On the outbreak of the revolution, he warmly espoused the side of the Crown and was captured early in the war and confined in the jail at Burlington, New Jersey, from which he escaped in 1776, making his way to the British Army at Staten Island. He fought with the New Jersey Volunteers, which David Gagan described as an irregular group that fought guerilla warfare behind American lines. In 1782, Lippincott's brother-in-law, Philip White, was seized from his home by Americans, who made him run a gauntlet. When his body was found, he appeared to have been subjected to further torture and his body mutilated. His legs had been broken, one of his eyes had been gouged out, and one of his arms was missing. Lippincott was assigned to exchange three captured Americans for some British prisoners, but he hanged one of them, Captain Joshua Huddy, and pinned a note to his body that stated that the hanging was in retaliation for White's death. Huddy was a partisan officer of some repute in New Jersey. His connection with the execution of Captain Joshua Huddy, of the rebel service, attracted a great deal of attention both in Europe and America. American Commander-in-Chief George Washington demanded British Commander Sir Henry Clinton to court martial Lippincott. Lippincott's defence successfully argued that as an irregular, he was technically a civilian, subject to civilian, not military law. Chief JusticeWilliam Smith ruled that he did not have jurisdiction to try Lippincott since the incident occurred in an area outside effective British control. Lippincott was not convicted, but according to Gagan, "Clinton was forced to hold Lippincott in custody for the duration of the war to prevent Washington from exacting his revenge on an officer in Lord Cornwallis' captive army." Even though Lippincott was tried by a court-martial for the offense, the Loyalists interposed and refused to return him. After conferring with his officers, Washington determined a course of retaliation was called for and accordingly Captain Charles Asgill, who had been taken prisoner at the surrender at Yorktown was selected by lot, to atone for the death of Huddy. At the Evacuation of New York at the end of the war, Captain Lippincott removed first to Nova Scotia and later to Upper Canada. Lippincott received a grant of in Vaughn Township. In 1806 he went to live with his newly married daughter, Esther, and his son-in-law George Taylor Denison, in York. Lippincott Street, in Toronto's Harbord Village, is named after him. Lippincott is buried in Weston, Ontario.
