During the Revolutionary war, Toms River, for such a small village, was evidently quite a busy, lively place, between the militia, the Refugees and the arrival and departure of privateers and their prizes; the arrival of boats and teams with salt from the several works along the bay; the departure of teams for West Jersey with salt, oysters, fish, etc., and their return with merchandise; the visits of business men from different parts of the State to purchase captured vessels or their cargoes, and the rafts or scows from the sawmills with lumber for vessels to carry to places in the State when they could run with safety. It would seem also that sometimes pleasure or fishing parties from other places visited the village, as on the 14th of May, 1780, Major John Van Emburgh, of Middlesex county, and eight or nine men came to Toms River to go out on a fishing excursion, but they were surprised in bed by the Refugees and made prisoners, and put on board of a vessel to be sent to New York. They were fortunate enough, however, to escape a few days after.

Near Toms River bridge were buildings owned by men engaged in the manufacture of salt. They were used to store salt from the various works along the bay, and also for provisions and supplies for men employed in the manufacture and transportation of this article. In 1777 Colonel John Morris, of the New Jersey Royal Volunteers, a Refugee organization, was sent to destroy these buildings. But a man named John Williams "had placed the significant letter 'R' on them by order of General Skinner" (says Sabine, in his History of Loyalists). General Cortlandt Skinner was in the British service and commander of a brigade of about eleven hundred New Jersey Refugees, or Royalists, as they called themselves. No explanation is given of what was meant by "the significant letter R," but the inference is that some of the owners had accepted papers guaranteeing British protection, which were given by John Lawrence (of Lawrence's line note), and perhaps others, to all who signed a pledge not to aid the Americans, but to adhere to the Crown. The partnership business in some of the salt works above Toms River, which had their depot in the village, seems at times to have perplexed armed parties of both sides, as some owners were known active patriots, and others sympathized with the British. A British expedition from New York in 1778 destroyed works at the head of the bay, which were owned in part by Loyalists, much to their dissatisfaction and to the gratification of the Americans.

The soldiers stationed at Toms River during the war were mainly twelve months' men, but probably occasionally by men who were to serve four months, at the expiration of which time they could be relieved, unless in actual service against the enemy. Among the officers who were stationed here were Captains Ephraim Jenkins, James Mott, John Stout and Joshua Huddy. Captain Mott had command of a company called the Sixth Company of Dover, and Captain Stout, of the Seventh Company of Dover. The Fifth Company of militia was commanded by Captain Reuben F. Randolph, of Mannahawkin. The commissions of some of these men are in the library of the New Jersey Historical Society.

It would seem that a number of soldiers from Pennsylvania were also stationed not far from the village, as the Pennsylvania State Council, November 2, 1776, ordered that an officer and twenty-five men be sent to Toms River to guard salt works erected by that State, the soldiers to take twenty-five spare muskets, two howitzers and a sufficient quantity of ammunition for defence in case of attack. On the 8th of April, 1777, the following resolution was passed by the Continental Congress:

"Resolved, That it be recommended to the Governor and Council of Safety of New Jersey not to call into the field such part of their militia, not exceeding forty, as are necessarily employed in the salt works now erecting in their State by the Governor of Pennsylvania; provided it be not inconsistent with the laws of the State."

To this the New Jersey Council of Safety made the following reply:

"The exemption above recommended is inconsistent with the militia law of the State, but if the Government of Pennsylvania will carry on said works with the inhabitants of their own commonwealth, care shall be taken to have them exempted as above, though they will also be liable to be called into the field by the said act as it now stands, as becoming, by their residence here, subjects of this State to that purpose.

"WILLIAM LIVINGSTON."

The duties of the militia stationed at Toms River were to guard the inhabitants from depredations by the Refugees; to check contraband trade with the enemy at New York by way of Cranberry Inlet, and to aid our privateers who brought vessels into the inlet.

Cranberry Inlet, nearly opposite the mouth of Toms River, was then open, and perhaps the best inlet on the coast, except Little Egg Harbor. On this account it was a favorite base of operations for American privateers on the lookout for vessels carrying supplies to the British at New York.