America’s First Traitor (episode 337)

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Jake:
[0:04] Welcome to Hub History, where we go far beyond the freedom trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the hub of the universe.

Introduction to Betrayal

Jake:
[0:13] This is episode 337, America’s First Traitor. Hi, I’m Jake. In this episode, I’m going to talk about a shocking betrayal that was uncovered 250 years ago this week. A letter from George Washington on October 5th, 1775 revealed a devastating secret. There was a British spy at the highest level of patriot leadership. The traitor was none other than Dr. Benjamin Church, a man who, up to that point, seemed to embody the American cause. He was a Harvard-educated physician who’d been appointed as our first Surgeon General. He was a close confidant of leaders like Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren, and he was officially in charge of organizing the war effort as head of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. Church had risked his life for liberty and was trusted with the revolution’s deepest political and military secrets. But a ciphered letter, a secret mistress, and a suspicious baker would unravel a web of deceit that could have made Benedict Arnold blush.

Jake:
[1:20] But before we talk about the betrayal of Benjamin Church, I just want to pause and show my appreciation for the sponsors who make this show possible. The Hub History Podcast is a labor of love. It’s a one-man show, and I spend countless hours researching, writing, and editing each episode, because I love this city and its history, and I love having an opportunity to share these stories with you. Your financial support, no matter the amount, is what makes all this possible. It helps me cover the costs of podcast media hosting, archival access, and the recording equipment that I use to bring you the highest quality audio that I can.

Jake:
[1:57] For a lot of podcasters, asking for support on Patreon means that they’re forced to put some of their best content behind a paywall. The latest episodes, or maybe the most popular episodes, are only available to sponsors, at least for a certain period of time. Here at Hub History, I want to ensure that all our listeners have access to all our episodes. So all I ask is that our sponsors subsidize the show for everybody else, with no paywall. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to support the show with as little as $2 a month, or as much as $20 or more. And to everyone who’s already supporting the show, thank you. If you’re not yet supporting the show and you’d like to start, it’s easy. Just go to patreon.com slash hubhistory, or visit hubhistory.com and click on the Support Us link. And thanks again to all our new and returning sponsors.

Jake:
[2:53] 250 years ago today, a shocking betrayal came to light. On October 5th, 1775, George Washington, in his role as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, wrote a letter to John Hancock, who at the time was President of the Continental Congress.

Jake:
[3:12] I have now a painful, though unnecessary, duty to perform respecting Dr. Church, Director General of the hospital. About a week ago, Mr. Secretary Henry Ward of Providence sent up to me one Wynwood, an inhabitant of Newport, with a letter directed to Major Cain in Boston, in characters, which he said had been left with Wynwood some time ago by a woman who was kept by Dr. Church. On the face of it, this was incriminating information, but the details make it so much worse. The Dr. Church here was Dr. Benjamin Church, a Harvard-educated Boston surgeon who was one of the most senior leaders of the revolutionary cause. As the letter implies, the woman whom he kept was a mistress, or maybe a former mistress, and she’d carried a letter from Dr. Church to Newport by slipping it into one of her stockings as she traveled. In Newport, she stayed with a baker named Godfrey Wynwood and asked him to help her get an appointment with any one of three local businessmen who regularly traded with the British in occupied Boston. When she couldn’t get an appointment, she left a letter addressed to British Major Cain in Boston with the baker, and she asked him to pass it to one of the three businessmen to deliver for her. Wynwood eventually became suspicious, as General Washington’s letter relates.

Jake:
[4:35] He, suspecting some improper correspondence, kept the letter, and after some time opened it, but not being able to read it, laid it up. The baker Wynwood couldn’t read the letter because it was written in a cipher. Where Washington’s letter says that it was in characters, that essentially means that symbols were substituted for words or letters. A secret coded message addressed to a British officer in an occupied city? There’s nothing suspicious about that, right? General Washington’s letter continues, He received an obscure letter from the woman expressing an anxiety after the original letter. He then communicated the whole matter to Mr. Ward, who sent him up with the papers to me. I immediately secured the woman, but for a long time she was proof against every threat and persuasion to discover the author. However, at length, she was brought to a confession and named Dr. Church. I then immediately secured him and all his papers.

Jake:
[5:38] The letter itself had been dated July 22nd, but it wasn’t delivered to Continental Headquarters in Cambridge until September 26th. George Washington personally interrogated the kept woman on September 28th, but amazingly, her identity was never revealed during the 18th century. It wasn’t written down in any of the letters or minutes of the case, and apparently nobody leaked it, even though she’d been questioned by the commander-in-chief. Only 200 years later did historian J.L. Bell identify the witness as the baker’s estranged wife, Mary Butler Wynwood. Mary held out until the second day of questioning before naming Church as the author of the letter, and Washington had the doctor immediately arrested.

Jake:
[6:25] A physician and a talented orator and writer, Church’s public actions positioned him as a staunch supporter of the colonial cause. He was an active member of the Sons of Liberty and a close associate of leading patriots like Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren. He was at the very heart of the revolutionary cause in Boston, with biographer John Nagy concluding, With the Adamses and Hancock in Philadelphia for the Continental Congress, and Warren having been killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17th, Church was left as the on-site political leader of Massachusetts, and Church was a British spy. It makes me wonder how he won the war. His activities certainly increased the odds against an American victory. Benjamin Church, Jr. was descended from one of the oldest families in Massachusetts, who first settled in Plymouth in 1630.

