Edward Bancroft

Edward Bancroft 1744-1821, spy in the American Revolution, b. Westfield, Mass. While living in London, he became a friend of Benjamin Franklin and in the Revolution began to operate as an American secret agent. He reported to the American commissioners in France, but, unknown to them, he was a double agent and reported their movements to the British. Bancroft in 1778 gave advance information of the Franco-American alliance to the British. Evidence of his duplicity was revealed by Paul L. Ford in 1891.

Bibliography: See L. Einstein, Divided Loyalties (1933).

Bancroft, Edward (1744–1821) US traitor. Born in Massachusetts, he studied medicine in London. He met Benjamin FRANKLIN, and during the War of Independence was a friend of Arthur Lee and Silas Dean. Bancroft was actually an agent for England at an annual fee of £500 and a life pension and it was almost a century before his activities as a British agent were discovered.

Bancroft, Edward (1744–1821) physician, scientist, spy, and double agent, born in Westfield, Massachusetts. During the Revolutionary War, Bancroft, sympathetic to the colonies' cause, was recruited as a spy for Americans. He was officially employed as a “secretary” for the American delegation in Paris, but also spied for British secret service, mainly for money. Bancroft often used his inside information to profit in the stock market.