333:), which they hoped would distract Britain. Though Deane and other Americans thought France would form an alliance, the ploy came to nothing. Nevertheless, it greatly troubled Bancroft. On July 26, 1776, Bancroft returned to London, assuring Deane that he would spy for the colonies. In London, Bancroft sent copies of recent newspapers and pamphlets on current affairs and long letters to Deane to keep the Americans informed about the thinking of the British government and people. Bancroft arranged to have his dispatches smuggled into France in French diplomatic pouches to avoid having them opened by the London post office. In December 1776, the arsonist
326:(a generous amount) for travel expenses. Deane did not mention political issues in case the letter was intercepted. Bancroft met with Deane on July 8 and learned that Deane's purpose in France was to win French aid for the Americans against Britain. While Bancroft declined the invitation to attend negotiations, he did serve as Deane's assistant and interpreter. Deane's negotiations resulted in France sending some supplies to the Americans.
1133:
40:
420:, that even if he suspected his valet to be a spy, "as he probably is, I think I should not discharge him for that, if in other Respects I lik'd him." Although some historians believe the letter indicates Franklin's suspicion of Bancroft, others have noted that after the war, Franklin remained on good terms with Bancroft while he shunned other
372:
Bancroft assisted
Franklin and Deane by copying letters and other documents, by translating diplomatic correspondence into French or English, and by arranging for repairs, hiring crews, and buying supplies for American ships in French ports. Thus Bancroft had access to much sensitive information that
365:, where Bancroft agreed to become a spy for Britain. A couple of days later, on August 14, 1776, Bancroft composed a nine-page report detailing what Deane had been able to accomplish since arriving in France. In early February 1777, Bancroft visited John the Painter while he was in prison in London.
317:
sent Silas Deane (Bancroft's former teacher) to France in 1776, Franklin instructed Deane to contact
Bancroft, believing he would be a source of useful information. Deane arrived in France on June 7, 1776; the next day he wrote to Bancroft in London, asking him to come to Paris. In the letter, Deane
448:
by claiming that while dying, Deane had uttered blasphemous and atheistic statements that he had supposedly derived from
Priestley. Priestley, who had never met Deane, pleaded with Bancroft to set the record straight. Bancroft responded by publishing in several newspapers an account provided by the
368:
Soon after this, Franklin arrived to take over the negotiations with France. Bancroft was ordered to associate himself with
Franklin. Fortuitously, Franklin appointed Bancroft as secretary to the American Commission in Paris. On March 26, 1777, Bancroft departed London for Paris, where his wife and
407:
charged that
Bancroft had met with members of king's privy council; and in April 1778, a sea captain named Musco Livingston told Lee that in London he had seen a letter written by Bancroft that provided details about the French treaty before it had been signed. When Lee accused Bancroft of being a
402:
being built in
Amsterdam. Because of intelligence provided by Bancroft, the British successfully pressured the Dutch to cancel the sale of the ship. Nevertheless, with smaller vessels, Jones successfully raided coastal towns in England and Ireland and captured two British warships despite regular
376:
Bancroft reported under the cover of weekly letters to "Mr. Richards", signed "Edward
Edwards", about "gallantry" (exploits with women). But between the lines of the cover text, Bancroft wrote his reports in a special ink. Every Tuesday after 9:30 PM, he put the letter in a bottle, tied a string
349:
Though
Bancroft had worked for Franklin and Deane, he was unenthusiastic about American independence, and the possibility of a French war against Britain alarmed him. Despite his promise to Deane, he had reservations about doing anything that might promote a rift between Britain and the American
456:
suggested that
Bancroft might have poisoned Deane, then spread rumors that Deane had committed suicide in an attempt to cover up the murder. In the years since Boyd's articles appeared, his thesis has been largely dismissed as "ungrounded conjectures"; nevertheless, the theory has been widely
225:
On July 14, 1763, after fleeing his apprenticeship, Bancroft left New
England for the sugar-producing slave colonies of Dutch Guiana, where he became a plantation doctor. He soon expanded his practice to multiple plantations and wrote a study of the local environment. Based on observations of
242:, he embarked on a career as a man of letters. Bancroft later wrote extensively about the chemistry of dyes, based in part on his work in Dutch Guiana, contrasting non-European dyeing techniques unfavorably with the learned "philosophical chemistry" of natural philosophers like himself.
773:
1191:
408:
traitor, Jones came to his defense; and in early 1779, Jones convinced Livingston to retract his accusation. (Livingston's accusations had been true, but the rumor that Bancroft had met with the privy council was not.)
403:
intelligence provided the British by Bancroft. Unaware that Bancroft was a British spy, Jones and Bancroft became close friends, and Jones even used him as an intermediary with Franklin. In the summer of 1777,
777:
1196:
389:
just two days after it was signed. Bancroft was "successful but ineffective"; that is, though he gathered a good deal of information, the British were unable to prevent a Franco-American alliance.
