The Establishment of the Associated Loyalists

By the middle of 1779, thousands of Loyalists had been living as refugees in New York for more than two years—and they were frustrated. The British Army had stopped campaigning in the North and the navy had lost control of the waters outside of Sandy Hook. The confiscation and sale of Loyalist estates spiked their resentments, and so did a steady diet of reports of rebel abuse in New York newspapers. This May 1779 report is just one example. Continental authorities were reportedly "chaining men together by dozens and driving them like cattle, flinging them into loathsome jails, confiscating their estates, shooting them in swamps and woods, hanging them after mock trials; and all because they would not abjure their rightful sovereign."

Officers, whether British or Loyalist, believed rebels were guilty of abuses against peaceable Americans whose only crime was remaining loyal to their King. Patrick Ferguson, a British officer who commanded and conversed with Loyalists daily (and raided Monmouth County twice) similarly observed:

Ravages everywhere wantonly committed, without regard for sex or age, friend or traitor, and consequent alienation of every thinking mind from the Royal cause. Most of the houses are indiscriminately plundered, beds cut up and windows cut to pieces, the man robbed of their watches, shoe buckles and money, while their wives and daughters have their pockets and clothes torn from their bodies, and the father and the husband who does not survey all of this placid countenance is beat or branded with the name traitor or rebel.

Establishing of the Associated Loyalists

William Franklin, the son of Benjamin Franklin and last Royal Governor of New Jersey, emerged as the leader of an aggrieved set of Loyalists. In early 1779, the Loyalist Andrew Elliot wrote about the illegal lumber trade from New Jersey: "The refugees [are] all employed in cutting wood on rebel lands by which they make money and help keep the town well supplied; they wish much to be embodied under a command of their own." Franklin would soon provide Loyalists with “a command of their own.”

On May 29, 1779, Franklin proposed a plan to General Henry Clinton, commanding British forces in America, to establish "a Board of Intelligence” through which Loyalists would be "united & employed for the purpose of procuring, digesting & communicating intelligence of the designs & motions of the enemy." The Board would take testimonies under oath, inspect captured letters, issue rewards for intelligence, maintain spies in rebel territory, and report useful intelligence to the British.

While it is unclear if Clinton approved of this plan, the Board began forwarding intelligence to him in June. The Board of Intelligence soon gave way to a bolder endeavor. In November, Franklin and colleagues established the Board of Associated Loyalists. The Board sought broad powers to maintain its own: armed bodies, conduct raids, and capture and exchange prisoners. Clinton responded with suspicion. He did not ban the group, but limited its powers in two key respects.

Clinton wrote that Associated Loyalist “descents” (raids) required the approval of a British officer and he further warned Franklin that "any persons whatsoever who shall attempt to pass the King's ships or posts or make a descent on the enemy, excepting on the above terms, shall be treated as disaffected persons or robbers." Clinton acquiesced to the Board regarding taking rebel prisoners and negotiating prisoner exchanges, but required that all exchanges be subject to the British-Continental negotiated prisoner cartel. Over time, the Associated Loyalists pushed past these rules.

Historian Edward Tebbenhoff estimated that as many as 4,000 men participated in the Associated Loyalists but that, on any given day, the Associated Loyalist could only muster a fraction of their associators—as these men were employed in other pursuits. It is unfortunate that no list of Associated Loyalists has survived. On November 10, Franklin evaded Clinton’s request for a list, writing: “They are so scattered and have been so fluctuated from the practice of engaging themselves under different officers under different excursions that it is impossible to ascertain their numbers."

While aspects of the Board’s powers remained at issue, the Associated Loyalists moved ahead. On November 24, the Board’s Secretary, Daniel Coxe, wrote Clinton about the Board’s formation. With false-sincerity, he stated: "We trust our conduct will always be such as to merit your Excellency's patronage and encouragement." A similar letter was sent to Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot, commanding the navy in America, two weeks later.

