The Peer's Challenge
As Paris buzzed with intrigue during the American Revolution, Lord David Murray, the seventh Viscount Stormont, the British ambassador to Louis XVI's court and chief of intelligence, was at the center of this complex web of intrigue. Appointed in 1772, Stormont was a Scottish peer related to Lord Mansfield, the chief justice who had ruled against colonial protests during the Stamp Act crisis of 1765. His diplomatic cover cloaked espionage aimed at blocking French support for the rebelling colonies.
Covert Aid
The 1776 Declaration of Independence upped the stakes.
George Washington's Continental Army faced severe shortages of weapons, powder,
and funds. Franklin's arrival in Paris in December was a game-changer: the
Philadelphian captivated French intellectuals and aristocrats alike. He lobbied
Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, the Comte de Vergennes, for more covert aid.
Vergennes, estimating the strategic blow to Britain, authorized secret
shipments through intermediaries, such as the front company Rodrigue, Hortelez
& Cie.
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Unleashing a Master Spy
From his Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré estate, Stormont took this
as a dire threat. His network, funded by Whitehall subsidies and coordinated
with Loyalist exiles, became Britain’s eyes and ears in a city full of conspiracy.
At the core of Stormont's operation was Dr. Edward Bancroft, a
Massachusetts-born physician and chemist whose scientific credentials masked
his duplicity. Recruited in March 1776 by British secret service agent Paul
Wentworth, a wealthy Loyalist tobacco merchant acting as Stormont's intermediary,
Bancroft had infiltrated the American mission.
Edward Bancroft
Placement and Access
Serving as Silas Deane's secretary—the Connecticut merchant
tasked with buying munitions—Bancroft gained access to Franklin's villa in
Passy, a hub of covert diplomacy. From there, he documented every detail:
Vergennes' promises of gunpowder, arms shipments disguised as commercial cargo;
the negotiations over loans to fund the American cause. Bancroft’s use of
spycraft was brilliant. He used stain (invisible ink), hidden papers, and
pseudonyms.
Sophisticated Spycraft
He made weekly visits to a “dead drop" in a crevice at
the base of a tree on the south terrace of the Jardin des Tuileries. Stormont
dispatched his private secretary, Thomas Jeans, who retrieved these drops under
the cover of darkness. Stormont’s instructions and new requests for
intelligence were also left by Jeans, often accompanied by payments of up to
£500 annually.
Exquisite Intelligence
By April 1777, as
negotiations between France and America intensified, Bancroft's leaks included
verbatim transcripts of commissioners' minutes and drafts of the 1778 Treaty of
Alliance. One dispatch, smuggling the final version of the treaty, reached King
George III within 48 hours of its signing in Paris, allowing Britain to prepare
naval responses.
Démarcheing the Bourbons
Stormont used this intelligence in heated meetings with Vergennes, citing specifics to accuse France of violating the 1776 Treaty of Commerce and demanding inspections—his démarches spawned hesitation and bought Britain months of breathing space.
An Army of Agents
His influence reached the Atlantic ports of Lorient, Brest, and Nantes, which were crucial points for American supplies. Here, a network of embedded agents—dockyard foremen, corrupt customs officials (douaniers), and bribed ship chandlers—monitored rebel privateers such as the USS Reprisal, commanded by the daring American Captain Lambert Wickes.
Stormont’s informants tracked illegal exchanges: American
tobacco and indigo were traded for Charleville muskets and gunpowder, which was
routed through Roderigue Hortalez et Cie.
Actionable Intelligence
In July 1777, Lambert Wickes' squadron escorted a Dutch
convoy loaded with arms past Ushant. Stormont's informers provided intelligence
that led the Royal Navy to intercept the convoy, seizing prizes worth £100,000. As
the British ambassador, he issued a strong démarche to Versailles. This
pressured Vergennes to issue mild protests against "illegal" sailing.
Although enforcement was pro forma,
Stromont’s protests delayed France’s full naval involvement until 1778.
French Mole
Meanwhile, spymaster Stormont developed a mole within the
Foreign Ministry's Archives Section—a junior archivist, possibly bribed with
500 louis d'or—who stole dispatches from locked cabinets.
Breaking into the Quai d'Orsay's bureaucracy was a master
stroke against the French. These stolen
dispatches revealed Franco-American subsidies, as well as overtures to Spain's
Charles III for a Mediterranean diversion against Gibraltar. Stormont forwarded
copies to London via secure couriers, helping Prime Minister Lord North lobby
neutral European nations, such as the Dutch, against Bourbon plans.
Unplugging the Electrician
But no target infuriated Stormont more than Franklin, the
"electrician of sedition,” whose charm threatened French neutrality.
Intercepts exposed Franklin's secret letters to William Petty, the second Earl
of Shelburne, a Whig opposition leader who called the war "madness"
in Parliament and secretly provided £10,000 to American agents such as Arthur
Lee.
In a slick psychological operation, Stormont leaked "correspondence" accusing Franklin of treasonous dealings—leaking rebel plans to Lord Shelburne for personal gain. These accusations were circulated in London newspapers and Paris coffeehouses, sparking a scandal.
Angered at the false reports, Shelburne fought a duel with his purported accuser, Colonel William Fullarton, in Hyde Park, but both survived unscathed. This episode damaged trust within the American delegation, with Deane suspecting Lee of leaks and making French courtiers wary of deeper involvement. It also provided the predicate for my fifth novel in the Yankee Doodle Spies series, The Reluctant Spy.
Success and Failure
Lord Stormont’s web of espionage delayed French arms
shipments, kept London apprised of secret negotiations, and sowed discord among
both French and American diplomats. However, Stormont's efforts in Paris could not stop
the momentum of support for America by France, Spain, and the Netherlands.
After the treaty of alliance was signed in 1778, French
fleets under Admiral d'Estaing sailed for Savannah, shifting the war. Stormont, whose
protests were ignored, was recalled that June — bringing a great sigh of relief
to Vegennes and Franklin. Although his network dissolved, its efforts had
sustained the British struggle for two more years—a testament to the power of
espionage in the forging of revolution.
The Peer's Postscript
In a final note, Edward Bancroft's treason to America was
not revealed in 1889 — from Stormont's secret papers—highlighting how Britain’s
intelligence secrets were sustained over many decades.
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