Abraham Davis in Revolutionary War: Privateer

My ancestor Abraham Davis (1740-1792) was an American privateer during the Revolutionary War.

Privateers were experienced former ship-owners who .. retrofit their small sloops for war after they received a Letter of Marque from the Continental Congress. A Letter of Marque .. in effect converted a private merchant vessel into a naval auxiliary, and a commissioned privateer enjoyed the protection of the laws of war.^[1]Earl Cain, “Patriots on New Jersey’s Ocean Battlefield,” Revolutionary NJ blog, 7 September 2017 (https://revolutionarynj.org : 20 April 2025).

This post is the third in a series on 5GG Abraham Davis.  The previous posts introduced Abraham and wife Ruth Smith and discussed Abraham’s participation in the 1st New Jersey regiment.  Read them HERE and HERE.  I recommend reading them first.

As a reminder, here’s where Abraham and Ruth sit in the Jonnes Family Tree:

The full ancestral line from Abraham to myself:

• 5GG Abraham Davis (abt 1740-1792)
• 4GG Rachel Davis (abt 1775-1814)
• 3GG Joel Homan (1808-1883)
• 2GG Kate Homan (1845-1912)
• GG Wilber Lukemire (1868-1946)
• Barbara Lukemire (1899- 1974)
• Nelson Jonnes (1926-2011)
• Steven Jonnes

Abraham Davis was perfectly situated to become a privateer because his hometown Chestnut Neck, New Jersey was a key base for attacks on British shipping and he was already a mariner.  Grandson George W. Davis describes Abraham’s employment before the war:

My grandfather remained at Chestnut Neck and its vicinity until his death — he in a seafaring life and like his father engaged in the lumber business and trading to the West Indies.^[2]George W. Davis, “Autobiography;” letter, circa 1835 (Gonzales, Texas), 1; privately held by Daniel Spitler, Phoenix, Arizona, 2024. [Typewritten transcript, date unknown, of hand-written letter … Continue reading

Chestnut Neck is a defunct jurisdiction today, but was located in Galloway Township on the Little Egg Harbor River (now Mullica River).  The location is marked by Chestnut Neck Battle Monument in Port Republic, New Jersey.  Atlantic City is 15 miles south.

Over the years, a commercial village had sprung up next to a narrow point on the Mullica River where chestnut trees abounded, in current-day Port Republic. Known as Chestnut Neck, the settlement was a small collection of three warehouses, a tavern and the homes of some of the local business owners and ship captains … By the time of the American Revolution, Chestnut Neck was … one of the largest smuggling centers on the East Coast. American privateers would sail up and down the coast looking for … British transport ships, which they would capture, bring into port, and auction off in the local or Philadelphia marketplace.^[3]Cain, “Patriots on New Jersey’s Ocean Battlefield.”

Some captured cargo ended up supporting the Continental Army.  Chestnut Neck became essential, for example, to Gen. Washington’s supply line while encamped at Valley Forge.

With the British holding Philadelphia and New York City during the winter of 1777–78, General George Washington at Valley Forge was cut off from his sources of supplies. Supplies were brought into Little Egg Harbor, unloaded at Chestnut Neck, taken up the river in flat-bottomed boats to the Forks, carted across the peninsula to Burlington, across the Delaware River, and transported overland to Valley Forge.^[4]“The Battle of Chestnut Neck,” American Revolutionary War 1775 to 1783 website, 2017 (https://www.revolutionarywar.us.: 18 April 2025).

