250 years ago today, a letter from George Washington 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 seemed to embody the American cause.  He was a Harvard-educated physician who had 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 coded letter, a secret mistress, and a suspicious baker would unravel a web of deceit that would make Benedict Arnold blush.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/337/

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America’s First Traitor

• Decode the ciphered letter yourself with a hands-on exercise from the National Park Service


• Benjamin Church’s 1773 Massacre Oration


• The “Boston Pamphlet” of 1772


• Paul Revere’s 1798 letter to Jeremy Belknap


• Billy Tudor’s letter to John Adams


• Charles Lee’s letter to John Adams


• Mercy Otis Warren’s letter to John Adams


• Nathan Rice’s letter to John Adams


• George Washington to John Hancock


• George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull


• Nagy, John A. DR. BENJAMIN CHURCH, SPY : A Case of Espionage on the Eve of the American Revolution. Westholme, 2013.


• French, Allen. General Gage’s Informers. Greenwood, 1933.


• Bell, JL. “Rachel Revere and Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr.” Boston 1775, 2009 (and following articles in the series)


• Bell, JL. ““He Particularly Enlarged His Accounts of Our Ammunition”?” Boston 1775, 2023 (and following articles in the series)


• Rediscovering General Gage’s correspondence