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| Doan Newspaper Illustration |
Last week we covered some of the final battles on the western frontier. Further east, by late 1782, the only areas controlled by the British were Charleston, South Carolina and the area around New York City, including most of Long Island. General Guy Carleton, in command of all British forces in North America was obeying orders to cease all offensive actions and await word of the final peace treaty.
Many loyalists remained with the British. Even if they saw the cause as lost, they could not go home. Most of them would be tried for treason and hanged if caught by the authorities now in control of the states. Several prominent loyalists, such as Governor William Franklin had already left for Britain.
John Bacon
A few loyalists were still living in enemy territory. These were guerilla fighters who maintained themselves through theft and pillage. Perhaps the most prominent of these men still in New Jersey was John Bacon.
Before the war, Bacon was a common laborer. He worked on a farm for the Crane Family in Manahawkin, a tiny village on the South Jersey coast, about half way between what is today Asbury Park and Atlantic City. There was almost no population in this area, other than a few farms and some native Americans. During the war the coast attracted smugglers and thieves, making it a dangerous place to live.
There is little known about Bacon before the war, other than a 1775 warrant for debts that he had owed. At some point he left his employment with Crane and moved his family to Pemberton and joined the Board of Associated Loyalists. This was the group led by William Franklin which promised 200 acres of land to any man willing to fight for the British in suppressing the rebellion.
Like many of these loyalists, Bacon (who received a captain’s commission) spent his time attacking the homes of known patriot militia. His focus, however, seemed to be more on robbing them than on killing them or taking prisoners. He and his men were known variously as the “Pine Robbers” or later the “Refugees”.
One story tells that Bacon and his gang raided a mill owned by John Holmes, threatening the miller with a bayonet until he revealed his hidden money. The gang then pillaged the house for anything of value and then left. Another time, Bacon received a tip that a local shipbuilder named Joseph Soper had just gotten paid for building a ship. Bacon’s gang raided Soper’s house. Soper managed to hide in a nearby swamp, but the gang threatened his wife and children until they revealed where Soper had buried the money. Soper, being suspicious of such a robbery, had hidden a smaller portion of the money in one place and a larger portion in another. His wife revealed where the smaller portion was, which seemed to satisfy the gang.
In late 1780, Bacon returned from New York City with three men who had loaded up a whale boat with produce that they sold to the British. Near Toms River, the local militia stopped the boat and attempted to arrest the men. Bacon shot the militia officer Lieutenant Joshua Studson, and managed to escape. As an aside the three men on the boat had nothing to do with Bacon, other than giving him a ride. They ended up fleeing to British lines. There, they joining the army then deserted and received amnesty from the Continental Army so that they could return home.
The region where Bacon operated was known, and is still known today, as the Pine Barrens. This is a large area of southern New Jersey that is largely unpopulated. The pine forest’s sandy soil made it unsuitable for farming, or much of anything else at the time. As a wilderness area, men like Bacon could avoid detection easily.
Local militia were well aware of Bacon’s exploits and made him a wanted man. In late 1782, militia under the command of Captain Reuben Randolph searched for Bacon and his gang. During a night encounter, Bacon’s loyalists killed one of the militia and wounded another before making their escape.
Long Beach Island Massacre
By the end of 1782, the situation was becoming desperate for the loyalists. Bacon had received a commission as a loyalist Captain from William Franklin. But by this time, Franklin had fled to London. Bacon was a wanted man. If captured, he would almost certainly hang under the government now run by the patriots.
In late October, a Dutch ship ran aground on the north end of Long Beach Island, a barrier island off the coast of southern New Jersey. The ship had a cargo of tea and other valuables worth an estimated £20,000. The Alligator, an American privateer, found the abandoned wreck and began moving its cargo on board its own ship. Because of the size of the cargo, the captain, Andrew Steelman, attempted to recruit several locals to help. One of the locals informed Bacon.
