Robert Townsend (spy) - Into The Spy Ring

Into The Spy Ring

A number of factors led Townsend to the Culper Spy Ring, including the influence of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, British harassment of his family, and his relationship with Woodhull.

Townsend's Quaker upbringing placed him at odds with the thought of fighting the British forces occupying America. Strict Quaker philosophy called for an adherence to pacifism. In this case, violence was prohibited. However, during the 1750s, Pennsylvania experienced a break between "political" Quakers and "religious" Quakers. Essentially, the latter accused the former of breaking with traditional values, resulting in the resigning of "political" Quakers from office and leading to a wave of purification within the Quaker movement. The renewed and obedient Quakers pledged to embrace nonviolence and to never revolt against a legal government. Thus, Quakers emerged as the strongest supporters of British rule.

Torn between his moderate-Quaker upbringing and a fervent, Quaker revival, Townsend ultimately turned his back on pacifism as a result of Thomas Paine's pamphlet, Common Sense. Brought up in the Quaker tradition, Paine advocated in Common Sense the early Quaker views of struggling against corruption and narcissism. However, Paine also advocated resistance as the means to achieve those goals, putting him directly at odds with the newly reformed Quaker movement. Paine argued that the pacifists-at-any-price were not authentic Quakers. Paine's pamphlet inspired a small number of Quakers to join the struggle against Britain, including Townsend. Thus, a few months after Paine's pamphlet was published, Townsend volunteered for a logistics post in the Continental Army, which would not require him to kill.

Another factor that led to Townsend's joining the fight against British rule was the treatment of his family by British soldiers in Oyster Bay. A number of British officers considered anti-British sentiment so ingrained into the colonists' spirit that they believed "it should be thrash'd out of them New England has poyson'd the whole." This led to numerous incidences of violence and pillage directed at colonists. On November 19, 1778, one such instance drove Townsend to the Patriot cause. Colonel John Graves Simcoe of the Queen's Rangers and roughly three-hundred of his men were stationed in Oyster Bay during the winter months. Simcoe took the Townsend home as his headquarters, and he and his men used the home when and however they wanted. Townsend's father, Samuel, was distraught after his prized apple orchard was torn down by Simcoe's men. Adding to the insult, the Townsend's were forced to swear allegiance to the King or go to prison.

A final factor was Townsend's relationship with Abraham Woodhull. Woodhull knew Townsend as a result of their both lodging at a boardinghouse run by Woodhull's brother-in-law. Woodhull was also a descendant of Oyster Bay's founder, Captain John Underhill, and Townsend may have been directed to the boardinghouse by Underhill. Woodhull may have also known about Townsend's father's Whiggish political beliefs, as he was well known throughout Long Island. Woodhull, as a recruiter, and Townsend, as the recruited, knew and trusted each other well enough by June 1779, that when Woodhull made his pitch to Townsend to join a new spy ring for Washington, Townsend eagerly accepted.