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Revolutionary War

The Burrowes Mansion in Matawan, home to the Matawan Historical Society. Photo by John R. Barrows.
June 3, 1723

The Burrowes Mansion Museum

Editor's note: The following text and images are provided by and used with permission from the Matawan Historical Society.   The Burrowes Mansion was built in 1723 by John Bowne III. It is one of Monmouth County’s most important early...
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Sign at entrance to Huddy Park in Highlands, N.J. Photo by John R. Barrows.
November 8, 1735

A Timeline of Patriot Martyr Joshua Huddy

Joshua Huddy was a Revolutionary War soldier who became renowned through his untimely death: he was hung by American Loyalists at Highlands in 1782, months after the Battle of Yorktown, the last major military engagement of the war.  Patriot outrage...
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November 8, 1775

A Timeline of the Escaped Slave Titus who Became the Dreaded Loyalist Raider Colonel Tye

On November 8, 1775, a 22-year-old slave named Titus ran away from his owner and master, John Corlies of Colts Neck.  Corlies was a Quaker who did not agree with Monmouth County Quaker views on the handling of slaves.  Quakers during...
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Illustration of the uniform worn by Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian regiment soldiers. National Parks Service photo, public domain.
November 15, 1775

Titus Becomes Tye in Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment of Black Loyalist Soldiers

On November 15, 1775, the former Colts Neck slave named Titus, now calling himself simply "Tye," took part in the first armed conflict in American history involving an organized unit of African American soldiers. But they were fighting for the...
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Character studies of the types of residents from our region who fought one another in one bloody engagement after another. For Monmouth County, the Revolution was most certainly a brutal civil war. Allen House Tavern image courtesy Monmouth County Historical Association. Monmouth County Loyalists & Patriots, ©2023 Charlie Swerdlow, commissioned by Monmouth Timeline.
January 2, 1777

The Allen House Massacre and Other Engagements in Eastern Monmouth County

By William Gardell   January 1777: A Time of Tension On January 2, 1777, members of the Monmouth County militia, along with a company of Continental army soldiers, reached what is today Freehold and engaged in a skirmish with a...
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Battle of the Navesink. The New York Times, February 23, 1896, P. 1. Public domain.
February 13, 1777

Battle of the Navesink

On February 13, 1777, the militia of Monmouth County suffered “most severely” in an engagement known as the Battle of the Navesink, which took place in the area that is now Rumson and Highlands, and Sea Bright.   Particularly during...
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September 24, 1777

New Jersey Militia Artillery Captain Joshua Huddy

On September 24, 1777, Joshua Huddy became a captain of artillery for the New Jersey militia.   The year 1777 had started off with some badly needed victories on the part of the Continental Army under George Washington, such as...
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Annotated map of Coopers Ferry, June 1778.
May 3, 1778

Battle of Monmouth – How It Begins

On May 3, 1778, the British established a post at Cooper's Ferry, near where Camden is today, to protect wood cutters. The British army in Philadelphia had been ordered to evacuate the city, to focus resources on their strongholds in...
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May 27, 1778

The Raid on the Burrowes Mansion

Editor’s note: The following text and image are provided by and used with permission of the author and the Matawan Historical Society, with the exception of the Monmouth County Loyalists & Patriots, ©2023 Charlie Swerdlow, commissioned by Monmouth Timeline.  The...
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Artist's rendering of the Old Mill at Allentown during a solar eclipse. Image credit: John R. Barrows
June 24, 1778

The British March into Allentown in Time for an Eclipse

On the morning of June 24, 1778, a total eclipse of the sun plunged Monmouth County into daylight darkness for a few hours. It was the first recorded solar eclipse in colonial American history; David Rittenhouse, an American astronomer and...
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"Elizabeth's Choice," by Charlie Swerdlow, ©2023 History Depicted, commissioned by Monmouth County Historical Association, used with permission.
June 26, 1778

General Clinton Arrives at Monmouth Court House

On June 26, 1778, British troops, under the command of Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, first arrived in Monmouth Court House, now known as Freehold Township. With France entering the American Revolution on the side of the Patriots, the British...
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"Loyalist Retribution at Monmouth Court House, 1778," by Peter Cerella, ©2023, commissioned by Monmouth Timeline Inc.
June 27, 1778

