Paul Wentworth (1728 or 1736–1794) was a lawyer and plantation owner in Surinam, a stockbroker in London, a British

intelligence agent Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

Lord North Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (13 April 17325 August 1792), better known by his courtesy title Lord North, which he used from 1752 to 1790, was 12th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. He led Great Britain through most o ...

during the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, and a politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

briefly. He was friendly with

Arthur Lee (diplomat) Arthur Lee (20 December 1740 – 12 December 1792) was a physician and opponent of slavery in colonial Virginia in North America who served as an American diplomat during the American Revolutionary War. He helped negotiate and signed the 1778 ...

Silas Deane Silas Deane (September 23, 1789) was an American merchant, politician, and diplomat, and a supporter of American independence. Deane served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he signed the Continental Association, and then became the ...

Philip Skene Philip Wharton Skene (5 February 1725 in London, England – 10 June 1810 near Stoke Goldington, Buckinghamshire) was a Scottish officer in the British army, New York state "patroon", and a figure in the Saratoga campaign of the American Re ...

and

Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold ( Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defect ...

Early life

Oostelijk gedeelte der kolonie Suriname (1835)

Wentworth may have been born in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

or in New Hampshire. He moved to

Portsmouth, New Hampshire Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmou ...

in the 1750s, and won the patronage of the governor

Benning Wentworth Benning Wentworth (July 24, 1696 – October 14, 1770) was an American merchant and colonial administrator who served as the governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1766. While serving as governor, Wentworth is best known for issuing several la ...

. He studied law ( LL. D.) and in 1756 he married a rich widow in Surinam, where he worked at court of justice. In 1764 he hired the chemist

Edward Bancroft Edward Bartholomew Bancroft ( – September 7, 1821) was a Massachusetts-born physician and chemist who became a double agent, spying for both the United States and Great Britain while serving as secretary to the American Commission in Paris ...

to survey and improve his Surinam plantation. After he inherited a sugar and coffee plantation he left for London. He established himself as a stockbroker or speculator. In 1767 he resided at

Spring Gardens Spring Gardens is a dead-end street at the south east extreme of St. James's, London, England, that crosses the east end of The Mall between Admiralty Arch and Trafalgar Square. Part of the old liberty of Westminster and the current City of ...

and send a collection of butterflies from the Dutch colony of Surinam to 2nd Marquess of Rockingham and a pastel by

Francis Cotes Francis Cotes (20 May 1726 – 16 July 1770) was an English painter, one of the pioneers of English pastel painting, and a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768. Life and work He was born in London, the eldest son of Robert Cotes, an ...

. In 1770 he resided in Amsterdam and tried to sell his late wife's property. His friend John Wentworth, the loyalist governor of

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

appointed him in 1770 as a member of the New Hampshire council and also as the province's agent to the Parliament of Great Britain despite the two offices needing to be on opposite sides of the Atlantic."Wentworth, Paul." Encyclopedia of the American Revolution: Library of Military History. . Encyclopedia.com. 12 Nov. 2017
/ref>

Counselling activities

Wentworth lived at

Poland Street Poland Street is a street in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, London. It runs from Oxford Street in the north to Broadwick Street in the south. It was named after the "King of Poland" pub, which was renamed in honour of Poland's K ...

and he invited

who lived there for five years. Wentworth gave Lee access to the highest reaches of the British government. In the weekend he visited ''Brandenburg House'' in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

, owned by Thomas Wyndham. In 1771 George Colebrooke and James Cockburn, directors of the EIC, recruited Wentworth to borrow £66,000 from Hope & Co. Wentworth decided that the British crown offered better opportunities than the Americans. He started supplying information to the British secret service in 1772 or 1774. Sir William Eden, head of the

British secret service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence ...

, granted Wentworth a pension of 500 pounds a year for his services. He corresponded with

Henry Hope Henry Hope (1735–1811) was an Amsterdam merchant banker born in Braintree, Massachusetts. He emigrated to the Netherlands to join the family business Hope & Co. at a young age. From 1779, Henry became the manager of Hope & Co. and he participa ...

in 1775.Inventaris van de op Suriname betrekking hebbende stukken in het Stadsarchief Amsterdam
/ref> Wentworth was to spy on the American delegation to the French court when

was sent to Paris in 1776. (See

France in the American Revolutionary War French involvement in the American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783 began in 1776 when the Kingdom of France secretly shipped supplies to the Continental Army of the Thirteen Colonies when it was established in June 1775. France was a long-term ...

