Assessment
When scholars were able to open Gen. Gage's files early in the 20th century, they discovered earlier letters with significant intelligence about the American forces that could only have come from Church. The files included notes that had been entrusted to him to carry into and out of Boston. Until then, historians had had difficulty estimating the degree of Dr. Church's guilt. It is now clear that he was supplying the British military with information in early 1775, most likely because he was deeply in debt and needed the money.
It is worth noting that Church shared this information when Americans were not yet fixed on independence. Therefore, a charitable view of his actions would be that "he visualized himself as the arbitrator who should bring about the restoration of friendly relations between the fatherland and the colonies, little suspecting that its effects would place him in the ranks of those we brand as traitors." That said, he went to considerable lengths to conceal his activities.
Church's widow and family were pensioned by the British government.
Read more about this topic: Benjamin Church
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