John Hanc: The Curious London Legacy of Benedict Arnold
[John Hanc is a writer for Smithsonian Magazine.]
“You have five minutes,” the vicar said, as he led us through the foyer of St. Mary’s church in the Battersea section of London. “I’m sorry I can’t give you more time, but we have a meeting down there that’s about to start.”
And with that, we descended a flight of stairs to see the tomb of America’s most infamous turncoat.
I was on a London “Tory Tour” —an afternoon-long look at sites associated with the 7,000 American Loyalists who fled to England’s capital during the Revolution....
While a church has been on this spot since the Middle Ages, the current St. Mary’s was only 18 years old when the general and his family arrived in London in 1795. Arnold—embroiled in controversy, as always, this time over bad investments in Canada—spent the last five years of his life here as a member of St. Mary’s. His remains, and those of his wife, the former Margaret Shippen, and their daughter lie here. The headstone, we notice as we cluster around it, looks surprisingly new and identifies Arnold as the “Sometime General in the Army of George Washington …The Two Nations Whom He Served In Turn in the Years of their Enmity Have United in Enduring Friendship.”
Very diplomatic; but who would have put up a new headstone of Arnold down here? “An American,” answered the vicar.
We looked at each other, dumbfounded. An American erecting a monument to one of the most infamous villains in our history?
Upon investigation, we learned that this benefactor, Bill Stanley of Norwich, Connecticut, was a former state senator, president of the Norwich Historical Society, and an oft-quoted, indefatigable defender of Norwich native Benedict Arnold (“If we can forgive the Japanese for Pearl Harbor, can’t we forgive him?” Stanley once said to a reporter).
“Bill felt that Arnold never got enough credit for what he did before he became a traitor,” says Olive Buddington, a close friend of Stanley’s and colleague in the historical society....
Read entire article at Smithsonian Magazine
“You have five minutes,” the vicar said, as he led us through the foyer of St. Mary’s church in the Battersea section of London. “I’m sorry I can’t give you more time, but we have a meeting down there that’s about to start.”
And with that, we descended a flight of stairs to see the tomb of America’s most infamous turncoat.
I was on a London “Tory Tour” —an afternoon-long look at sites associated with the 7,000 American Loyalists who fled to England’s capital during the Revolution....
While a church has been on this spot since the Middle Ages, the current St. Mary’s was only 18 years old when the general and his family arrived in London in 1795. Arnold—embroiled in controversy, as always, this time over bad investments in Canada—spent the last five years of his life here as a member of St. Mary’s. His remains, and those of his wife, the former Margaret Shippen, and their daughter lie here. The headstone, we notice as we cluster around it, looks surprisingly new and identifies Arnold as the “Sometime General in the Army of George Washington …The Two Nations Whom He Served In Turn in the Years of their Enmity Have United in Enduring Friendship.”
Very diplomatic; but who would have put up a new headstone of Arnold down here? “An American,” answered the vicar.
We looked at each other, dumbfounded. An American erecting a monument to one of the most infamous villains in our history?
Upon investigation, we learned that this benefactor, Bill Stanley of Norwich, Connecticut, was a former state senator, president of the Norwich Historical Society, and an oft-quoted, indefatigable defender of Norwich native Benedict Arnold (“If we can forgive the Japanese for Pearl Harbor, can’t we forgive him?” Stanley once said to a reporter).
“Bill felt that Arnold never got enough credit for what he did before he became a traitor,” says Olive Buddington, a close friend of Stanley’s and colleague in the historical society....