The Sack of Monmouth Court House

June 27 was supposed to be a day of rest, and for most of British Lt. General Sir Henry Clinton's troops, it was.  But for some, it was an opportunity not to be missed, an opportunity for retribution. General Clinton’s...
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Washington Rallying the Troops at Monmouth by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. Monmouth County Historical Association, used with permission.
June 28, 1778

The Battle of Monmouth

Editor’s note: The following is adapted from the Battle of Monmouth Fact Sheet published by the Friends of the Monmouth Battlefield. On Sunday, June 28, 1778, an American army of about 14,500, including about 1,000 militia, engaged a British army...
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Charles Lee Esq'r. - major general of the Continental-Army in America. Probst, Johann Michael, engraver. Created between 1776 and 1790. Library of Congress, public domain.
August 12, 1778

Continential Army Major General Charles Lee Convicted at Court-Martial

On August 12, 1778, just two weeks after the Battle of Monmouth during the Revolutionary War, Major General Charles Lee was convicted at his court-martial of all three charges laid against him for his conduct during the early stages of...
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Engraving of Joshua Huddy home in Colts Neck by Barber, John Warner, & Howe, Henry. (1844). Historical collections of the State of New Jersey: Containing a General Collection of the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, etc. Relating to its History and Antiquities, with Geographical Descriptions of Every Township in the State Illustrated by 120 Engravings. Pub. for the authors, by S. Tuttle, New York, N.Y., 1844.
October 27, 1778

Joshua Huddy, Innkeeper

On October 27, 1778, Huddy married Catherine Applegate Hart, the widow of Levy Hart, a Jewish tavern keeper in Colts Neck who had died in 1775.  Although Protestants, Catherine Applegate and her sister Hannah both married prosperous Jews in Monmouth...
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Cover art for book "The Razing of Tinton Falls" by Michael Adelberg.
June 10, 1779

The Razing of Tinton Falls: 16 Dead in Waterfront Fighting Between Monmouth County Patriots and Loyalists

On June 10, 1779, a raiding party of about 100 Loyalists left British-controlled Sandy Hook and attacked Tinton Falls for the second time in six weeks, seeking guns, ammunition, food, supplies, and to arrest local leaders of the militia.  The...
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Original illustration: Colonel Tye, by Charlie Swerdlow. Commissioned by Monmouth Timeline, Inc. ©2021 Charlie Swerdlow, History Depicted. Image courtesy Monmouth County Historical Association, used with permission.
July 15, 1779

Colonel Tye and his Black Brigade Become the Scourge of Monmouth County Patriots

Col. Tye, now based in Refugeetown on Sandy Hook, along with other escaped slaves, black freedmen, and loyalists from Monmouth County as well as elsewhere.  Col. Tye begins a reign of terror, leading raids into his former neighborhoods at the...
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The Middletown Militia Secures their Prize, by Steve Schreiber.
December 28, 1779

The Capture of the British Privateer Britannia by the Middletown Militia

By Maureen Foster Sandy Hook and the neighboring Highlands of the Navesink have always played an important role in the safety and defense of New York harbor. During the Revolutionary War (1776-1783), British troops and Loyalist refugees occupied Sandy Hook,...
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A swivel gun mounted on the American topsail schooner Lynx. © BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
August 5, 1780

Joshua Huddy, Privateer

On August 5, 1780, Joshua Huddy received a privateer’s commission.  Though best known for his exploits on land, Huddy also supported the revolutionary cause on water, attacking and seizing British ships both to hamper enemy operations and to earn the...
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The Fatal Showdown Between Colonel Tye and Joshua Huddy, original illustration. Commissioned by Monmouth Timeline, ©2021, Charlie Swerdlow, History Depicted.
September 1, 1780

