A strong woman

Meet Thomas Gage (1719 - 1787), my great grandfather of 5 greats.  He was a British General, Commander in Chief and Governor of Massachusetts, known famously for his role in the early days in the American Revolutionary War.  And known most famously for being such a total screw-up during that war.  After all, his side and their pretty red coats didn't win, now did they?

Now I'd like you to meet his wife, Margaret Kemble Gage (1734 - 1824), daughter of Peter Kemble, a New Jersey businessman and politician; and great-granddaughter of New York Mayor, Stephanus Van Cortland. I give you this lineage, because it helps explain this... She probably spied against her own husband for the Americans.  Even better, she could have been the cause for Paul Revere's ride.

Histories such as Paul Revere's Ride and history-based novels such as Rise to Rebellion have controversially suggested that she was sympathetic to the colonial cause and may have supplied the rebels with military information. In particular, she supposedly warned Joseph Warren on April 18, 1775 that her husband's troops planned to raid armories at Lexington and Concord, leading to Paul Revere's famous Midnight Ride. Quoting Paul Revere's Ride:

We shall never know with certainty the name of Doctor Warren's informer, but circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that it was none other than Margaret Kemble Gage, the American wife of General Gage. This lady had long felt cruelly divided by the growing rift between Britain and America.

Among the contemporaries who suspected Margaret to be a spy was her own husband, who had her sent back to the family estate in England in the summer of 1775 to avoid further embarrassment.


Now that's a woman with some guts!