261:
and make recommendations for more efficient operation. Bancroft spent two months there before returning to London. While in Surinam, Bancroft wrote a three-volume, semi-autobiographical novel,
510:
492:
in 1797. Bancroft's wife, Penelope, died on May 10, 1784, at home in London while Bancroft was on a trip to Philadelphia. Bancroft himself died on September 7, 1821, at Addington Place in
234:
discharged electricity to stun their prey, rather than by an imperceptibly swift mechanical action, as had previously been argued. Although he left South America in 1766, he published
1221:
736:"Fugitive Colours: Shamans' Knowledge, Chemical Empire and Atlantic Revolutions," in Simon Schaffer, et al., eds., The Brokered World: Go-Betweens and Global Intelligence, 1770-1820
1216:
213:, a schoolmaster who later became an important politician and diplomat with whom he would work in Paris. At the age of sixteen, Bancroft was apprenticed to a physician in
440:
in 1789 aboard a ship about to sail to America, Bancroft suggested in a private conversation that Deane had committed suicide. The following year an anonymous pamphlet,
1142:
381:
in Paris. A British official retrieved the message and replaced it with new orders. Bancroft would return later that night to recover the bottle. Through this method,
505:
369:
children joined him two months later. For his spying, the British promised Bancroft a pension of £200. (This amount was later increased to £500 and then £1,000.)
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1186:
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ship's captain, which stated that Deane had become suddenly ill and had been unable to say anything comprehensible during the four hours before his death.
91:
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tried to mediate the dispute, and Bancroft did make small payments to Jones; but when Jones died in July 1792, Bancroft apparently still owed him £1,800.
293:
in 1773 as "a gentleman versed in natural history and Chymistry, and author of the natural history of Guiana". In the summer of 1773, Bancroft joined the
1211:
1176:
477:; and he convinced John Paul Jones to invest a large sum in the business. In 1789 Jones accused Bancroft of fraud and withholding money owed him.
353:
In London he met Paul Wentworth, recently recruited by the British Secret Service. Wentworth arranged for Bancroft to meet Secret Service chief
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In May 1778, Jones wrote to Bancroft asking for funds to feed his crew and the British prisoners they had taken; Franklin provided the money.
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Deane told Bancroft that American leaders hoped to embroil Britain in a war against other foes (specifically, an alliance of France and
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202:. His father died of an epileptic seizure when Bancroft was two years old, and his mother remarried five years later to David Bull of
1122:
870:
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593:
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beliefs, ridiculing passages in the Bible and criticizing Christianity for its "detestable spirit of intolerance and persecution."
496:. Bancroft's activity as a double agent was not revealed until 1891, when British diplomatic papers were released to the public.
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experiments already being performed on live eels by Dutch colonists in and around Surinam and Essequibo, Bancroft concluded that
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In 1771 Edward married the twenty-two year old Penelope Fellows, daughter of a prominent Catholic family. A son,
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151:
20:
428:. The vast majority of historians reject the thesis that Franklin was in any way disloyal to the United States.
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195:
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57:
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269:, which follows the life of a plantation owner (with the same surname as his friend and employer), imitates
718:
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404:
217:, but after a few years ran away. (Bancroft returned and repaid his debt to his former master in 1766.)
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Spark from the Deep: How Shocking Experiments with Strongly Electric Fish Powered Scientific Discovery
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On January 19, 1777, Franklin wrote to Juliana Ritchie, a woman living in a Benedictine convent in
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January 9, 1744] – September 7, 1821) was an American physician and chemist who became a
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publicized in a popular American textbook: James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle,
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257:'s colonial agent in London, who hired Bancroft to survey Wentworth's plantation in
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488:, a book he updated in 1814. He was also elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the
289:, was born in 1772; they eventually had six more children. Bancroft was elected a
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210:
203:
1040:
Experimental Researches Concerning the Philosophy of Permanent Colors, volume 1
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A Most Amazing Scene of Wonders: Electricity and Enlightenment in Early America
587:
722:
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338:
862:
The Incendiary: The Misadventures of John the Painter, First Modern Terrorist
341:
dock and then visited Bancroft. Bancroft refused to give him any assistance.
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657:
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649:
493:
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83:
998:
738:. Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications. pp. 271–320.
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Experimental Researches Concerning the Philosophy of Permanent Colors
469:
Following the Revolutionary War, Bancroft obtained patents to import
1151:. Vol. 1. Boston: American Biographical Society. p. 202.
378:
279:
179:
87:
634:
Finger, Stanley (2009). "Edward Bancroft's "Torporific Eels"".
473:
into Britain and France to be turned into a yellow dye called
396:
arrived in France, expecting to be given command of the ship
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said they would discuss procuring goods for trading with the
719:
An Essay on the Natural History of Guiana, in South America
236:
An Essay on the Natural History of Guiana, in South America
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Alumni of the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital
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Intelligence operations in the American Revolutionary War
411:
178:
while serving as secretary to the American commission in
19:
For the English physician, botanist, and zoologist, see
552:
550:
1197:
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
997:
Dennis Kent Anderson and Godfrey Tryggve Anderson, "
983:"Silas Deane: Death by a Kindly Teacher of Treason?"
