Edward Bancroft (9 January 1744 – 8 September 1821) was an American physician and double-agent spy during the American Revolution.
Born in Westfield, Massachusetts, he worked as a spy for Benjamin Franklin while he was secretary to the American Commission in Paris. However, he was also a spy for the British, and he reported on American and French dealings with one another.
Biography
Early life
Edward Bancroft was born on 9 January 1744 in Westfield, Massachusetts. His father died when Edward was only two years old, and his mother was forced to support the family alone. She remarried five years later, and they moved to Connecticut to live with his stepfather, David Bull. During his time living in Connecticut, Bancroft studied under Silas Deane, a schoolmaster who later became a high-ranking American politician and diplomat. At the age of sixteen, Bancroft was apprenticed to a physician, but he fled his master, to whom he owed a debt. (Years later, Bancroft returned and repaid the debt.)
On 14 July 1763, Bancroft traveled to British Guiana to become a medic at one of the plantations.[1] [2] He soon expanded his practice to multiple plantations and wrote a study of the local environment. His discovery that the torpedo fish discharged electricity is notable. [3] However, Bancroft grew tired of South America and left in 1766. He spent one year traveling back and forth between North America and South America before leaving for London.
Arrival at London
Once he arrived at London, Bancroft became a medical student [4] at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. During this period, he also published a book entitled Natural History of Guiana (1769). This book attracted the attention of Paul Wentworth, New Hampshire's colonial agent in London, and Bancroft was hired to survey Wentworth's plantation in Surinam and make recommendations, in the hope that Wentworth would be able to increase his profit. Bancroft revisited Surinam for a couple of months to observe Wentworth's plantation operations before returning to London.
Upon arrival, Bancroft encountered another colonial agent in London, Benjamin Franklin. Bancroft and Franklin became friends, and Bancroft agreed to become a spy for Franklin.
Spying for Franklin
Bancroft was used as a spy in order to gather information from British political and military sources, information that Franklin could use to advance his colonial goals. However, evidence as to whether Bancroft continued spying after Franklin left London is inconclusive; most agree, nonetheless, that Bancroft maintained his position as a colonial spy. [5] For example, when the Committee for Secret Correspondence sent Silas Deane, Bancroft's former teacher, to Paris, a letter sent by Franklin to Deane instructs Deane to meet with Bancroft. This suggests that Franklin believed that Bancroft would be a source of useful information for Deane.
Interestingly, just one day after Deane arrived in France on 7 June 1776, he sent Bancroft a letter asking him to come to France. In the letter, Deane said that the meeting was about procuring goods for Indian trade, and Deane enclosed thirty pounds (a generous amount) for travel expenses. Bancroft met with Deane on 8 June, and Bancroft learned that Deane's purpose in France was to win French aid for the colonies' struggle for independence from Great Britain. While Bancroft declined the invitation to attend negotiations, he did serve as Deane's assistant and interpreter. The meetings resulted in France sending supplies to the American patriots.
Deane also informed Bancroft that colonial leaders hoped to inspire a war against England (involving, specifically, a French-Prussian coalition). The colonists hoped that this would distract England by forcing her to attend to other matters besides the colonies. Deane and other colonists were of the belief that the French would enter such a coalition; however, the coalition never came to be, but it greatly troubled Bancroft. On 26 July 1776, Bancroft returned to London. Before leaving, he assured Deane that he would spy for the colonies by using his contacts in England. [6]
Spying for the British
Bancroft, although he had previously worked as a spy for Benjamin Franklin, was not a radical promoter of rebellion, and the possibility of a French war against England alarmed him. Despite his promise to Deane, he had reservations about doing anything that might promote a rift between Britain and her American colonies.[6]
Paul Wentworth, recently recruited by the British Secret Service, was able to arrange a meeting between Bancroft, William Eden (chief of the British Secret Service), and Lords Suffolk and Weymouth. Bancroft agreed to be a double agent for the British. Soon, Bancroft's friend Franklin arrived at Paris to negotiate French aid for the colonies. Bancroft was ordered to associate himself with Franklin. Fortuitously, Franklin appointed Bancroft as the secretary to the American Commission. For his spying, the British promised Bancroft a pension of 200 pounds. (This amount was later increased to 500 pounds, then one thousand).[6]
Bancroft turned over his spy reports in the following manner: he would address a letter to "Mr. Richards" and sign it "Edward Edward". The letter would be about gallantry, but, in-between the lines, Bancroft would write his reports in a special ink. Every Tuesday, once he had completed his letter, he would place it in a bottle, tie a string around the bottle, and place the bottle in a hole in a certain box tree in Paris, after 9:30 PM.[6]. An English official would retrieve the message and replace it with new orders. Bancroft would return that night to recover his bottle. It is said that, through this method, King George III received the French-American Treaty of Alliance just two days after it was signed.[6] In addition, Bancroft was often sent on spying missions to London by Franklin and Deane, so he was able to report directly to Lord Suffolk and others.
Franklin's Knowledge of Bancroft's Spying
There is some debate as to whether Benjamin Franklin knew that Bancroft was a British spy. Franklin wrote that, even though he suspected one associate of being a spy, as long as he did not provide the suspect any private information, there was nothing to worry about, and the spy need not be dismissed. [6] Even if Franklin had discovered Bancroft's true occupation, he never revealed it explicitly in any of his extant writings. Regardless, Bancroft was successful but ineffective; that is, he certainly gathered a good deal of information, but the British were unable to stop France from allying with the Americans.
Life after Revolutionary War
At the end of the American Revolutionary War, Bancroft received English and French patents giving him the right to import yellow oak-bark. This trade made Bancroft a rich man. In 1794, Bancroft published "Experimental Researches Concerning Permanent Colors," a book he updated in 1813.
Bancroft's occupation as a double-agent remained hidden until 1891, when British diplomatic papers were disclosed to the public.
Notes
