Culper Spy Ring - Long Island page -2
Three Villages Historical Society
93 North Country Rd., East Setauket, NY 11733
Has an exhibit “SPIES! How a Group of Long Island Patriots Helped George Washington Win the Revolution.” Beginning in 1775 the exhibit includes the Battle of Long Island; the death of Nathan Hale; Washington’s loss of New York City in 1776; the formation of the Culper Spy Ring in 1778; the addition of an spy agent in Manhattan in 1779, and the saving of the French fleet at Newport in 1780.
During the Revolutionary War British troops used the church, built in 1714, as a stable. The present building dates from 1812. The minister during the Revolutionary War was Reverend Benjamin Tallmadge, father of Major Benjamin Tallmadge, soldier, patriot, and head of General Washington’s Culper Spy Network.
In the church graveyard is the grave site of Abraham Woodhull.
From the beginning of the Setauket Spies in 1777-78, Woodhull was in charge of day-to-day operation of the spy ring.Woodhull’s alias was Samuel Culper Senior. When Robert Townsend was recruited as a member of the spy ring his alias became Samuel Culper Junior. Not only did Woodhull direct field activities, but he also risked his life countless times by personally collecting information in New York and on western Long Island. Woodhull was responsible for evaluating the reports received from his sources, determining what was to go forward to Washington and seeing that the dispatches were carried across the Sound by Caleb Brewster. Woodhull's lived in constant fear of discovery.
After the Revolution, Woodhull became the first Judge of Suffolk County. He died January 23, 1826 and bricks from the foundation of the Woodhull homestead, which was destroyed by fire in 1931, were used in this memorial.
The polychrome statue on the peak end of the Gymnasium is Benjamin Tallmadge, Organizer and leader of the Revolutionary War Setauket Spies (alias was John Bolton.) Tallmadge was born in Setauket in 1754. Tallmadge attended school here with his close friends Abraham Woodhull, Caleb Brewster and Austin Roe. Tallmadge, a classmate of executed spy Nathan Hale, graduated from Yale in 1773 and, like Hale, taught school for a time in Connecticut.
When the Revolution began, Tallmadge enlisted in the Continental Army and was soon awarded the rank of Major. Shortly thereafter General Washington appointed him head of his secret service and tasked Tallmadge with establishing a trustworthy espionage network against the British in New York City. To conduct this vital undercover operation on Long Island, Tallmadge choose his boyhood friend Abraham Woodhull. They also choose other friends and neighbors from Setauket; men and women who could be trusted, and who would prove to be so discreet in all their contacts that their identity would not be discovered until the 20th century.
Directly opposite the gymnasium on the peak of the classrooms is a polychrome statue of Richard Woodhull. Richard Woodhull was the father of Culper Spy Abraham Woodhull and was patentee and first magistrate of Setauket. He was born in Thenford, Northamptonshire England, September 13, 1620. He died in Setauket on October 17, 1690. His name appears in a great many of the early documents of the town and he was appointed to numerous offices and acted on many important commissions. One of his outstanding accomplishments was masterly stroke of diplomacy by which the title of the town to the whole northern part was forever freed from complication of Indian claims.
Inside the Setauket School Auditorium are the murals of the history of Setauket including one of Tallmadge attacking Fort St. George in Mastic, Woodhull secretly meeting Brewster, and Austin Roe riding from New York City to Setauket.