08/01/2026
13. Moving In/Moving Out. The Wallaces moved into their new home sometime before late 1778 when the Continental Army Quartermaster knocked on its front door. Exactly when they moved in is uncertain. Between 1776-78, the Revolution made urgent demands on New Jerseyans. Building a new home and moving from the colonial capital of Philadelphia, some 100 miles northeast was more challenging than usual. It would likely have involved shipping their Philadelphia possessions via the Delaware River to Burlington and Trenton, and then overland by wagon on colonial roads to the Raritan Valley, crossing what essentially became a war zone. We can play “history detective,” using the historic record to identify “windows” when the Wallaces might have safely made their move.
The Philadelphia City Council held its final meeting in February, 1776. Wallace, a ten-year member, had already resigned and bought Hope Farm. By the time the PA colonial assembly disbanded that June, he likely had broken ground for his new home. That summer in Somerset County, William Alexander, Stirling stared recruiting locals, including Frederick Frelinuysen to join New Jersey’s minutemen to march to defend New York City. Washington had moved his army south from Boston and was in the city fortifying defenses. Since the expected action was further north, construction of the Wallace house would have continued, especially if Wallace was able to pay for materials and local craftsmen in British pounds and not colonial paper money.
By fall though, the tide of the war was turning. Beaten at Brooklyn Heights and Long Island, Washington’s army began, “The Long Retreat” across New Jersey. From Fort Lee, through Hackensack, Newark, Elizabethtown, they headed south to New Brunswick, reaching it on November 30. From there, they moved south to Princeton and Trenton, crossing the Delaware into Pennsylvania. New Brunswick, once occupied by the British, was just 11 miles east of Wallace’s newly rising home. The road to Philadelphia was unprotected and there was panic in the city. If Wallace moved out of Phily then, perhaps it was to an interim location, like Burlington, where as a merchant, he had access to warehouses. Evacuating to an incomplete NJ residence at this time makes no sense and would put him closer to as impending battle!
The protection of New Jersey (and Wallace’s construction project) fell to the militia, into which Frelinghuysen, now Captain of Artillery, NJ State Troops mustered. His unit attacked the Hessian garrison at Trenton on Christmas Day, 1776, supporting Washington’s victory there. As 1777 began, he was based at the Blue Hills Militia Post in preset-day North Plainfield and saw action during the Forage War including Springfield and Elizabethtown. Swan places him at the Battles of Van Nest Mill and Millstone as well, although these are not mentioned in his NJ Cincinnati Society record. Frelinghuysen’s actions earned him promotion to Colonel, Frist NJ Brigade.
The Forage War, swirling around, but not touching the Raritan Valley west of Bound Brook, no doubt caused John Wallace some anxiety. The closest the British ever came was the capture of the Van Horne House and the burning and pillaging of Bound Brook on April 12-13. Thereafter, Washington moved down from Morristown to Middlebrook, creating a defensive encampment in this area lasting through June, 1777. Summer militia actions moved to South Jersey and Philadelphia, perhaps providing a sufficient window of safety for Wallace to finish construction and to move into the Raritan River home. The ‘saftey window’ lasted until the following summer. War returned to central New Jersey again in June, 1778. The British evacuation of Philadelphia through NJ, saw Frelinghuysen’s First Militia and Second Somerset in pursuit. Fighting at Crosswicks Creek, Swan describes the actions as a running fight from Camden to Monmouth. The Battle of Monmouth is one of the pivotal battles of the war. Despite these actions, all well south of the Raritan, the Wallaces may have safely completed and begun to occupy their home in summer 1778, while American and New Jersey’s independence hung in the balance.
Frelinghuysen service record. https://njcincinnati.org/frederick-frelinghuysen/
Image of NJ colonial pound note, dated 1776. Swan Collection.
Leftkowicz, A. S. (1998). The Long Retreat: The Calamitous Defense of New Jersey, 1776. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Swan, K. (1967). Raritan’s Revolutionary Rebel: Fredrick Frelinghuysen. DAR: Somerville, NJ.
