Biographies of Dr. Benjamin Church
Church
(Dictionary of American Biography (Scribner’s))
p. 100-101
CHURCH, BENJAMIN (Aug. 24, 1734-1776), physician, traitor, poet, and author,
was a grandson of Col. Benjamin Church [q.v.], who was conspicuous in
the Indian and French Wars, and a son of Benjamin, deacon of Mather Byles’s
church (Boston). He was born at Newport. R. I. entered the Boston Latin
School in 1745, and graduated from Harvard College in 1754. Soon after
graduation he wrote two poems which appeared in a collection in celebration
of the accession of George III. He studied medicine with Dr. Joseph Pynchon,
later going to London where he married Hannah Hill of Ross, Herefordshire.
About 1768 he built a fine house at Raynham, Mass., which some think threw
him into debt. Seemingly his pen supported the Whig  cause
vigorously, but it is said that he parodied the patriotic songs in favor
of the British and that his political essays were answered from the Tory
side by his own pen. The Times... “by an American” (Boston,
1765), a satire upon the Stamp Act, has been attributed to him. He examined
the body of Crispus Attucks, killed in the Boston Massacre, 1770, and
his deposition was printed in the narrative of the town (James Spear Loring,
The Hundred Boston Orators... 4th ed., Boston, 1855, p. 37). He is said
to have written for the Loyalist paper, The Censor, but on Oct. 28,1772,
being a member with Adams and Warren of a committee of correspondence,
he was appointed to draft a letter to the other towns about the colony’s
rights (Justin Winsor, editor, Memorial History of Boston, 1881, III,
44). On Mar. 5, 1773, he delivered An Oration . . . to Commemorate the
Bloody Tragedy of the Fifth of March, 1770, which ranks high amongst these
utterances. In 1774, after a caucus of Whigs, sworn to secrecy, it was
learned, according to Paul Revere, that the proceedings had been divulged
to the Tories, and Revere did not doubt that Church had supplied the information
to Hutchinson (see letter in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections,
ser. I, vol. V, pp. 106— 12). Church, nevertheless, continued in
the confidence of the Whigs, for, with Dr. Joseph Warren and others, he
was appointed a delegate in 1774 to the Provincial Congress. According
to Samuel Kettel, soon after the battle of Lexington, Church told his
confreres that he must go into Boston, to see about medicines. On his
return, he said he had been made prisoner and taken before Gen. Gage,
but it was learned later that he had paid Gage a voluntary visit. In May
1775, on the other hand, he went to consult the Continental Congress,
Philadelphia, about the defense of the colony. He was unanimously elected
director and chief physician of the first Army Hospital (at Cambridge),
July 25, 1775, at a salary of four dollars a day, but his management of
its affairs seems to have been not altogether successful, finally causing
an inquiry to be held into his conduct. It must be admitted, however,
that he had rivals seeking his position (see Church’s letter to Gen.
Sullivan, American Archives, ser. IV, vol. III, p. 712). He evidently
wrote Washington, Sept. 20, seeking permission to leave the army (American
Archives, ser. IV vol. III, p. 780).
Church was tried by court martial, Oct. 1775, Washington presiding, and
was found guilty of “holding criminal correspondence with the enemy.”
In July 1775, he had sent a cipher letter to the commander of a British
vessel Newport. The correspondence had been intercepted, Henry Ward taking
it to Washington the end of September. The Massachusetts Provincial Congress
unanimously expelled Church from their body on Nov. 4. He defended himself
ably but was not convincing. He admitted that he wrote the letter, but
said he was not acting traitorously as he purposely had exaggerated numbers
of the Continental Army in order frighten the British and quickly end
hostilities. The Continental Congress resolved on Nov. 6 that he should
be imprisoned at Norwich, Conn. but, because of illness, he was removed
to Massachusetts and put on parole not to leave the colony (Richard Frothingham,
History of the Siege of Boston, 3rd ed., 1872, pp. 259-60). Eventually
allowed by the Massachusetts Council to depart for the West Indies, he
sailed from Boston probably in 1778, but the ship was never heard from
again. Church’s family was pensioned by the crown.
