Images(2)

The Parsonage in 1850

Periodca. 1878

MediumGraphite with wash shading on cream colored paper with ink inscriptions

Dimensions6.25 × 9.6 in. (15.9 × 24.4 cm)

InscribedInscribed lower center in ink, "The Parsonage in 1850." Inscribed lower left in ink, "sided with shingles / rounded at the ends." Inscribed lower right in graphite, "Monmouth battle field." Illegible inscription at upper right in blue crayone, perhaps, "DVaunt."

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1939

Object number1275

DescriptionView of a dilapidated story and a half dwelling with a five bay facade, gable roof, and two chimneys at the gable ends. A single story three bay extension to its left also has a single chimney and a lean-to shed addition on the left. Many areas of shingles on the main structure, and horizontal weather boards on the extension, have been removed. Holes appear in the roof. A board fence out of repair extends from the front right corner of the building, with a hill in the distance. Bushes appear behind the extension on the left.
Curatorial RemarksThis drawing is by the same hand as as accession number 1274. Each of the drawings bears a remarkable similarity to illustrations of the same titles published with the article "The Battle of Monmouth Court-House" by Benson J. Lossing that appeared in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in June 1878 (vol. 57, no. 337, pages 32 and 40). The article appeared in conjunction with the centennial celebrations of the Battle of Monmouth. The question remains whether the drawings were copies after the illustrations, or whether they are the original artwork sources for the illustrations.NotesErected in about 1706 and enlarged greatly a few decades later, the Old Tennent Parsonage was a Dutch-framed building with shingled sides that served as the residence and farm of the Reverend William Tennent, minister of the Old Tennent Church from 1732 to 1777. During the late afternoon of 28 June 1778, some of the most intense fighting of the Battle of Monmouth took place at this site when Brigadier General Anthony Wayne and his troops held off a counterattack by the British 1st Grenadiers. During the confrontation, musket balls pelted the walls of the farmhouse and a cannonball struck a room in the attic. In 1835, the Old Parsonage was sold to a local resident. Despite its link with the Battle of Monmouth, the building was never maintained and it fell into a dilapidated state, remaining so until the demolition of the main section of the house in May 1860 (a back kitchen was moved for use as a barn shed). In addition to suffering from disrepair, the house was subjected to a steady stream of tourists in search of relics; many of them took shingles and other architectural elements as souvenirs. When the historian Benson J. Lossing visited the site in September 1850, he was aghast at what he saw. As he wrote in his Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution (1851–52): "The old parsonage is in the present possession of Mr. William T. Sutphen, who has allowed the parlor and study of Tennent and Woodhull to be used as a depository of grain and agricultural implements! The careless neglect which permits a mansion so hallowed by religion and patriotic events to fall into utter ruin, is actual desecration, and much to be reprehended and deplored. The windows are destroyed; the roof is falling into the chambers; and in a few years not a vestige will be left of that venerable memento of the field of Monmouth."

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