Come early and enjoy dinner at MaGerks before our meeting!!
Live Meeting at MaGerks Fort Washington – 582 S. Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington, PA 19034
We recommend that you get here before 6:30pm to order your food and drinks before the lecture. Bring $1 or $5 cash for our used book raffle and you could win a Revolutionary War book!! Program begins around 7:15pm, Lecture around 7:30pm.
The American Revolution is full of compelling stories of courage intrigue, and extraordinary effort by an individual. One such story involves a homemaker in Philadelphia, during the British occupation in 1777, learning details of a British plans to attack Washington’s forces at Whitemarsh, and venturing out of the city to warn the Patriot forces. Many of these stories, including the aforementioned, did not come out until long after the conclusion of the war. Historians are suspicious of many of them, unless proof of the actions can be proven. Bob Fanelli, an ARRTOP member, has completed the most complete research performed in decades about this Philadelphia homemaker, to try and learn who she was, and to try to determine whether or not the story about her was true.
Lydia Darragh is famed for eavesdropping on British General William Howe’s staff as they planned a surprise attack, then sneaking through the lines to give warning to American soldiers. Her actions are said to have saved George Washington’s army from a devastating ambush as it lay starving and freezing on the barren hills of Whitemarsh at the end of 1777. But did the secret she brought to the Patriots really prevent their defeat? Why would a professed pacifist choose to risk her life by intervening in military affairs? Who was the mysterious intelligence officer she met between the lines? Was her story even true?
Lydia’s Tale: The Mystery of Lydia Darragh, Irish Quaker, Patriot Spy by Robert N. Fanelli uncovers a myriad of previously unknown records, knitting together for the first time the life and experiences of this remarkable heroine of the American Revolution who lived in the heart of Philadelphia. Behind her story we find an assertive woman who took an active hand in the affairs of her family and her community. Drawing on genealogical sources, legal documents, and other correspondence, the author reconstructs Lydia Darragh’s early life in Dublin, her livelihood in Pennsylvania, and how the Revolution shaped her and her children’s lives. Exploring the context of Lydia’s tale sheds light on the activities of women in Revolutionary Philadelphia, reveals the complex issues faced by pacifist Quakers in a time of war, and brings to light the contributions of Irish immigrants in securing America’s freedom.
The author’s careful research reveals little known details and corrects historians’ common misapprehensions about the Revolutionary period. Along the way, we meet often overlooked figures, including diarist Christopher Marshall and his family, the irascible Quaker recluse Bathsheba Bowers, and Blair McClenachan, the wealthy Patriot financier who also served his adopted country as a common soldier. Lydia Darragh is frequently included among that small group of women cited as Revolutionary heroines. This detailed microhistory demonstrates how legend can inform the study of history, describing how one woman’s personal reminiscence morphed into a piece of American mythology, now recovered in the historical context it deserves.
Book Purchase: To purchase this book please click on this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594164479/
About the Author: Robert N. Fanelli is Secretary of the Washington Crossing American Revolution Round Table and frequent contributor to the Journal of the American Revolution. He
serves as a Trustee of the Swan Historical Foundation, which owns the excellent collection of Revolutionary War artifacts on display in the museum of the Washington Crossing State Park in Titusville, New Jersey. He is particularly interested in Pennsylvania’s role in the American Revolution, and has lived most of his life in southeastern Pennsylvania, along the flanks of Edge Hill, site of an encounter between the American and British armies on December 7, 1777.