The Privateering of Captain Yelverton Taylor on the Jersey Shore

While the capture of the Venus in August 1778 by privateers David Stevens and Micajah Smith was the first capture of a great British ship along the Jersey shore, Philadelphia’s Yelverton Taylor was the first great privateer captain of the Jersey shore. Taylor operated out of Little Egg Harbor, at the junction of Gloucester, Burlington and Monmouth counties.

Historian Donald Shomette described Little Egg Harbor and its inland village of Chestnut Neck at the start of the Revolution. The harbor was shallow, unmarked, and “perforated” with sand bars. The Mullica River which connected the harbor with the village, was thirty feet deep in stretches but twisted by sharp meanders and shifting shoals. Only local pilots could bring a ship upriver without it grounding.  Chestnut Neck "could not be a considered a town," consisting of only a dozen dwellings and a tavern.

Philadelphia ships used Little Egg Harbor in the winter when the Delaware River froze, and ships began using the port year-round when the British blockaded Delaware Bay and patrolled the Jersey Shore in spring 1776. The increased ship traffic provoked a British attack in June 1777 when a three-ship flotilla entered the Mullica River and took two vessels, and then took three more while departing. This attack led to the construction of a fort at the Fox Burrows of the Mullica River, but the cannon were never put into the fort. They were likely used by a privateer. By summer 1778, Little Egg Harbor was a booming port town.

It was from this boomtown that Yelverton Taylor emerged. His success is demonstrated by the upward progression of ships that he captained out of Little Egg Harbor. With his successes, he gained prize money necessary to put to sea in ever larger ships. By 1779, he was attacking vessels that he would have evaded in his first vessel.

First Known Date / Taylor’s Vessel / Number of Guns / Crew Size

June 27, 1778

Comet

# of guns: 4

Crew: 25

September 30, 1778

Mars

# of guns: 8

Crew : 35

July 29, 1779

Mars

# of guns: 14

Crew: 60

Note: Taylor captained two different vessels named Mars.

It is likely that Taylor first put to sea as a privateer captain on June 27, 1778, just days after British naval vessels completed their evacuation of Philadelphia. He would have waited for the British fleet to clear the Delaware Bay (June 30) and sail for Sandy Hook before putting himself into the sea lane along the Monmouth shore in search of smaller and unescorted vessels bound for New York.

Early Captures

On July 27, the New Jersey Gazette reported Taylor’s first captures, each of which was deposited at Little Egg Harbor (called Egg Harbor at the time). His first two prizes were the schooner Carolina Packet (under Capt. Walter Belts) with cargo of 16,000 bushels of salt and the sloop Lucy (Capt. Thomas Grandle) with cargo of rice and indigo. While these were small ships, they were fully loaded with goods in great demand. The vessels were sold at auction at Egg Harbor on September 11.

Taylor’s next two documented prizes are recorded in the Maryland Journal, on September 8: "The privateer sloop Comet, Capt. Taylor of Egg Harbour, has brought into a safe port, a brig from Jamaica bound for New York, laden with rum, sugar, coffee and molasses--also a schooner from France, retaken with dry goods." The interest of a Baltimore newspaper in Taylor’s prizes is revealed by a Pennsylvania Evening Post report on September 19 about Taylor’s next prize. The Philadelphia newspaper reported that Taylor had arrived in the city with "the schooner, Smallwood, belonging to Maryland, taken on her passage to Curacao by a British tender, and retaken by Captain Taylor of Egg Harbor."

A few days later, the New Jersey Gazette advertised an admiralty court to be held in Allentown on October 10 to hear Taylor’s claims on 1.) the schooner Fame against former Captain Francis Coffin, 2.) the schooner Good Intent against the former Captain Robsy, and 3.) the schooner Caroline [captain unknown].” The Smallwood, brought into Philadelphia, was outside the jurisdiction of New Jersey’s admiralty court.

The Fame was not condemned to Taylor by the New Jersey admiralty court. An October 20 note in the papers of the Continental Congress infers that an out-of-state counter-claimant emerged. A second note about Fame from February 26, 1779, suggests that the rightful owner of Fame was still being determined six months after Taylor took it. A decision on a second vessel was also held up. In 1780, the New Jersey admiralty court retried another one of Taylor’s early captures.

The delays in gaining access to his prizes may have prompted Taylor to bring other prizes into less regulated ports than Egg Harbor and Philadelphia (where port marshals impounded the vessel until a court condemned the prize to the capturing captain). There is no record of Taylor bringing another prize into either port for the next nine months.

Later Captures

Legal frustrations aside, Taylor remained active. By summer 1779, he was sailing in a larger ship and set his sights on bigger prizes. Joseph Reed of Philadelphia wrote of one such prize on August 18:

Capt. Taylor in a privateer from this port on Thursday last took the Falmouth Packet bound to New York & was fortunate to secure the mail, not being able to bring in the vessel as the wind was contrary & he was chased by a frigate, he abandoned the prize, bringing off the mail & all the prisoners, which was landed at Egg Harbor.

