Tories by Thomas B. Allen

Author:Thomas B. Allen [Allen, Thomas B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 978-0-062-01080-3
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

Philadelphians hailed the arrival of Howe’s army “by loudest acclamations of joy.” There was no armed resistance. Tories led the invaders to Rebels still in the city, and hundreds were imprisoned. Galloway and the Allens protected upper-class Rebels they knew, leaving them to an uneasy life in a city that belonged to the British and their Loyalist friends.31 The editor of the Pennsylvania Evening Post switched the newspaper from pro-Patriot to pro-Loyalist.32

Quakers, whose faith condemned war and earned Rebel distrust, felt more comfortable under British rule. Merchants, unenthusiastic about the Revolution, believed that the British would bring stability to the city—and payments in gold rather than near-worthless Continental currency. Young men, eager to join the winning side, signed up for the Queen’s American Rangers, which needed replacements after Brandywine, and three newly formed units: the Roman Catholic Volunteers, the Maryland Loyalists, and the Pennsylvania Loyalists led by Lt. Col. William Allen, Jr.33

British officers easily entered high society, and upper-class families were soon inviting their amiable occupiers to parties and dances. A pretty, flirtatious teenager, sixteen-year-old Peggy Shippen, was overjoyed when a handsome British officer named John André called at her family’s Society Hill mansion and sketched her.34 “You can have no idea of the life of continued amusement,” eighteen-year-old Rebecca Franks wrote a friend. “… . Most elegantly am I dressed for a ball this evening… . I spent Tuesday evening at Sir William Howe’s, where we had a concert and dance.” At one ball Howe shocked his hostess by appearing with his mistress, the beautiful Mrs. Joshua Loring, on hisarm. (Her husband was in New York, making money as commissioner of prisoners.)35

Galloway became Howe’s spymaster, the supervisor of police, and the superintendent of the port, controlling imports and exports and setting up regulations for pricing and selling liquor, molasses, salt, and medicines.36 He also worked at preventing goods from reaching Washington’s army. He recruited spies from the ranks of the hundreds of soldiers who were deserting Valley Forge.37 By one estimate his intelligence network consisted of eighty agents who gathered information and twenty counterintelligence agents who ferreted out Continental Army spies. He also performed such intelligence chores as administering and recording oaths of allegiance and producing a map of all the roads in the area.38

About two hundred Tories served in Galloway’s police force, called the “night watch.” Galloway selected other Tories to control the entrances to the city, with the power to issue passports, and assigned men to disarm Rebels, act as couriers, oversee the care of prisoners, find quarters for troops (usually in abandoned Rebel homes), guide troops on missions in and around the city, and run a lottery for the relief of the poor. Galloway issued tavern licenses and supervised the takeover by Tories of stores that had been owned by Rebels. Among the new storeowners were Virginians and other Tory refugees who flocked to a Loyalist-controlled city under the protection of British troops.39

Galloway continually assured Howe that thousands of Loyalists were ready to spring to arms.

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