"Spare No One": The Blood inside the Bricks of the Hancock House
Nestled in the Salem County township of Lower Alloway Creek, New Jersey there are places where the past quietly sits alongside the present and one of these can be found inside the community of Hancock’s Bridge. The Hancock House is a beautiful home that includes a stunning example of patterned brickwork with an exterior wall proudly displaying its red and blue bricks and the initials of the original owners and the year they called it home. The house was built by the hands of people who believed in a commitment to peace but less than fifty years after its construction it became the site of horrors that many feel are still pressed into the very fibers of the structure today.
The Hancock House was completed in 1734 and was home to William and Sarah Hancock. William was an esteemed, respected member of the community, having been appointed Justice of the Peace for Salem County in 1727 and also serving in the New Jersey Colonial General Assembly for approximately two decades. The pair had four children, all of which grew up on the extensive Hancock lands and watching the goings-on of the county unfold in front of them while also having the insider perspective of having one of the most prominent eyes and ears of their community at home with them on a daily basis. When Judge Hancock died in 1762 the home of patterned brickwork passed to his only son, William Hancock Jr., who followed in his father’s footsteps in more ways that just residency but by also becoming a judge and inheriting his father's judicial role in Salem County. Like his father, William Hancock Jr. was also a Quaker, part of the abundant and longstanding Quaker community in Salem County New Jersey that valued simplicity, equality, and pacifism, three things that became seriously challenged when the Revolutionary War came to their doorstep.
The Hancock House. Image via Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
When the Revolutionary War erupted the Quakers were put into a difficult position. As a general tenant of their beliefs, Quakers did not support violence and therefore could not condone the atrocities of war being committed by either side. Speaking in favor of the Revolution could get a Quaker “read out of” their religious community of Friends and they were strongly advised to not engage in the war in any way including not buying or selling anything that could be deemed of use to the military. One Quaker from Rhode Island named William Rotch took his beliefs seriously and applied them to his own personal possessions. Rotch owned a large number of hunting guns that he had accumulated to use in bartering or for trading. When the war broke out he loaded them into a boat, rowed out into the ocean, and threw them all into the sea. They did not join militias, did not use Continental currency, and did not pay war taxes not out of support for the British, but out of attempts at neutrality. However, it was widely taken by those fighting for independence that if you were not with them, you were against them, with no in-between and for the Quakers that meant being seen in the same light, and therefor being treated the same way, as British loyalists. This did not mean though, that there were not Quakers who did support either sides. Quakers who supported the Revolution established their own group of “Free Quakers” in 1783 and William Hancock Jr. was placed in a particularly complicated situation by way of his profession. He was a Quaker, but he was also a judge who presided over the King's Court at the Salem County Courthouse and he was a firm supporter of the British crown. But neither his religion or profession though protected or absolved him from the conflict though, and by March of 1788 his home was being occupied by members of a Patriot militia.
In the winter of 1777 George Washington and his troops were located in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania while the British led by General William Howe was located less than thirty miles away in Philadelphia. They were two opposite armies, but by early 1778 they had one thing in common and that was their need of food and supplies. In February of 1778 Washington gave orders to General “Mad” Anthony Wayne to go into southern New Jersey to forage for food, cattle, and horses and a month later in March of 1778 Sir General William Howe dispatched 1,500 British troops and loyalists under Col. Charles Mawhood to do the same. Mawhood’s foraging trip though did not go well and where Washington was able to gather supplies a month earlier, Mawhood and his troops were now met with significant resistance from the militias in Salem County and those fighting for the cause of independence.
Some residents in the area had moved their cattle and supplies to keep them from the British placing Alloway Creek between them and the supplies they needed. Alloway Creek extended approximately thirty miles inland from the Delaware River and created a natural southern boundary that could only be crossed at three bridges in the area: Quinton's Bridge, Hancock's Bridge, and Thompson's Bridge. Knowing that protecting themselves and their property meant protecting these bridges, Salem and Cumberland County militiamen took positions at the bridges to stop the British from moving across them and on March 18th their first defense took place.
On March 18th British Col. Charles Mawhood and Major John G. Simcoe had a plan of deception. Positioned at Quinton’s Bridge, they knew that Patriot forces were positioned on the opposite side, and that they had pulled up plans of the bridge to prevent the British from crossing. Mawhood moved several detachments of men into position at the bridge and then had them move away from the bridge, as if they were leaving. When the Americans saw what they believed to be a British retreat, they replaced the planks of the bridge and chased them, but it was a trap. Additional British troops were hiding, and when the Patriots were far enough in, they revealed themselves and blocked them from escaping back over Quinton’s Bridge. The ensuing battle between the Patriots and the British only ended when the Patriots made their way back over the bridge, dismantling it as they went and once again preventing the British from crossing. Despite losses, Alloway Creek remained guarded by the Patriots, but it was a defeat that Mawhood was not going to take lightly or forget.
Placement of troops at Quinton's Bridge. Image via wikipedia.com. Image is public domain.
Days later a deeply frustrated Colonel Mawhood was once again facing an issue with a bridge, but this time his mind was less on deception and more on total annihilation of the Patriot forces on the other side. The days since the Battle at Quinton’s Bridge had been heated. Mawhood threatened to burn the town of Salem to the ground and exercise every possible horror on anyone there, including women and children. Colonel Asher Holmes of the Patriot militia responded, promising to unleash on any Loyalists in Salem if Mawhood took action. For a short time it seemed that Mawhood had backed down, but now, on the night of March 20th he commanded Major Simcoe and approximately 300 soliders of a unit known as the Queen’s Rangers to go toward Hancock’s Bridge. The orders were as simple as they were brutal, “Go - spare no one - put all to death - give no quarters.”
