Colonel Tye
Loyalist Colonel Tye (1754-1780)
The earliest documentation of Col. Tye is his escape from slavery in Monmouth County, NJ. John Corlies, a Quaker of Shrewsbury, advertised in 1775 a reward of 3 pence for the return of a slave named Titus. Slave owning Quakers in Shrewsbury were strongly encouraged to offer freedom to enslaved people as they turned twenty-one.
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Red Ensign used by British Ships and Loyalists
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Titus was twenty-one at the time of his escape from John Corlies who had declined to set him free. The excape occured just weeks after Dunmore's Proclamation which declared, "all indentured Servants, Negroes, or others (apertaining to rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear Arms, they joining His Majesty's Troops as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing this Colony to a proper Sense of their Duty…."
Major Tye joined Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment and later the elite Black Brigade, associated with the guerilla unit Queens Rangers. Col Tye was a dynamic leader, credited with numerous successful and daring attacks on rebels, taking prisoners and property. He captured Capt. Elisha Shepard at the Battle of Monmouth and he led fifty black soldiers and refugees in an attack on Shrewsbury. In September, 1780, Col. Tye led an attack on Joshua Huddy at his home in Toms River. Huddy managed to escape, but Col. Tye was wounded in the wrist. He died of lockjaw ten days later.
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