalists eluded Finney’s troops but Finney’s men took others:

The whole detachment set out in quest of them [Loyalist raiders], missed the main object, but in our route took two negroes and one deserter and two suspected persons, put the whole, with one other deserter, into one room--the two most noted villains in irons.

Deserters were not always trouble, some attempted to integrate into civilian life. A British navy deserter, Charles Jackson, settled at “Clamtown” just south of Monmouth County. He served faithfully in the local militia, even battling a British raiding party at “the Battle of Little Egg Harbor” and serving on the privateer, Two Sisters. Other deserters were apparently living at Freehold in early 1780; Loyalist William Smith, on February 21, recorded that British offers of amnesty to German deserters who "have got into rebel lines at Freehold."

But the experience with Peter Berry may have been more typical. Berry deserted from the British Army during the Battle of Monmouth Campaign and settled at Allentown where he was employed as a tailor under an indenture. On September 10, William Lloyd, the township constable, advertised him as “absconded”—Berry had broken the indenture that bound him to Allentown. Deserters were still being picked up by militia late in 1782. John Little, a Justice of the Peace for Shrewsbury Township, recorded receiving seven deserters on October 15, another deserter on November 16, and one more on December 21, 1782.

More than once, British prisoners who escaped from inland prisons traveled across Monmouth County on their way to Sandy Hook. David Brearley wrote on September 1, 1779, that: "A few days ago, three British soldiers were apprehended making their way through the pines to the Monmouth seashore, in order to get to New York." On examination, the men were found to have walked all the way from the jail in Frederick, Maryland (which had housed fifty Monmouth Loyalists two years earlier).

Armed robberies in Upper Freehold Township continued into 1780. On May 31, the New Jersey Gazette reported:

A number of armed villains supposed to be about twelve broke open the house of Mr. John Holmes of Upper Freehold in Monmouth County, and robbed him of 400 or 500 Pounds Continental money, a silver watch, a gold ring, silver buckles, a fire lock, a pair of pistols, clothing, provisions and ammunition.

Upper Freehold Township remained unsafe into summer 1782. On June 18, New Jersey’s Upper House (the Legislative Council) recorded receiving:

Affidavit from Abraham Hendricks, Collector of the Township of Upper Freehold, proving robbery having been committed on his house on the evening of June 12th last by a number of armed men, who robbed the house of cash and effects to considerable value… Robbed by a number of persons unknown, armed and associated into a party, two of whom entered the said house with muskets, and putting the family in fear, robbed said Hendricks of considerable sums of money and effects.

Two months later, the New Jersey Gazette published an announcement from John Cox of Upper Freehold, Chairman of an association of citizens living from Allentown and Burlington. He called on local magistrates and militia officers:

To attend particularly to the vigorous execution of the law against vagrant and idle persons, the Act to prevent illicit trade and intercourse with the enemy, and the law passed 10th Jan'y 1779 to prevent persons traveling through this state without a passport; and, in a word, use their every possible means in their power to effect the grand purpose of disappointing the Enemy.

By war’s end, there was at least one robber gang that combined Pennsylvania and Monmouth County Loyalists. On August 6, 1782, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Executive Council recorded interrogating two robbers, Jesse Vickers and Solomon Vickers. The Council learned that “it appears probable that Caleb Paul [of Pennsylvania] is now confined in gaol in the County of Monmouth, under some other name.” It also warned the New Jersey Government that two members of the Woodward family were robbing with the Vickers family in Bucks County Pennsylvania:

Ordered, that a communication be made to Governor [William] Livingston, with a request that he may be delivered to this state, and also inform Governor Livingston that two men named Woodward, who lived near Crosswicks, have been concerned in robbing the Treasurer of the County of Bucks.

The same gang of robbers—the Vickers brothers, two members of Upper Freehold’s Woodward family, and perhaps a few others—killed a militia sentry, Richard Wilgus, near Allentown, before heading west to Bucks County. The New Jersey Gazette reported:

One Richard Wilgus, with several others were watching the road below Allentown in order to detect person with contraband goods, were attacked by a number of armed men, when the said Wilgus fell sacrifice to their cruelty; he was shot through the bowels and in one of his arms, of which he is since dead.

Monmouth Countians seeking to live normal lives faced many dangers during the American Revolution—including militia service and clashes with various Loyalist enemies. These included military clashes and Loyalist raids. All of these dangers and disruptions were considerable—but so was the increase in violent crime related to external outlaws coming through the county on their way to or from British lines.

Related Historic Site: Covenhoven House

Sources: Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p 387; The New Jersey Gazette notice is printed in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 136; Pennsylvania Archives, Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council,1859, v 12, p396; Library of Congress, Early American Newspapers, Pennsylvania Evening Post; Pennsylvania Gazette, May 31, 1780 (CD-ROM at the David Library, #28071); Samuel Forman, Narrative of a Journey down the Ohio and Mississippi, (reprint) Wentworth Press, 2016, p6; Samuel Forman’s account, published in the New Jersey Gazette, and reprinted in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 129-30; Chester County Historical Society, Diary of Walter Finney; Pennsylvania Gazette, September 19, 1778 (CD-ROM at the David Library, #25766); New Jersey Archives, (Call Printing: Paterson, NJ, 1903) vol. 2, p 438; National Archives, Charles Jackson, R.5513, State Ohio, Ross County; Continental Congress accounts, Peter Force, American Archives, (Force and Clarke: Washington, DC, 1837) Series 4, vol. 6, p1667; Records of John Little, Justice of the Peace, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Gloucester County Docket Book, coll. 860; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith: From 26 August 1778 to 12 November 1783 (New York: Arno, 1971)  p 234; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Notice from David Brearley in Pennsylvania Archives, Minutes of the Provincial Council, 1859, p285; Papers Relating to the War of the Revolution, v3, p285; David Bernstein, Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (Trenton: New Jersey State Library, Archives and History Bureau, 1974) p 222-3; The robbery of John Holmes is in William Horner, This Old Monmouth of Ours (Freehold: Moreau Brothers, 1932) p 137; William Nelson, Austin Scott, et al., ed., New Jersey Archives (Newark, Trenton, Somerville, 1901-1917) vol. 4, p 401; Minutes of the Governor's Privy Council, 1777-1789 (New Jersey Archives, 3d ser., Trenton, 1974), vol. 5, p 458; Records of Lewis Nicola, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 187, item 169, #35, 116, 136, 191; Information on the Doane Gang is in Harry Ward, Between the Lines, 120, 130-3; Pennsylvania Archives, Minutes of the Supreme Executive, v 13, p344; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, August 7, 1782, reel 1930.

.