The Lees came from one of the leading families in the Northern Neck of the Tidewater region of Virginia. The family plantation, known as Stratford Hall, was an imposing two-story redbrick manor with a commanding view overlooking the Potomac. It had been built by their grandfather Thomas Lee, a tobacco farmer and land speculator who had served both as a member of the ruling Council of Virginia and as acting governor. In its prime, Stratford Hall had nearly 150 slaves plus indentured servants and transported convicts to work the fields, a grist mill, and a substantial wharf from which it exported tobacco to Europe. Altogether, the family owned about 16,000 acres in Virginia and Maryland. Like other southern barons, the Lees self-consciously imitated the lifestyle of English aristocrats. The furniture, china, crystal, and silver were all imported from the best craftsmen in England. There were liveried servants, elegant coaches drawn by four white horses, fancy dress parties, equestrian events, fox hunts, and exquisitely manicured English gardens. Sons were sent to England for their education and service to the Crown was regarded as a high calling.
Arthur Lee, the youngest of eight children, was raised by a slave woman and had had little contact with his parents, who died when Arthur was nine. Arthur was left to the supervision of two older brothers—the mean-spirited Philip and the indifferent Thomas—who thought it convenient to ship Arthur to boarding school in England when he was scarcely eleven. Though his father’s will had bequeathed Arthur 1,000 pounds and other property, Philip and Thomas refused to honor the will. Arthur grew up feeling deeply aggrieved throughout his life and wallowed in self-pity. He matured into a brittle and paranoid young man, unable to form genuine friendships or romantic relationships. Instead, he fixated on the rich and famous. And when he drew close to someone, he almost inevitably became resentful and envious. His own dark soul cast suspicion on everyone he knew.
After English public school, Arthur earned a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh. He returned to Virginia briefly to practice medicine, but grew quickly bored and decided to return to London to become a barrister like his two oldest brothers. While he was studying law in London, Lee began writing articles critical of the British government’s colonial policy. These were published in the London Evening Post and other papers, usually under the pseudonym “Junius Americanus.” Over the course of five years he produced nearly eighty articles and a number of pamphlets, most famously, “An Appeal to the Justice and Interests of the People of Great Britain.” Lee’s talents as a propagandist commanded attention on both sides of the Atlantic and raised concern among the British government.
Yet Arthur remained in the shadow of his five older brothers. The oldest, Philip Ludwell Lee, who inherited Stratford Hall, was one of the twelve members of the Virginia Council. The next brother, Thomas Ludwell Lee, belonged to the Virginia House of Burgesses. Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee also served in the House of Burgesses and were selected as delegates to the Continental Congress. Arthur’s other brother, William, lived in London, where he had a lucrative trading business before being elected a London alderman. Throughout his life Arthur remained largely dependent upon whatever modest support the family provided, and he struggled to compete with his older siblings for prestige.
While Arthur was still a law student, his brother Richard Henry lobbied unsuccessfully for Arthur to be appointed colonial agent to the crown for the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Massachusetts Assembly. Both groups found him unsuitable; Arthur Lee already had a well-deserved reputation for being outspoken and hotheaded. Instead of Lee, the Massachusetts Assembly chose the world-famous Dr. Franklin, who was then in London serving as the agent for Pennsylvania. As a concession to Lee’s supporters, Arthur Lee was named Franklin’s substitute in case the sixty-five-year-old were unable to continue.
During his years in London, Franklin tried to befriend the young Lee. After Lee wrote a paper on the medicinal properties of a certain bark, Franklin sponsored Lee for admission to the Royal Society of London. Yet instead of being grateful for the older man’s support, Arthur rewarded Franklin’s generosity with mistrust and malevolence. During his five years in London, Lee persistently tried to undermine the old man and publicly sniped at him at every opportunity. Lee’s antagonism toward his more experienced colleague evoked, once again, the sense of betrayal he had experienced at the hands of his older brothers at losing his inheritance.
