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Dr. Edward Bancroft
[text from National Counterintelligence Center]

Among the many spies the British recruited and placed inside the American Commission in Paris under Benjamin Franklin, was one who had access to every secret move, conversation and agreement negotiated between the American delegation and the intermediaries representing the French government. French support and aid was critical to the American revolutionary cause, without it the dream of American independence would have expired. Yet, despite the British intelligence success, the government of Lord North was ineffective in stopping American-French activities. The spy, Dr. Edward Bancroft, was never discovered until seventy years after his death when the British government provided access to its diplomatic archives.

Bancroft was born on 9 January 1744 in Westfield, Massachusetts. When he was two years old his father died of an epileptic seizure leaving his mother to care for the family. Five years later, his mother, Mary, remarried and the family moved with her new husband, David Bull, to Hartford, Connecticut. Bull owned "The Bunch of Grapes" tavern which, on 23 May 1781, hosted a meeting between George Washington and General Jean-Baptiste de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, to plan their siege against British General Lord Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown.

While growing up in Hartford, Bancroft studied under Silas Deane, after the latter's graduation from Yale. Two years later, at age 16, Bancroft was apprenticed to a physician in Killingsworth, Connecticut. Then, on 14 July 1763, Bancroft left the colonies for Surinam where he found employment as a medical chief on one of the plantations. Bancroft expanded his medical practice to several additional plantations and also found time to write a study of Surinam's environment. Bancroft soon grew weary of Surinam and in 1766 began one year of travel between North and South America before sailing for England.

After his arrival in London, Bancroft became a physician's student at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He also published, in 1769, a book titled, "Natural History of Guiana," which brought him to the attention of Paul Wentworth, the colonial agent for New Hampshire in London. Wentworth hired Bancroft to survey his plantation in Surinam with the hope that Bancroft could uncover ways for Wentworth to increase his profits from the land. Bancroft returned to Surinam for several months and then returned to London.

Also in London at the time was Benjamin Franklin, who was the colonial agent for several colonies. Franklin met Bancroft and they became friends. Franklin used Bancroft as a spy to support several of Franklin's colonial activities. When Franklin returned to America, it is unknown if Bancroft continued his spying for Franklin but evidence exists that this may have been the case. For example, when the Committee for Secret Correspondence sent Silas Deane to Paris to examine the political climate of France, Franklin provided Deane instructions to contact Bancroft. Deane was told that to arrange the meeting:

"...by writing a letter to him, under cover to Mr. Griffiths, at Turnham Green, near London, and desiring him to come over to you in France or Holland, on the score of old acquaintance. From him you may obtain a good deal of information of what is now going forward in England, and settle a mode of continuing correspondence. It may be well to remit a small bill to defray his expenses in coming to see you, and avoid all political matters in your letter to him."

If Bancroft was not an agent, why is it suggested that the letter be sent to a cover address rather than to Bancroft directly. Deane had been Bancroft's teacher, so it would be natural for a teacher to try to contact a former successful student. Also, Deane's instructions to devise a contact plan to meet with Bancroft adds further proof of some clandestine relationship.

A day after Deane arrived in France, 7 June 1776, he mailed a letter requesting Bancroft come to Paris to discuss some assistance to Deane in procuring goods for Indian trade and enclosing 30 pounds to defray travel expenses. Bancroft agreed and on 8 July both men met in Paris. Deane and Bancroft quickly established a close rapport, so much so that Deane informed Bancroft of his true mission in Paris.

He told Bancroft that he was attempting to devise a clandestine relationship with the French to obtain military aid for the colonies. Bancroft declined an invitation to attend the negotiations between Deane and the French but agreed to serve as Deane's assistant and interpreter during meetings with French agents, Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais and Monsieur Donatien le Rey de Chaumont. It was at these meetings the details of transferring to the Americans some forty thousand strands of arms, including two hundred cannon with French markings removed, as well as four million lives credit for miscellaneous military supplies.

 Deane informed Bancroft that the American objective was to motivate a Bourbon-Prussian coalition against England on the continent to force the British to redirect their power to a continental conflict and leave the colonies alone. The Americans expected the French to agree to the alliance. In fact, French Foreign Minister, Charles Gravier, the Comte de Vergennes was leaning towards war with England when he learned that General Sir William Howe evacuated Boston but wanted to enlist Spain's assistance and agreement to go to war with Portugal, England's ally. The situation changed when the French learned that Britain defeated Washington's forces on Long Island on 27 August 1776.

Bancroft, saying business matters obliged him to return to London, left France on 26 July 1776. Before departing, he agreed to provide Deane with intelligence gleaned from his contacts in England. Despite his agreement to cooperate, Bancroft was troubled by his new role. He had always supported the British Empire's interest but also adhered to the belief that the colonies and the crown had to reconcile their positions through some compromise. He now realized that this was impossible and that French entry into the conflict would destroy the British empire. Bancroft considered informing the British government about Deane's efforts because he was convinced "that the government of France would endeavor to promote an absolute separation of the then United Colonies from Great Britain; unless a speedy termination of the revolt by reconciliation, or conquest, should frustrate this project."

