Edward Bancroft
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Edward Bartholomew Bancroft was an American physician and chemist who became a double agent, spying for both the United States and Great Britain while serving as secretary to the American commission i
Edward Bancroft
John the Painter
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James Aitken, also known as John the Painter, was a Scottish mercenary who committed acts of sabotage in Royal Navy dockyards in 1776 and 1777 during the American Revolutionary War. He was captured an
Edward Bancroft
…his dispatches smuggled into France in French diplomatic pouches to avoid having them opened by the London post office. In December 1776, the arsonist John the Painter set a fire near the Portsmouth dock and then visited Bancroft. Bancroft refused to give him any assistance. Though Bancroft had worked for Franklin and…
1777 engraving of James Aitken
1777 illustration of Aitken
Portrait of Aitken in jail by W. Cave ad viv del
18th century woodcut of Aitken