Treacherous Beauty

by Stephen Case

  444 Ibid., 40:380–381.

  445 Edward Shippen to William Moore, Oct. 5, 1780, in Brandt, 313.

  446 Neddy Burd to Col. James Burd, Nov. 10, 1780, Historical Magazine 8 (1864): 363.

  447 Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, 12:520.

  448 See note 445.

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  449 See note 446.

  450 George Grieve’s footnote in Chastellux, 1:312. Grieve, a colorful character who translated Chastellux’s travel diary and added his own commentary, earned a reputation as an agitator during the French Revolution, and some accused him of helping send the official mistress of Louis XV, Madame du Barry, to the guillotine. He spelled his last name Greive in his later years.

  451 University of Pennsylvania biographies, “Edward Shippen,” www.archives.upenn .edu/people/1700s/shippen_ed.html.

  452 Chastellux, 1:147.

  453 Randall, 577; Brandt, 239.

  454 Randall, 577.

  455 Brandt, 230–236; Van Doren, 374–381; Randall, 580–581. Randall notes that one British officer found Arnold a “very unpopular character,” and that Admiral George Rodney warned that the jealousy of fellow officers might impair Arnold’s effectiveness.

  456 Moore, Diary of the American Revolution, 2:344.

  457 Royal Gazette, Oct. 25, 1780, in Brandt, 233.

  458 Royal Gazette, Oct. 25, 1780, in Van Doren, 379.

  459 Benedict Arnold to Benjamin Tallmadge, written October 1780, sent January 1781, in Van Doren, 380.

  460 Benedict Arnold to Lord George Germain, October 1780, in Documents of the American Revolution, 18:213.

  461 Augustus Reebkomp to Lord Herbert, Oct. 26, 1780, Ninth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, pt. 2, 383.

  462 Van Doren, 279, 384–388; Randall, 575–577; Brandt, 230.

  463 Benedict Arnold to Henry Clinton, Oct. 18, 1780, in Van Doren, 372.

  464 http://measuringworth.com/, accessed Aug. 17, 2011.

  465 Benjamin Franklin to Marquis de Lafayette, May 14, 1781, in Franklin, Memoirs, 1:377.

  466 Randall, 575–576.

  467 Hatch, 253–255, 258–272; Walsh, 137–139; Flexner, 383–390.

  468 Benjamin Tallmadge to Jared Sparks, in Sparks, Life and Treason of Benedict Arnold, 257–258.

  469 Benjamin Tallmadge to Samuel B. Webb, Sept. 30, 1780, in Webb, Reminiscences, 297.

  470 Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Schuyler, Oct. 2, 1780, in Hamilton, Writings, 92.

  471 Benedict Arnold to George Washington, Oct. 1, 1780, in Gentleman’s Magazine 50 (1780): 616.

  472 John André to George Washington, Oct. 2, 1780, in Gentleman’s Magazine 50 (1780): 616.

  473 Hendrickson, Rise and Fall of Alexander Hamilton, 128.

  474 Thacher, 228. Quotations during André’s execution vary in a number of histories. We choose Thacher for André’s final sentence because the doctor was a witness to the hanging. For many of the other quotes, we rely on Hatch because of the authoritative nature of his book. Hatch states André’s final sentence as: “I have nothing more than this—that I would have you gentlemen bear me witness that I die like a brave man.”

  475 Hatch, 272–275; Walsh, 140–151; Flexner, 391–393; Thacher, 226–230.

  476 Flexner, 381; Walsh, 146–147; Randall, 570; Van Doren, 494.

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  477 Rebecca Warner Rawle Shoemaker to daughters Anna and Margaret Rawle, Jan. 8, 1780, in Brandt, 248; Rawle, “Laurel Hill,” 399. The real Lady Clinton died in 1772 a few days after giving birth to a child.