Before Bancroft had an opportunity to contact the British, he was met by Paul Wentworth. Wentworth was recently recruited by William Eden, chief of the British Secret Service, who assigned Wentworth the task of meeting with his old friend to obtain full details of Bancroft's visit to Paris. Wentworth informed Bancroft that the British knew he met and spent several days with Deane. Wentworth asked Bancroft to meet with Eden. Bancroft agreed and shortly thereafter a meeting was held between Bancroft, Eden, and Lords Suffolk and Weymouth to discuss the colonial rebellion. At this meeting, Bancroft was recruited as a double agent for the British. He later wrote of his decision:

"I had then resided near ten years, and expected to reside the rest of my life in England; and all my views, interests and inclinations were adverse to the independency of the colonies, though I had advocated some of their claims, from a persuasion of their being founded in justice. I therefore wished, that the government of this country, might be informed, of the danger of French interference, though I could not resolve to become the informant. But Mr. Paul Wentworth, having gained some general knowledge of my journey to France, and of my intercourse with Mr. Deane, and having induced me to believe that the British Ministry were likewise informed on this subject, I at length consented to meet the then Secretaries of State, Lords Weymouth and Suffolk, and give them all the information in my power, which I did with the most disinterested views."

When Benjamin Franklin arrived in Paris to take over the negotiations with the French, Lord Suffolk told Bancroft to move to Paris and inject himself in Franklin's circle. In return for his service, Bancroft was offered a life pension of 200 pounds per year, increasing to 500 pounds per year. Bancroft left England on 26 March 1977. After his arrival in Paris, it was not difficult for him to find a position with Franklin, his former friend and mentor. Bancroft was made secretary to the American commission. Also arriving in Paris was Paul Wentworth, who was sent to be Bancroft's handler.

To communicate with the British, Bancroft was instructed in the use of a timed dead-drop. He was told to compose a series of cover letters about gallantry which he was to address to a "Mr. Richards," and sign each with "Edward Edward." Between the lines of his letters, he was to write in secret ink the information he acquired on the French-American partnership. When the letter was complete, he was to place it in a bottle with a piece of string around the bottle's neck. Each Tuesday evening after 9:30, Bancroft was instructed to proceed to the south terrace of the Jardin de Tuilleries where he was to place the bottle in a hole in the roots of a certain box tree. The bottle was retrieved by Thomas Jeans, secretary to British diplomat Lord Stormont, who removed the contents and usually replaced it with taskings for Bancroft. Bancroft later that same evening returned to the drop site to recover the bottle. It is reported that Bancroft provided copies of hundreds of documents to his handlers. For example, it is said that the French-American treaty was in King George's hand 48 hours after its signing, courtesy of Bancroft.

Compliments of Franklin and Deane, who sent Bancroft on frequent secret intelligence missions to London, Bancroft had the luxury of sitting down in a relaxed atmosphere to be debriefed by Lord Suffolk and others. There is some suggestion by historians that Franklin was aware of Bancroft's betrayal, citing Franklin's comment in response to a friend's warning about British spies:

"I have long observ'd one Rule which prevents any Inconvenience from such Practices. It is simply this, to be concern'd in no Affairs that I should blush to have made publick, and to do nothing but what Spies may see & welcome. When a Man's actions are just and honourable, the more they are known, the more his Reputation is increas'd and establish'd. If I was sure, therefore that my Valet de Place was a Spy, as probably he is, I think I should not discharge him for that, if in other Respects I lik'd him."

Whether Franklin knew and used Bancroft to pass false information to the British or never knew Bancroft's true status is subject to interpretations of the facts because Franklin did not write about it and Bancroft's personal papers were later destroyed by a family member. No matter what the truth is, the fact remains that the British had placed an excellent double agent within the American Commission in Paris who provided a wealth of information on the French-American alliance. Even with Bancroft and the other British agents inside the Commission, the British were unable to take more effective action to destroy or diminish the negotiations and support which lead to the American-French Alliance and the final defeat of the British at Yorktown.

Secret Writing

While serving in Paris as an agent of the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Silas Deane is known to have used a heat-developing invisible ink, compounded of cobalt chloride, glycerin and water, for some of his intelligence reports back to America. Even more useful to him later was a "sympathetic stain" created for secret communications by James Jay, a physician and the brother of John Jay. Dr. Jay, who had been knighted by George III, used the "stain" for reporting military information from London to America. Later he supplied quantities of the stain to George Washington at home and to Silas Deane in Paris.

The stain required one chemical for writing the message and a second to develop it, affording greater security than the ink used by Deane earlier. Once, in a letter of John Jay, Robert Morris spoke of an innocuous letter from "Timothy Jones" (Deane) and the "concealed beauties therein," noting "the cursory examinations of a sea captain would never discover them, but transferred from his hand to the penetrating eye of a Jay, the diamonds stand confessed at once."

Washington instructed his agents in the use of the "sympathetic stain," noting in connection with "Culper Junior" that the ink "will not only render his communications less exposed to detection, but relieve the fears of such persons as may be entrusted in its conveyance . . ." Washington suggested that reports could be written in the invisible ink "on the blank leaves of a pamphlet . . .a common pocket book, or on the blank leaves at each end of registers, almanacs, or any publication or book of small value." Washington especially recommended that agents conceal their reports by using the ink in correspondence: "A much better way is to write a letter in the Tory stile with some mixture of family matters and between the lines and on the remaining part of the sheet communicate with the stain the intended intelligence."