August 24, 1734 – Birth of Dr. Benjamin Church – America’s First Traitor

Benjamin Church, Jr. was born on this day in history to a prominent Newport, Rhode Island family. He graduated from Harvard University and studied medicine in Massachusetts before finishing his studies in London. He married and returned to Boston to become a physician.

He became a Whig, supporting the American Revolution, and befriending John and Samuel Adams as well as Dr. Joseph Warren, an important figure in the Patriot movement in Boston during the early days of the American Revolution.

After the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, it was Dr. Church who examined the body of Crispus Attucks, a Patriot who was killed and who was of mixed African and Native American blood. In 1773, on the third anniversary of the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, Dr. Church was asked to speak. He notably said about slavery:

Mankind apprized of their privileges, in being rational and free; in prescribing civil laws to themselves, had surely no intention of being enchained by any of their equals; and although they submitted voluntary adherents to certain laws for the sake of mutual security and happiness; they no doubt intended by the original compact, a permanent exemption of the subject body, from any claims, which were not expressly surrendered, for the purpose of obtaining the security and defense of the whole: Can it possibly be conceived that they would voluntarily be enslaved, by a power of their own creation?”

Posthumous portrait of Benjamin Church based on “contemporary description” per Wikipedia

In July 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the creation of a Medical Department with a Director General and Chief Surgeon. Dr. Church was selected to serve as Director General, a role which ultimately made him the first Surgeon General of the United States. However, he only served that role for three months before he was court-martialed on accusations of treason.

As reported by the American Battlefield Trust, throughout the early months of 1775, Church corresponded with General Thomas Gage, a British general charged with trying to put down the revolution before it began. In this correspondence, Church helped supply information including the location of arsenals for the Patriots. This communication continued until a letter was intercepted.

After a trip to Philadelphia, Church attempted to send a ciphered letter to Gage through a series of messengers who were to transport the letter by boat to the British army and then to its intended recipient. However, Church’s first messenger in this chain gave the letter to Patriot, who gave the letter to General Nathanael Greene, eventually making its way to General George Washington. In October 1775, when the letter was decoded, it was found to contain information about Continental Troops before Boston as well as Church’s previous failed attempts to get Gage information, solidifying the evidence that Church was indeed a traitor.

Church was arrested and the matter was presented to the Continental Congress.

When questioned about the letters, Church admitted sending them but did not admit treason. However, the evidence was hard to dispute.

Church was court marshaled, removed from his post as Director General, and arrested. He was briefly jailed in Norwich, Connecticut, until January 1776 when he got ill and was allowed to live under house arrest at his home in Massachusetts until 1778. At that time he was one of over 300 people listed in the Massachusetts Banishment Act, a Bill of attainder passed in September of that year, forcing those who supported the British or “joined the enemies thereof” to leave the United States. [A bill of attainder (also known as an act or writ of attainder) is an act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial. The United States Constitution forbids both the federal and state governments to enact bills of attainder, in Article 1, Sections 9 and 10, respectively.]

Dr. Church sailed from Boston headed for the Caribbean, but the ship was lost at sea, and Church likely perished along with it.