Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 211 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

1. "Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr. (1734-1778) was a respected medical man and civic leader in colonial Boston who was accused of being an agent for the British in the 1770s, providing compromising intelligence about the plans of the provincial leadership in Massachusetts as well as important information from the meetings of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. ... In Dr. Benjamin Church, Spy: A Case of Espionage on the Eve of the American Revolution, noted authority John A. Nagy has scoured original documents to establish the best case against Church, identifying previously unacknowledged correspondence and reports as containing references to the doctor and his activities, and noting an incriminating letter in the possession of the Library of Congress that is a coded communication composed by Church to his British contact. Nagy shows that at the cusp of the revolution, when the possibility--let alone the outcome--of an American colonial rebellion was far from assured, Church sought to align himself with the side he thought would emerge victorious--the British crown--and thus line his pockets with money that he desperately needed. A fascinating investigation into a centuries-old intrigue, this well-researched volume is an important contribution to American Revolution scholarship."--Publisher website.

Alternative title

1. Doctor Benjamin Church, spy

Subject

1. Church, Benjamin. - [Browse in index]
2. United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Secret service. - [Browse in index]
3. Espionage -- United States -- History -- 18th century. - [Browse in index]
4. Espionage -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century. - [Browse in index]
5. American loyalists -- Massachusetts -- Boston. - [Browse in index]
6. Massachusetts -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Secret service. - [Browse in index]
7. Spies -- Great Britain -- Biography. - [Browse in index]
8. Traitors -- United States -- Biography. - [Browse in index]

Genre/Form

1. History
2. Biographies
3. History.
4. Biography
5. Biography.

Contents

1. Introduction -- Ancestry and early years -- Boston massacre -- A good drunk for only the cost of a copper -- The spy game -- The ciphered letter -- Black treachery -- Transformed vice into virtue -- Paying the piper -- Conclusion -- Appendices -- A. Doctor Benjamin Church Jr.'s autopsy of Crispus Attucks -- B. Letter from John Fleeming to Dr. Benjamin Church -- C. Doctor Benjamin Church's intercepted letter -- D. The mysterious woman with the ciphered letter -- E. Council of war -- F. Account of the examination of Dr. Benjamin Church written while he was in prison at Cambridge -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index.

Owning institution

1. Harvard Library

Language

1. English

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-201) and index.

Processing action (note)

1. committed to retain