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The Elm Tree Tavern
of Woodbridge, NJ, 1739-1823
©2010-2024 Doug Wilson

1781 map of Woodbridge VillageColonial Woodbridge had a choice of taverns dotting the thoroughfares, ready to serve civic affairs and wayward travelers, alike. Woodbridge, strategically located near ferry docks across the rivers and bays from New York and on the most direct path to Philadelphia, saw it's share of travelers. The map (right) is an extracted from a 1781 Middlesex County map available at the Library of Congress American Memory collection.

Likely it was the thirsty needs and civic functions of the township inhabitants that welcomed the first ordinary, as they were known. "In 1686, Samuel Moore was by unanimous vote, made choice of, to keep an ordinary, that is, an inn, for the town. ... Between the buildings [in 1946] occupied by Greiner's barber shop and Janni's store on the corner of Green Street and Rahway Avenue, stood this historical tavern." (Breckenridge, p4) According to Dally's 1870 report of the town, the tavern "probably occupied the site upon which Dr. Samuel E. Freeman's drug store now stands, as that is the spot which both the record and tradition assign as the residence." (Dally, p101)

On the southwestern edge of the village was the Cross Keys "situated on the main post and stage road between Philadelphia and New York. It was first maintained as a hostelry by William Manning" and served the Revolutionary cause as described further here. After the war, "the first liberty pole, or flag, erected in Woodbridge, was placed in front of the tavern across the street" by Janet Gage. April 22, 1789, George Washington overnighted there as he travelled to New York for his inaugauration. He was accompanied by Governor William Livingston and welcomed "by the Woodbridge Calvary, Captain Ichabod Potter, commanding." General Lafayette was also entertained there in 1824. It served as "the place of the Town Meeting from 1824 to 1848" when it "ceased to operate as a tavern." (Breckenridge, p4; McElroy, p23)

Around the corner from the Cross Keys Inn was "the famous Pike House, so called because the turnpike roads to Rahway and Blazing Star (Carteret) passed its front door at the southwest corner of the road (now Green Street) to Uniontown." While this description places the tavern on the southwest corner of Rahway Avenue and Green Street, the 1781 map above clearly marks the Pike House across the street, southeast of the intersection. From 1848 the Town Meetings were held at the Pike House "where this annual meeting was to continue to 1874. The Pike House eventually became known as the Woodbridge Hotel until it was demolished in the 1920's. In 1955 the site was occupied by a gas station. (McElroy, p23) By 2011 that corner has become the location of a strip of retail stores.

North on Turnpike Road (Church St.), before you get to the old White Church, and set back from the street behind a great, old elm was "the tavern conducted by Thomas, James, and Charles Jackson on the road to Rahway and Blazing Star (Carteret). This tavern, the Elm Tree, was located on the west side of the road to Rahway, now known as Rahway Avenue, a part of which is still standing at No. 531, a few feet north of Grove Avenue." (McElroy, p23)

Hosted by three generations of Jacksons from about 1739 to 1820, this was the location of town meetings for decades and important Patriot activity during the Revolution and the War of 1812. After 80 years with a host of the same family, the inn must have been synonymous with the family. However, the records are sparce due to a county courthouse fire that engulfed the only copy of US Census and other civil records prior to 1830. I endeavor here to retrieve all relevant records to the tavern and its keepers so as to construct a historical record that may help reveal the family history of the Jacksons of Woodbridge, New Jersey, innkeepers.

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Colonial Years

The Revolution

Charles & Mary Jackson, Proprietors from about 1764 to about 1790

Although I find no direct evidence of the parental relationship, James' son, Charles, I think it more than likely that the James and Charles named as keepers of the Elm Tree are the same as the Rahway Friends record of the births of James and Mary's three boys, Charles, John and Benjamin. (NYGBI Record, v9 p177) While The Record of 1871, just cited, reports that Charles was born in 1738, a more recent transcript of these Friends records reports a birthdate of 1748. (Friends) I think it more likely that Charles was 26 when he took over the inn, rather than a 16 year old schoolboy. Therefore, I accept that he was born in 1738 and the date transcribed in error. 

Charles' wife, Mary, is believed to be born in 1749, the daughter of Robert and Catherine (Taylor) FitzRandolph. (Christian & Fitz Randolph, p36) I believe it is also this Mary that was disowned by the Rahway Friends in 1764 for marrying her cousin - Charles. (Shotwell, p187) Coincidentally, 1764 is the year Charles is first recognized as innkeeper. But if Charles' wife, Mary, was born in 1749, then she was just 15 years old at the time she married the 26 year old innkeeper, her first cousin. One is left to wonder if Mary's aunt, Mary, was still living at the Elm Tree when Charles' took over and married her young niece?

