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The Ace of Spies and Other Significant Espionage Figures

Khalid Elhassan December 20, 2019 33 min

Detective - Mystery — Throughout history, spies have aroused mixed feelings of fear, loathing, and admiration. Mixed Matches

25. Fading Into Anonymity

A page from the Culper Ring’s code book, with noteworthy people and place names listed side by side, with numerical representations. Wikimedia

Robert Townsend never sought recognition and chose to fade away after the war. His wishes to remain anonymous were respected by those who knew of his espionage. He wrapped up his business activities in New York City, and returned to the family home in Oyster Bay, Long Island.

He never married, although he fathered an illegitimate son upon a housemaid. Robert Townsend lived with his sister in Oyster Bay until he died of old age in 1838, taking his Revolutionary War “Culper” identity to the grave with him. It was not until 1930, when a New York historian finally uncovered the true identity of the wartime spymaster “Samuel Culper, Jr.”, that Townsend’s accomplishments came to light.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.