Background
Bancroft was born on January 20, 1745 in Westfield, Massachusetts. His father died of an epileptic seizure when Bancroft was two years old, and his mother remarried five years later to David Bull of Connecticut.
chemist inventor physician scientist spy writer
Bancroft was born on January 20, 1745 in Westfield, Massachusetts. His father died of an epileptic seizure when Bancroft was two years old, and his mother remarried five years later to David Bull of Connecticut.
Without regular schooling he became in later years well-educated, and studied medicine in England.
He had an adventurous early life; a sailor, and then a settler in Dutch Guiana, where he made valuable observations on the manners, customs, and religion of the natives, afterward published. Settling in England he became a writer on American subjects for the Monthly Review, published several works, associated with such men as Franklin and Priestley.
His sinister diplomatic career began at the outset of the Revolution. A natural intriguer, he acted as a spy for Franklin in London. When Silas Deane arrived in France as an American commissioner, he received from Franklin a letter of introduction to Bancroft, and the two men were soon on confidential terms.
Bancroft commenced furnishing various items of information to Deane in 1776, aided the commissioners in their correspondence, received pay from the government through Deane, and continued to be a trusted agent down to 1783. Franklin and Deane were never undeceived, although the commissioner Arthur Lee and his brother William at times suspected Bancroft. Letters for Deane were even sent in Bancroft's care. He gained the confidence of Paul Jones, and was highly commended in Deane's personal Narrative to Congress. To add to the plausibility of his position, he was arrested in 1777 by the English for corresponding with Deane.
Meanwhile Bancroft was pursuing his parallel career as an English spy. In December 1776 he contracted to supply information; for this he received £400 - increased later to £1000 - per annum. He assumed the name Edwards, and one of his methods was the placing of correspondence in a bottle concealed in the hole of a tree near the Tuileries. He revealed the dealings of Deane with the French Foreign Minister Vergennes; to the British agent Wentworth he sent abstracts of treaties. Nor was he above speculation, though he sometimes suffered losses. He speculated on advance news of Burgoyne's defeat, and on January 27, 1778, he wrote, giving early information of the treaty between France and the United States, with a plan for private gain. His handwriting was identified in the latter instance, as was the case in a letter which he wrote to Ralph Izard, American diplomatist, October 22, 1778. He was commended by the English officials, although at times under suspicion. In his "Memorial" to the Marquis of Carmarthen he claimed credit for furnishing items about supplies, intercourse, and the movements of ships, instancing the sailing of D'Estaing's fleet. Bancroft made discoveries of dyes for use in the manufacture of textiles, and he received a patent in England for importing yellow oak-bark for dyeing. This right failed of renewal in 1799, in spite of a pamphlet which he addressed to Parliament. He died at Margate, England. He wrote, besides various articles, Essay on the Natural History of Guiana (1769); Remarks on the Review of the Controversy between Great Britain and Her Colonies (1769); Charles Wentworth (1770), a novel assailing Christianity; Experimental Researches concerning the Philosophy of Permanent Colours (1794, enlarged edition 1813). Most of his works are in the British Museum.
He was elected to the Royal Society and to the College of Physicians.
In 1771 Edward married the twenty-two year old Penelope Fellows, daughter of a prominent Catholic family.