Jake:
[7:19] Benjamin himself was actually born in Newport in 1730, but the family moved to Boston when he was just four years old. Benjamin, Sr. was in public service. He served as a constable, assessor, auctioneer, town treasurer, town warden, and he even served on the street lighting committee that oversaw the purchase and placement of Boston’s first street lights, which we heard about back in episode 266. The younger Church attended Boston Latin and was accepted to Harvard in 1750, graduating alongside John Hancock in 1754.

Jake:
[7:58] Yale also awarded him a master’s degree in 1773, but it’s not clear to me if it was honorary or earned. Either way, he studied medicine in London, and when he came home, he returned with his new British wife, Sarah Hill, in 1759. In his book, Benjamin Church, Spy, John Nagy writes, Church was a skilled surgeon and general practitioner. He was the best-trained doctor in Massachusetts. He gave a public lecture on anatomy. A successful operation of his was reported in the Massachusetts spy. He’d operated on the eyes of 56-year-old Mrs. Hodgins, who’d been blind for several years. The local newspaper reported he performed an operation of couching upon the eyes, which was cataract surgery. The paper reported that she could now distinguish color, and her sight was improving daily. As a doctor, Benjamin Church’s work would sometimes collide with politics.

Jake:
[9:02] Alongside Joseph Warren, he was one of the first physicians to respond to the Boston Massacre in 1770, examining the wounded, and eventually presenting a petition to the governor demanding that they remove the occupying redcoats from Boston. Church also performed an autopsy on the most famous massacre victim, Crispus Attucks. I, Benjamin Church Jr., of lawful age, testify and say that being requested by Mr. Robert Pierpont, the coroner, to assist in examining the body of Crispus Attucks, who was supposed to be murdered by the soldiers on Monday evening the fifth instant, I found two wounds in the region of the thorax, the one on the right side, which entered through the second true rib within an inch and a half of the sternum. Dividing the rib and separating the cartilaginous extremity from the sternum, the ball passed obliquely downward through the diaphragm, and entering through the large lobe of the liver and the gallbladder, still keeping its oblique direction, divides the aorta descendants just above its division into the iliac. From thence, it made its exit on the left side of the spine. This wound I apprehended was the immediate cause of its death. The other ball entered the fourth of the false ribs about five inches from the linea alba, and descending obliquely, he passed through the second false rib at the distance of about eight inches from the linea alba. From the oblique direction of the wounds, I apprehended the gun must have been discharged from some elevation.

Jake:
[10:31] Dr. Church had been involved in politics as far back as the Stamp Act crisis, but his beliefs seemed to crystallize after his experience of the massacre. In the 1932 book, General Gage’s Informers, Alan French describes this shift in the doctor’s beliefs and activities. On the 6th of March, 1770, he was sent with others to protest to Governor Hutchinson after the Boston Massacre. From that time on, he was frequently on the cantankerous committees appointed to harry the governor, annoy the Tories, and forward the Whig cause in every way possible. He was on the Boston Committee of Correspondence, on committees to prepare instructions to delegates, to protest against the port bill, and finally was himself made a delegate to the Provincial Congress. Biographer John Nagy explains the role Dr. Church took on within the Whig or Patriot leadership in the Bay Colony, which makes the discovery of his betrayal in 1775, all the more shocking. Church had become one of the leading men of Massachusetts Whig politics. He was a witty, lively fellow. He traveled among the political power brokers of the day, John and Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Dr. Joseph Warren.

Jake:
[11:48] He could be found at the private dinners of all the leading politicians held at Hancock’s house. He was found on almost every Whig committee and knew all the plans of the revolutionaries. He was a member of the North Caucus, the Long Room Club, Boston Committee of Correspondence, and the Massachusetts Provincial Assembly. The Long Room Club was a secret society founded in 1762. It met in the Long Room above a business.

The Rise of Benjamin Church

Jake:
[12:17] Some of the members were Samuel Adams, Thomas Dawes, John Hancock, James Otis, Josiah Quincy, Paul Revere, Royal Tyler, and Joseph Warren. The North Caucus was a group of 20 or so individuals who met to plan a strategy, quote, for introducing certain persons into places of trust and power. It was organized as early as 1767. Some of the members were John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Eades, Dr. Joseph Warren, and Dr. Thomas Young.

Jake:
[12:52] Three years after the Boston Massacre, in 1773, Church delivered a powerful and highly regarded oration on the anniversary of the massacre, which elevated his position as a formidable Whig spokesman. After the bloody massacre in King Street in March 1770, Patriot leaders rallied Bostonians to attend a vigil at Old South Meeting House on the anniversary each year. Each year, a speaker was chosen to give a public address that remembered the victims and rallied public sentiment against the royal governor and the occupying British troops. Speakers through the years included the radical Dr. Thomas Young, James Lovell, John Hancock, and Joseph Warren, twice. Joseph Warren’s 1775 address, given just weeks before the outbreak of the war, stirred redcoats in the audience into such a frenzy that there was real concern that fighting might break out right there in the church. To be invited to give one of these speeches, Mark’s church is a respected leader, a radical thinker, and a gifted writer and speaker.

Jake:
[14:00] In his 1798 letter to Mass Historical Society founder Jeremy Belknap, recalling the night of his famous ride, Paul Revere included some reflections on the Benjamin church he knew in the years before the war. He appeared to be a high son of liberty. He frequented all the places where they met, was encouraged by all the leaders of the Sons of Liberty, and it appeared he was respected by them, though I knew that Dr. Warren had not the greatest affection for him. He was esteemed a very capable writer, especially in verse. As the Whig Party needed every strength, they feared as well as courted him. His rhetorical skills were further demonstrated in his role in the Boston Committee of Correspondence. As a key member of this influential body, Church helped draft the Boston Pamphlet in 1772, a document that articulated the rights of the colonists and detailed violations by the British government. This pamphlet was instrumental in establishing a communication network among towns in Massachusetts and with the other colonies, thereby fostering colonial unity. He also regularly wrote polemics that were carried in Whig-supporting newspapers, with a profile by History Cambridge noting.