  478 Anna Rawle to Rebecca Shoemaker, Sept. 20, 1780, in Rawle, 400.

  479 Anna Rawle to Rebecca Shoemaker, Feb. 8, 1781, in Rawle, 400.

  480 Rebecca Shoemaker to daughters Anna and Margaret, Sept. 22, 1781, in Rawle, 400.

  481 Becky Franks to sister Abigail Hamilton, Aug. 10, 1781, in “Letter from Miss Becky Franks,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 23 (1899): 307.

  482 Randall, 572–573.

  483 Robertson, Twilight of British , 155.

  484 Randall, 572.

  485 Brandt, 235; Randall, 573.

  486 George Washington to Henry Lee, Oct. 20, 1780, in Brandt, 237.

  487 Brandt, 237; Randall, 578–579, 582; Herbert, God Knows All Your Names, 7–12.

  488 Flexner, 396–397; Brandt, 240–247; Randall, 581–585; Kranish, 164–167.

  489 Brandt, 243.

  490 Norton, 82. Upper-class women generally avoided strenuous activity for a month after childbirth.

  491 Klein, 182.

  492 Randall, 586–589; Brandt, 249–250; McCain, It Happened in Connecticut, 40–45.

  493 Tuchman, 257–259.

  494 Magazine of American History, 6:156.

  495 Anna Rawle to Rebecca Shoemaker, Oct. 25, 1781, in Rawle, 402.

  496 Entry for Aug. 1, 1781, in W. Smith, Historical Memoirs, 2:428–429.

  497 Entry for Nov. 8, 1781, in W. Smith, 2:463.

  498 Brandt, 253.

  499 Anna Rawle to Rebecca Shoemaker, Dec. 5, 1781, in Walker, 25:163.

  500 D. D. Wallace, Life of Henry Laurens, 386–388.

  501 Rebecca Shoemaker to Anna and Margaret Rawle, Dec. 15, 1781, in Walker, 25:163.

  502 Jasanoff, 6.

  503 I. N. Arnold, “Arnold at the Court of George III,” 678–682; Randall, 592–593; Brandt, 254–255; Lomask, 85.

  504 Townsend, American Indian History, 76–77.

  505 Stirling, The Stirlings of Cadder, 94–95. Some histories have confused Sir Walter Stirling with his same-named son and asserted erroneously that Arnold was presented at court by a London banker. We know by a contemporary letter that Arnold was presented by “Sir Walter Stirling.” The admiral was a “Sir” at that time, but his son, the banker, was not. The son added “Sir” to his name when he became a baronet in 1800.

  506 Mayo, Jeffery Amherst, 251; thePeerage.com, s.v. “Elizabeth Cary” (Lady Amherst), http://thepeerage.com/p630.htm#i6292.

  507 Clinton’s notes on a conversation with William Pitt about Arnold, Nov. 14, 1792, cited in Van Doren, 386.

  508 Timbs, Romance of London, 3:110–112.

  509 William Rawle to family, in Glenn, 2:148, 163–164.

  510 Westcott, Historic Mansions, 479; “Oatmeal for the Foxhounds: Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion,” http://home.golden.net/~marg/bansite/_entry.html. The name Banastre is pronounced “banister.” Tarleton led the horsemen who captured Patriot general Charles Lee while he was visiting a woman of loose morals (see chapter 6). Tarleton also was the inspiration for the cruel British colonel William Tavington in the 2000 film The Patriot.

  511 Benjamin Franklin to R. R. Livingston, March 4, 1782, in Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin, 1:416.

  512 Verse in Pennsylvania Packet, July 17, 1781, in Brandt, 257.

  513 Letters in General Advertiser and Morning Intelligencer, Feb. 9 and 22, 1782, in Brandt, 255.

  514 Gerald Warner, “The New Politics?” London Telegraph, May 13, 2010, http://blogs .telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100039646/the-new-politics-raising-the-bar-for-no-confidence-votes-to-55-per-cent-is-more-like-a-coup-detat/.