There are few records of a John Jackson in Woodbridge and vicinity during this time. The 8 year old son of James Jr. could not have been the John Jackson in the 1750 list of debtors to James Jr's estate, however. So it seems likely that there was another John Jackson with interests in Woodbridge. The AGBI does record a John Jackson born about 1740 and serving as Commissary of Issues that could well be James Jr's second eldest son. If true, it could mean that John stayed involved with the tavern and/or a general store. It seems a natural fit that a Commissary of Issues (John) and a Quartermaster (Charles) would own a tavern and/or general store. Theirs is the task of procuring goods and supplying the army. They need places to store quantities of goods without raising the notice of the Loyalists or occupying British forces in the community. (NJDARM, SDEA1014)

In 1764, a Benjamin Jackson of Essex County signed a petition against another road to Philadelphia. (USCCRR) As James and Mary's son,  Benjamin, born in 174? according to Friends records, seems to be the only one of the name in 1780 New Jersey that was born around 1740, it is easy to conclude this is the Sergeant Benjamin on Stryker's report (Stryker, p466) A Benjamin Jackson of Rockaway, NJ, is also recorded in the AGBI as Banjamin with the birthdate of 1752. While this Benjamin has been considered to be the Sergeant in Stryker's report, the birthdates reported by the AGBI would tend to suggest that the son of James and Mary was the sergeant referenced by Stryker. I also note that the Jackson Ledger mentions millitary service for many but not for Benjamin, born 1752. There is no other record on Benjamin perhaps because he did not stay with the tavern and took up a another trade.

Records Timeline for Charles & Mary Jackson of Revolutionary Woodbridge, NJ
Charles Jackson (b1738, d1785) 1738                                                   1764     1767             1774 1775   1777 1778 1779 1780       1784 1785                                                  
Mary (FitzRandolph) Jackson (b1749, m[3]1799, d aft1803)     1749 1764 1785 1786 1787 1797 1799 1803

During the Revolution, the tavern keeper was host to town meetings. James' son, Charles, was known to be proprietor of the Elm Tree as early as 1764 (age 26). (Dally, p204) The James and Charles, father and son, named as keepers of the Elm Tree are the same as the Rahway Friends record of the births of James and Mary's three boys, Charles, John and Benjamin. Y-DNA results in 2014 proves this relationship. (NYGBI Record, v9 p177)

The tavern was a gathering place for debate and intelligence sharing. Its keeper was host and also served the revolutionary cause as member of the Middlesex Committee of Observance and Inspection and as a Quartermaster for the Continental Army. (Clayton, p452; Stryker, p373; Wall & Pickersgill, p87) Dally describes for us below the scene of an early meeting of the town's Committee of Correspondence, including Nathaniel Heard, the man who will yet arrest the colonial New Jersey Governor, William Franklin, on orders from the President of the Provincial Congress, Samuel Tucker. (Dally, p241)

On Wednesday, April 19th, 1775, the war fairly began, for the first patriot blood was shed upon the green at Lexington, Mass. The excitement occasioned by this wanton massacre was intense. Tories were treated as strangers by those who hitherto had lived near them as neighbors. People gathered about the public places to discuss the latest news from Boston. The village tavern was thronged every evening, and the men sat late over their rum or cider, eagerly listening to the nervous recitals of travelers who had stopped for the night under the whispering boughs of the brad elm tree. There was a sober cast in many faces, as though the threatening cloud over the political sky, thick with storm, had left its shadow there.

Suppose to-night we lean against this ancient tree a little while and glance in the tavern. The cheerful firelight from the blazing logs reveals the excited group. "Mine host," Charles Jackson, is prominent among his townsmen in the noisy discussion of British tyranny now going on. There, too, may be seen Ebenezeer Foster, the Justice of the Peace. Possibly he is discussing current events with Robert Fitz Randolph, Jr., the Town Clerk. Is that fine-looking man Dr. Bloomfield? He is talking with Samuel F. Parker, the printer's son, perchance; and talking wisely, too, for he is a man of great ability. There is the muscular Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, destined to become the terror of his enemies. Do you note the flash of his eye? He is not born to be a slave. They call him "Natty," in a familiar way. You shall hear of him again before we close this volume. Near him we fancy that we behold another distinguished face, that of Nathaniel Heard, afterwards well known as Gen. Heard. Far in the shadow of the room, deeply engrossed in the conversation of a belated traveler, stand, like a tableau, the figures of men whose names are so nearly forgotten that, when we hear them, they sound like faint echoes from some far-off shore. They are Robert Clarkson, John Shotwell, Benjamin Thornell, James Ayers, Samuel Jaquish, Isaac Freeman, Wm. Moore, Jr., James Bonny, James Mundy, William Smith, and others.