[Richard Frothingham, Life and Times of Jos. Warren (1865), p. 225 n.;
New Eng. Hist. and Geneal. Reg. Apr. 1857, p. 123; Wm. O. Owen, The Medical
Department of the U.S. Army,...1176-1186 (1920); Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical
Sketches of Loyalists of the Am. Revolution (1864), I, 313; J.M. Toner,
The Medical Men of the Revolution...(1876); Justin Winsor, Narr. and Crit.
Hist. of America (1888), vol. VI; Church’s original cipher letter,
as well as the letter as deciphered, in the Lib. of Cong., Washington.]
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
(p. 250-251)
CHURCH, Benjamin,
Revolutionary War Surgeon.
Benjamin Church, surgeon-general in the War of the Revolution, left behind
him the reputation of being a traitor to his country. There is no record
of the date of his birth or any account of his early life.
He entered Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1754, and having
studied with Dr. Charles Pynchon, an eminent physician of the time, became
noted for his skill, particularly as a surgeon. In addition, as he was
talented and had a poetic fancy, he obtained a certain reputation as a
writer. About the year 1768 he built for himself an elegant house at Raynham,
Massachusetts, which involved him in debt, and probably led to the misfortunes
and disgrace of his after life. Prior to the War of the Revolution, Dr.
Church was a zealous Whig, and associated with the principal men of that
party in Boston and was a writer for “The Times;” a newspaper
which was devoted to the Whigs, and which Governor Bernard denounced as
a seditious sheet. It appears from a letter of Governor Hutchinson, dated
January 29, 1772, that even at that time he was traitorously in the service
of the government—traitorously, because, not being suspected by the
patriots, he was looked upon as one of them, and in was chosen to.deliver
the annual oration in the Old South Meeting House. He was also one of
the leaders in the “Boston Tea Party.” In 1774 he was a member
of the Provincial Congress, and was appointed Surgeon-General and Director
of Hospitals, but at this time it began to be suspected that he was in
the pay of the British government. One of his students who kept his accounts
and knew of his pecuniary condition. could not otherwise account for his
sudden acquisition of some hundreds of new British guineas. It appears
that he had frequent intercourse with Captain Price, a half-pay British
officer, and with Robinson, one of the commissioners sent over from England
to try to arrange peace. A few days after the battle of Lexington, in
April, 1775, being at Cambridge, with the Committee of Safety he brought
himself under specific suspicion by suddenly returning to Boston and visiting
the house of General Gage. His treachery was detected through a letter
written in cipher to his brother in Boston, which he had entrusted to
a young woman upon whom it was found. The cipher being translated by Elbridge
Gerry, it was discovered that Church had been for some time in treasonable
correspondence with the enemy. He brought to trial before a court and
was convicted, October 3d (Washington being president of the court), holding
a criminal correspondence with the enemy.” On General Washington
charging him with his baseness, Church did not even attempt to vindicate
himself, but, on being called to the bar of the House of Representatives,
October 27, he offered a defense which was considered ingenious and able.
He said that the letter for his brother not having sent, he had communicated
no intelligence; that, there was nothing in the letter but notorious facts;
that his exaggeration of the strength of the American force was only designed
to favor the cause of his country, and that his object was purely patriotic.
He concluded saying: “The warmest bosom here does not flame with
a brighter zeal for the security, happiness and liberties of America,
than mine.” He gained nothing by his eloquence, being expelled from
the house, and ordered to be imprisoned for life, and debarred the use
of pens, ink, and paper. He fell sick in prison, however, and in 1776
was released and permitted to sail for the West Indies , but the ship
in which he sailed was never heard from again. Dr. Church published “An
Elegy on the Times” (1765); “Elegy on Dr. Mayhew” (1766);
“Elegy on the Death of Dr. Whitefield” (1770); “Oration
on the Fifth of March” (1773).
Links:
Surgeon
Generals of the US Army: (painting of Dr. Church)
http://history.amedd.army.mil/tsgs/Church.htm
Rebel Biographies
http://members.aol.com/tjoschultz/church.html
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