Pride in Our Past & Present
Settled by a group of Scottish Presbyterians beginning in the 1680’s, Matawan was first called New Aberdeen, and then Mount Pleasant. Today, Matawan’s historic town core retains its appeal as a place to live, work, and shop.
America’s 250th Birthday celeBRATION
The Borough of Matawan has adopted the 250-Resolution formally announcing Matawan’s participation in the upcoming 250th birthday celebration of the United States of America.
Special Announcement: The Matawan Historical Society is pleased to announce that it is collaborating with the Keyport Historical Society on a series of special events celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution. This includes co-sponsoring related lectures in our regular monthly meeting series, as well as partnering on special events commemorating the local fight for independence in the Bayshore area. Both Matawan and Keyport are proud partners in the RevolutionNJ and MonmouthNJ 250 programs.
Matawan and Keyport’s first collaborative event will be John Schneider’s lecture “The Deadly Divide: America’s First Civil War During the American Revolution” on January 26, 2026. A complete list of our upcoming events will be published soon.
Burrowes Mansion History
The new edition of The Burrowes Mansion of Matawan New Jersey: and Notations on the History of Monmouth County, Second Edition (2023) by Mary Lou Diecker and Barry C. Orr is now available! The Burrowes Mansion, constructed in 1723, celebrated its 300th Birthday in 2023, and this newly expanded edition of the book commemorates that anniversary. Please visit our “Shop” page to order your copy.
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🚣 RACE WEEK IS HERE!!!
Five days from now, three whaleboats hit the water at Lake Lefferts and three mayors get captured off a floating dock. We have been building toward this all summer.
Before Saturday, we need one small thing from you: let us know you're coming.
We've opened a free registration link so we can plan properly - how much food, how many chairs, how much parking, how many kids' activities to have ready on the banks. It takes about 30 seconds.
⚠️ To be clear: this is NOT a ticket and it is NOT a payment. The event is completely free. It is a headcount, nothing more.
👉 Register to attend: app.seemylegacy.com/community/2738/campaign/10053/overview
📅 Saturday, August 29 | 5:00–7:30 PM
📍 Lake Lefferts Park - Ravine Drive & Matawan Ave, Matawan NJ
🅿️ Parking at Matawan Ave, Main Street, and the Bank of America lot
Teams of first responders from Matawan, Aberdeen and Keyport will row across the lake, capture their town's mayor, and race back to shore for the Golden Oar Trophy - recreating Capt. William Marriner's daring 1778 raid, nearly 250 years later, on the same water it started from.
Three towns. Three whaleboats. One legendary mission. Five days.
#GreatWhaleboatRaces #Matawan250 #5DaysToGo #MatawanNJ #AberdeenNJ #KeyportNJ #MatawanHistoricalSociety #KeyportHistoricalSociety #America250
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THE MEN BEHIND THE RAID: William Marriner & John Schenck
⚓ The whaleboats were ready. The plan was daring. But who were the men behind the raid?
In June 1778, William Marriner and militia captain John Schenck led two whaleboats from Middletown Point toward British-held Brooklyn.
They rowed through the night.
They landed in Brooklyn.
They captured Loyalist prisoners.
And they made it back to Middletown Point without losing a man.
One contemporary observer called the expedition “perhaps the most extraordinary circumstance which ever took place.”
So who were these men?
William Marriner was a daring mariner who would become one of New Jersey's most successful privateers. He knew the waters between Sandy Hook and the Narrows, and his small boats allowed him to move quickly and quietly where larger vessels could not. British authorities eventually took notice, warning that Marriner was operating in the area.
John Schenck was different—but just as important. He was a militia captain, a local military leader willing to take the fight to the enemy. And this wasn't his only encounter with the British. Three years later, during the June 1781 British and Loyalist incursion into Middletown, Schenck was again serving with the militia. According to his later pension testimony, the British and Tories had offered a 25-guinea reward for his capture or death. They even attacked his house while he was away with the militia. Schenck was clearly a man the enemy knew—and feared.
But the raid of 1778 wasn't just about two men.
It depended on boats, local knowledge and a community connected to the water.
At the time, Middletown Point was the waterfront community serving the area we know today as Keyport, Matawan and Aberdeen.
From these shores, men could launch small boats into Raritan Bay and reach the waterways around New York Harbor.
And the whaleboat gave them an extraordinary advantage:
Speed.
Stealth.
Surprise.
Think about it.
Two boats.
A moonless night.
A crossing of the bay.
Enemy territory.
And a return trip before the British could stop them.
This wasn't a story happening somewhere far away. It began here.
And it wouldn't be the last time men from the Bayshore used whaleboats to take the fight to the enemy. A few years later, another name would become famous on these waters: Adam Hyler.
We'll meet him next.
More than 240 years later, we're putting whaleboats back on the water.
Thankfully, this time the mission is much more peaceful:
Keyport vs. Matawan vs. Aberdeen
Three towns. Three boats. One Golden Oar.
THE GREAT WHALEBOAT RACES OF 2026
Saturday, August 29
Lake Lefferts
Come cheer for your town!
AND one more question:
The Schenck name is still familiar throughout our community today. Do you know a Schenck family story that connects to the Bayshore's Revolutionary past?
We'd love to hear it.
#KeyportNJ #KeyportHistory #WhaleboatRace #AmericanRevolution #RevolutionNJ250 #MonmouthNJ250 #America250 #BayshoreHistory #visitkeyport
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