This wasn't their first raid of Bucks County farms and businesses nor would it be their last during the ten month British occupation of Philadelphia, from September 26, 1777 to June 18, 1778.
The farms and mills north of Philadelphia between the Schuylkill River and the Delaware Rivers were the primary targets for British troops.
Earlier in the week, Loyalists had led a raid which successfully captured over 2 dozen patriots including justices of the peace, militia officers and collectors of fines.
Two units were responsible for the raiding parties, both led by Bucks County Loyalists. The first troop was the provincial Philadelphia Light Dragoons, mounted on horseback. They were commanded by Captain Richard Hovenden, from Newtown and the majority were mustered on November 7, 1777.
The other unit was the Bucks County Volunteers, comprised of foot troops and led by another Bucks County native, Captain William Thomas, from Hilltop Township. In early 1778, Thomas answered General Howe's call "to serve his Majesty King George the third in defense of their Country" leaving his home and making his way to Philadelphia.
Loyalist Account of the Raid
"On Wednesday evening, about eight o'clock, Captain Hovenden, with a party of twenty four Dragoons, and Captain Thomas with fourteen foot, left Philadelphia, and passed into the County of Bucks, and, at the fulling mill of Mr. Jenks, surprised and took a guard of continental troops on their post there, guarding a considerable quantity of cloth belonging to the poor people of the country, of which they had been robbed by orders from the rebel headquarters. This was performed with the secrecy the principal design required, which was to take another party, a small distance off; without firing a gun, which must have alarmed the other post, they took prisoners of the whole guard."
"Immediately after they proceeded to Newtown, surprised and took the first sentry, without alarm. On approaching near the quarters of Major Murray, they were fired upon by the sentry at his door. This alarmed the guard about forty yards distance, who, being sixteen in number, and, undercover of the guard house, immediately took to their arms, and discharged their pieces on the troops surrounding them; but such was their activity and alertness, that, after returning their fire, and before the enemy could load a second time, they stormed the house, killed five, wounded four, and took the rest of the guard prisoners, and with them a considerable quantity of cloth, then making up by a number of workmen for the rebel army. All this was done with so much secrecy, conduct, and bravery, that none of either of the parties received the least injury."
The pro-British Philadelphia newspaper listed several of the prisoners including: "Francis Murray, Major of their standing army Henry Marsit, Lieutenant of militia, John Cox, Ensign of their standing army, Carnis Grace, Ensign of ditto Andrew McMian, Ensign of Militia, Charles Charlton, Quarter master of Standing army, Eriel Welburn, Sergeant of ditto, Patrick Coleman, ditto of ditto James Moor, ditto of ditto Twenty four privates of ditto, except one Anthony Tate, a Grand Juror." In addition, a number of workmen and tailors employed by the Continental Army were seized as captives."
Why was this raid considered so important?
All of Washington's army was ill equipped at this point in the war, their clothes were in tatters which is why he had assigned Colonel Walter Stewart of the 13th Pennsylvania Regiment. Stewart recruited a group of tailors to take more than two-thousand yards of wool, fulled at Jenks Fulling Mill, to construct uniforms for the Continental Army at Newtown’s Old Frame House Tavern.
However the letter below, written in January of 1778, a month before the raid, from Colonel Stewart to George Washington indicates that it was not only British troops who were confiscating goods from the Bucks County locals for the war effort.
In it Stewart alerts Washington to the presence of Jenks Fulling Mill and the "one thousand or twelve hundred yards of coatings & Cloths, belonging in general to rich Quakers and People of this County much disaffected."
By disaffected, Stewart is referring to those residents who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the "Patriot Cause" and join the Continental Army. The Quakers, because of their faith, were pacifists and chose not to fight. By choosing to remain neutral in the war, they were considered suspect to both sides. Of note is his description of the owners as "Rich Quakers" compared with the Loyalist account above as the cloth "belonging to the poor people of the country"
Stewart continues in the letter to request permission to, "take possession of such as would suit our poor soldiers, being careful to discriminate between those who could spare and those who could not."
In fact, the letter below from Major Francis Murray, tells the tale of how the 1000 yards of cloth stolen by the British during the raid of Murray's home had, in fact, been seized by the Continental Army from the fulling mill ten days earlier. It also indicates that the other 1000 yards still at the mill, were waiting to be confiscated by the patriots who were standing guard while the cloth was being finished. At the time of the letter, the locals had yet to be compensated for the fabric seized.
Capt. Friedrich von Muenchhausen, an aide-de-camp to General Howe described that the “cache of clothing material” was “enough for 500 men” to have received new uniforms. At 5 yards a uniform and 2000 yards total it was closer to 400 uniforms. Either way, it would have been a boon for the bedraggled Continental Soldiers, and certainly proved the same for the British.
It wasn't until October 9, 1779, almost two years later, that Congress resolved to repay the owners of the cloth a total of $7,467. Making cloth and clothing was a laborious process in the 18th century, unlike the machine made clothing today. To do the same hand work today (with inflation) this would in the neighborhood of $280,000 dollars.