Culper Spy Austin Roe . . . the Joiner?

The Culper Spy Ring. An espionage network composed primarily of civilians funneling military intelligence to Gen. George Washington out of British-occupied New York City and Long Island. Washington once referred to it as “the channel upon which I most depend.”^[1] It has been the subject of several books and a television show, so many would suspect there is little new information left to uncover.

With a Revolutionary War story so intertwined with local lore, mistakes are nonetheless still routinely found in the Culper Spy Ring’s history. Quite often when those errors arise though, they can be traced back to Morton Pennypacker, an early twentieth century Long Island historian famous for bungling his facts. He was the one who first attached a historical narrative to the ring. Yet, he is not to blame for the confusion over the occupation of Austin Roe, the primary cross-island courier for the Culper Spy Ring who resided in Setauket. This is one circumstance in which Pennypacker remains blameless.

The Myth of Austin Roe the Tavernkeeper

For decades, it has been held that Austin Roe worked as a tavernkeeper, operating a tavern from his home in Setauket. This supposed fact made its earliest appearance in a privately published book from 1904 entitled The Diary of Captain Daniel Roe. The author, Alfred Seelye Roe, a descendant of both Austin Roe and his brother Daniel Roe due to some kissing cousins, wrote, “Of Austin . . . it should be stated that . . . during the earlier part of his life, he kept a tavern in Setauket, where his unmarried brother, Justus, made his home with him. Later he moved to the south shore.”^[2]

Since the release of that book, Austin’s occupation as tavernkeeper has been reintroduced in virtually every publication on the Culper Spy Ring to varying degrees and often plays a part in how the ring functioned. Brian Kilmeade’s George Washington’s Secret Six, for example, claimed Austin’s occupation provided him a cover, allowing him to travel into the city on “the pretense of purchasing provisions for his business.”^[3]