A Counterfeiter's Paradise (38 page)

41, When Sullivan arrived

Among those linked to Sullivan in 1752 were Joseph Stephens, a miller; Elias Smith, a yeoman; and John Rosier, a boatman; see Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial Rhode Island
, pp. 32–34. A wide range of people engaged in counterfeiting in colonial America, running the gamut from mariners to carpenters to schoolmasters to tavern keepers, and the majority of them were amateurs, not professional criminals; see Kenneth Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial New York
(New York: American Numismatic Society, 1953), p. 198.

42, Sullivan’s anger didn’t

Sullivan’s strategy for freeing his colleagues: Sullivan,
A Short Account
, p. 10; Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial America
, p. 188;
Connecticut Gazette
, April 13, 1756, reprinted in Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut
(New York: American Numismatic Society, 1957), pp. 137–139.

42, A grand jury

Sullivan’s case and
“a Transient Person…”
: the Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize, and General Gaol Delivery, Providence County, Record Book 1, September Term, 1752,
Rex v. Sullivan
, p. 94 (Judicial Archives, Supreme Court Judicial Record Center, Pawtucket, RI). Stephens’s case and
“[F]or the sake…”
: ibid.,
Rex v. Stephens
, p. 97.

43, In September 1752

Sullivan’s and Stephens’s punishment:
Connecticut Gazette
, April 13, 1756, reprinted in Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut
, pp. 137–139. Counterfeiters were usually branded with the letter C, for “Counterfeiter,” but Sullivan and Stephens merited a harsher penalty: R for “incorrigible Rogue,” the same punishment given to runaway servants and slaves. They likely received the R because of Sullivan’s previous conviction and his “transient” status; for more, see James Fitzjames Stephens,
A History of the Criminal Law of England
, vol. 3 (London: Macmillan, 1883), pp. 272–275, and Lawrence Friedman,
Crime and Punishment in American History
(New York: Basic Books, 1993), pp. 40–41. Location of the town pillory: the Federal Writers’ Project,
Rhode Island: A Guide to the Smallest State
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1937), p. 267. Rum distilleries: William Babcock Weeden,
Early Rhode Island: A Social History of the People
(New York: Grafton, 1910), p. 222.

43, Stephens’s punishment was next

The scene:
Connecticut Gazette
, April 13, 1756, reprinted in Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut
, pp. 137–139; Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut
, pp. 188–189; Sullivan,
A Short Account
, p. 10.

43–44, Sullivan had escaped

“[T]hey pursu’d me…”:
Sullivan,
A Short Account
, p. 10. His sentence in the Superior Court of Judicature Record Book specifies thirty days’ imprisonment: relatively mild by today’s standards, but severe enough to make Sullivan break out of jail.

44, Sullivan’s performance

“a man of good Address…”:
Connecticut Gazette
, April 13, 1756, reprinted in Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut
, pp. 137–139.

45, Sullivan had more

Punishment in colonial America: Friedman,
Crime and Punishment in American History
, pp. 25–26, 36–41, 48–50.

45–46, It was in Dutchess

There’s no reliable estimate of how much counterfeit currency Sullivan made. In
A Short Account
, pp. 9–11, he admits to printing more than £27,000 of various colonies’ money. That figure is probably too low, especially if it’s supposed to reflect not just what Sullivan printed but the total amount of currency made from his plates. Since Sullivan left his plates in the hands of accomplices throughout the Northeast, there’s no way of knowing how many notes they produced. In August 1755, a group in Newport admitted to printing about £50,000 from Sullivan’s plates; if all of his accomplices made similar quantities, the total number could easily be in the hundreds of thousands. The Newport case: Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial America
, pp. 202–203.

46, Sullivan set up

The dimensions of the Oblong: C. J. Hughes, “Just Beyond New York’s Suburbs, a Genuine Swamp,”
New York Times
, June 30, 2006. According to Margaret E. Herrick,
Early Settlements in Dutchess County, New York
(Rhinebeck, NY: Kinship, 1994), p. 102, Connecticut ceded the Oblong to New York in exchange for property along Long Island Sound; Connecticut revived the dispute in the nineteenth century and the case wasn’t formally resolved until 1881. Dover referred to a region spanning the present-day towns of Amenia, Dover, North East, Washington, Pawling, Beekman, and Clinton.

