The Spy who Loved Me… — Peggy Shippen Margaret “Peggy” Shippen was the second wife of American General Benedict Arnold and perhaps the highest-paid spy in the American Revolution. The Shippen family was a prominent Philadelphia family with Loyalist tendencies. During the British occupation of Philadelphia, Peggy Shippen was courted by British Head of Intelligence, …
Continue reading “Spy vs Spy: George Washington’s and King George’s Spies (#15)”
David Rittenhouse was a highly respected scientist during the formative years of the United States. Anyone who has attempted to survey knows that straight lines are much easier than curves. Rittenhouse ran the survey that established the circular boundary between Pennsylvania and Delaware, a circle of 12-mile radius, with Newcastle as its center. He later …
Typically, when we think of pirates, images of Long John Silver with an eye patch and a parrot come to mind. This is, of course, fiction. There were some pirates in the Caribbean (although most of them were Jews displaced by the Spanish Reconquista) but by far most pirates hailed from ports in Asia and …
The Reinheitsgebot, literally “purity order”, is a series of regulations limiting the ingredients in that can be used to make beer and how beer can be sold in the states of the former Holy Roman Empire. The best-known version of the law was adopted in Bavaria in 1516. According to the 1516 Bavarian law, the …
When Vice President Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804, he also killed his chance to be president. Wanted for murder in New York, he fled the state and went to Philadelphia. Realizing that he had no future on the east coast, Burr, in a frantic effort to salvage his destroyed political …
Continue reading “Treason is a hard case to prove: The Burr Conspiracy.”
AKA Samuel Culper Jr — Robert Townsend Robert Townsend was a member of the Culper Ring and operated in New York City. For most of the war, his identity was known only to Abraham Woodhull who was instructed never to tell his name to anyone, even to Washington. Motivated by Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, the …
Continue reading “Spy vs Spy: George Washington’s and King George’s Spies (#14)”
The colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania both claimed the land between the 39th and 40th parallels according to the charters granted to each colony. In 1632, King Charles I gave Cecilius Calvert a land grant for a colony in America to be named Maryland. The boundaries for Calvert’s land were: in the north the 40 degree north latitude line; …
I need your help with the Moland House. This will be my second year planning the annual reenactment at Moland House. Last year, I took reins of organizing the event after Jo-Anne Mullen has decided to step down from organizing the event. We’ve had some growing pains trying to live up to the 15 years of tireless …
I need your help with the Moland House. This will be my second year planning the annual reenactment at Moland House. Last year, I took reins of organizing the event after Jo-Anne Mullen has decided to step down from organizing the event. We’ve had some growing pains trying to live up to the 15 years of tireless …
AKA Samuel Culper Sr — Abraham Woodhull Abraham Woodhull was the main spy in a spy network that would eventually be known as the Culper Spy Ring. He was recruited by Benjamin Tallmadge, who after the death of Nathan Hale, sought to create a well-organized and TRAINED set of spies that could evade detection while …
Continue reading “Spy vs Spy: George Washington’s and King George’s Spies (#13)”
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 