  515 Seward, Monody on Major André, 1-2. Seward’s monody was first published in 1781.

  516 Brandt, 256.

  517 Van Schaack, Life of Peter Van Schaack, 147. The author was Peter’s son.

  518 George Johnstone to Benedict Arnold, July 21, 1784, in Magazine of American History, 10:316.

  519 Keith, 65.

  520 Joanna Robinson to Ann Robinson, March 9, 1784, Robinson Family Papers, New Brunswick Museum. Joanna was Beverley Robinson’s daughter; Ann was Robinson’s daughter-in-law.

  521 Becky Franks to Williamina Bond, Feb. 19, 1784, in Stern, 204.

  522 Jasanoff, 123–124.


  523 Joanna Robinson to Ann Robinson, Oct. 29, 1784, in Jasanoff, 124. The word “lusty” did not have the sexual connotation it has today. Joanna Robinson was simply describing Peggy as robust and physically strong.

  524 James H. Watmough to his wife, Anna, Jan. 10, 1787, in Watmough, “Letters,” 303. Despite the article’s title, the correspondence covers years beyond 1785.

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  525 Brandt, 259; Randall, 595.

  526 Brandt, 259–261; Van Doren, 424; Randall, 597–601.

  527 St. John Royal Gazette, June 6, 1786, in Brandt, 261.

  528 Norton, 6.

  529 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, March 6, 1786, in Walker 24:453–454.

  530 Randall, 600; Brandt, 263.

  531 Peggy Shippen to Edward Arnold, Oct. 16, 1802, private collection of Hugh Arnold.

  532 Peggy, Arnold, and their children arrived in St. John in July 1787. Richard’s whereabouts while his father fetched the family in England are uncertain, as is the date when Hannah and Henry arrived from New Haven. The children’s ages are as of July 15, 1787.

  533 Van Doren, 424; Brandt, 264. Brandt makes the excellent point that the “best of husbands” praise happened before the affair was known, and that such descriptions were not repeated afterward in his lifetime.

  534 W. M. Wallace, 291. Wallace, a respected and careful historian, states explicitly but without stated source that Arnold “confessed the affair to her and presumably was forgiven.” Other Arnold biographers do not go as far. But Peggy’s letter to Neddy Burd after Arnold’s death suggests that she knew of Arnold’s failing for a long time, not through the reading of his will.

  535 Peggy Shippen to Betsy Shippen Burd, June 30, 1788, in Walker, 24:455.

  536 Ibid.

  537 Randall, 603; Brandt, 263; W. M. Wallace, 292–293.

  538 Peggy Shippen to Betsy Shippen Burd, Aug. 14, 1788, in Walker, 24:455–456.

  539 Lomask, 88; Randall, 602; Flexner, 400–401.

  540 Nash, First City, 108–110.

  541 Lippincott, 32–33.

  542 Tinkcom, “The Revolutionary City,” 151.

  543 Miller and Pencak, Pennsylvania, 132.

  544 Roche, 219.

  545 University of Pennsylvania biographies, Timothy Matlack, www.archives.upenn .edu/people/1700s/matlack_tim.html.

  546 Klein, 207.

  547 Keith, 59–62, 70.

  548 Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists, 1:179.

  549 Peggy Shippen to Betsy Shippen Burd, July 5, 1790, in Walker, 24:456–457.

  550 Munson Hayt affidavit, May 7, 1790, in Randall, 603. Randall notes that Arnold’s former partner, Munson Hayt, also owed Arnold more than twenty-five hundred pounds.

  551 Lawrence, Judges of New Brunswick, 68–69; Bangor Historical Magazine 2 (1886): 190; Randall, 603–604.

  552 Benedict Arnold to Jonathan Bliss, Feb. 16, 1792, Benedict Arnold Papers, New Brunswick Museum.

  553 Elze, Lord Byron, 11, 440.

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  554 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, June 26 and July 6, 1792, in Walker, 24:460–463. Some historians have set the date of the duel as July 6, but it is clear from Peggy’s July 6 letter that the duel occurred several days earlier. Van Doren gives the date as July 1.