Jake:
[15:23] Even so, it was suspected that he also responded to his own articles as an anonymous Tory in support of the motherland. In 1774, he was selected as a delegate to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, the revolutionary shadow government that effectively controlled all the province outside the gates of Boston Neck or out of musket range for the nearest British patrol.

Church’s Role in the Revolution

Jake:
[15:47] He was also appointed to the Boston Committee of Safety, the quasi-official body elected by patriots in each town and tasked by the Provincial Congress with building the military capacity of the province in anticipation of a potential war with the mother country.

Jake:
[16:03] In 1798, Paul Revere also remembered that Church had put himself in the middle of the fighting on April 19, 1775, writing, “‘The day after the Battle of Lexington, I met him in Cambridge, when he showed me some blood on his stocking, which he said had spurted on him from a man who was killed near him, as he was urging the militia on.’ I well remember that I argued with myself. If a man will risk his life in a cause, he must be a friend to that cause. And I never suspected him after that, till he was charged with being a traitor. Following the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, Church was appointed to a committee with Joseph Warren to acquire medical supplies for the nascent Continental Army. His patriotic service culminated in July 1775, when the Continental Congress appointed him the first Director General and Chief Physician in the Army Medical Department, effectively making him the first Surgeon General of the United States. In his book, Alan French concludes, In Boston or out, therefore, Church knew every provincial secret, and in the councils of the Whigs, only the Adamses, Hancock, and Joseph Warren stood higher than he.

Jake:
[17:22] Immediately after ordering Dr. Church’s arrest on September 29th, 1775, General Washington gave copies of the letter to two trusted parties to see if they could break this cipher. Samuel West, a minister from today’s New Bedford who’d volunteered as a chaplain in the Continental Army, took one copy, and a colonel from Western Mass named Elisha Porter took the other copy, which he worked on with help from Provincial Congress delegate and future Declaration signer Elbridge Gary. Both translations were complete by October 2nd, and the deciphered text matched nearly exactly. Washington called a Council of War to review the letter, and things didn’t look good for Dr. Benjamin Church.

Jake:
[18:07] The letter begins with an apology for not writing for a while, noting that the last courier he’d sent had been arrested, but luckily the letter was sewn into the waistband of the band’s breeches, so it was never discovered. Definitely something you would say about some casual correspondence, right? Church goes on to describe his trip back to Watertown from his visit at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, noting in great detail where he noticed concentrations of Continental soldiers and collections of cannons along the way. He notes that British estimates of American casualties from Bunker Hill are way overinflated. He gave a detailed accounting of the Continental troops who were then in camp and expected to arrive soon. And he even shared the plan for a march to Quebec that we heard about in episode 335 last month.

Jake:
[18:57] Now, on its face, that isn’t exactly treasonous. Everything he reported was something he observed with his own eyes in his travels. Not secrets revealed from inside the meetings of the Provincial Congress or the Committee of Safety. Church says that he’s sending the letter not to bring down the Continentals, but to encourage a negotiated peace before the fighting spiraled out of control. For the sake of the miserable convulsed empire, solicit peace, repeal the acts, or Britain is undone. This advice is the result of a warm affection to my king and to the realm. Remember, I never deceived you. Every article here sent you is sacredly true. A view to independence grows more and more general. Should Great Britain declare war against the colonies, they are lost forever. Should Spain declare war against England, the colonies will declare a neutrality which will doubtless produce an offensive and defensive league between them. For God’s sake, prevent it by a speedy accommodation.

Jake:
[20:04] The plausible deniability of a reasonable man looking for an honorable peace is more than a little bit contradicted by the sentence where he comes within a hair’s breadth of swearing undying allegiance to George III. Remember, a warm affection to my king in the realm. The innocent act is also hard to keep up after reading the final paragraph of the letter, which is basically a glimpse of the rudimentary spycraft Church used to try to avoid detection. Tomorrow I set out for Newport on purpose to send you this. I write you fully, it being scarcely possible to escape discovery. I wish you could continue to write me largely in ciphers by way of Newport addressed to Tom Richards, merchant. Enclose it in a cover to me, intimating that I am a perfect stranger to you. But being recommended to you as a gentleman of honor, you took the liberty to enclose that letter, entreating me to deliver it as directed to the person, as you are informed, living in Cambridge. Sign some fictitious name. This you may send to some confidential friend at Newport to be delivered to me at Watertown. Make use of every precaution, or I perish. Signed, B. Church.

Jake:
[21:22] The clandestine nature of Church’s letter and the spycraft you employed in sending it made some patriots remember the doctor’s shocking decision to visit Boston immediately after hostilities erupted. As we talked about in episode 325, Boston went on lockdown the moment the first shot was fired on Lexington Green. Residents needed passes to cross the front lines at Boston Neck, and guards there were on the lookout for patriot spies and saboteurs.

Jake:
[21:51] And yet, Paul Revere later remembered, Dr. Church announced the day after the battle that he was going to walk into Boston the next morning. And he did end up going into Boston on April 21st, just two days after the battle, and then returning to Cambridge two days later.

