Among some old residents, the Refugee version of Phil. White's death at one time seemed so far accepted as to imply a belief in wanton cruelty to White, and Howes' Historical Collection seems inclined to favor the same belief. But they seem not to have been aware that the whole matter was thoroughly investigated by both the British and Americans shortly after it occurred, and the evidence, subsequently filed in the State Department at Washington, conclusively proves the falsity of the Refugee assertions of wanton cruelty. This evidence is given in full in a report made to Congress, February 14, 1837, on a report relating to pension claims of Captain Joshua Huddy's heirs. Among the affidavits taken and forwarded to General Washington were those of Aaron White, a brother of Phillip White, who was taken prisoner with him, John North, William Borden and John Russell, who were his guards. White was captured near Long Branch, and the guard was ordered to take him to Freehold. Before starting he was told if he attempted to escape he would be shot down. When between Colt's Neck and Freehold, White slipped off his horse and made for the woods; the guards called on him to stop, but he refused to halt and they fired on him; the ball fired by Borden wounded him and he fell on his hands and knees, but got up and ran for the woods, but North leaped a fence on horseback and headed him off when he made for a bog; North jumped from his horse, dropped his gun and pursued him with drawn sword, and overtook him; White would not stop, and North struck at him with the sword which wounded him in the face, and White fell, crying that he was a dead man. Borden repeatedly called "White, if you will give up you shall have quarters yet." White's body was taken to Freehold, and the evidence of General David Forman and others who saw the body, showed that he had received no other wounds but the gun shot in his breast and cuts of a sword on his face.

The probability is that Phil. White supposed if he was taken to Freehold jail, that he would be tried and hanged for his participation in the murder of the father of John Russell, one of his guards, and the attempt to kill Russell himself, as well as in other misdemeanors, and so he determined to try to escape, and he made the effort at a place where he thought the woods, fences, marsh and brook would impede the light horsemen.