The formation of the Associated Loyalist may have pushed Clinton to do more to govern Loyalists in New York. He wrote on December 15: "I have appointed Colonel Morris [Roger Morris] and William Bayard… to be inspectors of Refugees, from them chiefly, I will know what objects they desire and deserve." Clinton also complained about “a class of these men of more ardent & enterprising disposition, whose zeal & courage I have not been able to bend to useful purposes.” He went on:

Their wish is to ravage from their oppressors the property which had often in the past been their own. Such dispositions, as they have induced the capture of obnoxious persons, militia, of forage wood and cattle, I was willing to encourage; but fearing indiscriminate depredations... I have endeavored to restrain their irregularities and invited proposals for introducing a certain discretion and subordination; these efforts have not yet had the wished for effect.

However, it was not until spring 1780 that the Associated Loyalists publicly emerged. In March, they conducted a lottery to raise money for suffering Loyalist families; in June, they published a letter in the New York Gazette about the need for "the proposed association of Loyal Refugees." The emergence of the Associated Loyalists was watched in Monmouth County. On or about July 1, the county’s vigilant Revolutionaries founded their own extra-mural group to punish enemies, the Association for Retaliation.

The Associated Loyalists, sometimes calling themselves "the Board of Refugees," advertised meetings in the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury twice in October 1780. The delay likely was because of continued tensions with General Clinton. Tebbenhoff notes that Clinton had to be ordered to cooperate with the Associated Loyalist by British Secretary of State George Germain. It was not until December 1780 that the Associated Loyalists published their charter. In it, they noted that since start of the war:

It has been often wished that some regular and efficient system was adopted for employing the zeal of that class of his Majesty's loyal subjects who were unwilling to become soldiers, though ardently inclined to take up arms and contribute towards reducing the rebels.

The Board would coordinate Loyalist paramilitaries "for the purpose of annoying the sea-coasts of the revolted provinces, and distressing their trade, either cooperation with his Majesty's forces or by making diversions in their favour." The Board would conduct raids and take prisoners. They declared that "all captures made by associators will be their entire property." They noted that "the prisoners they take will be exchanged only for Associated Loyalists as the Board may name." 

Despite their independence, Associated Loyalist raiding parties would be supported with British ships, provisions, and hospitals. William Franklin was named to chair their seven-person board.

Monmouth Countians in the Associated Loyalists

In January 1781, the Board commissioned captains to raise companies of men; three--Richard Lippincott, Thomas Crowell, and Clayton Tilton—were Monmouth Countians. Lippincott reported on February 16 that he had raised 52 men, with two junior officers, Lieutenant John Woodward and Ensign John Irons. Since all three officers were from Monmouth County, it is probable that all or most of the 52 men were too. That same month, Franklin wrote that the Associated Loyalists numbered 500-600 men. If Crowell’s and Tilton’s companies were half the size of the Lippincott company, then roughly 100 Monmouth Countians were in the Associated Loyalists—nearly 20 percent of their membership—a remarkable figure from a single county, given that Associated Loyalists were recruiting from four states.

Despite the large participation of Monmouth Countians in the Associated Loyalists, only a few postwar Loyalist compensation claims mention them. This is likely because the group fell into disrepute after Lippincott hanged Captain Joshua Huddy of Colts Neck (detailed in other articles). Lippincott’s application contains only a brief mention of the Associated Loyalists; John Leonard testified on behalf of Lippincott, "that he [Lippincott] was an officer with the refugees of New York & frequently was out with parties." Besides Lippincott, only one other Monmouth Countian explicitly discussed service in the Associated Loyalists.

Jesse Smith, formerly of Shrewsbury, had William Franklin testify to his service. Franklin noted that Smith "was a very active and zealous partisan… particularly serviceable in bringing into New York, Lord Cornwallis' [Gen. Charles Cornwallis] men after the surrender at Yorktown.” Smith also “produced supplies for the navy & garrison at New York from the Jersies.” Franklin also noted Smith’s sacrifice:

He was several times dangerously wounded; that I recommended him to Admiral [Robert] Digby who furnished him with twenty-five staves of arms, ammunition & provisions for the purpose of bringing off British prisoners kept by the rebels; that he is now greatly disabled, having had his right arm broke & several shot still remaining in him, which gives him great pain and renders him unfit to get his living by manual labor.

