William Cooke (abt. 1760 - 1782)

Born about 1760 in New Hanover Township, Burlington, New Jersey, British Colonial America

Ancestors

Died 27 Dec 1782 at about age 22 in At the Cedar Bridge, Burlington County, New Jersey, United States

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William Cooke was Killed in Action during American Revolution.

Biography

Wiiliam Cooke gave his life during the closing days of the Revolutionary War at The Affair at Cedar Bridge.

The Affair at Cedar Bridge is sometimes described as the last skirmish of the Revolutionary War, although different historians name different skirmishes. At the very least, it is the last documented skirmish in New Jersey. Afterwards, troops on both sides waited for the treaty to be finalized to end the war.

In late December of 1782, a group of Burlington County militia set out to find and capture the notorious Tory Loyalist John Bacon the leader of the "Pine Robbers" who a bounty on his head of £50 Sterling. The Burlington County militia consisted of six cavalry commanded by Captain Richard Shreve and twenty infantrymen commanded by Captain Edward Thomas. They searched for Bacon as far as the shore, and then after several days of not finding him, they decided to head west back to Burlington. Along the way, the men stopped to rest at the Cedar Bridge Tavern, located very close to a bridge over the Cedar Creek. While they were in the tavern, Bacon and his men appeared on the other side of the bridge.

Shreve and the militiamen attempted to charge and attack Bacon's men, but they were repelled. They were at a disadvantage because they needed to charge over the narrow bridge while Bacon's men could fire at them from fixed positions on the other side of the creek. Bacon's men were especially determined to fight hard to avoid being captured; they knew that they could not expect leniency as prisoners because of the severity of the crimes they were wanted for, and they would likely be executed if caught.

Several local Loyalist residents came to the aid of Bacon, and fired on the militiamen, who were forced to halt, allowing Bacon's men to escape. One of Bacon's men, Ichabod Johnson, who had the £25 Sterling reward on his head, had been killed. Several others were wounded. Bacon himself had been wounded, but he had managed to safely escape. Seven of the local Loyalists who had come to the aid of Bacon's men were captured and taken to the Burlington jail.

The Americans had also suffered several wounded and one killed. The man killed was William Cooke; his brother Sergeant Joel Cooke would have his revenge on Bacon the following spring. A few months later, Bacon, who had a bounty of £50 Sterling on his head, was found in a tavern by Captain John Stewart, where he was mortally wounded, and his body was desecrated. According to the account, Captain Stewart along with five men, including Joel Cooke, a brother of William Cooke who was killed at Cedar Creek Bridge, received a report that Bacon might be found at a “public house” owned by William Rose near West Creek on the Shore Road a few miles north of Clamtown (Tuckerton).

This Google Maps Url below will take your right to the location to the Cedar Bridge and the Tavern that still stands today and the 211 photos:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cedar+Bridge+Tavern+Historic+Site/@39.783271,-74.360658,2156m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xab26448afafb5cbb!8m2!3d39.783332!4d-74.360658

The Prelude to The Affair at Cedar Bridge and the hunt and demise of John Bacon for his war atrocities in the Massacre at Long Beach

If you have ever visited the Barnegat Lighthouse on Long Beach Island, you have seen this monument. "Massacre at Long Beach, 26 October 1782". A monument commemorating Lieutenant Andrew Steelman and his men killed on the Long Beach Island stands outside the entrance to the Barnegat Lighthouse State Park.

There is another reference along Central Avenue at 19th Street in Barnegat Light as you drive along the 18 miles point to point of Long Beach Island … and again on Bayview Avenue in Barnegat around 20th Street.

The Royal Gazette Saturday, November 2, 1782:

(The misspellings of Alligator and Steelman appeared in the original article, and have been left uncorrected.)

"The cutter from Ostend, bound to St. Thomas's, mentioned in our last, ran a-ground on Barnegat Shoals the 25th ultimo. The galley Allegator, Captain Stillman, from Cape May, with 25 men, plundered her on Sunday last of a quantity of Hyson tea, and other valuable articles; but was attacked the same night by Captain John Bacon, and nine men, in a small boat called the Hero's Revenge, who killed Stillman, wounded the first Lieutenant, and all the privates (four only excepted) were either killed or wounded; the latter were sent to a Doctor, with a flag of truce, by the captors, and the galley was brought in here on Wednesday last."

The November 2, 1782 description makes no mention of Lieutenant Andrew Steelman and his men having been killed in their sleep. However, this does not mean that it did not occur that way. As a newspaper published in British-occupied New York City, it is likely that they would leave out such a detail so as not to make Bacon's Loyalists look bad.

Likewise, the article states that Bacon's men took the consideration to deliver the wounded men to a doctor under flag of truce, a detail which puts Bacon in a better light.