Lee, like his brothers, was also an outspoken critic of the slave trade. In 1764, he wrote “An Essay in Vindication of the Continental Colonies of America.” The essay was written in response to the Scottish intellectual Adam Smith, whom Lee had met and disliked as much as he disliked all Scots. Lee argued that the institution of slavery was unjust, but it would be a mistake to conclude from this that Lee had an enlightened view of Africans. To the contrary, like many slaveholding Virginians, he thought that Africans were an inferior and depraved race. Moreover, his objections to slavery were partly rooted in his fear that Virginian whites were outnumbered by Africans, which was not literally true. Moreover, Virginia planters, including the Lees, had supported curbs on the import of slaves. They worried that the slave trade was contributing to an overproduction of tobacco and driving down prices. Though his eloquent opposition to slavery was notable, Lee was motivated by his family’s economic interests at least as much as he was by higher principles.
Shortly after arriving in London in 1768, Arthur Lee met Wilkes while Wilkes was in the King’s Bench Prison, and he soon joined the Bill of Rights Society to express his support. Lee became a bridge between Wilkes and the “Real Whigs,” a circle of influential American and British writers critical of British colonial policy. The Real Whigs included among others Benjamin Franklin, the scientist Joseph Priestley, and the leading Whig intellectual the Earl of Shelburne, not all of whom supported Wilkes. Lee acted as a sort of publicist for Wilkes and wrote numerous articles for American newspapers portraying Wilkes as a friend to the colonies and linking the cause of Wilkes’s freedom to America’s.
In fact, Wilkes’s position with regard to American policy had been more ambiguous than Lee acknowledged, but Lee spun Wilkes’s public image as one of the leading advocates for the colonies. Once Wilkes was deluged with favorable correspondence from colonial leaders like John Hancock, he began to identify with the Americans’ cause. Wilkes considered Arthur Lee “his first and best friend,” and, indeed, no man ever had a more steadfast supporter.
It is puzzling that Lee, who was constantly disappointed by holding good men to impossible standards, nonetheless forgave Wilkes all his obvious flaws. While Franklin excoriated Wilkes as “an outlaw, an exile, of bad personal character, not worth a farthing,” Lee praised Wilkes for his “courage, calm and . . . flowing wit, accommodating in his temper, of manner convivial and conversable, an elegant scholar.” He overlooked the fact that Wilkes ruthlessly pursued his personal political ambitions by any means. Lee saw a great deal of himself in Wilkes. Deprived of loving parents, siblings, or partners, Lee identified with Wilkes’s hunger for affection and recognition. He recognized in Wilkes a reflection of his own sense of being misunderstood, unappreciated, and persecuted. His obsession with Wilkes reflected his own narcissism.
Before their meeting at the Lord Mayor’s dinner party, Lee probably was not known to Beaumarchais. Naturally, the two writers had something in common, and as the evening progressed, Beaumarchais found himself in conversation with Lee. Beaumarchais had an easy, convivial manner, whereas Lee appeared dour and uncomfortable. When Lee opened his small, tight mouth to speak, Beaumarchais could see his yellowed teeth. Lee’s squinty green eyes, ash-gray complexion, and long bony fingers gave him a ghoul-like appearance.
When the two could speak privately, Lee boasted that he represented Congress’s interests in Europe and that he was interested in obtaining arms for the Continental Army. (This was an idle claim. In fact, the Secret Committee did not contact Lee until a few months later, but it was typical of Lee to fabricate stories to exaggerate his o
wn importance.) Lee probably knew from either Wilkes or d’Eon that Beaumarchais had friends at Versailles. It is likely that Lee even asked Wilkes to set up the chance meeting with Beaumarchais so that he could raise the question of buying arms for the Americans. It would seem improper for Wilkes to participate in a conspiracy to aid the Americans and the French at the expense of Britain on the eve of his effort to become prime minister; but Wilkes was comfortable living with contradictions, so long as they did not get in the way of his ambitions. Lee wanted to know if Beaumarchais could assist him in arranging for French military support for the rebels. Such talk excited Beaumarchais, who had already written to Vergennes the previous month about the American cause. Beaumarchais and Lee planned a secret meeting for a few days hence.
