The First Conspiracy Read online

  Mason also gave one additional detail: Gilbert Forbes is not a blacksmith, as Ketcham said, but a gunsmith.

  That’s the detail investigators need to track him down—but unlike Mayor Mathews, tracking down Gilbert Forbes is easy. Thanks to Mason’s testimony, the investigators know precisely where he is. He runs a gun shop “on Broadway, across from Hull’s Tavern.”

  The details of exactly how, when, and where the authorities arrest Forbes are not on the record. Probably, a couple of soldiers or militiamen simply walk into his shop and take him by force. In any case, at some point during the evening of Saturday, June 22—less than twenty-four hours after Mayor Mathews’s arrest and only six days after Ketcham’s initial revelation—the city guards bring gunsmith Gilbert Forbes into custody in the same prison underneath City Hall where Thomas Hickey, Michael Lynch, Isaac Ketcham, the two Young brothers, Henry Dawkins, Mayor David Mathews, and some others are also detained.

  This jail is getting awfully crowded.

  Naturally, the three investigators from the Committee on Conspiracies are eager to talk to this man Forbes, who, although totally unknown before, seems to be at the center of the plot. After all, Forbes’s name has now come up in connection to Governor Tryon, to Mayor Mathews, to Washington’s Life Guards, and to the team of recruits from Goshen.

  Obviously, this will be a critical examination. There’s only one hitch in the investigators’ plan.

  Forbes refuses to talk.

  The night he’s taken into custody, the gunsmith tells his captors he won’t answer any questions. He won’t agree to talk to anyone. He won’t cooperate or give names. Not now, not tomorrow, not ever.

  63

  The next morning, Sunday, June 23, the investigators wake up and get back to work.

  While the new suspect in custody, Gilbert Forbes, plays tough and refuses to talk, Jay, Morris, and Livingston begin their formal examination of one of their key suspects: the New York City Mayor, David Mathews.

  Mathews is by far the highest-profile suspect in custody and, given that Governor Tryon is untouchable—he’s still safe aboard the Duchess of Gordon, under the protection of the massive British warship Asia anchored right next to it—the Mayor is probably the highest-ranking official they will interview.

  Some time in the middle or late morning, prison guards make the now familiar trek from the underground prison up to City Hall. From there, they carefully escort the Mayor into one of the building’s courtrooms, where he’s seated before the three investigators.

  Like the other examinations, this one will be top secret, and once again a congressional secretary is present to transcribe the interrogation as it happens.

  From the start of the examination, Mathews takes a position of denial. He denies he’s a player in any grand scheme; he denies any ill intentions toward George Washington or his army; he denies that he is part of a conspiracy to enlist men or bribe Continental soldiers.

  However, right at the outset, the Mayor does admit his involvement in an isolated part of the plot.

  Mathews tells the story of the one particular time he visited Governor Tryon on board the Duchess of Gordon, about a month ago.

  Mathews says he initially went aboard the ship to do some administrative work with Tryon. Mathews says he had even obtained official permission from Washington’s second-in-command, Gen. Israel Putnam, to make the trip.

  He then describes being aboard the ship that day. After he took care of his regular business, and just as he was about to leave the Duchess, he says “the Governor took him into a private room, and put a bundle of paper money in his hands.”

  According to Mathews, Governor Tryon told him to give most of this money—a sum of about 115 pounds—to a man named Gilbert Forbes. It was payment, the Governor said, for some guns he had bought from Forbes that were being delivered to the ship.

  Mathews claims that at the time he was “surprised” by the Governor’s request—and that his first thought was that “Governor Tryon had put a matter on his shoulders which might bring him into some difficulty.”

  After revealing this initial incident, Mathews goes on to relate a rather convoluted account of how he carried out Tryon’s order. He says that because he didn’t know who Forbes was, he had to seek him out through a mutual acquaintance, and then, once he had identified him, he decided not to give him the money right away. It was only after Forbes sought Mathews out and started hounding him that he finally relented and gave Forbes the cash.

  Then, the main thrust of the Mayor’s story is that once he met Forbes, he actually tried to talk Forbes out of any secret activity with the Governor. He says he told Forbes not to sell the Governor any more guns, and asked him to stop bribing Continental soldiers to join the British side.

  He adds that he warned Forbes “he would be hanged if he was found out,” and told him that “if he regarded his safety that he would not go on with such schemes.” Mayor Mathews says he did everything he could to discourage Forbes’ involvement—yet Forbes refused to listen.

  When it comes to the more specific plot details that were revealed by others about the conspiracy, the Mayor likewise claims mostly ignorance. He says that when Forbes began talking about bribing the Life Guards, or gathering men to blow up the Continental army’s magazine, or destroying the King’s Bridge—and he says Forbes tried to persuade him to join in all these missions—the Mayor “begged of him to desist of such a scheme, for he would certainly be discovered and the gallows would be his lot.”

  When the investigators press him further regarding Tryon’s plan to raise a secret army for the British, Mathews says that he “has no further knowledge … relative to any person engaged in the business of enlisting men for the King’s service, or in keeping up a communication between the city and the Governor’s ship.”