Jake:
[22:09] Revere wrote, I took him aside and inquired particularly how they treated him. He said that as soon as he got to their lines on Boston Neck, they made him a prisoner and carried him to General Gage, where he was examined, and then he was sent to Gould’s barracks. It was not suffered to go home, but once. After he was taken up for holding a correspondence with the British, I came across Deacon Caleb Davis. We entered into conversation about him. He told me that the morning church went into Boston, he, Davis, received a billet for General Gage. He then did not know that Church was in town. When he got to the General’s house, he was told that the General could not be spoke with, that he was in private with a gentleman, that he waited near half an hour when General Gage and Dr. Church came out of a room discoursing together like persons who had been long acquainted. He appeared to be quite surprised at seeing Deacon Davis there, that he, Church, went where he pleased while in Boston. Only a Major Cain, one of Gage’s aides, went with him. I was told by another person whom I could depend on that he saw Church go into General Gage’s house at the above time, that he got out of the chaise and went up the steps more like a man that was acquainted than a prisoner.

Jake:
[23:29] Now, Paul Revere wrote that note 23 years after the events occurred, but things still didn’t look that good for Church in real time.

Jake:
[23:39] The day after the Council of War met to review the coded letter, they called Church to testify. The notes from the Council of War revealed that the Council’s questions were straightforward, as were Dr. Church’s answers, at least at first. Dr. Church, being sent for and shown the letter in characters, was asked whether he said the letter was written by him, to which he answered he believed it was. He was then shown the explanation of the letter as deciphered, and asked whether it was a true one, to which he answered in the affirmative.

Jake:
[24:14] That sounds like an open-and-shut case of espionage, but Church insisted that he’d been acting in the interest of the patriots, albeit without any authorization. The council’s notes continue, Dr. Church then explained his intentions in writing said letter as calculated to impress the enemy with a strong idea of our strength in situation, in order to prevent an attack at a time when the Continental Army was in a great want of ammunition, and in hopes of effecting some speedy accommodation of the present dispute, and made solemn assertions of his innocence.

Jake:
[24:49] The Council of War wasn’t done with Benjamin Church, however. He may not have handed over classified information to the enemy, but he was engaging in secret correspondence with the enemy’s commander. The Council was pretty sure that just writing to a British officer was in and of itself a crime. And before long, they were discussing the possibility of a death sentence in vague terms, as they debated whether the letter had violated Articles 28 or 51 of the regulations of the Continental Army. The editors of the Papers of George Washington include a helpful footnote to the minutes of the Council of War, which says, Article 28 provides that, Whosoever belonging to the Continental Army shall be convicted of holding correspondence with, or of giving intelligence to, the enemy, either directly or indirectly, shall suffer such punishment as by a general court-martial shall be ordered. But Article 51 states that no persons shall be sentenced by a court-martial to suffer death, except in the cases expressly mentioned in the foregoing articles.

Jake:
[25:56] Another Council of War, held a few weeks later, decided that the next steps were above their pay grade, so they referred the case to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress to decide what to do. What steps are necessary to be pursued with regard to Dr. Church? If guilty, the articles for the government of the army point out a very inadequate punishment, and to settlement liberty must be exceedingly dangerous. Upon a discussion of all circumstances, it was agreed to refer Dr. Church for trial and punishment to the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, but that no procedure be had hereupon until the pleasure of the Congress be known on the late application made by the General. In the meantime, Dr. Church would be locked up in the vassal house, almost across the street from Washington’s headquarters on Torrey Row on Prattle Street in Cambridge, until his case could be heard.

Jake:
[26:52] In November, the Provincial Congress expelled Church from its body, with John Nagy describing the dramatic ceremony that accompanied this humiliation. The sounds of military musicians playing their fifes and beating their drums reverberated through the streets of Watertown. The refrain was exhorting the citizens of the town to witness a spectacle.

Arrest and Accusation

Jake:
[27:13] A military escort led Church from his improvised jail to the meeting house on Common Street. He was paraded up the three entrance steps. through the impressive doorway, and down the long aisle to stand before the pulpit. Here, he was formally notified of his expulsion from his seat as the elected representative from Boston in the Massachusetts Provincial Congress.

Jake:
[27:37] The Provincial Congress may have expelled Church, but they otherwise decided to wait until the Continental Congress in Philadelphia weighed in on the case, which it did on November 7th. George Washington sent a copy of the resolution they passed to the governor of Connecticut, accompanied by Church himself. Quoting the Congress, Washington wrote, Resolved, that Dr. Church be close confined in some secure jail in the colony of Connecticut, without the use of pen, ink, and paper, and that no person be allowed to converse with him, except in the presence and hearing of a magistrate of the town, or the sheriff of the county where he shall be confined, and in the English language, until further orders from this or a future Congress.

Jake:
[28:25] Sir, in consequence of the above resolve, I now transmit to your care, Dr. Church, under the guard of Captain Israel Putnam, a sergeant and seven men. The Captain Israel Putnam, who marched Benjamin Church to Connecticut, was the son of General Israel Putnam. He turned the prisoner over to the Connecticut militia, who locked him up in the old jail at Norwich on the governor’s orders. Imagine if someone at the highest level of government turned out to be a spy working for the enemy, someone who was trusted with all the secret inner workings of the legislature, and someone who was one of the main military planners. You might imagine that a revelation like that would shock the community and start people chattering, and news of church’s betrayal and arrest certainly did that. I love the digital edition of the Adams Papers at the Mass Historical Society because that family saved all their gossipy letters, and subsequent generations have done an amazing job of transcribing, annotating, and digitizing them. We can more or less gauge public sentiment about the arrest of Dr. Church from a sampling of the letters that people wrote to John Adams, who was away in Philadelphia trying to get Congress to declare independence.