The crew of the Alligator spent most of the day moving the cargo. At nightfall, the exhausted crew fell asleep on the beach, with the cargo that was still being moved. Bacon and his men crept up on the sleeping crew and ruthlessly killed all of them, stabbing and shooting the sleeping sailors. About 20 men were killed. The attackers were only stopped when a crew from the Alligator landed and counter-attacked Bacon’s loyalists and chased them away.
The incident, which became known as the Long Beach Island Massacre, focused more attention on Bacon and his gang. Captain Edward Thomas of the Mansfield Militia and Captain Richard Shreeve of the Burlington County Light Horse were tasked with tracking down Bacon’s loyalists.
Bacon had found his gang dwindling. Many of his men made their way to New York, where they would be relocated to Canada. About two months after the massacre, the militia received word that Bacon was near Cedar Creek. On December 27th, Bacon and three of his men were at the Cedar Bridge Tavern. The loyalists learned that the militia were about to descend upon them. Bacon and his men only had time to build a barricade on the far side of the bridge. The militia arrived and opened fire.
Although they were outnumbered, the loyalists kept up a defensive fire. Knowing that surrender would result in their execution, they really had nothing to lose. The captains thought they would capture Bacon, when suddenly they took fire from another direction. Several locals opened fire on the militia, allowing Bacon and his men time to retreat. Bacon escaped. The militia could only arrest the locals who had attacked them. Several of the locals were later hanged for aiding Bacon’s escape.
The militia continued the manhunt for Bacon and his gang. Three months later, on April 3, 1783, Bacon was eating at a public tavern owned by William Rose near Tuckerton. A seven man detachment from Shreeve’s militia, acting on a tip, found Bacon in the tavern, alone. The men burst into the tavern and knocked down Bacon before he could raise the musket he had at the ready between his legs.
Bacon called out for quarter. The attackers halted and allowed bacon to stand up. Joel Cook was the brother of a man that Bacon had killed previously. Cook just bayoneted Bacon in the side while he was under arrest. Bacon collapsed, a few moments later, he revived and tried to dash out the back door. He knocked down another militiaman, John Stewart, who was by the door, and rushed outside. Stewart managed to get off a shot at Bacon, killing him.
The militia then carried the body to Jacobstown where they paraded them through the street. They dug a grave in the middle of the street and prepared to bury him there. Before they could do so, Bacon’s brother showed up and requested the body be turned over for a private burial. The militia complied, just happy to be rid of John Bacon.
The Doan Gang
Another loyalist outlaw group that I’ve mentioned before was the Doan Gang. Back in Episode 183, I mentioned some of their exploits. The core of the gang consisted of five Doan brothers, Moses, Aaron, Levi, Mahlon, and Joseph as well a cousin Abraham. They came from a Quaker family and several of them had lived with Indian tribes before the war.
The Doans mostly operated in and around their family home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. There were times when the danger became too great that they moved into New Jersey. But Bucks County provided familiar hiding places and friendly neighbors who would help them. Local lore says that Moses Doan was the spy who sent a note to Colonel Rahl at Trenton, warning the Hessians that George Washington planned to attack on the day after Christmas, 1776.
In addition to spying for the British, much of their time was stealing horses to sell to the British. Like John Bacon, their actions seemed to veer between loyalist guerillas and common criminals. By 1778, all of the Doans were listed as traitors and had a price on their heads. Although they were nominally loyalists, their criminal activity did not focus solely on the enemy. During the British occupation of Philadelphia, Joseph Doan impersonated Lord Rawdon, the British army’s adjutant-general, who was in New York for most of the Philadelphia occupation. Doan used this guise to dine at the home of some of the wealthiest families in Philadelphia, many of whom were loyalists. The hosts often discovered missing silverware, cash, and other valuables after “Lord Rawdon’s” visit to their home.