) Deane and

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

were both old friends of Wentworth and he could easily make the necessary contacts. Wentworth arranged for Bancroft to meet Secret Service chief William Eden and Lords Suffolk and Weymouth, where Bancroft agreed to become a spy for Britain. Bancroft joined the American mission in Paris in December 1776. In 1777

Pierre Beaumarchais Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (; 24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) was a French polymath. At various times in his life, he was a watchmaker, inventor, playwright, musician, diplomat, spy, publisher, horticulturist, arms dealer, satirist ...

wrote to Vergennes that Wentworth spoke French "like you and better than I do: he is one of the cleverest men in England". He gave details about the brig Andrew Doria, when he resided in Amsterdam. In 1778 Wentworth was in discussions with Franklin on peace terms but the effect of this was to help drive the French into alliance with the Americans. Wentworth was a friend of Lord Suffolk, promised a

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

, a place at the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...

, and a seat in Parliament if he performed well. He built up and controlled a spy network and provided military intelligence to the British government on the basis of the reports he gathered. The British government knew that Lee and Beaumarchais were plotting to smuggle French aid to the Americans even before Versailles or Philadelphia knew.

considered him "the most important and truest informer" although King George III had little confidence in his reports and disliked his speculative activities.

Political career

Wentworth returned as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Saltash Saltash (Cornish: Essa) is a town and civil parish in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It had a population of 16,184 in 2011 census. Saltash faces the city of Plymouth over the River Tamar and is popularly known as "the Gateway to Corn ...

with administration support, at a by-election on 12 July 1780. However the dissolution of Parliament was announced before he could take his seat. At the 1780 general election in September he stood at Penryn, also in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, as Government candidate, but came last in the poll.

Joachim Rendorp Joachim Rendorp, ''Vrijheer'' of Marquette (19 January 1728 in Amsterdam – 21 September 1792 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch politician of the Patriottentijd in the Dutch Republic. Personal life Rendorp was the son of Amsterdam brewer and ''burgemees ...

secretly involved him as mediator in the

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War ( nl, Vierde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the War of American Independence (1775-1783), broke out over ...

. In 1783 he was visited by

John Wheelock John Wheelock (January 28, 1754 – April 4, 1817) was the eldest son of Eleazar Wheelock who was the founder and first president of Dartmouth College; John Wheelock succeeded his father as the College’s second president. Early life John Wh ...

when Dartmouth College was on the verge of financial collapse and promised an atlas and a large pair of globes.

Later life and legacy

Wentworth still owned ''Klein Hoop'', a sugar plantation (500 acres and 130 slaves) on the north bank of the

Cottica River Cottica River (Sranan Tongo: ''Kotika-liba'') is a river in the northwest of Suriname. It originates in the hills surrounding town of Moengo and flows westwards and enters the Commewijne River Commewijne River (Sranan Tongo: ''Kawina-liba'') is ...

in Surinam. In 1784 John Wentworth sent 19 slaves from Nova Scotia. According to his secret will he went there with Nathaniel Paul Wentworth (1770-) and his mistress after October 1790; he promised the poet

Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton (August 1759 – May 14, 1846) was an American poet. Early life Sarah was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in August 1759. She was the third of ten children born to James Apthorp (1731–1799), a merchant and slav ...

in Braintree and her daughter money. He died on 26 January 1794. His medium-sized plantations ''Klein Hoop'', ''L'Assistance'' (

Commewijne River Commewijne River (Sranan Tongo: ''Kawina-liba'') is a river in northern Suriname. It originates in the hills of the Commewijne District and flows northwards until it receives the meandering Cottica River from the right and then runs westward unti ...

) and a brickyard ''Appecappe'' were passed on to three relatives.

Early life

Counselling activities

Political career

Later life and legacy

References

Further reading

See also