Jake:
[29:44] Aside from Abigail Adams, who would have her own opinions about the Church affair, one of John’s most frequent correspondents was Mercy Otis Warren, who’d go on to write one of the first comprehensive histories of the Revolutionary War a few years later. Like everyone, she was shocked by the doctor’s treachery and had some thoughts about the man’s character. I fear a late instance of perfidity and baseness, and one who ranked himself among the friends of the rights of society and the happiness of the community will occasion many invidious reflections from the enemies of the American cause.

Jake:
[30:21] I was ever sorry that there should be one among the band of patriots whose moral character was impeachable, for when the heart is contaminated, and the obligations of private life broken through, and the man is thrown off the restraints both of honor and conscience with regard to his own domestic conduct, what dependence is to be made on the rectitude of his public intentions?

Public Reaction to Betrayal

Jake:
[30:44] The culprit assumes an air of innocence, and with the confidence usual to veterans in iniquity, complains that he is unjustly restrained. So much for the presumption of innocence, Mercy. You would think that a lawyer would be able to maintain more objectivity when considering the case, but that was not the situation for Nathan Rice, a Continental officer and a former law clerk to John Adams. In so large an army as the American, it can’t be wondered at if there are some Judases who will betray and sell us. Some we have found. One, in a special manner whom I thought the best of our friends, has forfeited the character. Can it be possible, sir, that the great patriotic Dr. Church could be guilty of so great treachery? How men are led from their true interest by the false charms of riches and honor. Who can we trust or confide in? Our dependence is on that honorable assembly of which you, sir, are a member. Our eyes are to you as to the fathers of the people, and from you we hope for salvation.

Jake:
[31:53] General Charles Lee had some of the most sympathetic commentary, holding out hope that the good doctor was just an idiot and not necessarily a traitor. In a letter dominated by a discussion of his love of dogs, where he notes that he much prefers dogs to people, the general writes, Before this reaches you, the astonishing and terrifying accusation, or rather, detection of Dr. Church, will be reported to the Congress. I call it astonishing, for admitting his intentions not to be criminal, so gross a piece of stupidity and so sensible a man, is quite important. And supposing him guilty, it is terrifying to the last degree, as such a revolt must naturally infect with jealousy all political affiance. It will spread a universal diffidence and suspicion, then which nothing can be more pernicious, men embarked in a cause like ours, the cornerstone of which is laid not only on honor, virtue, and disinterestedness, but on the persuasion that the whole be actuated by the same divine principles. I devoutly wish that such may not be the effect.

Jake:
[33:06] The jail in Norwich, Connecticut was not kind to Benjamin Church. He suffered from intense asthma attacks in the close confines of his windowless cell that left him barely conscious, then bleeding from the nose and mouth as he wheezed for breath. The jailer made some changes to allow more air to circulate through the cell, but the doctor’s health got worse and worse. Apparently given an exception to the rule that he was to be locked up without access to pen or ink, Church wrote a petition to the Continental Congress in January 1776, asking to be imprisoned somewhere with clear, elastic air, and where he might be allowed to exercise.

Jake:
[33:47] Historian Alan French writes, The better place of confinement evidently was not found, nor did Church’s health greatly improve. For on the 13th of May, the Congress received a petition from him, and a certificate from three physicians setting forth the dangerous state of his health. Accordingly, the Congress gave permission for him to be removed to Massachusetts, to give sureties for not less than a thousand pounds, to swear not to correspond with the enemy, nor to leave the colony without permission. When this was done, he might be set at liberty.

Jake:
[34:24] So with the British gone from Boston, Church was allowed to return. However, John Nagy points out that setting the doctor at liberty, essentially the 18th century equivalent of releasing him on personal recognizance, didn’t work out as well as either Church or the Continental Congress had hoped. Church was removed from the Norwich Jail and taken to Boston by Sheriff Wetmore on May 27, 1776. They arrived in Boston on the evening of June 1st, where Church was still confined on the evening of June 4th. The entourage continued on to Watertown, and Church was turned over to the Massachusetts Council. His presence stirred up the local populace. James Warren wrote to John Adams on June 5th, I fear the people will kill him if at large. The night before last, he went to lodge at Waltham, was saved not by the inner position of the selectmen, but by jumping out of a chamber window and flying. Meaning, he jumped out a bedroom window and ran away. His life of is no great consequence, but such a step has a tendency to lessen the confidence of the people in the doings of Congress. For his safety, he was returned to Boston.

Jake:
[35:44] After rumors of his release nearly sparked a riot in Waltham, Church was locked up in the old Boston Jail for his own safety, just up what was then Queen Street from the old statehouse. Conditions in the jailhouse were notoriously terrible, and they earned that reputation even before the fire that we discussed in episode 267 partially destroyed the structure. The doctor continued to suffer from respiratory ailments in the dank jailhouse, and his family kept searching for ways to get him released, eventually settling on the idea of a prisoner exchange. In his biography, John Nagy describes a plan to exchange our Boston doctor for a Philadelphia patriot who was also a doctor. Church’s wife, Sarah, wrote about an attempt to exchange Dr. Church for Dr. James McHenry, who had been taken prisoner when Fort Washington on York, now Manhattan Island, surrendered November 16, 1776. General Howe, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in America, having been informed of the wretched conditions of Dr. Church, sent one James McHenry, a surgeon and a prisoner, to be exchanged, and this arrangement was approved by the Massachusetts Provincial Council. But the mob, with General William Heath at their head, prevented the exchange and caused Church to be removed from the cartel vessel and recommitted to jail.

