Matriarch of Spies

Time to turn our attention back to two areas I have not commented on in some time. Women in the American War for Independence and espionage. Our subject today hits both counts and did have honorable mention in a previous Yankee Doodle Spies post. This female first patriot helped George Washington’s efforts in a very unusual way – allowing the British to quarter troops in her home. She is also special because she was a Quaker, although her exploits would get her expelled from the pacifist Society of Friends.

Immigrant Patriot

Like so many of our first patriots, Lydia Barrington was born in Ireland, specifically Dublin, in 1729. At the age of 24, she met and married William Darragh, the tutor son of a clergyman. Not long after the couple emigrated and landed in Philadelphia where they became respected members of the local Quaker community. Although somewhat petite and frail, Lydia took up the trade of mid-wife and, as was common with many women of the time, did sewing on the side. Lydia and her husband led a prosperous and comfortable life in Philadelphia, and their large family five of nine children surviving childbirth) attests to it. The steady Quaker, Darragh became alarmed when one of her sons turned from the Friends to join the Continental Army with a commission as a lieutenant in the Second Pennsylvania Line. The Society eschewed any member who took an active role on either side, especially a military role.

Philadelphia in the 1700s

An Occupied City

As with so many Americans, life changed when the war came to Philadelphia. In October 1777, the British army under General William Howe occupied the erstwhile American capital. By chance, Lord Howe established his headquarters in the home of the patriot rebel leader, John Cadwalader, just across the street from the Darragh residence at 177 South Second Street. At some point, Howe demanded use of the Darragh parlor for staff councils and private meetings. Most war plans of the age were developed by “councils of war,” so this was a big deal. And a big opportunity.

Darragh's House

Making of a Spy

Just who recruited Lydia to espionage and how is uncertain. What was her motivation?  Her son’s military service? Concealed patriotism? Anger at the British occupation? Whether volunteer or recruit to espionage, she clearly became part of an established network. Despite lack of formal education, Lydia had a brilliant mind and was incisive politically and perceptive to things going on around her. She was gifted with a remarkable memory as well. Perhaps her greatest asset, at least for the service she would do for her country, was her unassuming demeanor. The ability to hide in place.

Lydia's family operated at the center of
British occupied Philadelphia

Family of Spies

During the period of occupation, Lydia’s nurse activities enabled her to move freely through British lines. But soon her growing family was involved in helping the cause by providing intelligence from the very center of the British high command in North America. During the winter of 1777 – 1778, the occupation of the rebel capital gave the appearance of British ascendancy and the inevitable destruction of the rebellion. After all, Washington’s pitiable army was holed up on the frozen plains of Valley Forge. While the British had a surfeit of everything, the rebel army was withering away from lack of food, clothing, medicine, and other supplies. The British let their guard down, holding their meetings with the diminutive nurse in the background. And of course, they knew that the Darragh’s, as practicing Quakers, could not, would not support either side in the war or take part in any acts contributing to the war. Lydia was able to listen in on most of the meetings and discussions that took place in her parlor.  Then she quickly dictated what she heard to her husband William, who carefully recorded the information in special shorthand on small strips of paper. Her seamstress skills were a critical piece of her tradecraft. Lydia would stitch the thin strips of paper into buttons on her 14-year-old son John’s coat. That done, she dispatched John as a courier. John would steal through the British lines and rendezvous with his older brother Charles, who was with Washington’s army. Charles understood the shorthand and transcribed the pieces and turned them into intelligence.

Lydia Darragh: Nurse, Seamstress, Spy

Secret Mission

But the spy ring’s MO and tradecraft would not play a part in what is considered Lydia Darragh’s boldest achievement. On 2 December, Lydia and her family were suddenly ordered to their rooms while an important meeting took place. An emergency council of war took place. This was before the Continental Army had settled in Valley Forge. Washington was still lingering near the capital hoping for an opportunity to take some action before both sides settled in to “winter quarters.”  Undeterred, and perhaps stirred, by the urgency of the British, Lydia put her ear to a keyhole and listened in as General Howe gave detailed instructions to his commanders. She overheard the British commander in chief give orders for a multi-column movement against General Washington. The date for the planned ambush was 4 December. The strike was to catch the rebels unaware and disperse their army and perhaps nab Washington in the attempt.