  Basically, Mathews puts the whole thing on Forbes. If anything, he says he was trying to be a good citizen by dissuading Forbes from pursuing any plot against the Continental army.

  After the examination, John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, and Philip Livingston follow the usual procedure and sign the transcript made by the secretary. City guards lead David Mathews back to his cell.

  So what to make of the Mayor’s testimony?

  For the most part, the investigators don’t buy Mathews’s claims of innocence and ignorance. Their reason is simple: Mathews’s testimony contradicts what several other suspects have already said and will say about him.

  Most witnesses have independently contended that Mathews is a key leader of the plot—the one responsible for managing the money for bribing soldiers. Naturally, Mathews has a very strong motive to deny culpability—because he fears imprisonment or death by the authorities—whereas the others who name him don’t have a particular reason to accuse him falsely.

  So, in general, the interrogators are skeptical of Mathews’s testimony. However, Mathews’s examination does move the investigation forward in one critical way. Thanks to his admission about getting money from Tryon’s ship, the investigators now have strong, clear evidence that the conspiracy leads all the way up to the Governor.

  Of course, they suspected all along that Tryon was pulling the strings—and several other witnesses say they’d heard that Tryon was running the scheme—but now, with Mathews’s testimony, the Committee on Conspiracies can verify a clear flow of money from Tryon, to Mathews, to Forbes, and then to the Life Guards and other recruits.

  This particular flow of money is only part of the bigger picture. There seem to be many other recruiters out there aside from Forbes—and Tryon is pretty clearly paying lots of people to do many different things. But when it comes to the attempt to infiltrate the Life Guards, they now have a clear picture of who is paying whom.

  After Mayor Mathews’s examination, the investigators keep working. That very afternoon, they interrogate six other suspects and witnesses, including the recruiter William Farley, who originally enlisted James Mason from the Ringwood mill up in Goshen.

&nbs
p; All these interviews confirm and enhance their basic understanding of the plot, including the roles played by Mayor Mathews and Gilbert Forbes. They also provide names of yet more people implicated, whom the committee can now arrest and take into custody.

  Naturally, there is still more to be done, but the investigators now have a strong sense of the case—and are closing in on a plan to bring the conspirators to justice before the plot has any chance of success.

  Then, that same Sunday, June 23, 1776, there’s yet another unexpected twist. Perhaps the most shocking so far.

  One final coconspirator is about to be revealed, and a close one, too.

  Her name is Mary Smith—George Washington’s housekeeper.

  That’s right. Not only are the elite Life Guards in on it. So is the middle-aged woman who runs the household where, on most nights, George Washington sleeps.

  She’s part of the conspiracy—and the authorities have just seized her.

  64

  Of all the surprising developments in the story of the secret plot against George Washington, the involvement of Washington’s personal housekeeper, Mary Smith, may be the strangest.

  It’s also the most mysterious.

  Very little is actually known about exactly how and when Mary Smith is removed from Washington’s residence, beyond the fact that it occurs on Sunday, June 23.

  In fact, the congressional documents, including those of the Committee on Conspiracies, make no mention whatsoever of her arrest, or of her involvement in the plot. Nor is her participation referred to in any military or city records.

  The first report of Mary Smith’s abrupt removal from George Washington’s nighttime estate is seen in a letter written the very next day by an unidentified person in New York who has some sort of inside knowledge of the plot and investigation.

  This letter, dated June 24, 1776, is somehow obtained by the Pennsylvania Journal, which publishes it on June 26. The newspaper doesn’t include the name of the writer or the recipient, it prints only the body of the text. Since the original letter is lost, the identity of the writer remains a mystery.

  The letter includes a description of the plot, with many details correct. It ends with this sentence:

  I am told the Mayor acknowledges he paid Mr. Forbes, the gunsmith, who is one of the gang now in irons, one hundred and forty pounds, by order of Governor Tryon. Yesterday the General’s housekeeper was taken up; it is said she is concerned.

  In the usage of the day, “concerned” means “involved.” In other words, the letter suggests that the housekeeper is part of the plot.

  Although the letter writer is wrong about the exact amount of money that the Mayor paid Gilbert Forbes, the other information is accurate. Whoever the writer is, he or she knows something about the plot. Unfortunately, to this day, no one knows the source of the information about the housekeeper.

  Of course, this one anonymous letter would not be sufficient as the only source to verify that Washington’s housekeeper was in on the conspiracy—but additional clues also bear it out.

  According to Continental army ledgers, Mary Smith’s work term for Washington, paid for by the army, indeed comes to an abrupt and mysterious end that weekend. There was no indication beforehand that there was any dissatisfaction with her or plan to fire her. Suddenly, she is removed from the staff, with no explanation.

  In addition, a few days later, Washington is desperately looking for a replacement for this demanding position that involves running a household staff and hosting large dinners for politicians and generals. He writes a note to a New York friend that because he had “occasion to part with my Housekeeper,” he needs help finding another. Regarding a new woman who had been recommended, he writes, “I beg of you to hasten her to this place … as I am entirely destitute, and put to much inconvenience” due to the sudden vacancy.

