Benjamin's story. . .continued

Benjamin's arrest

At the end of our last post, we left Ben making his way back to Woburn after a two week illicit affair with the wife of a Boston newspaperman. Little did he know that Woburn wasn't the safe haven he had expected. In his absence, however, soldiers had been out to his mother's house twice in an attempt to arrest him. Ben's friend Loammi, who lived close by, had luckily been able to talk the soldiers down, but only for a while. In contrast to Ben, Loammi was a Patriot all the way. A highly respected citizen of Woburn, he served on the Committee of Correspondence and would be on hand in a month's time to lead the Woburn contingent to Lexington on April 19, 1775.

In spite of Loammi's efforts, Ben's reprieve was fairly short lived. The confrontations at Lexington and Concord enflamed the citizens of Woburn and they turned their wrath onto Ben who was summarily arrested and taken to jail. The Committee of Correspondence in Woburn, which included our cousins Samuel Wyman (2C8X), Samuel Blodgett (2C8X) and Loammi Baldwin, were tasked with an inquiry into Benjamin's loyalties:

Major Benjamin Thompson of concord, in the Province of New Hampshire, having been taken up and confined in the Town upon suspicion of being inimical to the liberties of this Country, and his Excellency General Ward (4C10X) having ordered, agreeable to advice of Congress that the Committee of Correspondence for this town, be a Court to inquire into that Matter. . .

 Note: Our cousin General Artemas Ward was still, at the time, commander in chief of the Continental Army.

Though the committee found "nothing against him," probably due to Loammi's influence, Benjamin remained in jail. While confined, he wrote a letter to Loammi asking him to deliver a petition to the Committee of Safety for the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, hoping that they would clear him. On May 22, Ben wrote another letter to addressed to "Colonel Baldwin, Head Quarters, Cambridge" congratulating Loammi on his recent promotion: "I would beg leave to congratulate you upon your promotion in the Army, and I would at the same time congratulate the Public upon the same occasion." From this letter we know that Loammi had been promoted to Lt. Colonel and that he was serving in Cambridge with Artemas Ward's army during the siege of Boston.

Finally, by May 29, the Committee had still found nothing against Benjamin. They wrote that "as he has now given us the strongest assurances of his good intentions, we recommend him to the Friendship, Confidence, and Protection of all good People in this and the neighboring Provinces— Colonies."

For Benjamin, the committee's kind words were a case of too little, too late. Though the committee had made a recommendation for "Friendship, Confidence, and Protection," they hadn't made it public and suspicion against Ben remained. Even before his ordeal ended and he was set free, Benjamin had become rather bitter.

Benjamin's bitterness, and his true loyalties, became apparent in a letter for which he has lately been given the credit of writing. Sanborn C. Brown, an Associate Professor of Physics at MIT and Elbridge W. Stein, an Examiner of Questioned Documents in New York City, have positively identified Ben as the author of a secret ink letter. From their paper published in the American Journal of Police Science:

Within a few days of the Battle of Lexington, British headquarters in Boston received a secret ink letter which revealed details of the military plans of the patriot forces in New England. The message was developed, the signatures obliterated, and the document filed to be neglected for generations. This is the first known example of the use of secret ink in the American Revolution. . .It assumes importance now because mounting evidence indicates that the author was one of the most brilliant scientists of the era and a historical figure whose spectacular rise to political and military fame makes the motives of his early career worthy of close examination.

The letter is dated May 6, 1775, at which time Benjamin was still incarcerated in the Woburn jail. The idently of the recipient has never been ascertained. According to Brown and Stein, "[t]he letter was originally written in two parts, a short visible cover letter and a long invisible part which was left developed by the recipient or has become developed in the intervening years." Part of the invisible ink portion reads:  

The only information that I can give you that can be of any consequence I lately received from a Field officer in the Rebel Army (if that mass of confusion may be called an Army) & from a member of the Provincial Congress that is now setting at Watertown. By them I learn that an Army consisting of 30,000 effective men is speedily to be raised in the four New England Governments, & that the quota for this Province is 13600. That as soon as this Army shall be raised & regulated it is generally supposed that the first movement will be to make a feint attack upon the Town of Boston, & at the same time to attempt the Castle with the main body of their Army. . .