To add further confusion, this article states that the killing of Steelman's men did not occur on October 25, when the cutter ran aground, but on the following Sunday (October 27th). This is in contradiction to most later writings (and the monument), which state that the killings occurred on October 25.

The following description of what occurred is from the 1960 book Smugglers' Woods, by Arthur D. Pierce.

"The Monmouth County, New Jersey annals include a long list of the Tory Loyalist, Captain John Bacon's plunderings and brutalities. His blackest moment, however, was the night of the Long Beach Massacre. On October 25, 1782, Lieutenant Andrew Steelman of Cape May and twenty-five men on the privateer [ship] the "Alligator" captained by Lieutenant Andrew Steelman spotted a ship with a valuable cargo of hyson tea, far off course, which had been previously captured by British privateers while it was on its way to New York. It ran aground on what was then called “Barnegat Shoals” (Barnegat Inlet at the northern end of the Long Beach Island) and was abandoned. On 25 October 1782 the New Jersey Privateer Galley "Alligator" was sailing off Barnegat Bay, when a vessel was spotted, late in the afternoon, offshore of Barnegat Shoals, Long Beach Island. She was near Spear Point (Barnegat Shoals). "Alligator" came in to investigate and discovered she was the prize cutter. The cargo was still aboard, but no crew. Steelman and his men labored the whole day to unload her cargo on Long Beach. By nightfall all hands were dead-tired and curled up among the high sand dunes on the beach to rest. In the dead of night Bacon and his followers sailed over from the mainland, crept up on the Americans, and slew them while they slept. Lieutenant Steelman and a number of his men were killed instantly; those who attempted to rise were hacked with bayonets; and of the twenty-five in Steelman's crew only five managed, somehow, to escape alive."

The derelict ship was discovered by the American privateer ship the "Alligator" alleged by contemporary Tory newspaper to be commanded and captained by Lieutenant Andrew Steelman.

However Private John D. Dennis saw Captain John Scull wounded and Lieutenant Steelman killed. In his affidavit John tells of most of the guards and himself getting clear and running for what he believed to be nine miles in the surf before coming in land. This became known as the Massacre at Long Beach.

A band of Tory British Loyalists known as the "Pine Robbers" were responsible for these war atrocities. Their name derived from the fact that they tended to operate and hide out in the large wilderness section of South Jersey known as the Pine Barrens. One of the most infamous of the Pine Robbers was Captain John Bacon.

Bacon's most notorious action occurred on Long Beach Island on October 25, 1782, when he and a band of Tories killed militia Lieutenant Andrew Steelman and his men. The public outrage against Bacon intensified after the killings at Long Beach Island, and a serious effort to capture him began. A reward of £50 Sterling was offered by the New Jersey Governor William Livingston for the capture of Bacon. Two months after the killings at Long Beach Island, an attempt to capture John Bacon led to "The Affair at the Cedar Bridge" and the nearby tavern.

On FamilySearch.org 2 sources of information for: Name • • William Cooke lll • • Sex • • Male Birth • • 1760 New Hanover Township, Burlington, New Jersey, United States Christening Death • • 27 December 1782 Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey, United States Burial • • 1782 Union, Union, New Jersey, United States of America

Other Information:

Alternate Name • Birth Name William Cook Last Changed: May 28, 2012

Alternate Name • Birth Name William Cooke Last Changed: May 28, 2012

Alternate Name • Also Known As William Cook lll Last Changed: February 26, 2015

Alternate Name • Birth Name William Cooke lll Last Changed: June 8, 2016

Military Service • Burlington, St. Mary's, Maryland, United States Reason This Information Is Correct: Matching data Last Changed: March 14, 2021

Citation: "United States Rosters of Revolutionary War Soldiers and Sailors, 1775-1783," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG2M-PN5M : 1 March 2021), William Cooke, ; citing Military Service, Burlington, St. Mary's, Maryland, United States, Citing various published state rosters, United States; FHL microfilm 101711080.

William was born about 1760. He was the son of William Cooke and Achsah Middleton. He passed away about 1782. ^[1]

Sources

• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KLZB-J9S
• http://www.pineypower.com/cedarbridge.htm
• https://www.nationalwarmemorialregistry.org/joomla/new-jersey/massacre-at-long-beach-revolutionary-war-memorial-marker
• https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=76164
• https://www.revolutionarywarnewjersey.com/new_jersey_revolutionary_war_sites/towns/long_beach_island_nj_revolutionary_war_sites.htm
• https://www.delcotimes.com/2015/10/26/top-10-for-monday-10-things-about-the-massacre-at-long-beach-island/
• https://colrichardsomers.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CRS-Rev-War-Jan-2020.pdf
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KZMF-TF3
• https://www.njpinebarrens.com/the-refugee-john-bacon/

1. ↑ Source will be added by Matthew Evans by 26 Jul 2022.