According to one story, in June 1780, the Doans got the British army to attack Elizabethtown, New Jersey, allowing them to loot the town as the British departed. Abraham Doan allegedly got drunk and killed the local pastor’s wife while she was hiding in her home with her nine children.
In October 1781, the Doans committed one of their most valuable heists. Just days after Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, the Doan gang tracked down the Bucks County treasurer in Newtown, Pennsylvania. At gunpoint, they forced the man to open the treasury and made off with over £1300 pounds sterling. That was more money than a common laborer would earn in a lifetime. Over the next year, they would rob nine other treasuries in the region. They also continued to steal horses.
The crime spree gave the gang more notoriety. Several militia groups focused on capturing the gang. Colonel William Hart took on this task. Hart had known the Doans since childhood and knew a great deal about them and their friends and family. His efforts as well as those of others forced the Doans to flee the region in 1782, for Virginia. One member of the gang, James Fitzpatrick, opted to stay in Pennsylvania and keep a low profile. His profile was not low enough. He was captured, tried, and hanged in Philadelphia. This underscored the fact that the Doans would be treated as common criminals, not prisoners of war, if captured. The Doan’s parents were labeled as traitors in November of 1782. Officials seized their farm and sold it at auction.
The gang returned to Bucks County in the summer of 1783. They made their presence known by robbing several county tax collectors as well as the homes of several wealthy private citizens. The state assembly passed a resolution declaring that the Doans were “robbers, felons, burglars and traitors” and increased the reward for their capture.
At some point, during an attempted robbery of a tavern, Joseph Doan was shot and captured by the authorities. He was taken to the prison in Philadelphia to await trial. His brother Moses allegedly rode his horse off a cliff to avoid capture by a pursuing posse.
After that, the gang laid low at the farm of a man named Halsey, who was a friend of the gang. Halsey sent his son to go buy flour at a local mill. The boy mistakenly let out the secret of the gang’s location.
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| Death of Kennedy and Doan |
Seeing their brother shot in cold blood, Doan’s two brothers, Abraham and Levi, dove through a rear window. Abraham grabbed Mrs. Halsey to use as a hostage. Levi grabbed his rifle and demanded that the posse release Moses. He did not realize his brother was already dead. When his brother did not come out, Levi fired into the barn, hitting another member of the posse, William Kennedy, who would die from the wound a few days later.
Another local, Philip Hinkle, threw Moses’ body on his horse, carried it to Fisherville where Doan’s parents lived. He dumped the body at their feet telling them “Here is one of your Tory sons. He won’t brother any of us soon again.”
The death of William Kennedy only increased the wrath against the Doans. Kennedy’s funeral was one of the largest the region had ever seen. A few days later, the Assembly offered a 100 pound reward for the Doan Brothers who remained at large: Abraham, Mahlon, Levy, and Aaron. The same pronouncement also stated that the family of any man killed while trying to capture any of the Doans would receive £800.
Mahlon was captured in Baltimore about a month later. He escaped prison by cutting off part of his foot to remove a shackle. He ran from the prison and was never seen again. Based on the blood trail, most believed that he drowned or bled to death while trying to make his escape. Years later, however, one of his brothers claimed that Mahlon made his way to New York and eventually to England.
Joseph Doan was moved to the prison in Newtown. He was not executed, but remained in custody awaiting trial. In March, 1784, after the war had ended, he was found guilty and sentenced to hang. He managed to escape prison and remained at large. Years later, it was discovered that he moved to New Jersey and lived under the name Grover. He worked as a school teacher, a profession he had before the war began. His wife Mary and son Moses joined him, where they lived quietly for many years.
With the war coming to an end, the rest of the gang tried to remain in Pennsylvania, under assumed names and hoping to avoid notice. Aaron Doan was captured in 1784 and sentenced to death by process of outlawry. This was a medieval concept. It would later be banned in the US with the passage of the Constitution. Someone who could not be brought to justice could be declared an outlaw and killed without trial.