The conversation that took place around Wilkes’s table that evening would have far more historic consequences than Wilkes’s planned demonstration for the opening of Parliament. In fact, his dinner guests would soon realize that Wilkes’s political career had already peaked. The dinner stretched long into the evening, and the guests paid no attention to the worsening weather until it was time to make the ride home in a heavy downpour. Throughout the night, the rain and wind were fierce and continued gathering force. By morning, Wilkes’s plot had been rained out. The king proceeded to Parliament down deserted streets in a drenching rain. The anticipated mobs of Wilkite agitators stayed home rather than disrupt the king’s speech to Parliament. When the sun reappeared, it was clear that the government had survived the storm, and the looming constitutional crisis had evaporated in the mist.
Beaumarchais, of course, had no authority to negotiate with Lee on behalf of France. He wrote to Foreign Minister Vergennes for instructions, but Vergennes would not authorize Beaumarchais to negotiate on his own. Vergennes and the king were far more concerned with concluding the settlement with d’Eon. Vergennes insisted that Beaumarchais include another prominent Frenchman, the Comte de Lauraguais, in any discussions with Lee. Vergennes hoped that Lauraguais would act as a brake on Beaumarchais’s enthusiasm for the Americans. Lee, Beaumarchais, and Lauraguais agreed to meet at Lee’s flat later in the week to discuss the prospect of French aid. Instead, what emerged from those discussions was a secret plan to smuggle French aid to the Americans without implicating the French government.
FIFTEEN
THE MIDDLE TEMPLE CONSPIRACY
London, November 1775
Arthur Lee rented a modest flat at the Middle Temple, one of the four Inns of Court where English barristers practiced and often resided. The Middle Temple was originally founded around the fourteenth century as the headquarters of the Knights Templar, established to protect Christians on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. By the end of the fifteenth century the Middle Temple was overrun by lawyers, who drove out the Templars. (It had taken the Turks centuries longer to achieve the same result in Jerusalem.) Lee, who had little interest in practicing law, enjoyed living in this ancient gentlemen’s fortress where two of his older brothers had also belonged. He would enter the Middle Temple’s extensive grounds through the massive doors of the gatehouse off Fleet Street and proceed down Middle Temple Lane past the windows of Abram and Sons stationery shop. The lane was bordered on one side by a long, crooked row of wood-frame buildings that appeared to sag under the weight of so many plump barristers. Every morning Lee could check the time on a sundial with the sobering motto Pereunt et Imputantur—“Things are passing and reckoned.” Middle Temple Hall stirred thoughts of chivalry with its dark Elizabethan paneling garnished with ancient coats of arms of the Knights Templar, and the great oak-beamed ceiling that towered overhead. Lee’s chambers were adjacent to the Hall. His flat was bright and airy, overlooking a private garden lined with elms and offering a magnificent view of the Thames. It was an idyllic scene for a conspiracy.
Beaumarchais and Comte de Lauraguais met with Lee in his rooms several times over the following weeks. In their conversations Beaumarchais saw an opportunity to do well by doing good: he wanted to help the Americans, and he also recognized the possibility of a substantial sales commission from the export of arms. He proposed to establish a phony trading company that would appear to be a legitimate business while secretly arming the Americans. From his long association with Pâris-Duverney, who had made his fortune selling weapons during the Seven Years’ War, Beaumarchais knew something about the arms trade.
More important, Beaumarchais now had access to Vergennes and Louis XVI, who needed his help to settle the d’Eon affair. Once he returned d’Eon’s incriminating correspondence to Versailles, he would have the king’s confidence and gratitude. He had proved that he could operate in secret as the king’s agent in a sensitive diplomatic matter, and he had shrewdly declawed d’Eon from ever again blackmailing the king by making her promise to dress as a woman when she returned to France. He would ask the king for a substantial amount so that he could purchase arms directly from the French military and resell them to the colonies. Beaumarchais would disguise the origin of the arms so that it would never appear that the French government was involved.