The Fatal Showdown Between Colonel Tye and Joshua Huddy

Original illustration exclusively for Monmouth Timeline, ©2021 by Charles Swerdlow, all rights reserved. In the years following the Battle of Monmouth, residents of Monmouth County engaged in an escalating civil war between residents siding with the Revolutionary cause, and residents...
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Oil painting: Battle of the Virginia Capes, 5 September 1781 by V. Zveg, 1962. U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Public domain.
September 20, 1781

Battle of the Chesapeake

On September 20, 1781, Royal Navy Admiral Graves' fleet sailed from Virginia back to Sandy Hook after sustaining sufficient damage and loss at the hands of the French navy at the Battle of the Chesapeake (also known as the Battle...
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Photo of scale model of Revolutionary War whaleboat from the New Jersey Maritime Museum.
October 5, 1781

Privateer Adam Hyler, In Rowboats, Captures Five British Ships

On October 5, 1781, Captain Adam Hyler of New Brunswick led yet another attack on British and Loyalist merchant vessels in Raritan Bay; on this occasion, he and his oarsmen captured five valuable British ships within a quarter mile of...
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Bronze tablet commemorating the capture of Joshua Huddy at the block house at Toms River.
March 24, 1782

Joshua Huddy is Captured Again; No Escape This Time

On February 1, 1782, Joshua Huddy was given command of the blockhouse at Toms River that was built to protect the local salt works.    On March 24, 1782, Huddy finally faced a challenge he could not overcome.  Commanding 25...
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Joshua Huddy led from prison to be hanged, 1782 (c1880). A print from Cassell's History of the United States, by Edmund Ollier, Volume II, Cassell Petter and Galpin, London, page 450. Public Domain.
April 12, 1782

Up Goes Huddy

On April 12, 1782, about six months after the British commander Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, effectively ending the Revolutionary War, Patriot militia Captain Joshua Huddy was removed from the infamous British Liberty Street Sugar House prison in New York...
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Photograph of bronze commemorative tablet marking the site where Joshua Huddy was hanged in Highlands, N.J. Image credit: John R. Barrows
April 14, 1782

Outrage Over the Martyred Joshua Huddy

When a group of Middletowners discovered Huddy’s body hanging from a makeshift gallows on a spring day in 1782, an overturned barrel at his feet and a vengeful placard on his breast, they had no idea that Huddy’s death would...
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Photo of Black Loyalist soldier. Cropped screen capture from PBS "Liberty! The American Revolution."
November 25, 1783

After the Death of Tye, The Black Brigade Soldiers On

Following the death of Colonel Tye, the Black Brigade came under the leadership of the African Bahamian soldier Stephen Blucke, whose Black Pioneers together with the Brigade made frequent raids from Sandy Hook into Long Island and New Jersey even...
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Cenotaph for Joshua Huddy; his final resting place is in an unknown location on the grounds of the Old Tennent Churchyard. Photo by Lindsey40186. Created: 19 June 2004. Used under terms of Creative Commons.
February 14, 1837

The Legacy of Joshua Huddy

In 1836, Huddy's surviving daughter, Martha Piatt, wrote to Congress that the nation had never expressed its gratitude to Huddy and asked for money and land for herself and her late sister's children.  On February 14, 1837, a special committee of...
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June 1, 2023

New Art: Monmouth County Loyalists and Patriots

Editor’s note: The two illustrations detailed below were commissioned by Monmouth Timeline in 2023 to illustrate multiple stories.  The artist’s signed prints are currently on loan to the Matawan Historical Society, and are on display at the Burrowes Mansion Museum...
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A photo of artist Steve Schreiber standing before his new painting, "The Middletown Militia Secures its Prize," at the unveiling ceremony held at the Middletown Township Public Library on September 15, 2023. This painting was commissioned by Monmouth Timeline and donated to Middletown Township Historical Society, which has loaned the art to the library so that it can be on public display.
September 15, 2023

Artist Steve Schreiber Talks about his Newest Painting

The Middletown Militia Secures their Prize, December 30, 1779  ©2023 Steve Schreiber. Oil on Hardboard. Commissioned by Monmouth Timeline Inc., donated to Middletown Township Historical Society. Currently on loan and public display at the Middletown Township Public Library, 55 New...
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