Abraham Woodhull

Abraham Woodhull
Born	(1750-10-07)October 7, 1750 Setauket, Province of New York, British America
Died	January 23, 1826(1826-01-23) (aged 75) Setauket, New York, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Magistrate
Spouses	Mary Smith ​ ​ (m. 1781; died 1806)​ Lydia Terry ​ (m. 1824)​
Children	Jesse Smith Woodhull, Mary Woodhull, Elizabeth Woodhull
Parent(s)	Richard and Mary Woodhull (née Smith)
Espionage activity
Allegiance	United States
Service branch	Continental Army
Service years	Late 1778–1783
Codename	"Samuel Culper" and then "Samuel Culper Sr."
Operations	Culper Ring

Abraham Woodhull (October 7, 1750 – January 23, 1826) was a leading member of the Culper Spy Ring in New York City and Setauket, New York, during the American Revolutionary War. He used the alias "Samuel Culper" (later "Samuel Culper Sr."), which was a play on Culpeper County, Virginia, and was suggested by George Washington.

The Culper Ring was a successful operation that provided Washington with valuable information on the British Army headquartered in New York from October 1778 to the end of the war. After the United States gained independence, Woodhull served as a magistrate, as had his father before him, and served as a judge in Suffolk County, New York.

Background

Woodhull was a descendant of Richard Lawrence Woodhull, a wealthy settler of Setauket, and was also related to New York militia Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull. His parents were Judge Richard Woodhull and Mary Woodhull (née Smith).

Woodhull served as a lieutenant in the Suffolk County, New York, militia in the fall of 1775 but resigned after a few months. He was motivated by the murder of his cousin Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull of the New York militia, who was wounded by sword and bayonet cuts after he had been captured on August 29, 1776. According to some reports, he had been deprived of medical care and food and suffered an agonizing death on September 20, 1776, and Abraham Woodhull was inflamed against the British by that event. He did not immediately take up arms or begin spying, however, and was more placid than some of his friends, who joined the Continental Army at the outset of the war.

He was the only surviving son of aging parents, and he stayed on the family farm to attend to his family and their property.

Spy ring

Continental Army Major Benjamin Tallmadge was Woodhull's neighbor in Setauket and approached Woodhull in August 1778 about gathering intelligence for the Patriot cause during the American Revolutionary War. Woodhull had been caught smuggling contraband across Long Island Sound, and Tallmadge spoke with Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull and got him released. Tallmadge then set up a spy network in New York, with Woodhull as the lead agent.

Woodhull began spying in October 1778 and sent his first "Samuel Culper" letter on October 29, 1778, after he had sworn an oath of loyalty to the Crown as cover. His plan was to travel to Manhattan, ostensibly to visit his married sister, Mary Underhill, and her husband, Amos, at their boarding house. In Manhattan, he collected information from various sources, including British officers staying at the Underhill boarding house and then return to Setauket, where he passed the information to the Continental Army lieutenant and whaleboat operator Caleb Brewster to take across Long Island Sound to Tallmadge.

Tallmadge then sent the information to General George Washington. Austin Roe became the main courier for the ring later after Woodhull stopped going to New York City to gather intelligence personally. He delivered messages via dead drop, burying them in a box in a pasture that he rented on Woodhull's property.

Later life

Coat of Arms of Abraham Woodhull

Woodhull married his friend Mary Smith in 1781 and had three children with her. He held a few minor political appointments, including magistrate in Suffolk County, New York, from 1799 to 1810. Mary died in 1806, and he married Lydia Terry in 1824.

He died in Setauket on January 23, 1826, and is buried in the Setauket Presbyterian Church and Burial Ground.

In popular culture

Warren Walker suggested in 1956 that James Fenimore Cooper's character Harvey Birch had been based upon the work of "Samuel Culper" as a spy. That would include both Woodhull as "Culper Sr." and Robert Townsend, who used the alias "Samuel Culper Jr."

Woodhull was portrayed from 2014 to 2017 by Jamie Bell in AMC's spy thriller and historical drama series Turn: Washington's Spies, which was based on Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring (2007) by Alexander Rose. Other people from Woodhull's life are portrayed in the show as well.

See also

• Intelligence operations in the American Revolutionary War

References

Sources

• Browning, Charles Henry (1891). Americans of Royal Descent: A Collection of Genealogies of American Families Whose Lineage is Traced to the Legitimate Issue of Kings (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Porter & Coates. p. 6. ASIN B000884OTM. OCLC 1723326.
• Welch, Richard F. (2014). General Washington's Commando: Benjamin Tallmadge in the Revolutionary War. New York City: McFarland & Company. p. 58. ISBN 978-0786479634.
• Mahoney, Henry Thayer; Mahoney, Marjorie Locke (1999). Gallantry in Action: A Biographic Dictionary of Espionage in the American Revolutionary War (1st ed.). Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. pp. 119, 309, 313. ISBN 978-0-7618-1479-5.
• Phelps, Mark Anthony (2013). An Encyclopedia of American Women at War: From the Home Front to the Battlefields. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 529. ISBN 978-1-59884-444-3.
• Rose, Alexander (2006). Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring (1st ed.). New York City: Bantam Books. pp. 74, 79, 84–87, 173, 278. ISBN 978-0-553-38329-4.
• Sharp, Arthur G. (2012). Not Your Father's Founders: An "Amended" Look at America's First Patriots. Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media. p. 240. ISBN 978-1-4405-4011-0.
• Walker, Warren S. (October 1956). "The Prototype of Harvey Birch". State University of New York at Oneonta. XXVII (3). Oneonta, New York: 399–413. Retrieved April 27, 2014. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)

Further reading

• Kilmeade, Brian; Yaeger, Don (2013). George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution (1st ed.). New York City: Sentinel. ISBN 978-1-59523-103-1.
• Hastedt, Glenn P. (2010). Spies, Wiretaps, and Secret Operations: A-J. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 216. ISBN 978-1-85109-807-1.

External links

• "The Setauket Spy Ring". 2008. Archived from the original on 18 August 2011.
• Meyer, Andrea (2011). "Abraham Woodhull". The Culper Spy Ring and Benedict Arnold. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012.