For his part, Lee negotiated with Beaumarchais as if he had the full authority of the Continental Congress behind him—which he did not. Lee, however, saw an opportunity to profit financially as well as to enhance his prestige and influence. Beaumarchais would ship gold and gunpowder to the French West Indies, where Lee would arrange for it to be loaded onto an American ship. Only Lee and Samuel Adams would know about the shipments. In exchange for this support, Lee agreed that the Americans would export to France top-quality Virginia tobacco. Whether it was Lee who first suggested that the Americans would pay for the arms with the Virginia tobacco is unclear. But he certainly saw that selling tobacco to France could help economically distressed Virginia plantations like his brothers’. Since the British did not allow the American colonies to export directly to France, good-quality Virginia tobacco was not widely available on the Continent and commanded a high price. Lee’s brother in London, William, imported tobacco to England, and he could act as agent. Thus, the Lees would profit directly from the sale of tobacco in exchange for arms. The tobacco would be resold by Beaumarchais on behalf of the French government. Beaumarchais would use the profits to enable him to purchase more supplies for the Americans. In this way an initial loan of one million livres (nearly $8 million today) from the French government could be multiplied to provide a continuing stream of arms and ammunition to the Americans.
After a few meetings, Beaumarchais and Lee began to suspect that the Comte de Lauraguais, who enjoyed wine to excess, might be keeping his friend the Earl of Shelburne, a leading Whig intellectual, informed of their discussions. Lee decided to exclude the tipsy comte from further discussions. The result was that the comte did everything in his power to try to undermine Beaumarchais with the French government. Unfortunately, Lee overlooked a more obvious threat to their plot—his close friend, and sometimes roommate, Paul Wentworth.
FOR THE PAST FIVE YEARS, Lee and Wentworth had been nearly inseparable. Wentworth, a wealthy American with a plantation in British Guiana, took an interest in the young law student practically from the moment that Lee first began publishing his critique of British policies as Junius Americanus. Lee was no doubt flattered by the older man’s attention, especially given the fact that Wentworth was one of the best-connected Americans living in London. Wentworth had done very well investing in British stocks at a time when many in the aristocracy disdained the vulgar “stock jobbers,” but the leading statesmen, aristocrats, and scientists flocked to the lavish parties at his home on Poland Street and spent weekends at his country manor, Brandenburgh House in Hammersmith. Wentworth was not merely rich; Lee knew that Wentworth was a cousin of the royal governor of New Hampshire, John Wentworth, and also of the Marquess of Rockingham, Charles Watson-Wentworth, one of the richest and most influential men in Britain.
In fact, Wentworth’s famous lineage was a carefully spun lie. His genteel manners and polished appearance masked an impos
ter. Paul Wentworth was born to a planter on Barbados, and as a young man he made his way to New Hampshire with letters of introduction to the family of the then-royal governor Benning Wentworth, who is today known as the father of Bennington, the first town in the territory of Vermont. He somehow persuaded the Wentworth clan that he was a long-lost relative, and he formed a lasting friendship with the governor’s young nephew John Wentworth, who later became governor himself.
Paul Wentworth returned to the West Indies, where he married a rich widow who died soon after, leaving him heir to a large sugar plantation in Guiana. Wentworth was quickly bored by plantation life and moved to London, where now-governor John Wentworth appointed his “cousin” agent for the Colony of New Hampshire and a member of the New Hampshire Council. Paul Wentworth leveraged his relationship with the governor to gain access to the Marquess of Rockingham, and no one, including Rockingham, questioned how Wentworth was related to the governor. Much later, after the American Revolution, the governor entrusted Wentworth with managing his own estate, and Wentworth absconded with the governor’s assets back to the West Indies, where he was never heard from again.
When Arthur Lee was a hungry law student, Paul Wentworth had invited him to move into Wentworth’s fashionable Poland Street mansion. And after Lee could afford his own room at the Middle Temple, Wentworth sometimes spent the night there. In May 1775, shortly after Lee had published his “Second Appeal” to the British people, Wentworth offered Lee 300 pounds (about $55,000 today) to stop publishing. The impoverished Lee accepted the payment, which he considered a “loan,” though it is doubtful that Lee ever repaid Wentworth. Lee was also promised that he would be appointed to an official post in London, and that his brother Richard Henry would be named to the Virginia Council—if he cooperated. Though Lee later claimed he had rejected Wentworth’s offer, Wentworth insisted that Lee took the money. Lee was apparently so dazzled by Wentworth’s social standing, and so grateful for his financial support, that he had never questioned Wentworth’s political loyalties when he accepted the payment. Lee published only one more critical essay, in 1776, before silencing Junius Americanus forever.
Unlikely Allies Page 13