To George Washington from Major General Adam Stephen, 6 May 1777
From Major General Adam Stephen
Newark [N.J.] May 6th 1777
sr
William & George Green formerly livers in Sussex—George has land w[i]t[h]in a mile & half of the Old Log T[r]ail wint into Bergen under Capt. Annesly in Company of 73—five of whom were taken in the Cedar Swamp—It appears they belongd to Bartons Regimt were Quarterd at Commune pas [Communipaw]; reviewd Saturday last when their Corps amounted to about 280—The Whole in Bergen revie[w]d at that time Amounted to about 1,000.1
James Mills born in Essex, has land near Westfield; Capt. Lt John Cuggle Seduced him in Sussux Went in to Bergen about 3 Weeks ago by himself Cuggle was interrupted, & got in wt. nine Recruats in about a Week after.2
They are, by the Testimony of Henry Van Horten & John Van Bassey recruiti[n]g Officers—They having tumperd [tampered] with them to pilot them in; & gave them a Dollar to Convey them out. They brought them prisoners to Newerk last Night for which I gave them Six dollars, & desird them to keep a good look out for any Recruits going in. I have the honour to be sir Your
Adam Stephen
LS, DLC:GW.
1. The previous Saturday was 3 May. Communipaw was a village on New York Bay about two miles south of Jersey City, New Jersey. Joseph Barton (c.1730–1788), a wealthy farmer and millowner from Newton in Sussex County, N.J., who had served as a provincial officer during the French and Indian War and as a member of the provincial assembly from 1775 to 1776, became in November 1776 lieutenant colonel commandant of one of the battalions composing Gen. Cortlandt Skinner’s Loyalist corps of New Jersey Volunteers. Captured by the Americans on Staten Island on 22 Aug. 1777, Barton was exchanged during the summer of 1778. He commanded a battalion in the New Jersey Volunteers until the end of the war, when he settled at Digby, Nova Scotia.
2. John Cowgill (Cougle; c.1746–1819) of Newton, N.J., was commissioned a lieutenant in Lieutenant Colonel Barton’s battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers in February 1777 when he brought in thirty-six recruits for the corps; he subsequently raised another fifty-one men. Cowgill was promoted to captain in the New Jersey Volunteers in July 1778. After the war he settled on the Kennebecasis River in New Brunswick, Canada.