As common meeting places, taverns often serve as clandestine locations to pass intelligence about British activities without raising the suspicion of tories. This was the role of the Philadelphia's City Tavern, New York's Fraunces Tavern, and Boston's Green Dragon. And the tavern keeper is often the conduit as host and server. Woodbridge's Elm Tree Tavern is an ideal such place, located near ports of entry on the main throughfare between New York and Philadelphia. (Sulick, pp. 21,22, and 276)

Nearly four years later, on Tuesday, February 9, 1779, Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, now Militia Captain, is residing at the Elm Tree Tavern. This is likely one of several abodes available for his use as he is actively sought by British troops and loyalist spies. The innkeeper, Charles Jackson, is married to "Natty's" first cousin, Mary Fitz Randolph. On this evening, the busy Captain is just returning from leading a raid on British-held Staten Island. Of historical note, the ensuing events are a case in point of the animosity the Revolutionaries feel toward the British and the reputation they, their mercenaries and loyalists have gained for the deployable treatment of Americans in their possession.

The following is an account of the event from a Woodbridge-based news correspondent using the byline A Jersey Farmer. (NJA s2, v3, 65-66)

Last Tuesday about 3 o'clock in the morning, a party of New-Levies from Staten Island, came over into Woodbridge, and marched up into the town undiscovered, to the house of Charles Jackson, in which there happened to lay that night a scout of Continental troops from Bonem-Town, consisting of twelve men.

The centinel did not discover them till they had nigh surrounded the house, it being very dark, when he fired and ran off, making his escape; the rest being unfortunately asleep, were taken by surprize without making any resistance. Their principal object was Captain Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, who lived at this house.

He had just returned from Staten Island, having been over there with a small party chief of the night, and was but a few minutes in the house before he was alarmed by the firing of the centinel, when they instantly rushed into the house and seized him and Mr. Jackson, with the scout above. The party were gone before the inhabitants had time to collect, without doing any damage except plundering the house of a few trifling articles, taking the shoe-buckles out of the womens shoes, which was as little or more than could be expected, considering the usual practice of the British troops, as the men were restrained from plundering by their officer, said to be Captain Ryerson, of Buskirk's regiment, who seemed actuated by principles of honour and humanity; and upon this occasion, imitated the laudable example of Captain Randolph, who has not only distinguished himself by his activity and bravery, but by his politeness and generosity towards such as he hath taken prisoners, never allowing his men to plunder -- a practice most ignominous and base, by which Britons have, in the present contest with America, greatly disgraced themselves, and deserve to be forever despised, in which their principal officers have joined, and so sunk themselves to a level with the meanest pilfering soldier.

This next article appears in a loyalist New York paper the same day as the piece above. (NJA s2 v3, p76)

It is reported that a party a day or two ago, went over into Jersey, and succeeded in securing the persons of Capt. Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, and Charles Jackson, a Tavern Keeper of Woodbridge, who it is said are brought within the lines. Mr. Randolph is a very enterprising person, and had distinguished himself in various Coups de Main upon the Loyalists.

The Royal Gazette, No. 247, February 10, 1779.

The following Monday, this piece appears in a loyalist New York paper. (NJA s2 v3, p77)

NEW-YORK, February 15.

On Monday evening Capt. Ryerson, of Buskirk's Regiment went over into the Jersies, and at Woodbridge, in the House of Charles Jackson, surprised the famous Capt. Fitz-Randolph and his Party, two of whom they killed, and took the Captain and thirteen Prisoners, who arrived Wednesday Morning, and were safely delivered at the King's White-Hall Ferry-Stairs.

Capt. Ryerson, Lieut. Ryerson, and Ensign Monson, on this Occasion acted with great Humanity and Forebearance, the Prisoners begging for Mercy with the most abject Submission.