I am credibly informed that the Congress mean now to prosecute their plan of Independence at all adventures & application will speedily be made to some one of the European Powers for assistance. . .And this I am the more ready to believe as I have it from a member of the Congress, one who is intimately acquainted with the secrets of the party, & a man whom I cannot suspect of any design either to amuse or deceive me.

This letter makes fairly apparent that Benjamin had become a spy for the British and was passing information to them.

Below is the first page of Ben's three page letter. The words in bold are the visible part of the letter:

From this action, it was clear that Benjamin was done with America. In a letter to his father-in-law he wrote of his tribulations and his future plans:

Many other crimes which you do not mention have been laid to my charge, for which I have had to answer both publicly and privately. Mine enemies are indefatigable in their indeavours to distress me, and I find to my sorrow that they are but too successful. I have been driven from the Camp by the clamours of the New Hampshire People, and am again threaten'd in this place. But I hope soon to be out of the reach of my Cruel Persecutors, for I am determined to seek for that Peace and Protection in foreign Lands and among strangers which is deny'd me in my native country. I cannot any longer bear the insults that are daily offered me. . .This step, I am sensible, is violent, but my case is desperate.

Benjamin went on to say that he hoped his family would be taken care of and that in the future, he would be able to return "to my family in peace and safety, and when every individual in America may sit down under his own vine, and under his own Fig-tree, and have none to make him afraid is the constant and devout wish of Your dutiful and Affectionate Son, Benj Thompson."

Benjamin's past and future actions, however, prove that he most probably never had any intention of returning his wife and staid life in Concord, New Hampshire.

Ben goes to Boston

After being released from jail, Benjamin remained in Woburn for two months while he settled his affairs. He sold a small piece of property he owned in Woburn to Loammi's brother Cyrus Baldwin (3C7X) who we wrote about in our "Cousin Cyrus' Tea Woes" post.

This indenture of Agreement made this 21st day June, 1775, between Cyrus Baldwin, of Boston, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, merchant, on the one part, and Benjamin

Thompson, of Concord, in the Province of New Hampshire, Esq., on the other part. Witnesseth: That whereas the said Thompson has this day given a deed to said Baldwin, of a certain tract or piece of land lying in Woburn and Wilmington, containing 20 Acres and 67 Poles; And as said Baldwin has this day drawn an order for value received in favor of said Thompson for the amount of £32 17 2, Lawful Money in goods, to be delivered at said Baldwin's Store in Boston. . .

When Ben finally left Woburn, the "foreign Lands" he had written about in a letter to his father-in-law turned out to be Boston where the British were holed up. And the "stranger" he turned to for "protection" turned out to be Benjamin's friend General Thomas Gage, commander in chief of the British army.

Benjamin had unequivocally thrown his lot in with the British. He remained in Boston until the British withdrawal from that city in March of 1776.

Ben in England

As the British army made its way up to Canada to prepare for an assault on New York, Benjamin was sent to London by General William Howe, then commander in chief of the British Army, with news of the army's impeding plans.

George Ellis, in a biography of Benjamin, wrote about his fortunes in London:

Benjamin must have done appreciable service in the four or five months of his new apprenticeship in Boston, in order to have won so soon the place of an official in the British government. But it seemed to be the story of Benjamin's life that he was easily able to ingratiate himself and move up the ladder no matter wherever he was.

Ellis maintains that, once in London, Benjamin "threw his whole efficiency -- doubtless also his pride and ambition -- into the service of the British ministry."

Benjamin later confided to a friend in Europe that "[i]f the death of my father, had not, contrary to the order of nature, preceded that of my grandfather, who gave all his property to my uncle, his second son, I should have lived and died an American husbandman."

What Benjamin wrote may or may not be true. In any case, he never did return to America. As we shall see, his future life lay in England, Bavaria and France. Benjamin's story, like Loammi's, will continue in future posts.