Thomas Seabrook and Other Whigs Move Inland for Safety

Thomas Seabrook and his family lived comfortably on the Raritan Bayshore before the war. In April 1776, Seabrook was commissioned a major in the new Monmouth County militia. Weeks later, he became a major in the regiment of Flying Camp raised by Nathaniel Heard and David Forman. He served for five months, enduring a string of defeats and privations with the Continental Army. In spring 1777, Seabrook was commissioned as the new Lt. Colonel of the 1st Regiment of Monmouth Militia following the disastrous Battle of the Navesink. In April, his adult son, Stephen Seabrook, confronted the disaffected squire Edward Taylor over assisting Loyalist raiding parties led by his son, George Taylor.

The Seabrook family was now known to the Loyalist refugees that began raiding the Monmouth shore in spring 1777.  On June 16, a raiding party led by George Taylor entered the Seabrook house, probably looking to take Thomas Seabrook. Thomas was not home, but Stephen was. He hid in a ceiling loft. A Loyalist raider noticed a sag in the ceiling and thrust his bayonet upward, stabbing Stephen. The Seabrook family lost £31 in taken items. After the incident, the Seabrooks left the family home and moved to a rented house in present-day Manalapan. A year later, the Seabrooks suffered again when the rented house sustained heavy damage during the Battle of Monmouth.

Other Monmouth Whigs Move Inland

The Seabrooks were among the first Whig (pro-Revolution) families to move inland after suffering at the hands of Loyalists, but they certainly were not the last. Table 4 documents 21 families that moved inland for safety—and it is safe to assume that this table is not a complete accounting of all the Whigs who re-located inland. The table omits families with incomplete evidence. For example, a farm near Freehold was rented to a man named Carr. The farm was damaged during the Battle of Monmouth (June 1778). 

Based on tax records, all Monmouth County families named Carr lived in the shore townships of Shrewsbury, Dover and Stafford. But because the identity of the Carr family living near Freehold is unknown, they are not included in the record compilation above. There are additional families that moved inland but are not well documented.

Even with this limitation, the records above shows that families moved inland from all three Atlantic shore townships (Shrewsbury, Dover, and Stafford) and the Raritan Bayshore township of Middletown. Half of these families relocated near the county seat of Freehold, a safe place because it was fifteen miles inland and the county militia muster site. Other families went even further inland to Upper Freehold, Cranbury (in Middlesex), and even out of state. Families that owned boats moved to Woodbridge and Middletown Point, but both of those villages were only somewhat safer than their homes—both villages suffered Loyalist raids during the war.

Families moved inland every year of the war in which there were Loyalist raids, but 1777 was the year in which the most families moved. Six of the twenty (30 percent) families that moved inland were the families of militia officers—while leaders represented less than 20 percent of the general population. The author’s prior research documents that leaders suffered twice as often during the war as non-leaders because they were targeted by Loyalists.

A number of veterans (or their widows) recalled moving inland in their postwar veteran pension applications. A few examples follow. Mary Wall, the wife of Lieutenant James Wall of Middletown, recalled:

Her husband was regularly obnoxious against the [Loyalist] refugees and always slept with his arms at his side; his house was frequently searched and one time he very narrowly escaped by availing himself to the darkness of night when the enemy came to the door.

The family moved to Spotswood for safety, but Mary Wall noted that Spotswood was also unsafe:

At that time he lived in Spotswood when his house was again plundered of everything valuable and portable and he then lost the sword which had been surrendered to him by the British officer at the Battle of Monmouth.

Matthias Handlin of Long Branch turned sixteen, joined the militia, and participated in a battle against an African American Loyalist raiding party. After that, his father decided his son needed to move inland:

At Long Branch, there were a great many Tories and said Handlin believed himself to be in great danger from them, owing to the active part he had been taking against them... His father, about this time, persuaded said Matthias Handlin to go to Allentown at which place he had a sister living. That, being obedient to his father's request, did so proceed to Allentown.

William Aumack joined the militia upon turning 16 in 1778. "He lived almost on the shore of New York Bay, within about one hundred yards of it... and for his own safety he was forced to seek the ranks of a soldier... When called into service, he removed from said Township, it being on the shore, with his father, into the township of Freehold for two years."

Job Throckmorton's pension application was submitted by his widow, Mary Throckmorton. She described the family’s move inland in 1780. That year, the family moved “into the interior of the county at a place called Englishtown, upwards of twenty miles distant, and the reason for his doing so was that himself and his family would not be murdered by the enemy."

Not included in the table are the nineteen women from Tinton Falls who are listed in a 1780 militia return of Captain James Green. These women likely had been burned out of their homes during a particularly punishing Loyalist raid and now were under the care of the Colts Neck militia captain. These women and their families moved inland for safety and poor relief. They are not included in the table because their time inland was likely short term.

The movement of Whigs to inland locations was noticed by Loyalists in New York. The Loyalist New York Gazette reported in October 1779 that “the well-affected inhabitants” to the Revolution in Monmouth County were “removed to the back part of the county.” The report further stated that:

The more moderate and sober Whigs have lately remonstrated against this practice and procured their return, declaring that they looked upon the Tories as their protectors, and unless the Loyalists were recalled would, themselves, follow them into retirement.

In September 1782, David Forman wrote George Washington about a rumored promise from the British Commander in Chief, Guy Carleton, that "he will prevent small parties coming within the American lines… for plundering and man stealing.” Forman asked for information about this rumored British directive on behalf of “a respectable body of Whigs who have been compelled to leave their homes on the shore on acct of their affection to the American cause and are exceedingly distressed."

Forman, living near Freehold, was obviously in contact with the shore-residents who had moved to the Freehold-area. These Whig refugees were likely hoping for news that would allow them to go home; their grievance may have contributed with the radicalization of Forman and other political leaders around Freehold—this radicalization was evident in the election-coercion and vigilantism embraced by Forman a clique of Freehold leaders.

Related Historic Site: Seabrook-Wilson House (Spy House)

Sources: John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v4, p247-8; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, 4 vols, Genealogical Publishing Co, 1970, v4, p236; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, David Cooper of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#12873752; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Peter Crawford of PA, www.fold3.com/image/#15198310; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Burrowes Norris; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, James Wall of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#20365758; National Archives, revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - William Aumock; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Matthias Handlin of Ohio, www.fold3.com/image/#23563620www.fold3.com/image/#23563620; Thoms Brown’s pension application in John C. Dann, The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980) pp 141-3; National Archives, revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Derrick Sutphin; Franklin Ellis, The History of Monmouth County (R.T. Peck: Philadelphia, 1885), p 508; National Archives, Veterans Pensions, Isaac Covenhoven of New York; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Job Clayton; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, John Clark of PA, www.fold3.com/image/#12752854; National Archives, Revolutionary War Veterans' Pension Application, Zachariah Hawkins of NJ, www.fold3.com/image/#22623931; National Archives, Revolutionary War veterans Pension Applications, New Jersey - Job Throckmorton; “An Evenly Balanced County: The Scope and Severity of Civil Warfare in Revolutionary Monmouth County New Jersey,” Journal of Military History, 2009; 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; Library of Congress, Rivington's New York Gazette, October 1779, reel 2906; David Forman to George Washington, Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 4, General Correspondence, September 21, 1782; Michael Adelberg, Biographical File, at the Monmouth County Historical Association.