46–47, Dover presented a number

Settlement history of Dover and environs: Arthur T. Benson, “Glimpses of Dover History,”
Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 1921
(Poughkeepsie, NY:
Dutchess County Historical Society, 1921), pp. 18–25; “A Paper Read by Miss Mary Hoag at the Oblong Meeting House, Quaker Hill, Sept. 29, 1920,”
Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 1921
, pp. 13–14; Henry Noble MacCracken,
Old Dutchess Forever! The Story of an American County
(New York: Hastings House, 1956), p. 141; Herrick,
Early Settlements in Dutchess County
, p. 102.

47, Pioneers are usually

The wetlands of the Oblong: MacCracken,
Old Dutchess Forever!
, pp. 130–132. Wolves and panthers: Alfred T. Ackert, “Dutchess County in Colonial Days,” a paper read before the Dutchess County Society in February 28, 1898, held by the New York Public Library’s Irma and Paul Milstein Division of U.S. History, Local History and Genealogy.

47–48, If his choice

Dover Stone Church: Richard Francis Maher, “The Town of Dover,”
The History of Dutchess County, New York
, ed. Frank Hasbrouck (Poughkeepsie, NY: S. A. Matthieu, 1909), pp. 279–280. Description of Sullivan’s hideout:
Connecticut Gazette
, April 13, 1756, reprinted in Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut
, pp. 137–139.

48, Sullivan also put

Oblong gang:
New-York Post-Boy
, March 29, 1756. The phrase “Dover Money Club” was probably a coinage of the authorities: according to Kenneth Scott, “The Dover Money Club,”
New York Folklore Quarterly
12.1 (Spring 1956), p. 17, the term surfaced as early as 1753, in connection with a mason from Stratford who obtained a large quantity of bills from the gang. Description of Joseph Boyce:
Boston Evening-Post
, September 10, 1744.

48–49, Without the Boyces

For more on the Boyce counterfeiting team, see Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial New York
, pp. 58–69.
“the place where this…”
and
“The Heads of this Confederacy…”:
ibid., pp. 58–59.

49, Despite their tough

Clarke’s efforts: Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial New York
, pp. 62–66, and
Counterfeiting in Colonial America
, pp. 125–127.
“Endeavour’d to make…”:
from Clarke’s affidavit, quoted in Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial New York
, p. 63.

50, A student of counterfeiting

Amateur character of colonial law enforcement: Friedman,
Crime and Punishment in American History
, pp. 27–30; and David R. Johnson, “Foreword,” Scott,
Counter-feiting in Colonial America
, pp. xv–xvi.

50–51, Moneymaking was also

A vast majority of Americans lived in small, rural communities. On the eve of independence, only 7–8 percent of the population resided in towns of 2,500 or more inhabitants, according to John J. McCusker and Russell R. Menard,
The Economy of British America, 1607–1789
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991 [1985]), p. 250.

51, Anyone who wanted

Governor Gideon Wanton’s rejected proposal to the Rhode Island assembly: Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial New York
, pp. 66–67.

51–52, The governor had good

The Boyces’ specialty was Rhode Island currency: ibid., p. 66. The flow of money across colonies: Joseph Albert Ernst,
Money and Politics in America, 1755–1775: A Study in the Currency Act of 1764 and the Political Economy of Revolution
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1973), pp. 35–36.
“Our chief Justices…”:
Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial New York
, p. 66.

52–53, The growing interconnectedness

The redemption period and the amount of outstanding paper bills: Malcolm Freiberg, “Thomas Hutchinson and the Province Currency,”
New England Quarterly
30.2 (June 1957), pp. 203–206. Paper money from other colonies flooding in: Ernst,
Money and Politics in America, 1755–1775
, p. 39. Oath about foreign money: Andrew McFarland Davis,
Currency and Banking in the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay
, pt. 1 (New York: Macmillan, 1901), p. 236.

