John A. Nagy - Dr. Benjamin Church, Spy: A Case of Espionage on the Eve of the American Revolution

I first heard about Dr. Benjamin Church Jr. when I read Carl Van Dorens Secret History of the American Revolution in the early 1980s. I followed it up with Allen Frenchs General Gages Informers; New Material Upon Lexington & Concord: Benjamin Thompson as Loyalist & the Treachery of Benjamin Church, Jr. I was intrigued with the story of this first American traitor and have been interested in his involvement in American Revolutionary War events ever since. Most accounts of Church record his public activities, his membership in committees, and other generalities. I wanted to know more. As with most spies, there is very little of a paper trail of his nefarious activities. Spies by nature try very hard to avoid leaving evidence. I took up the challenge of assembling his story in 1992.

Churchs story is about one of the most admired and respected patriots in Massachusetts. It is intertwined with the founding of the revolutionary movement in Massachusetts. He was a very skilled doctor, poet, and orator. In this book, I am not going to evaluate his poetry. For those interested in his poems, I suggest Jeffrey B. Walkers The Devil Undone: The Life and Poetry of Benjamin Church 17341778. It contains all of Churchs poems and a critique of his efforts.

Church was an esteemed member of the inner circle of Massachusetts revolutionaries. He was certainly in the same leadership level with John and Samuel Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren, and John Hancock, and a step above Paul Revere. He was on almost every committee of importance and involved in drafting many important letters. I thought his involvement in the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and Committee of Safety needed to come to light and have included them. To understand him, it is important to know some of the events that occurred around him, and I have included these, too.

With the Adamses and Hancock in Philadelphia for the Continental Congress and Warren having been killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, Church was left as the on-site political leader of Massachusettsand Church was a British spy. It makes me wonder how we won the war; his activities certainly increased the odds against an American victory.

The Adamses and Hancock did have a long reach back to Massachusetts from Philadelphia. Two weeks after Warren died, George Washington garnered all the public attention with his arrival as commander in chief of the army, dimming Churchs public persona.

When Church appeared before the Continental Congress meeting in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia in June 1775, its members were so impressed with his abilities that they appointed him director and chief physician of the first American army hospital at Cambridge, Massachusetts. It gave him unlimited access to American military facilities and knowledge of the readiness of American forces.

The emotional impact on American society of his discovery as a British spy would be surpassed during the American Revolution only by Benedict Arnolds being found to be a traitor of the blackest dye. The discovery of one of their inner circle being a British spy was a shock to John Adams and many others in fall 1775. It was an inconceivable event.

A number of books have been published over the last few years on forgotten founders of the United States. Church certainly is one of the forgotten founders and one of the American Revolutionary Wars political elite. His story is one that I thought finally needed to be told.

ONE

In 1630, just ten years after the arrival of the Pilgrims, Richard Church arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He served as a sergeant against the Pequot Indians in the Pequot War (16341638).

Richard and Elizabeths third child was Benjamin Church, who was born in 1638 or 1639 in Plymouth.

Governor Josiah Winslow of the Plymouth Colony commissioned Benjamin Church to form a ranger company. The family lived in Boston, and he was a vendue master, now called an auctioneer. His business was on Newbury (now Washington) Street, two doors south of the sign of the Lamb. He served as a captain under his father, Colonel Benjamin Church, in the fifth expedition against the French and Indians in 1704. He died in late 1706. Edwards brother Thomas published an account of their fathers exploits in King Philips War in 1716.

Edward and Martha Church had a son named Benjamin. He graduated from Harvard College in 1727 with some politically important classmates: Thomas Hutchinson, the future governor of Massachusetts, and Jonathan Trumbull, the future governor of Connecticut. The family moved to Boston circa 1740. Benjamin followed in his fathers business as a vendue master in Boston. His place of business was on Newbury Street.

In 1745, he served as constable of Boston, and he was an assessor for the town from 1752 to 1777.

On Sunday, January 16, 1763, a fire broke out about 10 a.m. in Daniel Joness hatter shop on Newbury Street or in a tenement next to it. The fire quickly spread to several buildings on the north and south sides of the street. The fire destroyed David Wheelers blacksmith shop, William Wheelers cooper shop, Jonathan Wheelers house, and a double house belonging to Benjamin Church that was occupied by Ambrose Vincent and Benjamin Hanners.