Jake:
[37:11] Historians disagree about the implication of that comment that William Heath, the general who at the time was in command of Boston’s defenses after the British evacuation, was at the head of a mob. French simply states that, Except for Heath’s participation, the account’s probably true. Heath wrote a letter opposing the exchange, and John Nagy concludes that this action is what Sarah Church meant when she said that the general was at the head of a mob. However, historian J.L. Bell seems inclined to take the statement at face value, writing, Some historians have difficulty imagining Heath at the head of a mob. Of course, he might have been at the head of a detachment of Continental Troops or Massachusetts militia blocking the way. Or Sarah Church might have meant that the crowd knew Heath opposed the prisoner exchange and therefore acted on his behalf. Or perhaps he really did participate in forcing Church back to the jail. The crowd apparently then proceeded to make their displeasure clear by mobbing Dr. Church’s old house, where his family was still living.

Jake:
[38:21] Historian E. Alfred Jones’ statement of Sarah Church’s petition says, Not content with casting him into prison, the mob broke open his house and pillaged or destroyed all the contents, without leaving even a change of clothes for his wife and children, or even a bed to lie on. The only property she was able to recover was a small quantity of silver plate, barely sufficient for her to pay her passage to England.

Jake:
[38:48] Permission was refused her for the direct passage to England, and she was obliged to travel first to France. Though the trip was not direct, Sarah Church did make it to England.

Jake:
[39:02] Though the trip was not direct, Sarah Church did make it to England. There, the Royal Crown provided her with a pension of £150 per year for the rest of her life, in exchange for her husband’s unspecified services to the Crown, which is not exactly evidence of the good doctor’s innocence.

Imprisonment and Health Decline

Jake:
[39:23] Without Sarah there to keep arguing for his release, Benjamin Church remained locked up in the old Boston jail for almost two years, with no charges filed. As part of a series of posts about the Church case from 2009, J.L. Bell points out, Though the state was still struggling to approve a constitution replacing its royal charter, its political leaders felt a strong commitment to the concepts of natural rights and the rule of law. Dr. Church was a big test of that system. American authorities didn’t have enough evidence to convict Dr. Church of more than corresponding with the enemy, and even the military and legislative bodies that convicted Church on that charge in late 1775 didn’t have legal authority to do more than expel him from the army in the legislature. The New England governments then locked him up, not as a formal punishment, but in order to figure out what to do with him. The Massachusetts authorities also appeared to have been troubled by locking up a man, well, a white man of property, who had never been legally convicted and sentenced. There was a war going on, of course. Even so, the authorities had trouble justifying their decision to keep Church in jails for two years, much less five or seven.

Jake:
[40:45] The solution to this tricky legal and moral problem came in the form of a suggestion from Dr. Church himself. If he couldn’t be released and he couldn’t be traded for a British prisoner of war, he asked if he could go into exile and promised never to return to Massachusetts. This appeared to be the best way back to the rule of law, and the Massachusetts legislature pounced on the opportunity, resolving on January 9, 1778, Dr. Benjamin Church B., and he hereby is permitted to take passage on board the sloop Welcome, Captain James Smithwick Master, bound for the island of Martinique. And the major part of the counselor desired to give order to the sheriff of the county of Suffolk to remove the said Dr. Church on board the said sloop when she’s ready for sailing.

Exile Proposal

Jake:
[41:34] Directing him, meaning the sheriff, to search his person and baggage to prevent his carrying any letters or other papers that may be to the detriment of the American states. And the said church is not to return to this state during the continuance of the present war, without leave therefore first had and obtained from the general court, under such pains and penalties as they shall see fit to order.

Jake:
[42:00] The sloop welcome never arrived in Martinique, the small Caribbean island then controlled by the French Empire. In his book, The Loyalists of Massachusetts, E. Alfred Jones concludes that the ship sailed from Boston in February 1778, bound for the West Indies, and was lost at sea. A number of other vessels sailing at the same time foundered at sea. One man only was saved and brought back an account of the melancholy disaster. Alan French points out that it was generally believed that the ship sank with no survivors, offering as evidence the fact that the captain’s widow soon remarried. Dr. Church’s father still held out hope, however, writing the doctor into his will as a possible survivor. French continues, There was one, however, who clung to the belief the church was alive. His old father, in a will dated November 18, 1780, bequeathed five pounds in his library to his son Benjamin, if alive. For alas, he is now absent, being cruelly banished his country, and whether living or dead, only God knows.

Jake:
[43:14] As if being lost at sea wasn’t bad enough, Dr. Church was also named in the Massachusetts Banishment Act of 1778. This piece of legislation identified about 300 Massachusetts loyalists, from Tory politicians to royal governors to merchants and lawyers, mostly people who’d already left the colony on or before evacuation day in March 1776. Anyone on the list who came back to Massachusetts was to be arrested, exiled, and if they returned again, they would, quote, “…suffer the pains of death without benefit of clergy.”, In his own defense, Church said that by secretly writing to General Gage, he was only trying to help the Patriot cause. He was exaggerating the number of Continental troops in the camps at Cambridge and Roxbury and overstating the number of cannons and the amount of ammunition they had on hand, simply to keep the British from attacking and to save American lives.

