From various articles relating to this noted woman the following are selected:

"The story of a woman who rendered essential service to the Americans in the battle of Monmouth is founded on fact. She was a female of masculine mould, and dressed in a mongrel suit, with the petticoats of her own sex and an artilleryman's coat, cocked hat and feathers. The anecdote usually related is as follows: Before the armies engaged in general action, two of the advanced batteries commenced a severe fire against each other. As the heat was excessive, Molly, who was the wife of a cannonier, constantly ran to bring her husband water from a neighboring spring. While passing to his post she saw him fall and on hastening to his assistance found him dead. At the same moment she heard an officer order the cannon to be removed from its place, complaining he could not fill his post with as brave a man as had been killed. "No," said the intrepid Molly, fixing her eyes upon the officer, "the cannon shall not be removed for the want of some one to serve it; since my brave husband is no more, I will use my utmost exertions to avenge his death." The activity and courage with which she performed the office of cannonier during the action, attracted the attention of all who witnessed it, and finally of Washington himself, who afterward gave her the rank of lieutenant and granted her half pay during life. She wore an epaulette and was called ever after Captain Molly. - Howe's Collections.

Lossing in the Field Book of the Revolution thus mentions Molly Pitcher:

"Captain Molly was a stout, red-haired, freckled-faced young Irish woman with a handsome, piercing eye. The French officers, charmed by the story of her bravery, made her many presents. She would sometimes pass along the French lines with her cocked hat and get it almost filled with crowns."

The same writer visited the locality of Forts Montgomery and Clinton on the Hudson, where Molly Pitcher ended her days and there found old residents who "remembered the famous Irish woman called Captain Molly, the wife of a cannonier who worked a field piece at the battle of Monmouth on the death of her husband. She generally dressed in the petticoats of her sex with an artilleryman's coat over. She was in Fort Clinton with her husband when it was attacked in 1777. When the Americans retreated from the fort, as the enemy scaled the ramparts her husband dropped his match and fled. Molly caught it up, touched off the piece and then scampered off. It was the last gun the Americans fired in the fort. Mrs. Rose remembered her as "Dirty Kate," living between Fort Montgomery and Buttermilk Falls, at the close of the war, where she died a horrible death from syphilitic disease. Washington had honored her with a lieutenant's commission for her bravery on the field of Monmouth nearly nine months after the battle, when reviewing its events."

The remarkable trial of Rev. William Tennent, of the old Tennent Church, for perjury, took place at Trenton in 1742 before Chief Justice Robert Hunter Morris.

The indictment upon which Mr. Tennent was tried was one of a series of indictments all growing out of the same transaction - the alleged stealing of a horse by the Rev. Mr. Rowland; and the individual who was the cause of all the woes and perils which befel the unfortunate gentlemen who were supposed to be implicated, was a notorious scoundrel named Tom Bell, whose exploits would not suffer by a comparison with those of Jonathan Wild or Jack Sheppard. He was an adept in all the arts of fraud, theft, robbery and forgery. But his chief amusement consisted in traveling from one part of the country to another personating different individuals and assuming a variety of characters. By turns he was a sailor, a merchant, a lawyer, a doctor, a preacher, and sustained each character in such a way for a time as to impose on the public. The late Judge Richard S. Field, in a paper read before the New Jersey Historical Society in 1851, reviewing the reports of this remarkable trial, furnished quite a list of the misdeeds of this villian.

By far the most brilliant of all Tom Bell's achievements was unquestionably that out of which grew the indictment of Rev. William Tennent for perjury. It so happened that Bell bore a striking resemblance to the Rev. Mr. Rowland, a popular preacher of the day, and a friend and associate of Whitfield and the Tennents.

One evening Bell made his appearance at a tavern in Princeton dressed in a dark grey coat. He there met John Stockton, Esq., father of Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who, coming up to him, at once accosted him as the Rev. Mr. Rowland, and invited him to his house. Bell assured him that he was mistaken - that his name was not Rowland. Mr. Stockton acknowledged his error, and told him it proceeded from the very close resemblance he bore to that gentleman. This link was enough for Tom Bell. It at once occurred to him that here was a chance for playing one of his tricks. The very next day he went into what was then the county of Hunterdon and stopped at a place where the Rev. Mr. Rowland had occasionally preached, but where he was not well known. Here he introduced himself as Mr. Rowland, was invited to the house of a gentleman in the neighborhood, and asked to preach on the following Sabbath. He consented to do so, and notice to that effect was accordingly given. When the day arrived he accompanied the ladies to church in the family wagon, while the master rode alongside on a very fine horse. As they approached the church, Bell suddenly discovered that he had left his notes behind him, and proposed riding back after them on the fine horse. This was at once agreed to, and Bell mounted the horse, rode back to the house, rifled the desk of his host and took his departure, leaving the assembled congregation to wonder what had become of the Rev. Mr. Rowland.

We may imagine the satisfaction which Bell must have derived from this exploit. Mr. Rowland was a noted preacher of great pungency and power, and thundered the terrors of the law against all impenitent sinners. He was called by the professed wits of the day "Hell Fire Rowland." He was literally a terror to evil-doers, and therefore it may be presumed an object of peculiar aversion to Tom Bell. The idea then of bringing such a man into disgrace and at the same time of pursuing his favorite occupation must have been doubly pleasing to him.

