New Jersey Loyalist Papers, 1776 - 1835

From The Newark Archives Project:

"This collection consists of records of the claims for compensation submitted to the British authorities in London by New Jersey property owners who suffered losses through loyalty to the British Crown during the American Revolution. Many New Jersey Loyalists who sought and received compensation were from Newark; adjudication of some cases dragged on well into the nineteenth century. Since many of those filing claims had fled to Canada, to England, or elsewhere, it was often extremely difficult to secure evidence of their property ownership in the Colonies. The original records form part of the collections of the Audit Office (abbreviated AO) at the National Archives, Kew, England (formerly known as the Public Record Office).

NOTE: A useful introduction to NJ Loyalist records is E. Alfred Jones, "The Loyalists of New Jersey: Their Memorials, Petitions, Claims, etc. from English Records" (Newark: New Jersey Historical Society, 1927), with a lengthy introduction on the Loyalists and their dealings with the British government. Jones provides biographical sketches of 419 New Jersey Loyalists and an Appendix with brief entries on 1,308 more. He includes references to documents in the Audit Office and in other British official sources. The volume's index provides numerous references to Newark.

The microfilmed records are in two series: AO 12, American Loyalists Claims, Series I, consists of entry books and ledgers containing the evidence of witnesses, reports and other communicated documents, the examinations and decisions of the Commissioners, lists of claims, etc. AO 13, American Loyalists Claims, Series II, consists of records of the American Loyalist Claims Commission, many of which duplicate evidence in Series I, but with supplementary papers that provide the only record of a claim where the volume is missing in Series I. Within Series I and II, the New Jersey records are organized in 5 sub-series: AO 12/13-12/18 Evidence (1783-1790); AO 12/63 Decisions (1785-1788); AO 12/85 Various (1787); AO 13/17-13-20 New claims; and AO 13/108-13/112B Temporary assistance.

The official records may include a "Memorial" submitted by the claimant; an "Account" or "Schedule" of losses; a record of "Evidence" provided under sworn testimony by the claimant and witnesses during a hearing held by the Commissioners; and a determination by the Commissioners regarding loyalty and losses. The claims documents usually include details of the claimants' political activity during the War years and a list property (including slaves) confiscated or otherwise lost.

Occasionally there are supplementary documents submitted by the claimant to substantiate the claim for losses. The supplementary documents for Newarkers David Ogden [1707-1798; a prominent attorney and judge, to distinguish himself from relatives with the same name], Isaac Ogden, and Rev. Isaac Browne are especially numerous, providing important details about their experiences during the British occupation of Newark in late 1776 and their escape from Newark in early 1777, and (in the case of Rev. Isaac Browne) evidence for the financial support of Trinity Church, Newark. Many of the claimants were living in Canada when their claims were filed in London; they often made use of agents or of Newark lawyers (such as David Ogden) who were present in London.

Newarkers whose claims are recorded in this collection are: Isaac Browne [or Brown], Peter Browne [or Brown], Pierre DePeyster, Stephen Farrand, Isaac Longworth, Judge David Ogden (1707-1798), David Ogden, Jr. [a cousin of the judge], Isaac Ogden, Nicholas Ogden, Peter Ogden, Nathaniel Richards, Jonathan Sayre, Stephen Skinner [of Perth Amboy, but living in Newark in 1776], William Stiles, Francis Thomas, Uzal Ward, John Wheeler, and Amos Williams (heir of Nathanial Williams).

Contents of the two series (AO 12 and AO 13) of Claims Commission records areas follows:

AO 12, volumes 13 to 18 relate to New Jersey claims and evidence.

AO 12/85, documents communicated by the state government of New Jersey

AO 13/17 New Jersey claims A-D

AO 13/18 New Jersey claims E-L

AO 13/19 New Jersey claims L-P

AO 13/20 New Jersey claims Q-W

AO 13/110 Temporary Allowance [Ogdens]

AO 13/111 Temporary Support [Ogdens]

Indexes to claimants' names are in "List of Records of the Treasury, Paymaster-General's Office, Exchequer and Audit Department and Board of Trade" (1921) and other useful material is found in "A Bibliography of Loyalist Source Material in the United States, Canada and Great Britain," ed. Gregory Palmer (1982), available at the Library of Congress, and other research libraries.

NOTE: The microfilm collection is also available at the New Jersey State Archives in Trenton, the Library of Congress, and some other U.S. libraries. These documents are also available online from Ancestry.com, a subscription service; see the search page for "UK, American Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835" at: https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3712

Some New Jersey reports and documents found in AO 12 (specifically subseries 94 and 95) were not microfilmed. Additional material on Loyalist claims can be found in the Treasury Records, Series T 50, T 77 and T 79. More information on these records is available on the website of the National Archives, UK: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk."