In honor of America 250, Pennsylvania Postcards will focus on the people, places, and events that best commemorate this U.S. milestone and our Commonwealth's crucial role in it. Because of her family's place in society, a young girl from Philadelphia named Peggy Shippen met Major John Hendry, a British officer. The two struck up a social connection.
She went on to marry Continental Army Commander Benedict Arnold, and they began to conspire with the British Army. Peggy was able to pass coded letters between the Major and her husband, undetected, for at least a year. Eventually, the Major was caught with maps and diagrams he shouldn't have had.
He was tried as a spy and hanged. But Benedict Arnold got away, and Peggy convinced the Continental Army she had no idea what he'd been up to. The couple, no longer welcome here, moved to London in 1781 after the British surrender in Yorktown.