Doan’s attorneys took his case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, former member of the Continental Congress John Dickinson represented Doan. The court ruled that the finding of outlawry was proper and that Doan could be executed. Before the execution could take place, the President of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, commuted the sentence to exile. Doan had to leave the state of Pennsylvania forever. With that, Aaron Doan left for Canada, never to return.
A few years later, in 1787, Abraham and Levi Doan were arrested. They also were tried, convicted and sentenced to hang. They made several escape attempts, but were not successful. This time, there would be no commutation. The two men were taken out of Philadelphia and hanged. They were taken to the family graveyard in Plumstead. The Quaker meeting there refused to allow them to be buried with the other Quakers, so they were buried just outside the graveyard walls.
Over in New Jersey, Joseph Doan, aka Mr. Grover, heard about the executions of this brother and cousin. He decided it was time for him to leave as well. His family prepared to move to Canada, but first went home to say goodbye to his parents. While there a neighbor recognized Joseph and attacked him. Joseph managed to pull a knife and slit the man’s throat. Not wanting to kill him, Joseph helped to bandage the wound and got him back to a house before fleeing the area with his family.
Joseph moved to Canada, near present day Toronto. There, he resumed work as a school teacher and received a land grant of 200 acres for his service as a loyalist guerilla soldier. His parents also moved to the region a decade later. I wish I could say he lived peacefully there for the rest of his life. But in the War of 1812, Joseph and his brother Aaron both took up arms against the Americans once again. Joseph once again became a prisoner. He spent about a year and a half in custody, but was eventually exchanged as a prisoner of war.
Much later, in 1823, he returned to Plumstead, Pennsylvania, and sued for the confiscation of his father’s property during the Revolution. He was unsuccessful in his suit, but there was also no effort to arrest him. He lived the remainder of his days in Canada, dying at the age of 92 in 1844.
Next Week, the British get closer to the end in America with the evacuation of Charleston, South Carolina.
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Next Episode 323 Evacuation of Charleston (Available August 11, 2024)
Previous Episode 321 Blue Licks & Fort Henry
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Further Reading
Websites
Wroblewski, Joseph “Captain John Bacon: The Last of the Jersey Pine Robbers” Journal of the American Revolution, Sept. 28, 2021. https://allthingsliberty.com/2021/09/captain-john-bacon-the-last-of-the-jersey-pine-robbers
The Refugee John Bacon https://www.njpinebarrens.com/the-refugee-john-bacon
Jersey Roots: 1782 Massacre on Long Beach Island https://www.app.com/story/news/history/erik-larsen/2014/10/24/erik-larsen-jersey-roots-massacre-long-beach-island/17859885
The Battle of Cedar Bridge is fought https://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/battle-of-cedar-bridge-is-fought.html
Doan Outlaws https://www.doanefamilyassociation.org/DoanOutlaws.pdf
Plumstead Cowboys: https://buckscounty.gov/DocumentCenter/View/11482/Newsletter-Dec22-Jan23
The Loyalist with the Disfigured Face:
Part 1: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-trails/loyalist-trails-2021-31
Part 2: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-trails/loyalist-trails-2021-32
Respublica v. Doan, 1 U.S. 86 (1784) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/1/86
Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)
Brooke, Henry K. Annals of the Revolution: Or, A History of the Doans. John B. Perry, 1843 (Google Books).
Fort, George F. “An Account of the Capture and Death of the Refugee John Bacon” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, Vol. 1, 1847.
Rogers, John P The Doan Outlaws, or, Bucks County's Cowboys in the Revolution, Doylestown Democrat, 1895.
Salter, Edwin and George Beekman Old Times in Old Monmouth, 1887 (1999 Reprint by Heritage Books).
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Brooke, Henry K. Annals of the Revolution: Or, A History of the Doans. John B. Perry, 1843 (download on Google Books).
Rogers, Jennifer Hidden History of Bucks County, The History Press, 2019
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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