Jake:
[44:15] Because he was such a gifted writer and speaker, Church’s defense was fairly convincing. Billy Tudor, another Continental officer who’d clerked for John Adams before becoming a prominent attorney himself, was pretty impressed by Dr. Church’s defense when he was examined by the Provincial Congress. Tudor was a steadfast patriot, having volunteered for the Continental Army early and been appointed as a colonel by July 1775. We can assume that Tudor had a more nuanced understanding of loyalty and patriotism than some of his peers, however. Way back in episode 131, we discussed Tudor’s romance with the Boston loyalist Delia Jarvis. During the summer of 1775, when Dr. Church was carrying on his criminal correspondence with General Gage, Billy Tudor was regularly swimming across the harbor carrying his clothing on his head, to visit his loyalist sweetheart behind enemy lines.

Jake:
[45:17] In a letter written to his old boss, John Adams, on October 28, 1775, Tudor says, I was in the gallery yesterday at Watertown during the examination of Dr. Church. He made an artful and masterly defense. He told the court that the occasion of his writing the letter on their table was that sometime in July, he received a letter from his brother Fleming, advising him to secure his safety with government by immediately quitting the cause of the rebellion, and informing him if he would come to Boston, he, Fleming, would procure him a pardon. The doctor said he let the letter lay by him eight or ten days when a thought struck him of making it advantageous to our cause by a fallacious answer, which might gull Fleming and induce him to send the doctor some important intelligence. He observed that there was not a single paragraph in the letter which contained information that could have hurt us, but the exaggerated accounts of our force, strength, and unanimity would tend to dishearten the enemy and keep them quiet at a time when we were poorly able to have withstood a vigorous attack. Those sentences which looked as if the writer despised or was an enemy to the cause which we were all embarked in weren’t necessary to blind his correspondent and produce the effect he anticipated from it.

Jake:
[46:39] He reminded the house that, at the time the letter was wrote, he enjoyed the fullest confidence, was possessed of some secrets, and perfectly knew the state of our politics and intended maneuvers. Therefore, his not communicating an iota that could injure or betray us was a convincing reason that his views were friendly to the cause of our country. It is impossible to write all that he said. Let it suffice to acquaint you that if the force of rhetoric and the powers of language, enforced by all the ingenuity of the doctor, could have made him innocent, he would have appeared spotless as an angel of light. The candid think the doctor was frightened at the length to which matters had arrived, was dubious and fearful how they might terminate, and was solicitous to secure a retreat in case of necessity, but that he meant to provide for his own safety without betraying the interests of America, and that he is rather to be despised for timidity than damned for villainy.

Jake:
[47:38] Because his ship was lost at sea before any answers could be known for sure, this was how history remembered Benjamin Church for a very long time. He was either a patriot with the worst judgment in the world, who was secretly providing disinformation to the enemy, or he was a coward who was trying to cover his own backside in case the patriots were defeated, or he might be a true traitor, selling out the cause for his own private profit. He was remembered as America’s first turncoat, but because his case was always ambivalent, he wasn’t as reviled as somebody like Benedict Arnold. Then, 150 years later, things changed. When William Howe replaced Thomas Gage as commander of the British forces in North America, Gage packed up his belongings and went back to England, leaving his past behind him.

Rediscovery of Church’s Letters

Jake:
[48:32] Of the many trunks that he packed up and shipped back to England, a dozen contained all the papers from his time as governor of Massachusetts and British commander-in-chief in North America. These trunks of papers were left to collect dust, mostly forgotten, in a locked room in his family’s estate.

Jake:
[48:52] In the 1920s, they were rediscovered by a wealthy construction equipment manufacturer and a benefactor of the University of Michigan. A 2017 blog post by a curator at the William L. Clements Library describes what happened to the papers after the library’s namesake purchased them. Not only was their provenance perfectly documented, but the papers were even shipped from England to Bay City in the same 12 military document trunks in which they had been filed during Gage’s command and then sent to England in 1775. In 1937, following the settlement of Clements’ estate, the 12 boxes full of documents arrived at the library in Ann Arbor.

Jake:
[49:37] When these papers were still in William Clement’s private collection, he gave a historian named Alan French access to them in 1927.

Jake:
[49:47] French had already published books about the siege of Boston and the battles of Lexington and Concord, but he wanted to uncover more about the intelligence that General Gage had that led him to order the march to Concord. This curiosity led him to search for more correspondence from Dr. Church to General Gage. Quickly ruling out handwriting comparisons as a way to find a coded message from a potential spy who, after all, was trying to conceal his identity. French instead analyzed the contents of the letters, and he soon found two that were of particular interest. The first page of the first letter was almost entirely crossed out and done so thoroughly that French couldn’t make out any words while examining a photocopy. In his 1932 book, General Gage’s Informers, French describes getting help from someone with access to the original letters. A close study of an enlarged photostat yielded practically nothing to the present writer and to two experienced students. But when appealed to, Miss Jane Clark, secretary to Mr. Clements, took the original letter and found that by holding it over an electric light, not at night when the bulb is too bright, but in the daylight, the two writings are differentiated more easily, though not as easily as I could wish.

Jake:
[51:12] The ink seemed to her to be the same, but in the scoring out, the writer used a heavier stroke. Three words were completely rubbed out so that the paper is thin. Evidently, they were names. Over the first of them was then written Timothy, and over the other two, Such, Flestone. Under the word Timothy, nothing was legible, but under the other two words, Miss Clark thought she read Mrs. Fleming. At the time, she was ignorant that Church’s sister in Boston was the wife of John Fleming, a loyalist. The crossed-out reference to Mrs. Fleming was one clue to the letter’s author, but not a decisive one. That would come in the next newly discovered letter, which contains this sentence. I am appointed, to my vexation, to carry the dispatches to Philadelphia, and must set out tomorrow, which will prevent my writing for some time, unless an opportunity should be found thence by water.