They arrived silently by boat and made their way through the marshes until that were at their destination. It was approximately five o’clock in the morning and still dark when the attack began. The Queen’s Rangers crossed the bridge and overtook the Patriot entrenchments before setting their sights on the Hancock House. Believing the house to be the headquarters of the Patriot militia, the British troops did exactly as Mawhood commanded, entering the house from both the front and rear entrances before unleashing the rage on those inside. The people inside the Hancock House did not have a moment to respond. They were asleep when the British attacked and within minutes blood was spilled. Those inside were attacked with bayonettes, meeting their ends by either being stabbed or being bludgeoned to death. Among the five wounded was Judge William Hancock Jr., the Loyalist, Quaker judge who died from his injuries days later. This was a loss later lamented by Simcoe who later wrote:
“Some very unfortunate circumstances happened here. Among the killed was a friend of the government… old Hancock, the owner of the house… events like these are the real miseries of war.”
The number of those lost, wounded, and taken prisoner vary with some accounts reporting that there were up to thirty people inside that were killed, others saying more than ten were taken prisoner, and some stating that there was a total of ten people inside and that all of them were killed in the ambush of the Hancock House. Regardless of the number, the attack was a bloodbath later called a “massacre.” Not a single gun was ever fired.
The news of the attack was shocking. William Hancock Jr.’s daughter Sarah Hancock Sinnickson was also living in a house in Salem that was occupied by British soldiers and upon hearing of the horrors at her former home she viciously confronted them with such ferocity that she was told if she did not stop they would hang her. She later learned that her father survived the initial attack, only to learn later that he died from his injuries. The effect on the Patriot militia forces was demoralizing and the efforts to defend Alloway Creek dissolved with Colonels Hand and Holme of the militia writing to the Governor:
“We have made our stand on Alloways Creek… but last night the enemy landed out of their boats… and surrounded our guard at Hancock’s Bridge and took and killed almost all of them… we fear they will advance over all these lower counties… we find our numbers at present are not large enough to make a proper stand against them…”
The militia decided to move their focus to a location eighteen miles away, leaving the region open for the British to carry out its initial goal of foraging and six days later on March 27th they returned to Philadelphia.
While both British and Patriot forces moved on and further into the conflict and the American Revolution continued on for over five more years, the memory of the massacre remained fresh in the minds of those personally affected by the massacre. Long after the tragic event an incident took place in Philadelphia when the son of Judge Handcock Jr. and another man named Mr. Sayre were standing together on a wharf in Philadelphia. Sayre fell into the river and a man unknown to the pair jumped in to save him. When Sayre asked the man “To whom am I indebted for saving my life?” the man informed him he was the son of Colonel Mawhood. Sayre’s father had been killed in the massacre at Hancock House, and when he heard these words from his rescuer he responded that he would not allow himself to be saved by the son of the man who murdered his father. Sayre jumped back into the river and was recused again by another party “with difficulty.”
The Hancock House remained in the Hancock family, potentially spending some time serving as a tavern during the 18th and 19th centuries, until 1931 when the state of New Jersey purchased it in 1931 for the price of $4,000. In 1932 the house was opened as a museum and the remnants of that terrible March day have remained on display in more ways that one. Bloodstains are still visible on some floorboards in the house, something that was advertised on postcards. But to some bloodstains might be the last of their worries, in the many years since the house has been opened to the public many people have reported seeing apparitions of long-deceased soldiers pacing the grounds, hearing screams with no visible source, and general feelings of dread permeating the rooms. Recently the Hancock House has welcomed people to explore the paranormal possibilities of the location, hosting candlelit ghost tours among other special events throughout the year.
Vintage postcard of a woman pointing to alleged bloodstains on the floor of the Hancock House.
In March of 1778 the Hancock House was inhabited by Patriots, Loyalists, and Quakers that were (supposed to be) maintaining neutrality to a conflict that was in direct defiance of their beliefs. The dangers of war were obvious on a daily basis, but when night fell on March 20th those inside were not anticipating the story that would be written in their blood before the sun rose. Surprised and slaughtered, the massacre at Hancock House remains a dark tale of the Revolutionary War and a prominent Quaker family whose faith, social standing, and occupation could not protect them from one Colonel’s vengeance.
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“The Hancock House.” NJ.gov, www.nj.gov/dep/parksandforests/historic/hancockhouse/images/hancock_house_brochure.pdf.
History.com editors. “Massacre at Hancock’s Bridge March 21, 1778 .” History.com, 13 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/march-21/massacre-at-hancocks-bridge.
Michel, William. “The Making of a “Massacre” Simcoe’s Surprise Attack at Hancock’s Bridge.” 17thregiment.com, 16 Aug. 2017, www.17thregiment.com/archive/the-making-of-a-massacre-simcoes-surprise-attack-at-hancocks-bridge.
Moran, Mark, and Mark Sceurman. “Hancock House Massacre and the Ghostly Soldiers Who Guard It.” Weirdnj.com, 2023, weirdnj.com/stories/garden-state-ghosts/hancock-house-massacre-and-the-ghostly-soldiers-who-guard-it/.
“Salem County 6. Salem County and the American Revolution.” Salemcountynj.gov, 2026, culture.salemcountynj.gov/project/salem-county-and-the-american-revolution/.