Rev. Mr. Rowland was at this time absent from New Jersey. He had gone for the purpose of preaching in Pennsylvania or Maryland in company with Rev. William Tennent and two pious laymen of the county of Hunterdon by the names of Joshua Anderson and Benjamin Stevens, members of a church contiguous to the one at which Tom Bell proposed to officiate. As soon as they returned, Mr. Rowland was charged with the robbery of the horse. At the next term of Oyer and Terminer for Hunterdon county an indictment was preferred against him.

Great was the excitement produced by this event, owing in part to the peculiar state of the Colony at the time. Through the labors of Mr. Whitfield and his associates, among whom were Messrs. Tennent and Rowland, a great revival of religion had taken place in the Provinces. But there was a party in the Colony who were very hostile to this religious movement, who denounced its authors as fanatics and enthusiasts, and some of whom did not hesitate to brand them as hypocrites and imposters. Conspicuous among this party was the Chief Justice, Robert H. Morris, who, whatever claim he may have had to respect, was certainly not distinguished either for religion or morality. To such men this charge against Mr. Rowland, one of the preachers who were turning everything upside down, was of course occasion of great triumph and rejoicing, and the most strenuous efforts made to procure his conviction. The Grand Jury at first refused to find a bill against him, but they were reproved by the Court and sent out again. They again returned without an indictment, but the Court sent them out a second time with threats of punishment if they persisted in their refusal, and then they consented to find a true bill.

Thus Mr. Rowland was subjected to the ignominy of a trial. A clear case was made out on the part of the prosecution. A large number of witnesses swore positively that he was the identical person who had committed the robbery. On the other hand, the defendants called as witnesses Messrs. Tennent, Anderson and Stevens, who testified that on the very day on which the robbery was committed they were in company with Mr. Rowland at some place in Pennsylvania or Maryland, and heard him preach. An alibi being thus clearly proved, the jury without hesitation acquitted him.

But still the public mind was not satisfied. The person whose horse had been stolen and whose house had been robbed was so convinced that Mr. Rowland was the robber, and so many individuals had, as they supposed, seen him in possession of the horse that it was resolved not to let the matter drop. Messrs. Tennent, Anderson and Stevens were therefore arraigned before the Court of Quarter Sessions, of Hunterdon, upon the charge of having sworn falsely upon the trial of Mr. Rowland, and indictments were found against each of them for perjury. These indictments were all removed to the Supreme Court. Anderson, conscious of his innocence and unwilling to be under the imputation of such a crime, demanded his trial at the next term of Oyer and Terminer. What evidence he offered in his defence does not appear, but he was convicted and condemned to stand one hour on the Court House steps with a paper on his breast whereon was written in large letters, "This is for wilful and corrupt perjury." The trials of Tennent and Stevens were postponed.

Tennent we are told, being entirely unused to legal matters and knowing no person by whom he could prove his innocence, had no other resource but to submit himself to Divine will, and thinking it not unlikely that he might be convicted, had prepared a sermon to preach from the pillory. True, he employed Mr. John Coxe, an eminent lawyer of the Province to assist, and when he arrived at Trenton he found Mr. William Smith, one of the most distinguished members of the New York bar, who had voluntarily attended on his behalf; and Mr. Tennent's brother Gilbert, who was then pastor of a church in Philadelphia, had brought with him Mr. John Kinsey, an eminent lawyer of that city, to aid in his defence. But what could they do without evidence? When Mr. Tennent was desired by his counsel to call on his witnesses that they might examine them before going into Court, he declared he knew no witnesses but God and his conscience. His counsel assured him, that however well founded this confidence might be, and however important before a heavenly tribunal, it would not avail him in an earthly court. And they therefore urged that an application should be made to postpone the trial. But this he would by no means consent to. They then informed him they had discovered a flaw in the indictment and proposed that advantage should be taken of it. (Mr. Stevens took advantage of this flaw and was cleared.) Mr. Tennent resisted with great vehemence, saying it was another snare of the devil, and before lie would consent to it he would suffer death. In the meantime the bell summoned them to the Court. While on the way to the Court House Mr. Tennent is said to have met a man and his wife who stopped and asked if his name was Tennent. He said it was. and begged to know if they had any business with him. They replied, "You know best." They then informed him that they resided in a certain place in Pennsylvania or Maryland, and that upon one occasion he in company with Rowland, Anderson and Stevens had lodged at their house; that on the following day they had heard him and Rowland preach; that some nights before they left home, they had each of them dreamed that Mr. Tennent was at Trenton in the greatest possible distress, and that it was in their power, and in theirs alone to relieve him; that this dream was twice repeated and in precisely the same manner to each of them, and that it made so deep an impression on their minds that they had at once set off upon a journey to Trenton, and were there to know of him what they were to do. Mr. Tennent handed them over to his counsel, who, to their astonishment, found that their testimony was entirely satisfactory. Soon after, Mr. John Stockton, who mistook Tom Bell for Rev. Mr. Rowland, also appeared and was examined as a witness for Mr. Tennent. In short the evidence was so clear and conclusive, that, notwithstanding the most strenuous exertion of the Attorney-General to procure a conviction, the jury without hesitation acquitted Mr. Tennent.