All three Monmouth County captains were active. Thomas Crowell took prisoners, engaged in prisoner exchange negotiations with Colonel Asher Holmes of the Monmouth County militia, and was warned by the New Jersey legislature regarding his mistreatment of prisoners. He refused to hang Captain Barnes Smock in retaliation for abuses against Loyalists but testified in support of Richard Lippincott when Lippincott did so a few months later.

Clayton Tilton was captured and indicted for murder in 1781. Rebecca Shepherd, wife of militia captain Moses Shepherd recalled his capture after the war:

Samuel Carman came and & informed her husband that Clayton Tilton, a refugee of notoriety, was off & at home, her husband, John Truax and several more of his men went and took him - and brought the prisoner to their house.

Tilton was exchanged and then attempted to negotiate another exchange. In March 1782, he led the incursion into Monmouth County that went badly and resulted in the capture of Philip White, who was subsequently murdered by his guards. Tilton was loaded in irons and convicted of High Treason, but exchanged. Like Crowell, he also testified about rebel cruelties at Lippincott’s court martial trial.

Lippincott was the most active. In April 1780, he was in a raid that resulted in the murder of John Russell, Sr., and near death of John Russell, Jr. (the subject of another article.) He raided Toms River in early 1781, but was unable to take the ship that prompted the attack. He raided Manasquan in March and defeated the militia party there, and then captured a vessel near Egg Harbor. He captured a Monmouth County leader in April and then launched another raid from Sandy Hook in May. He attempted to negotiate a prisoner exchange in November without success. In April 1782, with the verbal approval of the Board of Associated Loyalists, he hanged Captain Huddy.

The Disrepute of the Associated Loyalists

The Associated Loyalists were known to the governments of New York and New Jersey, both of which appealed to the Continental Congress for help. The New York Assembly, in July 1781, wrote to Congress that parties of Associated Loyalists "come in small crafts to plunder, burn and destroy all in their power and carry into captivity unarmed citizens or lay them under parole.” It called on Congress “to stop the inroads and incursions of the Associated Loyalists."

In December, Thomas Henderson of Freehold wrote the Continental Congress for the New Jersey Assembly. He called the Associated Loyalists "a new fangled body of Executioners” and further wrote:

For the declared intention of distressing the Country [they] have commissioned a body of ruffians for the express purpose of plundering and destroying the well-affected inhabitants and kidnapping the most active defenders of the Country... and of carrying them into the loathsome dungeons of New York where, deprived of the necessities of life, they linger out a few days of painful existence till nature, overpowered by hardships, finds its relief to its sufferings in death.

Henderson wanted Congress to threaten the British with eye-for-eye retaliation so that "the vengeance of an injured people may fall on British officers.” He called for New Jersey’s delegates to "press Congress not to make any empty declarations of purposes never to be executed." Henderson personally delivered the report to Congress.

It is impossible to know the full activity of the Associated Loyalists. Newspaper accounts and the Board’s minutes mention their larger raids, including one against Toms River in March 1782. From these sources, we know that they raided north into Connecticut and Westchester County, east to the Hamptons on Long Island, and into New Jersey from Bergen to Monmouth counties. But small groups of Associated Loyalists made descents that were not explicitly authorized by the Board and went undocumented. For example, the small raid of Long Branch that led to Philip White’s capture would have gone undocumented were it not for White’s capture and murder being a prelude to Huddy’s hanging.

Franklin claimed that the Associated Loyalists "occasioned alarm among the Rebels" because his men had "zeal to suppress the rebellion, heightened by the remembrance of the many insults & injuries they received." This ‘zeal” and “remembrance” of past injuries would push the Associated Loyalists to commit murder. In April 1782, Lippincott took Captain Huddy out of jail in New York, brought him to the Navesink Highlands, hanged him, and left his corpse swinging with a note proclaiming the act a retaliation for the murder of White, three weeks earlier.

Retaliation was not a new idea in April 1782. After the surrender at Yorktown six months earlier, Franklin worried that the Loyalists with Cornwallis would “suffer death on account of their allegiance to the Crown” unless Clinton adopted a policy of retaliation. Franklin urged a proclamation:

That retaliation shall be allowed to take place in the fullest context possible; or if this should be thought proper with respect to the British Army, that the Loyalists and refugees may have free permission to take and detain prisoners, & retaliate for the particular injuries they or their friends may sustain.

Historian William Benton called the Associated Loyalists a "private army for personal reasons." In reality, the Associated Loyalists were much less than an army. They were a set of coordinated gangs tolerated by a British command unwilling to make the hard choice of reining them in. On the other side, the same dynamic existed between Monmouth County’s Retaliators and the New Jersey government.

Caption: in 1780, New Jersey’s last Royal Governor, William Franklin, established the Associated Loyalists, a vigilante group. Potentially, 20% of the Associated Loyalists were from Monmouth County.

Related Historic Site: Harbor Defense Museum (New York)

Sources: William Franklin to Henry Clinton, William Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, vol. 58, 60; Wallace Brown, The Good Americans: The Loyalists in the American Revolution, (New York: Morrow, 1969), p. 133; Ferguson quoted in North Callahan, Royal Raiders: The Tories of the American Revolution (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963), p 10; Joseph Williams discussed in Gregory Palmer, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn. and London, 1984) p 934; Elliott’s letter is in B. F. Stevens, ed., Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America, 1773–1783, [25 vols., London, 1889–1898], vol. 1, #115; William Franklin to Henry Clinton, William Clements Library, Henry Clinton Papers, vol. 74; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Henry Clinton to Lord Germain, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v99, #26; The lottery is noted in Wallace Brown, The Good Americans: The Loyalists in the American Revolution, (New York: Morrow, 1969), p. 107; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, October 2, 1780, October 23, 1780; Transcript of the Court Martial of Richard Lippincott, microfilm, Library Congress; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Edward H. Tebbenhoff, “The Associated Loyalists: An Aspect of Militant Loyalism,” New-York Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 63 (1979), pp. 118-25, 127-39; William A. Benton, Whig-Loyalism: An Aspect of Political Ideology in the American Revolutionary Era (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1969) p 197; Loyalist compensation claims of Richard Lippincott and Jesse Smith in: Jones, E. Alfred. The Loyalists of New Jersey, (Newark, N. J. Historical Society, 1927) p 200.  Rutgers University Special Collections, Great Britain Public Record Office, Loyalist Compensation Claims, D96, AO 13/111, reel 10; Rebecca Shepherd’s narrative is in National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - John Truax; George W. Kyte, “Some Plans for a Loyalist Stronghold in the Middle Colonies,” Pennsylvania History, vol. 16 (1949), p 179-87; William Franklin to Henry Clinton, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v93, reel 2, #454; Howard Peckham, Sources of American Independence: Selected Manuscripts from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) pp. 502-3, 529, 559 note; Clements Library, Proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists, January 1781, p. 6; Howard Peckham, Sources of American Independence: Selected Manuscripts from the Collections of the William L. Clements Library  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) pp. 604-7; Rutgers University, Special Collections, Loyalist Compensation Applications, Coll. D96, PRO AO 13/18, reel 6; William Franklin to George Germain, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, reel 12, #382, 399; William Franklin to George Germain, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, reel 12, #382, 399; George Germain to William Franklin, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, CO 5, v178, #455; New York Assembly to Congress, National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, New York State Papers, v2, p430; The New Jersey Assembly’s report on the Associated Loyalists is in the Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, December 15, 1781, p 58; Franklin‘s estimate is in North Callahan, Royal Raiders: The Tories of the American Revolution (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963), pp. 244-5.