Jake:
[52:20] From this, French concludes, And this is Church. Church and no other. For no one else had been authorized to go to the Congress. In early May 1775, just after the fighting began in Massachusetts, the Provincial Congress chose Dr. Church to go to Philadelphia and to ask the Continental Congress to take a more active role in coordinating the war effort around Boston, and to bless the efforts of the Provincial Congress to assume formal government of the Bay Colony. Their orders say, Resolved, that Dr. Church be ordered to go immediately to Philadelphia and deliver to the President of the Honorable American Congress there now sitting the following application, to be by him communicated to the members thereof, and the said church is also directed to confer with the said Congress, respecting such other matters as may be necessary to the defense of the colony, and particularly as to the state of the army therein.

Jake:
[53:21] As we already heard, the letter that was captured and deciphered contained detailed reports on Continental troop strength, armament, and disposition that Dr. Church gathered on this official trip to Philadelphia.

Jake:
[53:34] Alan French’s research uncovered four more letters from Church in General Gage’s papers, but he dismisses two as mere scraps. Of the remaining two, one contained additional intelligence that he gathered from his official visit to Philly and disclosed a high-level intelligence source within the king’s cabinet who was passing information to the patriots. The other letter outlines the American plan to fortify heights of land in Dorchester and Charlestown, perhaps setting events in motion that culminated with the bloodiest battle of the war at Bunker Hill. One of the letters also includes this rather pointed reminder. The 25th of this month finishes a quarter.

Jake:
[54:17] Alan French’s book points out that the reference to the end of the quarter was a not-so-subtle reminder that the doctor expected to be paid for his efforts. On his Boston 1775 blog, J.L. Bell draws a connection between the Rachel mentioned in this letter and Rachel Revere, Paul’s long-suffering second wife. He highlights a brief note from Rachel Revere to Paul that Benjamin Church carried back out of Boston after his late April visit, writing, It begins, My dear, by Dr. Church I send 125 pounds, and beg you will take the best care of yourself and not attempt coming into this town again. And if I have an opportunity of coming, or sending out anything, or of any of the children, I shall do it.

Jake:
[55:06] Paul Revere never saw the letter addressed to him. Church handed it over to General Thomas Gage, and it was found in the General’s files over a century later. Yet another document that might bear on the relationship between Rachel Revere and Benjamin Church is undated and unsigned. But the handwriting matches what’s on other papers from Church, the General’s best-placed spy. It says in part, Send Rachel out with more practicable instructions. I can’t see how tis possible to write again. There is a close watch set up. Contrivances shall not be wanting if necessary. Send me the news. Bell continues. So what do we know? On the 2nd of May, Rachel Revere was still in Boston, trying to get a pass out of town for herself and the many children. By the 22nd of May, appointing the Jane Triber’s biography A True Republican, the whole family was in Watertown. Did Gage receive Church’s undated note in early May and give Rachel Revere a pass so that she could leave Boston, unwittingly carrying secret instructions to the doctor? Or was there another Rachel? Or was Rachel a codename for somebody else?

Jake:
[56:22] In 2023, Bell published this conclusion that the Gage papers contained yet another letter from Dr. Church. It had appeared in Henry Belcher’s 1911, The First American Civil War, but there it was just attributed to an American spy. Bell was able to match the handwriting to other documents by Church. This letter corrects the record about how much powder the Americans had on hand. So if any of Church’s accusers had seen this one, his claim to have been trying to scare the British with reports of American strength would have fallen flat. It also contained intimate details of Benedict Arnold’s expedition to Quebec, which might well have been how the Canadians knew he was coming. Which, as a side note, it is incredibly ironic for the most famous American traitor to have been betrayed by America’s first traitor. With this new information, though, it’s clear. This was no deception campaign meant to buy time while the Americans consolidated their forces, nor was it an attempt to cover his backside in case of an American defeat.

The Truth of Treason

Jake:
[57:33] This was treason in the face of the enemy for money.

Jake:
[57:39] To learn more about the treachery of Dr. Benjamin Church, check out the show notes this week at hubhistory.com slash 337. I’ll have links to the books that I quoted from extensively this week, General Gage’s Informers by Alan French, and Benjamin Church’s Spy by John Nagy, along with links to a couple of different series of posts about the Church case on J.L. Bell’s excellent Boston 1775 blog. I’ll link to primary sources, like the 1773 Boston Massacre Oration by Benjamin Church, the 1798 letter from Paul Revere with his opinions of Church, and letters from George Washington, Billy Tudor, Charles Lee, Nathan Rice, and Mercy Otis Warren. I’ll also include a blog post from modern librarians at the University of Michigan describing the rediscovery of the papers of General Gage, which enabled the 20th century research, revealing the extent of Dr. Church’s treason. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hubhistory.com. I’m on social media with profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as hubhistory, and one on Mastodon, where you can find me as at hubhistory at better.boston.

Jake:
[58:58] The one social media site where I’m actually active day-to-day and looking for interaction is Blue Sky. Over there, you can find me by searching hubhistory.com. For a one-stop shop to get in touch with me, just go to hubhistory.com and click on the Contact Us link. While you’re on the site, hit the Subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode. If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. If you do, drop me a line and I’ll send you a Hub History sticker as a token of appreciation. That’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.