General Howe's secret plans to surprise and destroy
the Continental Army would spur a bold gambit

She would not leave this critical mission to her young son. Instead, she developed a quick “cover for action” and slipped out of town on 3 December with sacks hoping to replenish them with flour at a mill near Frankford, which was between the opposing army lines. The risk was great as patrols by both sides roamed the area. And it was a 13-mile trek in winter. Undeterred, she indeed went to Pearson’s Mill and left the empty sacks for the owner to fill. She would pick them up on her return. Her cover thus established, Lydia continued on her real mission: deliver the British plans to the American forces.

Clandestine Meeting

There are two versions of what happened next. In one, by happenstance encounters a friend, Colonel Thomas Craig, along the road, she told him what she had learned and he galloped off to report to Washington. Lydia then secured her flour and made her way home. In the other version, Lydia makes her way to a tavern called, The Rising Sun. There, she met with Colonel Elias Boudinot,  Commissary-General of Prisoners, but who also operated as an intelligence officer. Allegedly, Lydia walked into the pub and handed him an old tattered needlebook and left. When he searched the book, Boudinot found a roll of paper in one of the pockets. The paper indicated General Howe was going to attack Whitemarsh the next morning with 5,000 men, 13 cannons, and 11 boats on wheels. Boudinot mounted his horse and galloped to Washington’s headquarters. He provided her report to Washington but protected Lydia’s cover by naming “captured prisoners” as his source. This is evidence of the critical role Lydia and the Darragh family played in providing intelligence from Philadelphia. The fact that Lydia knew Boudinot might be at the tavern is a further indicator of the sophisticated nature of the spy ring. I tend to favor the latter version.

Darragh at The Rising Sun

An Army Saved

The intelligence brought by Lydia, really a form of indications and warning (I&W), enabled Washington to prepare the Continental Army, which repulsed General Howe’s “surprise” attack at White Marsh. The multi-day battle saved the army and the cause, enabling it to eventually settle at Valley Forge. The British returned to Philadelphia in disgust.

The series of skirmishes at White Marsh
ended the 1777 campaign with a modest
American victory

A Critical Source

Upon her return, Darragh was questioned by the British who suspected treachery. She was able to disarm them and convince them she was not aware of their plans. But Lydia and her family continued to pump information from the heart of the British high command throughout the winter. As Washington trained the army at Valley Forge, reports from the capital were critical as he prepared for the spring campaign he knew was coming. So the commander in chief was not caught off guard when Howe was relieved of command in the spring and the British Army left Philadelphia on 18 June of 1778. The departure of the British ended the need for the spy ring and Lydia and her family’s service faded into the shadows like so many effective clandestine operations.

Darragh's espionage continued into 1778

Banned by The Friends

In June 1783, William Darragh died. The Society of Friends was not so friendly when rumors of the Darragh family’s role began to circulate. The Friends expelled Lydia later that year. Her oldest son John had already been expelled in 1781.  In 1786, Lydia moved from South second Street into a new house and with her children ran a store there until her death in 1789. She was laid to rest with other family members in a Quaker cemetery not far from where she lived out her post-wat life.

Lydia returned to a "normal" life after
the war, but lost her standing with  her "Friends"

Shadow Heroes

As with so many of the espionage and covert actions of the American Revolution, Lydia Darragh's tale came under scrutiny.  Darragh’s daughter Ann published the story of her mother’s spy work in 1827. But many were suspicious of the tale and discounted the veracity. Speculation subsided in 1909 when Elias Boudinot’s memoirs were published, corroborating Darragh’s role. In the memoir, he wrote of a woman who fit Darragh’s profile although he, for obvious reasons, did not mention her by name. And General Washington himself often lamented the inability to reveal and properly thank all those first patriots who served in the shadow war, unable to gain recognition or recompense for their risks. I for one think Lydia Darragh and her family are among those shadow heroes.

Elias Boudinot's memoirs pointed a light
on Lydia Darragh's wartime espionage