The next day, an American paper reports a different take on these subsequent events. (NJA s2 v3, p81)

Chatham, Feb. 16.

Last week were surprized and taken prisoners, at Woodbridge, by a party of the enemy from Staten Island, Captain Nathaniel Randolph, Mr. Charles Jackson, and a Sergeant and ten privates. The last mentioned eleven were exchanged on Sunday last.

Another report follows by the end of the week. (NJA s2 v3, p86)

Trenton, February 18, 1779.

The Continental Troops taken [with] Capt. Randolph and Mr. Jackson, as mentioned in our last, have since been exchanged and returned; but the above-mentioned Gentlemen are still detained by the enemy in New-York.

It takes until autumn of this year for negotiations of an exchange to begin in earnest. After the capture of Lt. Col. Simcoe of the Queen's Rangers by a NJ militia unit in late September, a passionate dialogue between the parties ensues. It is fueled by the passions that flared over the relative treatment of each parties captives. To wit, the colonel has a distinguished reputation of fair treatment of the colonials but many civilians wished revenge upon his person in response to atrocities committed by the British side. In particular, the case of militia Captain Fitz Randolph and a John Leshier, both held in chains within a cell in New York and provided only bread and water since their capture. It is in "retaliation" that Elias Boudinot, Commissioner of Prisoners at the Burlington, New Jersey, jail orders the same treatment toward Simcoe and Col. Billop of the Staten Island Loyalist militia. (Simcoe, p.271)

It may be that Billop was captured by Fitz Randolph's men specifically to obtain their captain's release in exchange. According to Stryker's Roster, Captain Fitz Randolph was "imprisoned and cruelly treated" by the British and Loyalists in New York until May 26, 1780, about sixteen months. Dally reports that he was exchanged at this time, most likely, for the British Capt. Jones recently taken by Natty's own men in order to gain his release. (Dally, p255) Here's the rest of Dally's entertaining account.

... This Jones was seized by some of Fitz Randolph's men, for this very purpose, at the old stone tavern at Port Richmond, Staten Island. The story of this capture was told to me by Robert Coddington. William Bowman, of Staten Island, a waterman, used to tell it also.

It seems that Peter Latourette, a Woodbridge man, familiarly known as "Pete Tourette," found out that Capt. Jones was sick at Port Richmond and resolved to secure him as an exchange for Randolph. Peter was fully equal to the task. His courage was unquestioned and his strength remarkable. He stood six feet and two inches in his stockings, and was stout in proportion. He and three or four kindred spirits, all Woodbridge men, crossed to Staten Island by daylight, in citizen's dress, and went to the tavern. The guard, a small one, supposed the new-comers were private citizens and paid very little attention to them until they began to wrestle with each other. This pastime amused the soldiers greatly, and they became very free in their bearing toward the Jerseymen. The latter heard the sick officer cough and calculated, from the direction whence the sound came, just the room in which he could be found. The guard, unsuspicious of danger, stacked their guns in the hall and proceeded to the supper-table, spread in an adjoining room. Latourette did not intend to execute his plan until after dark; but this chance was too good to be lost. He seized the guns and armed his men, and then quickly entered the British Captain's apartment and carried him out of the house, stuffing his hankerchief in the sick man's mouth to prevent his giving the alarm. The party hastened to the shore, sprang into a boat and rowed to Bergen Point with their prisoner, who was lodged in the Bergen jail until he was exchanged for Capt. Fitz Randolph.

No sooner was the gallant Nathaniel released than he entered the active service again; but alas, within two months the heroic soldier passed away ...

Innkeeper Charles Jackson was likely released about the same time as the Captain. Nothing more is recorded of his treatment or condition upon release. But in August 1784, he witnessed the surveying of the Woodbridge parsonage land in preparation for a new Presbyterian minister from Philadelphia, Mr. Dickinson. (Dally, p.173) The innkeeper also became town clerk in 1784 and continued in that capacity until his death a year later at age 42. Charles had hosted the town meetings at the Elm Tree for at least 20 years. His widow, Mary, then "performed the duties of landlady and entertained the annual Town Meeting for several years." (Dally, p.204)

Mary married three more husbands before passing away sometime after the death of her third in 1803. It is unclear when or in what manner she turned proprietorship over to another keeper. She no longer appears on the tax list and there is no property transaction record that I have found. Such a record could help us understand the relationship between this and the next generation of Jacksons to own the Elm Tree Tavern.

 

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Early American Period

References

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