REVOLUTIONARY WAR EVENTS

The story of Keyport starts in 1714 and builds slowly to the dramatic emergence of an organized community in 1830.

As the area grew and changed so too did the colony of which it was part. The most eventful of these changes was, of course, the Revolutionary War in which New Jersey with her sister colonies fought to attain the independence from England which they declared was theirs on July 4, 1776.

The Keyport area, while never the scene of a major engagement, played its part in this struggle for independence.

There was, as in all the colonies, a segment of the population which did not subscribe to the patriot cause and chose instead to remain loyal to the English king. These Tory Refugees, as the loyalists were called, had a fortified camp at Sandy Hook, but their main base of operations was at Staten Island. From there they were able to cross the bay and launch raids against the patriots of Monmouth County. This harassment and the number of Tory Refugees in the area reached such proportions that General George Washington wrote to the President of the Continental Congress explaining the need for troops to check these marauders. The camp was established at Perth Amboy under the command of General Hugh Mercer.

It is interesting to note that Key Grove Plantation on Luppatatong Creek was a favorite landing spot for the Tory Refugees when they came across the bay to plunder and harass the local residents. This would imply that the Kearneys were sympathetic to the Loyalist cause, but it is more likely that they, like many property owners of the time, secretly embraced the patriot position while feigning support of the King to protect their property from the marauding loyalists.

This probably describes the position of the local farmers who supplied provisions to the British troops. These transactions took place at the Cow Pens. The Cow Pens were the section of land bordering on the bay and just east of Luppatatong Creek, the present site of the borough parking lot. This land was fenced off and the farmers would bring their cattle and produce there in the night to sell to the British troops encamped on Staten Island. This section of land was referred to as the Cow Pens up to the time of the partition sale in 1829.

Other stories which bring the Revolution close to our shores concern the concentration of British troops on Staten Island. In the summer of 1776 twenty-five thousand enemy troops were stationed across