  Mary Smith was clearly removed abruptly, under highly unusual circumstances, during the weekend in which the investigation of the plot was in full swing.

  From that point forward, there will be conjecture concerning her precise role, from a rumor that she was a British spy all along, to various infamous theories about how she might be involved in an assassination plot against the General.

  Putting aside the rumors, the question remains: If Washington’s housekeeper was indeed discovered that weekend to be a part of the conspiracy, why is there no formal record of her arrest—and why didn’t the committee examine her on the record like the others?

  No one knows for sure, but the answer could fall into the “too embarrassing to reveal” category. Surely, Washington would want to keep this exceedingly sensitive matter as much under wraps as possible. At this critical juncture, right before the first big battle of the Revolutionary War, when the eyes of the colonies and the world are watching, the public revelation that George Washington’s own housekeeper is conspiring against him is hardly a display of power and strength.

  Mary Smith’s potential involvement also suggests something else—that the plot was indeed focused against Washington himself. After all, there are always Life Guards present at Mortier’s estate, and as the housekeeper, Mary Smith would have gotten to know them.

  There is no particular reason the Life Guards would have brought a middle-aged housekeeper into their plans if their role were to destroy the King’s Bridge, or to just spike some cannons. Whereas if they’re devising a plan to actually kill George Washington, or capture him for the enemy—well, there are many ways the housekeeper could help with that.

  After Mary Smith’s sudden departure on that Sunday, June 23, 1776, there is no clear record of what became of her. If she was seized by soldiers as a traitor, they did not take her to jail or otherwise formally detain her. Perhaps they just sent her away from the estate, with a threat to never return.

  A rumor would soon arise that she boarded a ship to England, but again, no one knows for sure. To this day, her fate remains an enduring mystery.

  65

  When gunsmith Gilbert Forbes was arrested and brought to the city jail the night of Saturday, June 22, he was defiant and stubborn. He refused to cooperate and said he wouldn’t answer any questions.

  This obstinance from Forbes would last for about fifteen hours.

  Then he changed his mind.

  What happened?

  According to one version of events, the morning after Forbes’s arrest, on Sunday, June 23, the authorities sent a young minister named Robert Livingston to visit the stubborn gunsmith in his cell.

  At this point, Forbes has just spent a full night in a dark jail, with painful leg irons on. His defiant mood has probably already softened a little.

  Livingston, speaking gently to the prisoner, tells Forbes that “he was very sorry to find” that Forbes was involved in this plot. Forbes, hearing this, perhaps thinks that the minister, a man of the cloth, will show some kindness toward him on this day of the Lord.

  Instead, Livingston tells Forbes that “his time was very short, not having three days to live,” and that therefore, Livingston was there to help him to “prepare himself.” Basically, the minister is giving Forbes his last rites, as if he were a man about to die. After all, Forbes is being accused of treason, and the penalty for such crimes is as serious as it gets.

  But as the minister explains, the last rites have a bit of a window. If Forbes will cooperate and answer questions—that is, tell his full story—maybe his fate will change, and he won’t need to “prepare himself” after all.

  The minister’s brief visit seems to have an immediate impact. “This had the desired effect; the prisoner asked to be carried before the Congress again, and he would discover all he knew.”

  Now, the committee has the man apparently at the very center of the conspiracy—and he’s ready to talk.

  However, the investigators do things a little differently with Gilbert Forbes. Rather than interrogate him on the record as they did with the Mayor, some combinations of John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, and Philip Livingsto
n speak to him informally, off the record. They want to know what he knows, but they save his formal examination for later.

  Why this change of process?

  At this point, the investigation is turning a corner. The committee still has more people to arrest and interrogate, but it understands the basic contours of the plot and who’s at fault.

  And now, there are larger forces at play.

  By Monday, June 24, the latest intelligence indicates that the first wave of the British fleet is now only days away.

  The Continental army is preparing for an almost unimaginable challenge. Thousands of lives are on the line. George Washington, his officers, and his soldiers need to be in a position of cohesion and strength.

  What’s more, even if the authorities have mostly stymied the progress of the plot itself, the story of the conspiracy is starting to leak. They’ve kept it a secret as long as possible, but word is starting to spread.

  The story of the plot will cause upheaval in the army and among the public, no matter what. Even if the plot fails, at the center of it is this shocking fact: Some of the most trusted men in the army—the Life Guards—have betrayed their country and their fellow soldiers.

  If the worst is to be believed, they were planning to massacre their own leader.

  What can Washington and his army do to contain the fallout of these shocking revelations? How can they maintain unity in the army at this critical time?

  They need to control the narrative.

  They need to make a big public statement.

  Gilbert Forbes may be an important player in the criminal plot, but right now, he’s only a small part of a greater picture.

  Now it’s about the integrity of the army on the eve of war.

  It’s about making sure the guilty parties—especially the traitors in their own army—pay the price for a terrible betrayal.