Richard the Spy
by Rod D. Moody
The Carpenter
family record featured in this month's "Ask a Librarian" was given to the
Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities in Boston in 1934 by Mrs.
Walter K. Watkins, whose husband was an author, genealogist, and life member of
NEHGS. It was donated to NEHGS in 1957.
The document, which is torn in a few areas, appears to be that of a Bible
record. It is important when compared with the section on this family in the
1898 genealogy written by Amos B. Carpenter titled A Genealogical History of
the Rehoboth Branch of the Carpenter Family in America as it seems to prove
that the conclusion made by the author about the identity of Richard Carpenter
was erroneous. The record also sheds light on other aspects of Richard's life
and family, which were also incorrectly documented or inconclusive in the
genealogy.
The record lists the family of Richard Carpenter, who is referred to in the
genealogy as "Richard the spy." An excerpt from the genealogy describes how
Carpenter may have acquired this distinction — at the request of George
Washington himself.
"When a General takes the command of an army, the first measures taken are to
learn the strength and plans of the enemy. This is accomplished generally
through the agency of spies. According to the rules of war, spies are not
treated as prisoners of war, but are tried and if convicted are immediately
executed. There are only a very few persons who are willing to run the risk of
being taken prisoner and executed.
"The importance of such a mission cannot be estimated. Not more than one in
five hundred is well calculated for that position. No person would be selected
unless he was well known and trustworthy. He must be a person of courage,
capable of assuming and representing different characters, cunning, shrewd and
discreet.
"The compiler believes that when General Washington took the command of the
Continental forces, all the above qualities were found in the person of Richard
Carpenter, No. 349, of Goshen, N. Y. and that it was by the solicitation
of General Washington in person that Richard consented to comply
with his request, considering freedom worth more to the colonist than
life. Without the usual parting words with his friends he starts off with
Washington for Boston. It would not be prudent for his friends to know his
mission."
The author cites family tradition as further indication of a close
relationship between the General and the Carpenter family.
"The family of descendants of Richard the spy have a record intermixed with
tradition in which we have full confidence of its correctness, viz, Richard the
spy married Hannah or Elizabeth Brackett of Boston a most estimable woman, an
acquaintance of General Washington who on all occasions when called to Boston
visited them, also gave her many valuable presents, and after the death of her
husband, he found her a situation in Governor Hancock's family as housekeeper,
and furnished all necessary wants till her children were large enough to support
her."
The genealogy also tells of two different family traditions regarding his
confinement and fate; both are excerpted below.
"There is a tradition that Richard the spy was taken by the British and
accused of being a spy and imprisoned on an English war vessel in Boston harbor,
he claiming to be an Irishman, an emigrant from Ireland, and was not connected
with the Revolution, imitating the Irish brogue so accurately that they were
unable to convict him but kept him a prisoner, he was taken sick and died a
prisoner, claiming to the last that he was an Irishman.
"Another tradition that he was taken prisoner and convicted of being a spy
and was executed about 1781 or 1782, and his wife with the younger child in her
arms was permitted to visit him the night before he was executed, both
traditions agree that he claimed to be an Irishman, and is called Richard the
spy."
The author goes on to argue that Richard the spy and Richard of Goshen, New
York, son of Samuel, are one and the same. Richard of Goshen was born about
1748, married, settled on a 100-acre lot in Goshen, and in 1774 a daughter,
Phebe was born. According to the genealogy, this was also the year that
Richard's wife died, after which no record is found of Richard in the vicinity
of Goshen or about the sale of his lot. Richard of Goshen had siblings Samuel,
William, Abraham, John, Joshua, Abigail (probably a twin to Richard), Martha,
and "a child not named."
The great grandson of Richard the spy, George O. Carpenter, stated in the
genealogy that Richard married Elizabeth Brackett at King's Chapel and had sons
(Amos Carpenter's comments follow the names of the children) Samuel ("probably
named after Richard's father or brother Samuel"), William ("named after
Richard's brother William"), Richard, and daughters Abigail ("no doubt a twin to
Richard and named after the twins in his father's family"), and Sophronia
("probably named after his first wife").