  555 Parliamentary History of England, 29:1518–1519.

  556 Neilson, Trial by Combat, 330–331.

  557 Baird, Goodwood, 158.

  558 Cronin, Paper Pellets, 203.

  559 Fleming, Duel, 321–332.

  560 I. N. Arnold, Life, 378–381.

  561 Henry Clinton to Benedict Arnold, May 26, 1787, in Brandt, 268.

  562 Peggy Shippen to Henry Clinton, Nov. 13, 1792, in Brandt, 268.

  563 http://measuringworth.com/, accessed Aug. 17, 2011.

  564 Brandt, 267–269; Van Doren, 386, 425–426.

  565 Wheatley, London, Past and Present, 3:139.

  566 Taylor, 36–37. Some sources have put William Fitch Arnold’s birth in 1798 rather than 1794, but that seems impossible for a number of reasons. Peggy’s last will and testament notes a bequest from William Fitch to Peggy’s son William; William Fitch died in 1795. Also, Benedict Arnold noted in an 1800 letter that his son William had written his first letter without help—hardly something that a two-year-old was likely to do.

  567 Peggy Shippen to the Bliss family, Dec. 5, 1795, in Randall, 611.

  568 Judge Edward Shippen to Peggy Shippen, June 29, 1794, in Walker, 26:76.

  569 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, July 29, 1796, Shippen Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

  570 Talleyrand-Périgord, Memoirs, 1:174–175.

  571 Randall, 607–609; Brandt, 268–269.

  572 Peggy Shippen to Richard Arnold, August 1794, in Walker, 25:464.

  573 Fortescue, History of the British Army, 4:376.

  574 Benedict Arnold to Ward Chipman, Jan. 14, 1795, in Randall, 608.

  575 Benedict Arnold to Jonathan Bliss, Sept. 15, 1795, Benedict Arnold Papers, New Brunswick Museum.

  576 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, Feb. 5, 1800, in Walker, 25:470.

  577 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, May 2, 1796, in Walker, 25:465.

  578 Peggy Shippen to Richard Arnold, August 1794, in Walker, 25:464.

  579 Brandt, 271.

  580 Brandt, 271–272; Randall, 611; Flexner, 402–403.

  581 Duke of Portland’s order, in I. N. Arnold, Life, 389.

  582 Peggy Shippen to Richard and Henry Arnold, July 27, 1803, in Walker, 25:488.

  583 Benedict Arnold to Jonathan Bliss, March 7, 1798, Benedict Arnold Papers, New Brunswick Museum.

  584 Peggy Shippen to Elizabeth Shippen Burd, May 10, 1800, in Walker, 25:470.

  585 Benedict Arnold to Jonathan Bliss, Sept. 19, 1800, Benedict Arnold Papers, New Brunswick Museum.

  586 Peggy Shippen to Edward Arnold, in E. Shippen, “Two or Three Old Letters,” 191.

  587 Ann Fitch to Judge Edward Shippen, June 29, 1801, in Walker, 25:472.

  588 Walker, 25:472; Taylor, 26, 70.

  589 Ann Fitch to Judge Edward Shippen, June 29, 1801, in Walker, 25:472.

  590 Peggy Shippen to Neddy Burd, Aug. 15, 1801, in Walker, 25:474.

  591 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, July 29, 1796, Shippen Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

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  592 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, autumn 1801, Shippen Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

  593 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, June 2, 1802, in Walker, 25:477.

  594 Peggy Shippen to Edward Arnold, Oct. 16, 1802, private collection of Hugh Arnold.

  595 Peggy Shippen to Richard and Henry Arnold, Nov. 5, 1802, in Goodfriend, “Widowhood of Margaret Shippen Arnold,” 240–241.

  596 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, Oct. 5, 1802, in Walker, 25:481.

  597 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, autumn 1801, in Walker, 25:474–476.

