Mutiny of Hickey

MUTINY OF HICKEY. June 1776. On 15 June 1776, when General George Washington was in New York City and Governor William Tryon was a refugee aboard a British ship in the harbor, Thomas Hickey and another Continental soldier were brought before the Provincial Congress on the charge of passing counterfeit currency. Both men were members of Washington's Life Guard, a special military unit. In jail, Hickey bragged openly about being part of a conspiracy to turn against the Americans as soon as the British army arrived. Another prisoner, who had conversed with both Hickey and the solder who had been arrested with him, informed the authorities. The plot allegedly involved blowing up American powder magazines, setting fire to New York City, spiking the cannons, destroying the Kings Bridge, and assassinating Washington. The extent of the conspiracy was so magnified and propagandized, however, that the facts were never known for certain.

It seems to have been established at Hickey's trial that Governor Tryon had been sending money to Gilbert Forbes, a gunsmith on Broadway, to recruit men for the king. The money was passed by Mayor David Mathews of New York, who had authority to visit Tryon and who claimed he did not know the purpose of the money. There was no proof that Tryon was counterfeiting money on shipboard, or that he had offered land bounties to stimulate recruiting. Nor could it be proved that as many as 700 men had signed up for the plot, much less that the plans included the assassination of Washington and other leaders.

John Jay headed the committee that investigated the affair for the New York authorities. Only Hickey was tried, but 13 others, including Forbes and Mathews, were imprisoned in Connecticut. They all escaped or were sent back to New York before they could be given a hearing. Hickey was convicted of mutiny and sedition by a court-martial on 26 June 1776, and two days later was hanged on the Common in the presence of 20,000 spectators. It was the first military execution of the American Revolution. The main result of the affair was to further blacken the name of "Loyalist."

SEE ALSO Jay, John; Tryon, William.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Van Doren, Carl. Secret History of the American Revolution: An Account of the Conspiracies of Benedict Arnold and Numerous Others, Drawn from the Secret Service Papers of the British Headquarters in North America Now for the First Time Examined and Made Public. New York: Viking Press, 1941.

                               revised by Barnet Schecter