A sister of George O. Carpenter recalled that "my great aunt Catherine
Carpenter used to tell us about her brother Richard who married a lady in
Philadelphia. He must have been a son of Richard the spy."
It is interesting to compare the Carpenter family record with the information
in Carpenter genealogy and the recollections of descendants. It provides the
date and place of Richard and Elizabeth's wedding, their places of origin
(which, if true, explains Richard's accurate imitation of the Irish brogue), and
the names and birthdates for their children. Further, it describes Richard's
fate and appears to disprove Carpenter's theory that Richard of Goshen and
Richard the spy were the same. Below are the key points of interest:
1. The document appears to indicate that Richard of Goshen and Richard the
spy were not the same person. Carpenter's genealogy states that Richard of
Goshen had a daughter in 1774, which was also the year his first wife died. This
would mean that Richard would have married Elizabeth Brackett after 1774. The
family document gives the year of his marriage to Elizabeth Brackett as 1770 at
the King's Chapel in Boston. Records from the church confirm this date.
2. Perhaps the "fake" Irish brogue wasn't fake after all. The document
appears to read "was married Richard Carpenter of Dublin in Ireland to Elizabeth
Brackett of Boston."
3. Family record lists the following children of Richard and Elizabeth (note
the absence of the supposed twins Abigail and Richard, and Sophronia, which
further diminishes Carpenter's theory about the two Richards):
Richard
Carpenter, born March 28, 1772
Elizabeth Carpenter, born August 8,
1773
Samuel Carpenter, born September 19, 1775
George Brackett Carpenter,
born August 2, 1778, died January 2, 1779
Kathrine Carpenter, born February
15, 1780
3. The fate of Richard is documented here as well. It appears that Richard
was exchanged in late 1776 or January 1777. He returned to active duty in
February of 1777, then resigned from the army in October of that year[1] . What
occurred between his resignation and his second imprisonment between 1779 and
1781 is unknown, except that he fathered two additional children, George and
Kath[e]rine. Richard Carpenter died on a prison boat in New York in 1781 [2]
. It is not clear if he was executed or died of other causes.
One entry of the family record reads:
"Richard Carpenter Senior Returned from his captivity in Feby 1777 after
being Nineteen Months absent from his family During which time he was under
sentance of Death for Fritning the Generals Gage How Burgoin & Clinton and
twenty two British Regiments in the town of Boston but through the goodness of
Almight God I am now clear of them all"
A subsequent entry reads:
"Richard Carpenter Senior, Died onboard the
Prison Ship at New York 6th Jany 1781 in the 35th Year of His Age"
[1] A footnote in Volume 8 of The Papers of George Washington
(University Press of Virginia, 1985-), which covers January to March of 1777
describes a letter that John Hancock wrote to George Washington "recommending
that Washington employ Walter Cruise and Richard Carpenter (1746–1781), two
recently exchanged American officers 'who have been treated with the utmost
Severity by the Enemy ... in the manner you think most proper, and beneficial to
the Service.' An enclosed resolution of 13 Jan. granted $100 each to the two
men. On 24 Jan. Washington sent copies of the resolution to Col. John Patton,
urging Patton to find a spot for Cruise in his regiment, and to the
Massachusetts committee of safety, informing the committee of Carpenter's desire
to serve in that state's line. Both Cruise and Carpenter returned to active
military service in mid-February ... Carpenter as a second lieutenant in the
15th Massachusetts Regiment. Carpenter resigned from the army in October
1777."
[2] Appendix A of Danske Dandridge's American Prisoners of the
Revolution (1911) contains a list of 8000 men who were prisoners on board
the prison ship Old Jersey, which was first moored in 1780 in Wallabout
Bay, off the coast of Long Island. A "Richards Carpenter" is included on the
list. Dandridge describes the Old Jersey thusly: "Of all the ships that
were ever launched the Old Jersey was the most notorious. Never before
or since, in the dark annals of human sufferings, has so small a space enclosed
such a heavy weight of misery. No other prison has destroyed so many human
beings in so short a space of time."
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