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- BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH IV.
RICHARD WOODHULL, (IV.), (Hon.), fourth generation from Richard Wodhull I., Patentee of Brookhaven, Long Island, was the eldest son of Richard Wodhull III., and Mary Homan. He was born October 11, 1712, and inherited the paternal estate at Setauket, Long Island.
In the year 1763 he was one of his Majesty';s Judges of the Court of Common Pleas.
He married in the year 1738, Margaret, daughter of Edward Smith, of the "Bull Smith"; family, of Long Island.
He died October 13, 1788, survived by his widow, two sons and two daughters.
(See Genealogy, No. 14.)
His son Abraham Wodhull
Abraham Woodhull
Abraham Woodhull Born Abraham Woodhull October 7, 1750Setauket, New York Died January 23, 1826(aged 75)Setauket ew YorkU.S.
Nationality American
Spouse(s) Mary Smith(m. 1781; her death 1806)Lydia Terry(m. 1824; his death 1826)
Children Jesse Smith Woodhull, MaryWoodhull, Elizabeth Woodhull
Parent(s) Richard and Mary Woodhull
Spying career Allegiance United States ofAmerica
Service Continental Army
Active Late 1778 - 1783 Rank Magistrate
Operation(s) Spy
Codename(s) "Samuel Culper"and then "Samuel Culper Sr.
"Abraham Woodhull (October 7, 1750 - January 23, 1826) was a leading ember of the American Culper Spy Ring in New York City and Setauket, New York during the American Revolutionary War He used the alias "Samuel ulper" (later "Samuel Culper Sr.") which was a play on Culpeper County, Virginia suggested by George Washington The Culper Ring was a successful operation which provided Washington with valuable information on the British Army headquartered in New York from October 1778 until the end of the war. After the United States gained independence, Woodhull served as a agistrate, as his father did before him, and he served as a judge in Suffolk County, New York
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BackgroundWoodhull was a descendant of Richard Lawrence Woodhull, a wealthy settler oNfaSethatanuiekletWooa219 adnhud lhel.[2]wHasisalpsaorerenltastewdertoe NJuedwgeYoRrickhamrilditiaWoBordighuadliel arnGdeMnearrayl Woodhull (né e Smit
Woodhull served as a lieutenant in the Suffolk County, New York militia in the fall of 1775 but resigned after a few months He was motivated by the murder of his cousin Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull of the New York militia, who was wounded by sword and bayonet cuts after being captured on August 29, 177According to some reports, General Woodhull was deprived of medical care and food and suffered an agonizing death on September 20, 1776,[2] and Abraham Woodhull was inflamed against the British by this event. He did not immediately take up arms or begin spying, however; he was more placid than some of his friends who joined the Continental Army at the outset of the war. He was the only surviving son of aging parents, and he stayed on the family farm to attend to his family and their property
Spy ring Continental Army Major Benjamin Tallmadge was Woodhull's neighbor in Setauket. He approached Woodhull in August 1778 about gathering intelligence for the Patriot cause in the American Revolutionary War Woodhull had been caught smuggling contraband across Long Island Sound, but Tallmadge spoke with Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull and got him released Tallmadge then set up a spy network in New York with Woodhull as the lead agent. Woodhull began spying in October 1778, sending his first "Samuel Culper" letter on October 29, 1778, after swearing an oath of loyalty to the Crown as coverHis plan was to travel to Manhattan, ostensibly to visit his married sister, Mary Underhill, and her husband, Amos, at their boarding house. While in Manhattan, he would collect information from various sources, including British officers staying at the Underhill boarding house, and then return to Setauket where he could pass the information to Continental Army lieutenant and whaleboat operator Caleb Brewster to take across Long Island Sound to Tallmadge. Tallmadge would then send the information to General George Washington. Austin Roe became the main courier for the ring later, after Woodhull stopped going to New York City to gather intelligence personally. He would deliver messages via dead drop, burying them in a box in a pasture that he rented on Woodhull's proper
After the war
Woodhull married his cousin Mary Smith in 1781 and had three children with herHe held a few minor political appointments, including magistrate in Suffolk County, New York from 1799-1810His wife died in 1806and he arried Lydia Terry in 1824.sup>[11] He died in Setauket on January 23, 1826 and is buried in the Setauket Presbyterian Church and Burial Ground there
In popular culture Warren Walker suggested in 1956 that James Fenimore Cooper's character Harvey Birch was based upon "Samuel Culper's" work as a spy. This would include both Woodhull as "Culper Sr." and Robert Townsend, who used the alias "Samuel Culper Jr."[14]Woodhull was portrayed from 2014 to 2017 by Jamie Bell in AMC's spy thriller and historical drama series Turn: Washington's Spies, based on Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring (2007) by Alexander Rose.Other people from Woodhull's life are portrayed in the show as well.
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1712 - 1788 (76 years)