412:
Franklin's possible knowledge of Bancroft's intrigue
147:
121:
106:
98:
68:
46:
30:
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238:in London 1769, where with the encouragement of
623:. Harvard University Press. pp. Chapter 5.
459:After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection
506:Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War
377:around it, and left it in a hole in a certain
1222:American spies during the American Revolution
988:, 3rd ser. 16 (1959), 165-87, 310-42, 515-50.
697:. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
592:. A Counterintelligence Reader. Vol. 1.
8:
1217:British spies during the American Revolution
436:After the death of former American diplomat
373:he was able to pass along to the British.
194:Bancroft was born on January 20, 1745, in
38:
27:
999:The Death of Silas Deane: Another Opinion
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1113:Edward Bancroft: Scientist, Author, Spy
1062:. American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1057:"Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B"
546:
522:
444:, attacked the scientist and clergyman
140: 1771; died 1784)
1148:The Biographical Dictionary of America
865:. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.
490:American Academy of Arts and Sciences
263:The History of Charles Wentworth, Esq
7:
1227:People from Westfield, Massachusetts
1117:. New Haven: Yale University Press.
637:Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
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110:Scientist, writer, doctor, and spy (
589:American Revolution to World War II
1187:People from colonial Massachusetts
387:French-American Treaty of Alliance
315:Committee of Secret Correspondence
309:Spying for the Americans in London
249:(1769) attracted the attention of
14:
594:Federation of American Scientists
1212:American critics of Christianity
1177:18th-century American physicians
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465:Life after the Revolutionary War
297:, though he did not receive his
776:. Royal Society. Archived from
774:"Library and Archive Catalogue"
137:
461:(Boston: McGraw Hill, 1982 ).
16:American physician (1745–1821)
1:
1127:– via Internet Archive.
209:There Bancroft studied under
1202:Fellows of the Royal Society
1109:Schaeper, Thomas J. (2011).
484:In 1794, Bancroft published
691:Turkel, William J. (2013).
291:fellow of the Royal Society
160:Edward Bartholomew Bancroft
51:Edward Bartholomew Bancroft
1248:
986:William and Mary Quarterly
184:American Revolutionary War
116:American Revolutionary War
18:
875:– via Google Books.
734:Delbourgo, James (2009).
707:– via Google Books.
619:Delbourgo, James (2006).
424:, including his own son,
322:, and he enclosed thirty
295:Medical Society of London
247:Natural History of Guiana
215:Killingworth, Connecticut
152:Edward Nathaniel Bancroft
37:
21:Edward Nathaniel Bancroft
859:Warner, Jessica (2005).
813:, pp. 47–48, 58–59.
586:Frank J. Rafalko (ed.).
278:and reflects Bancroft's
221:South America and London
162:(January 20, 1745 [
58:Westfield, Massachusetts
1046:, links from HathiTrust
763:, pp. 30–31, 239.
345:Spying for the British
303:University of Aberdeen
245:In London, Bancroft's
170:, spying for both the
1003:New England Quarterly
1029:, pp. 192, 247.
1017:, pp. 226, 294.
432:Death of Silas Deane
337:set a fire near the
1095:, pp. 261–262.
1083:, pp. 239–240.
1038:E. Bancroft (1814)
972:, pp. 220–222.
936:, pp. 198–199.
924:, pp. 195–198.
912:, pp. 177–178.
900:, pp. 176–178.
717:E. Bancroft (1769)
452:In 1959, historian
1005:57 (1984), 98-105.
650:10.1353/pbm.0.0072
392:In December 1777,
385:may have seen the
1139:Johnson, Rossiter
888:, pp. 89–94.
849:, pp. 52–56.
837:, pp. 76–80.
825:, pp. 71–73.
801:, pp. 35–37.
751:, pp. 25–29.
479:Gouverneur Morris
240:Benjamin Franklin
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102:American, British
72:September 7, 1821
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32:Edward Bancroft
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1172:1821 deaths
1167:1745 births
454:Julian Boyd
438:Silas Deane
211:Silas Deane
204:Connecticut
182:during the
99:Nationality
1161:Categories
723:HathiTrust
537:References
475:quercitron
442:Theodosius
405:Arthur Lee
383:George III
357:and Lords
350:colonies.
339:Portsmouth
271:Voltaire's
190:Early life
76:1821-09-08
784:March 14,
542:Citations
471:black oak
422:Loyalists
313:When the
301:from the
196:Westfield
1044:volume 2
666:20569649
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500:See also
379:box tree
363:Weymouth
148:Children
1102:Sources
1066:May 17,
494:Margate
426:William
418:Cambrai
359:Suffolk
331:Prussia
320:Indians
280:deistic
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259:Surinam
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517:Notes
180:Paris
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1068:2011
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654:PMID
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