This outrage was an unusually aggravated one even for the Refugees, and the particulars will show why Phil. White was afraid that he would be hung if he reached Freehold. John Russell, one of his guards, after the war, removed to old Dover township, near Cedar Creek, and his descendants now live at Barnegat.

The following extract is from the New Jersey Gazette, published during the Revolution:

"On the 30th of April, 1780, a party of negroes and Refugees from Sandy Hook landed at Shrewsbury in order to plunder. During their excursion, a Mr. Russell, who attempted some resistance to their depredations, was killed, and his grandchild bad five balls shot through him, but is yet living. Captain Warner, of the privateer brig Elizabeth, was made prisoner by these ruffians, but was released by giving them two and a half joes. This banditti also took off several prisoners, among whom were Captain James Green and Ensign John Morris, of the militia."

The following is from Hewes' Collections:

"Mr. Russell was an elderly man, aged about sixty years. As the party entered his dwelling, which was in the night, he fired and missed. William Gillian, a native of Shrewsbury, their leader, seized the old gentleman by the collar, and was in the act of stabbing him in the face and eyes with a bayonet, when the fire blazed up and, shedding a momentary light upon the scene, enabled the younger Russell, who lay wounded on the floor, to shoot Gillian. John Farnham, a native of Middletown, there-upon aimed his musket at the young man, but it was knocked up by Lippencott, who had married into the family. The party then went off. The child was accidentally wounded in the affray."

The Lippencott above mentioned, we presume, was Captain Richard Lippencott, who subsequently had the command of the party which hanged Captain Joshua Huddy. John Russell, mentioned above as having been wounded, and who subsequently was one of Phil. White's guard, lived to quite an advanced age, at Cedar Creek, and his account of the affair, as related to the late Captain Ephraim Atcheson, was substantially as follows:

"There were seven Refugees, and he (John) saw them through the window, and at one time they got so that he told his father he could kill four of them, and he wished to fire, as he believed the other three would run. His father persuaded him not to fire, but to do so when they broke into the house. When they broke in, the father fired first, but missed his aim. He was then fired upon and killed. John Russell then fired upon and killed Gillian, who had shot his father. During the affray John was shot in the side, and the scars of the wound were visible until his death. After being wounded he fell on the floor and pretended to be dead. The Refugees then went to plundering the house. The mother and wife of John were lying in bed with the child. The child awoke and asked: 'Grandmother, what's the matter?' A Refugee pointed his gun at it and fired, and said, 'That's what's the matter!' Whether he intended to wound the child or only to frighten it is uncertain, but the child, as before stated, was badly wounded, but eventually recovered. As the Refugees were preparing to leave, one of their number pointed his musket at John Russell as he lay on the floor, and was about again firing at him, saying he didn't believe he was dead yet, where-upon another, probably Lippencott, knocked up the musket, saying it was a shame to fire upon a dying man, and the load went into the ceiling. After the Refugees were gone, John got up and had his wounds dressed, and exclaimed to his wife: 'Ducky! bring me a glass of whiskey; I'll come out all right yet.' He did come out all right, and before the war ended he aided in visiting merited retribution on the Refugees for their doings at this time. When some two years later he aided in the capture of Phil. White, one of the party who killed his father, it is not probable that he desired his death before reaching Freehold, as it was quite certain justice would be meted out to him there. Of the seven Refugees concerned in the attack on the Russell family, at least three met with their just deserts, viz: Gillian, killed at the time; Farnham, subsequently captured and hanged at Freehold; and Phil. White, killed while attempting to escape."