The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: NJ
Qualifying Service: Captain / Patriotic Service
Photos displayed courtesy of Compatriot and Mrs Ken McGill, NJ SAR
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
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Author: Kenneth McGill
Micajah Smith was born at Galloway Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey, January 25, 1742. He served as a Privateer Captain of the Schooner Sly, at Chestnut Neck, New Jersey. The Bond for the Letter of Marque and Reprisal for Captain Micajah Smith, Commander of the Privateer Schooner Sly was signed July 31, 1778.
He married Sarah Owen, June 27, 1763. Their known children were: Phoebe, Sarah, Micajah, Mary, John, Asa, and Phanny. Micajah Smith appears in the 1773 August Tax List of the New Jersey Tax Lists Index, 1772-1822, at Galloway Township Gloucester County, New Jersey. He also appears in tax records of 1780 and 1782. He was "…named on a petition, January 16, 1794, to the Governor, etc., from the inhabitants of Galloway Township."1
Captain Micajah Smith of the Schooner Sly, along with the Privateer Schooner Chance captured the British Schooner Venus of London in the summer of 1778. This was a prize of considerable value to General Sir Henry Clinton, who had replaced General Sir William Howe as commander-in-chief of the British in North America in 1778. The Venus of London was bound from London to New York, when it was captured and brought into Little Egg Harbor to the village of Chestnut Neck, New Jersey. The sale of the Venus of London and her cargo began September 14, 1778, at both Chestnut Neck and The Forks. In 1778, Chestnut Neck "…was claimed to be the second largest village on the seacoast between Sandy Hook and Cape May. When the Revolution began, this seafaring village became a center of colonial piracy." With the capture of the Venus of London,…"Sir Henry Clinton reached the limit of his patience…," and sent a fleet of 13 vessels and a 1690 man force to wipe out the privateering center at Little Egg Harbor. The British Fleet and force assigned to the Little Egg Harbor Expedition attacked Chestnut Neck, October 6, 1778. They defeated the colonial militia, and destroyed the village. "With the exception of three large landowners, Micajah Smith, John Mathis and Joseph Sooy, the former residents of Chestnut Neck resettled at present-day Port Republic, approximately three miles up Nacote Creek."2
In 1800, Micajah Smith built the Methodist Church Meeting House that stood at the present-day Methodist Union Chapel Cemetery Graveyard at Port Republic, New Jersey. An Atlantic County, New Jersey, Historic Marker at the site indicates Micajah Smith, "…a Revolutionary Privateer Captain, is buried here." He died April 6, 1807, and was buried at the Methodist Union Chapel Cemetery at Port Republic, Galloway Township, then at Gloucester County, New Jersey.
References:
1. Source: U.S., Census Reconstructed Records, 1683-1802.
2. Franklin W. Kemp: A Nest of Rebel Pirates, Pg. 4, 7, 9, 32, 33, 89, 95, 102, 188, 200, 201.
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