  598 Peggy Shippen to Edward Arnold, Oct. 16, 1802, private collection of Hugh Arnold. Close readers will see the odd coincidence of Arnold partnering with a Mr. Moore—one of Arnold’s pseudonyms in the West Point conspiracy. Moore, elected to Parliament in 1803, was a friend of playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan (The School for Scandal). According to the Dictionary of National Biography, 38:376, Moore was “the last wearer of a pigtail in London society.”

  599 Peggy Shippen to Edward Arnold, March 20, 1803, private collection of Hugh Arnold.

  600 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, Feb. 5, 1800, in Walker, 25:469.

  601 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, June 26, 1792, in Walker, 25:458–461. The italics represent a word underlined by Peggy.

  602 Markham, Financial History, 1:86–87.r />
  603 Walker, 25:473.

  604 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, Jan. 5, 1803, in Walker, 25:483–485.

  605 Peggy Shippen to Richard and Henry Arnold, April 13, 1803, in Goodfriend, 246.

  606 Peggy Shippen to Richard and Henry Arnold, Aug. 28, 1803, in Goodfriend, 249.

  607 Peggy Shippen to Richard and Henry Arnold, March 31, 1803, in Goodfriend, 243–244.

  608 Peggy Shippen to Richard and Henry Arnold, Aug. 28, 1803, in Goodfriend, 250.

  609 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, Nov. 2, 1803, in Walker, 25:490.

  610 Peggy Shippen to Richard Arnold, July 28, 1793, in Walker, 25:463.

  611 Peggy Shippen to Richard and Henry Arnold, Nov. 5, 1802, in Goodfriend, 239. The capitalization of “Boy” is Peggy’s.

  612 Peggy Shippen to Richard and Henry Arnold, Nov. 5, 1802, in Goodfriend, 239.

  613 W. M. Wallace, 310–313; Jasanoff, 338–339; Walker, 463, 86; Keith, 64–67; Taylor, 28; Van Doren, 426; Gentleman’s Magazine 197 (1927): 190–191; Phipps, Life, 88.

  614 Peggy Shippen to Betsy Shippen Burd, May 10, 1800, in Walker, 25:470.

  615 Keith, 64.

  616 Edward Shippen Arnold’s will, in Jasanoff, 339.

  617 Jasanoff, 339. Peggy’s granddaughter was named Louisa Harriet Arnold, but her last name was changed to Adams.

  618 Jasanoff, 338–339. Ironically, Peggy once wrote to her son Edward to warn him against marrying any woman who was an “adventuress to India.” That letter from Peggy Shippen to Edward Arnold, July 16, 1802, is in the private collection of Hugh Arnold.

  619 Peggy Shippen to Richard and Henry Arnold, July 27, 1803, in Goodfriend, 246.

  620 Peggy Shippen to Betsy Burd Shippen, July 3, 1803, in Walker, 25:486–487.

  621 Ibid., 25:487.

  622 Ibid.

  623 Peggy Shippen to Judge Edward Shippen, in Walker, 25:490.

  624 Peggy Shippen to Betsy Shippen Burd, May 14, 1804, Shippen Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

  625 Ibid.

  626 Peggy Shippen to Edward Arnold, March 20, 1803, private collection of Hugh Arnold.

  627 Taylor, 80–81.

  628 Randall, 615; Van Doren, 198; Phipps, 90. According to family lore cited by some historians, Peggy never revealed to Arnold that she kept a lock of André’s hair. That is indeed possible, though it seems illogical to accept as fact. If Arnold didn’t know, he couldn’t have told anyone. It is possible Peggy told friends, but the story comes with no such explanation. Some historians say André’s lock of hair was kept in a golden locket; that assertion is logical but not well documented. What evidence do we have for even the basic detail that a lock of hair was kept? Only the writings of Pownoll W. Phipps, whose father’s second wife was Peggy’s daughter Sophia. Phipps wrote in 1894 that Peggy kept a lock of André’s hair, “which we still have.” The authors have attempted to track down Phipps’s descendants but have not found the lock of hair.