Privateering ramped up significantly in 1778.  That summer, 18 British ships were captured by the American privateers of Little Egg Harbor.^[5]Norman R. Goos, “A Very Large British Military Investment for Very Little Practical Profit,” Col. Richard Somers Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, pdf from the original (sar.org : … Continue reading  The British became so annoyed that Gen. Henry Clinton authorized an expedition to “clean out that nest of Rebel pirates.”^[6]Jack Manning, “The Affair at Little Egg Harbor,” California Society, Sons of the American Revolution website, 15 October 2023 (californiasar.org : 17 April 2025).  He sent 9 ships and 400 British and Loyalist soldiers from New York City to destroy the base and recover ships and supplies.  However, Americans spies learned of the expedition, so Washington dispatched a relief force under Gen. Casimir Pulaski.^[7]Earl Cain, “The Battle of Chestnut Neck,” Revolutionary NJ blog, 2 October 2017 (revolutionarynj.org/ : 18 April 2025).

Gen. Pulaski never made it in time, but the local militia — the Egg Harbor Guard — was forewarned.  Also, bad winds delayed the British fleet enough that four privateer vessels were able to escape ahead of time.^[8]William S. Stryker, The Affair at Egg Harbor, New Jersey, 15 October 1778 (Trenton: Naar Day & Naar, 1894), 8.  In addition, the militia scuttled the captured prizes still in dock and moved some vessels up river to the Forks at Batsto, New Jersey.

The British finally landed 6 October 1778.  (View the wonderful drawing at the top of this post.)  Militiamen fired at the invaders from behind a line of breastworks and a hill above the town, but were pretty quickly dispersed by advancing troops supported by cannon from the British galleys.  The militia had no artillery to counter.  Casualties were extremely light: one British soldier was wounded, no Americans were killed or injured.  Within hours, the British retrieved a few supplies, burned the remaining vessels, and torched the town.^[9]The town never recovered, although Abraham’s brother-in-law, Capt. Micajah Smith, was one of the few who rebuilt on his old property.  His house is still standing.  They left the next day when they heard that Pulaski’s Legion was imminent.

(A week later, the incident known as Pulaski Massacre occurred five miles from Chestnut Neck near Tuckerton.  As a result of intelligence from a Tory deserter, the same British naval force sent 200 soldiers ashore to surprise part of Pulaski’s Legion in camp and slaughtered about 40 of them.)

Although the British called it a victory, the destruction of Chestnut Neck had little practical effect.  They were unable to capture any privateers or recapture their prize vessels and privateering resumed as much as before.

By 1778, Abraham Davis was almost certainly involved in privateering out of Little Egg Harbor.  Therefore, I deem it highly likely that he was present at the battle or somehow involved in the defense of the town.  (Maybe he was on one of the four ships that got away or he helped take a vessel up river to the Forks.)  Also, his grandson’s Autobiography describes the attack at Chestnut Neck and its aftermath in a way that suggests Abraham was involved although it does not say so directly.^[10]Davis, “Autobiography,” 2-3.

Let’s turn now to the Autobiography to hear directly from George W. Davis how Abraham became a privateer.  (The brother-in-law referred to is David Stephens, the husband of one of Abraham’s sisters.)

My grandfather and his brother-in-law, of the name Stevens … conceived the project of … fitting out a private armed vessel and cruising against (British) commerce … This scheme met but little encouragement from their friends who thought they would find difficulties and dangers that were insuperable and hence would not join them in the enterprise nor give them aid in the undertaking.

Both the two men were too sanguine of success to be stopped or discouraged and, relying on their own limited resources, fitted out a kind of galley or barge.  It was the best they could do and having mustered twenty-five young, reckless, daring and enterprising men like themselves, Stevens, the commander, and my Grandfather, Lieutenant, they put to sea.  Their armament was one cannon mounted on midships and muskets, cutlasses and pistols sufficient for their crew.