The New Jersey Gazette, reported that Taylor, in the schooner Mars, was "off Sandy Hook, fell in with a snow mounting 14 carriage guns, which he boarded and took.” The report continued:

She proved to be a packet from Falmouth for New York. Captain Taylor took the mail and the prisoners, 45 in number, and stood for Egg Harbor; but on Saturday morning last, he fell in with a fleet of 23 sail, under convoy of a frigate, when the frigate gave chase & re-took her.

Additional details were reported in the Morristown-based New Jersey Journal. The snow was the British vessel, Dashound, carrying the mail from New York to London. Nearing capture, the crew threw the mail into the sea, but it was recovered by Taylor’s men. A later article on the incident published in the Loyalist New York Gazette claimed the mail was "irrefutably sunk." This report is likely incorrect.

Antiquarian sources complete the narrative. The Mars and Dashound fought a brutal hour-long battle (45 minutes in original accounts). The Dashound lost the battle when it grounded off the Monmouth shore during the fight. Once grounded, oar-powered gunboats from Toms River joined the fight. The Dashound surrendered when its masts were shot down. The gunboats ferried prisoners to Toms River and the Mars started towing the Dashound for Egg Harbor. However, Taylor had to cut the prize loose when the British frigate, Perseus, came after him. Taylor brought the British mail into Egg Harbor—a giant intelligence win for the Continental cause. Perseus towed the beaten Dashound back to Sandy Hook.

A week later, Taylor was again at sea. He took a sloop named Active on September 1, but there is no record of this vessel being condemned in admiralty court so he likely did not bring it into Egg Harbor. He probably brought it to Philadelphia.

At month’s end, Taylor was cruising along the Monmouth shore when he came upon his most spectacular opportunity. On September 14, the transport vessel, Triton, filled with troops, left Sandy Hook for the Carolinas as part of a convoy. Triton then separated from the convoy during a storm. The wounded vessel moved slowly off the Monmouth shore. The next day, according to a German Officer on board, “the wind was good, we therefore made our course northeast to get clear of the land and, if possible, out of the sight of the privateers cruising around there.”

However, the transport was unable to get into deep water quickly. The officer recorded what happened at dawn on September 26 they spotted two privateers. It was a “sad and unhappy day.” The transport surrendered without a fight because “we were in such miserable condition that we could not escape nor make evasive procedures away from another ship.

The wounded transport was larger than the two privateers, but had to surrender without a fight. Predictably, towing the bigger vessel was difficult; one of the privateers (Taylor in the Mars) grounded and overset in the surf outside Egg Harbor. After a few days at the mouth of the harbor, the prisoners were rowed upriver to the privateer village of Chestnut Neck. They then walked under guard to Philadelphia, where they arrived ten days later. Another article discusses the capture of the Triton in greater detail.

There is no record of Taylor remaining an active privateer after the capture of the Triton, though the Mars remained an active vessel under a Captain Geddes. Taylor likely had the wealth to retire. Having captured a British military mail packet and hundreds of soldiers, he knew he would be killed if ever taken by the British. Privateering was risky and he was now notorious. Before the war, Taylor worked as a pilot guiding ships between Cape May and Philadelphia—perhaps he retired to one of these places. Other privateer captains, mostly New Englanders, filled the void left by his retirement.

Related Historic Site: New Jersey Maritime Museum

Sources: Charles H. Lincoln, Naval Records of the American Revolution, 1775–1788 (Washington, D.C., 1906), pp. 254, 386; Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Hessian, Waldeck and British Prisoner Records, 1776-9, "List of Marine Department Prisoners: Officers Taken" and "Captures Made by Pennsylvania State Navy", coll. 875; Donald Shomette, Privateers of the Revolution: War on the New Jersey Coast (Shiffer: Atglen, PA, 2015); Paul Burgess, A Colonial Scrapbook; the Southern New Jersey Coast, 1675-1783 (New York, Carlton Press, 1971) pp 126-7; J.A. McManemin, Captains of Privateers. (Spring Lake, N.J. : Ho-Ho-Kus Pub. Co., 1994), pp. 341-4; Maryland Journal, September 8, 1778; Archives of the State of New Jersey, Extracts from American Newspapers Relating to New Jersey (Paterson, NJ: Call Printing, 1903) vol. 2, p 3395-6; The Library Company, Pennsylvania Evening Post; Library of Congress, Early American Newspaper, New Jersey Gazette, reel 1930; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 12, p 1024 and vol. 13, p 188; Valentine C. Hubbs, Hessian Journals: Unpublished Documents of the American Revolution (London: Camden House, 1980) pp. 81-3; National Archives, Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, I69, State Papers - PA, v 2, p 137; J.A. McManemin, Captains of Privateers. (Spring Lake, N.J. : Ho-Ho-Kus Pub. Co., 1994), pp. 341-4; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, reel 2906; Committee of Appeals Decision, Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 14, p 377-8; Information on Taylor’s work as a pilot is in: “Revolutionary War Delaware River and Bay Pilots” (https://continentalnavy.com/archives/2018/revolutionary-war-delaware-river-and-bay-pilots/).