53, What Hutchinson realized

Franklin’s cartoon originally appeared in his newspaper, the
Pennsylvania Gazette
, in the spring of 1754. The image and motto resurfaced a couple of decades later, when American revolutionaries rallied for colonial unity against the British.

54, In the summer

Cady’s brief career: Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut
, pp. 108–110, and
Counterfeiting in Colonial America
, pp. 191–193.

54–55, Cady’s case wasn’t

Munroe and
“heard tell…”
: Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial Rhode Island
, pp. 36–37.

55, Stashing bills at

Newspapers instructed their readers how to detect counterfeit bills not only out of a sense of public service but for self-interested reasons as well. Since the newspapers’ printers often printed the colony’s money, they had an interest in removing forged currency from circulation. Warnings printed in 1754 in the
New-York Gazette
and the
New-York Mercury
: Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial New York
, pp. 82–84.

55–56, Sometimes the stress

Ide’s case and
“being apprehensive…”
: Scott,
Counterfeiting in Colonial Rhode Island
, pp. 37–38.

56, While tramping across

Farming and fishing along the Merrimack: Kimball Webster,
History of Hudson, N.H.
, ed. George Waldo Browne (Manchester, NH: Granite State Publishing, 1913), pp. 18–21. The towns in the Merrimack region where Sullivan enlisted accomplices included Nottingham West (now Hudson), Merrimack, Londonderry, and Goffstown. The boundary dispute between New Hampshire and Massachusetts: Webster,
History of Hudson, N.H.
, pp. 137–139. Hutchinson’s role: Malcolm Freiberg, “How to Become a Colonial Governor: Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts,”
Review of Politics
21.4 (October 1959), p. 648.

56–57, Few people knew

Rogers’s physical appearance: Caleb Stark,
Memoir and Official Correspondence of Gen. John Stark
(Concord, NH: G. Parker Lyon, 1860), p. 387. Rogers’s biography: Allan Nevins, “The Life of Robert Rogers,” in Robert Rogers,
Ponteach or the Savages of America: A Tragedy
(Chicago: Caxton Club, 1914), pp. 17–22, 27–31, 33.

57, When Rogers went

Rogers’s first encounter with Sullivan: Nevins, “The Life of Robert Rogers,” p. 41, and Burt Garfield Loescher,
The History of Rogers’ Rangers
, vol. 1 (Published by the
author, San Francisco, 1946), pp. 17–18. The region’s dense pine forests: Webster,
History of Hudson, N.H.
, p. 19.

57–58, Sullivan and Rogers

Rogers’s travels: Nevins, “The Life of Robert Rogers,” p. 34.

58, Whether by playing

According to Nevins, “The Life of Robert Rogers,” p. 41, Sullivan didn’t show up to buy the oxen because he became alarmed and fled the region. Sullivan may have disappeared briefly, but he certainly returned, because he had further contact with Rogers and others in the Merrimack Valley.
“Just Grounds to Suspect…”:
from the warrant, dated January 24, 1755, Provincial Court of New Hampshire #27267, held by the New Hampshire State Archives in Concord; for a transcription of the document, see Loescher,
The History of Rogers’ Rangers
, pp. 264–265. Meshech Weare: Joseph Dow,
History of the Town of Hampton, New Hampshire, From Its Settlement in 1638, to the Autumn of 1892
, vol. 2 (Salem, MA: Salem Press Publishing and Printing, 1893), pp. 1030–1031.

58, The trial that took

The records of the 1755 trial: the Provincial Court of New Hampshire #27267, the New Hampshire State Archives.

58–59, Winn’s wife hated

Winn’s wife complained about Sullivan to Ezekiel Greeley, who volunteered the details in his examination. Greeley added that “the greater part of [Sullivan’s] talk when sober” was about making money; other testimony confirmed the counterfeiter’s frequent drinking.
“Damn you for a pack…”:
from the testimony of John McCurdy, included in the trial records. Sullivan’s arrival in the Merrimack region and his collaboration with Winn: Kenneth Scott, “Counterfeiting in Colonial New Hampshire,”
Historical New Hampshire
13.1 (December 1957), pp. 19–20.

59–60, In his examination

“I saw a man…”:
from Rogers’s examination, dated February 7, 1755, included in the trial records.