After cruising two or three days on the coast … they found themselves one very foggy morning in the midst of a fleet of British Merchantmen conveyed by a Frigate.  As the fog thinned off, they discovered themselves close alongside and under the guns of the Frigate.  An officer on board the Frigate saw them, and supposing it was a launch or tender belonging to his fleet ordered them to drop astern, to which they answered, in sailor phrase “Aye, aye, Sir!” and accordingly dropped astern and kept gradually dropping back until they came alongside of (one of the merchantmen), and she … had no alarm until they had grappled her and were on her deck with their cutlasses and pikes.  So without firing a gun, they took her, the men running down below.  She proved to be a transport from Ireland — deeply laded with provisions — a valuable cargo.  They ran her into Little Egg Harbor, Chestnut Neck; sold the cargo at auction for a good price and divided the large share of the prize money to each man.  This success, so complete, so unexpected, gave an instant impulse to the business, and my Grandfather and Stevens had each of them a handsome privateer of fourteen guns immediately outfitted by the merchants of Philadelphia … They (subsequently) took a great many valuable prizes and the two commanders, Davis and Stevens, each made handsome fortunes.^[11]Davis, “Autobiography,” 2.

How thrilling is that!

This bit of family lore has some corroboration in official military records.  In the summer of 1778 — before the Battle of Chestnut Neck — the Continental Congress issued Letters of Marque to David Stephens authorizing him to engage in privateering.  He received a further commission in 1780.

• 16 July 1778 — sloop Chance, guns 2, crew 40^[12]Charles Henry Lincoln, Naval Records of the American Revolution, 1775-1788 (Washington: Library of Congress, 1906), 249.
• 21 September 1778 — sloop Hornet, guns 18, crew 50^[13]Lincoln, Naval Records, 344.
• 25 August 1780 — schooner Rattlesnake, guns 8, crew 35^[14]Lincoln, Naval Records, 432.

But, more importantly, we find that Abraham Davis himself received Letters of Marque from Congress.

• 7 June 1779 — schooner Fly, guns 6, crew 30^[15]Lincoln, Naval Records, 296.
• 17 September 1779 — sloop Hornet, guns 8, crew 45^[16]Lincoln, Naval Records, 345.

Note how the timing of these Letters of Marque match the general narrative of the  Autobiography, in which first David Stephens then Abraham Davis became privateers.  The sloop Chance might even be the “galley” referred to in the Autobiography.

Thus, our developing hypothesis is that Abraham Davis first became involved in privateering on the sloop Chance as a lieutenant under his brother-in-law David Stephens in the summer of 1778, and made enough money or gained enough experience that by 1779 he was able to become master of a couple of vessels of his own.  The vessels, by the way, were owned by shipping concerns in Philadelphia, not by Stephens or Davis.

The most valuable prize taken by Chestnut Neck privateers during the entire war was the Venus of London.  The ship and its cargo were reportedly worth £16,000, which calculates to about $3 million today.  Its capture was a significant event, and is believed to be one of the factors prompting Gen. Collins to attack Chestnut Neck.  The Venus of London was captured in August 1778 by the sloops Chance and Sly.^[17]Ben Ruset, “The Battle of Chestnut Neck,” NJPinebarrens website, 27 November 2007 (njpinebarrens.com : 20 Apr 2025).

Could this Chance be the same vessel that David Stephens and Abraham Davis operated that summer?  I would think so.

As for the Sly, there is no such vessel listed in the well-known compendium Naval Records of the American Revolution, 1775-1788.^[18]Charles Henry Lincoln, Naval Records of the American Revolution, 1775-1788 (Washington: Library of Congress, 1906).

I wonder if Sly is a misidentification or typo.  Could Fly be the correct name instead?  In 18th century cursive writing, the letters S and F were similar looking and modern readers often mistake them.  As noted above, Abraham Davis became master of the schooner Fly in 1779.  He probably acquired it from his brother-in-law Micajah Smith, (his wife’s brother) who received Letters of Marque for it on 31 July 1778.^[19]Lincoln, Naval Records, 295.  The timing seems exquisite.  In other words, if the Sly is actually the Fly, then it is conceivable that Abraham’s two brothers-in-law were the captains who captured the Venus of London, which in turn argues for Abraham’s presence as well.

NEXT UP: Why does the Autobiography claim that Abraham Davis participated in the battles of Princeton, Redbank, and Monmouth?