Contributor: Joan Donnelly Ellis (48058555)
"While living at Elizabethtown, Essex Co., NJ, he enlisted as a a Private in Spring of 1776 in a company commanded by Lieutenant Ezekiel Sayre, First Regiment, Essex County Militia. He was in the engagment at Hackensack. He also enlisted as a Private in a Troop of Horse, New Jersey Militia, in 1779 for six months, and was in an engagement at Woodbridge on June 29, 1779, where he was wounded in the left leg by three musket balls. He also enlisted as a Seaman under Capt. William Marriner, Privateer Service, and served two months, during which time they captured a British brig and took her to Egg Harbor. He then enlisted as a Private in the New Jersey State Troops in 1780, and served under Ensign Asher FitzRandolph and was at the battle of Connecticut Farms on June 7, 1780 and Springfield on June 23, 1780. He then enlisted as a seaman under Captain John Storer, Privateer Service, and served until the close of the war, and was in an engagement on Staten Island on August 22, 1781. His various commanding officers were Captains Sears [Sayre] and Asher F. Randolph (Asher FitzRandolph), Major Hayes and Colonels Jacob Crane and Crow in the New Jersey Troops, and as a privateer under Captains Marriner and John Storey.
In his application for a pension, he made the following affidavit:
"That at the end of three years land service, he entered the naval service of the United States at New Brunswick, New Jersey and served to the end of the war as a private, cruising for the chief part of the time off Sandy Hook in gunboats and whale boats under the command of Captain John Storer. In the service he was in several engagements and assisted in taking a British Brig mounting sixteen guns into Little Egg Harbor. Further states that under the command of Captain Storer, they took by surprise in the night a British Transport lying in the Narrows toward the light house with a man-of-war tender and and two sloops, in all carrying ten guns. After the battle, they burnt the vessels and took the prisoners to Woodbridge, Middlesex Co, New Jersey."