American Revolutionary Dr. Benjamin Church Arrested as British Spy
“I think it best to introduce Mr. Maxwell to General Washington,” wrote Henry Ward to General Nathanael Greene, “and for you and the General, with not more than one trusty person besides, to consider as to the most prudent measures to discover the traitor.” This was the first hint that George Washington and his fellow officers had of a high-ranking spy in their midst.
The detection of the spy happened largely by accident. A baker named Godfrey Wainwood, living in Newport, Rhode Island, had received a visit from an acquaintance of his, a young woman from Massachusetts. She wanted his help to deliver a letter to a British official who could send it into Boston (then besieged by American troops) by ship. Wainwood thought this a bit odd, but he agreed to help. She left the letter with him, trusting that he would deliver it soon, and went back to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
That was in late July 1775. Wainwood was suspicious that somebody at Cambridge — the American army headquarters — might be acting as a spy and trying to secretly send information to the British army in Boston. But if the letter had been written by a spy, what should he do about it? Who should he tell?
Weeks went by. Unsure what to do, Wainwood simply kept the letter. After a while, in need of advice, he turned to a schoolteacher named Adam Maxwell. Together they decided to open the letter, and found that it was written in code, which increased their suspicions. When the woman wrote to Wainwood, expressing uneasiness that he might not have delivered the letter, they decided to share their suspicions with Henry Ward, secretary of Rhode Island.
So it was that Ward wrote to General Greene in late September, urging him to “discover the traitor.” Greene immediately told Washington, and the molehunt began. The woman, “a suttle, shrewd Jade,” was arrested; after a night of being in custody and a great deal of questioning, she finally admitted that Doctor Benjamin Church had written the letter and given it to her to take to Newport.
That was enough to rock the world of the American revolutionaries. Dr. Church had seemed to be an outstanding patriot for years. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Committee of Safety, and he was currently serving as director of the American army hospitals. But on 29 September 1775, after the woman (who was Church’s mistress) had confessed, he was arrested and the detective work began.
Three people — Samuel West, Elisha Porter, and Elbridge Gerry — went to work on the letter. As they deciphered it, they learned what Church had been trying to communicate to the British in Boston:
I hope this will reach you—three Attempts have I made without Success in effecting the last the Man was discovered in attempting his Escape, but fortunately my Letter was sewed in the Waisband of his Breeches…. for the Sake of the miserable convulsed Empire solicit Peace, repeal the Acts, or Britain is undone. this Advice is the Result of warm Affection to my King & to the Realm. … A View to Independance gr[ows] more & more General—should Britain declare War against the Colonies they are lost forever. … I wish you could contrive to write me largely in Cypher by the Way of New Port…. make Use of every Precaution or I Perish.
Church admitted that he had written and sent the letter, which was intended for his brother-in-law, John Fleming, “a warm stickler for the Honour, Dignity & Power of Britain”, in Boston. But he still claimed that he wasn’t a traitor: the letter, he said, intentionally exaggerated American military strength; by feeding this information to Fleming (and, through him, to the British commanders), Church was trying to influence the British to give up the war and make a peaceful compromise with the colonists’ demands — or so he said.
It was hard to absolutely prove that Church was a spy, but a council of war and the Massachusetts House of Representatives both pronounced him guilty — and they were right. However, the Articles of War — the regulations established by the Continental Congress for the American army — didn’t provide a severe enough punishment for the kind of crime he had committed, and nobody was quite sure what to do with him. After being imprisoned for a couple of years, Church was finally allowed to leave the country in January 1778. He sailed for the West Indies, but the ship he sailed on was lost at sea.
For another example of Church’s espionage activities, see Spy Letters of the American Revolution.
Sources
Letter from Henry Ward to General Greene, with a Letter brought by a woman to Providence, in July last, to be delivered to Mr. Dudley or Captain Wallace. [1775-09-26] American Archives, 4th Series, vol. 3, p. 809.
“Enclosure: Benjamin Church to John Fleming, 23 July 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0098-0002, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775–31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 103–106.
“General Orders, 30 September 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0062, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775–31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, p. 66.
“To John Adams from William Tudor, 30 September 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0086, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 3, May 1775–January 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 173–175.
“To John Adams from James Warren, 1 October 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0089, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 3, May 1775–January 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 177–180.
The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, vol.1, pp. 618-20.
“To George Washington from Benjamin Church, 3 October 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0084, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775–31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 85–87.
“Council of War, 3–4 October 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0083, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775–31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 82–85.
“From George Washington to John Hancock, 5 October 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0098-0001, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775–31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 98–103.
“Abigail Adams to John Adams, 9 October 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0195, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 1, December 1761–May 1776, ed. Lyman H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 296–299.
“II. Minutes of the Conference, 18–24 October 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0175-0003, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775–31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 190–205.
“To John Adams from William Tudor, 28 October 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0137, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 3, May 1775–January 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 258–261.
Account of the examination of Dr. Church, written by himself, when he was in prison at Cambridge. [1774-11-01] Church, Benjamin. American Archives, 4th series, vol.3, p. 1479