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I don’t think we will ever get a answer to the is Honeyman real question. I think he was real, but did he do all of the things his story talks about I don’t think so, after all if he was so important why was he never used again, after all he could have been valuable as a spy when the British took Philadelphia and Washington was a Valley Forge, and even useful to get troop numbers and direction of the British movement before the Battle of Monmouth!
However, how did this man become so rich after the war if he wasn’t compensated for something, especially if many thought he was a Tory?
Dan and Josh, great points! I would also like to think that Australia would have been built even if the Revolution did not happen simply because it’s hard to hide a land mass that big! In Australia we really value our convict heritage, if you can trace your lineage back to a convict from the First Fleet you are in effect Australian Blue Blood, sort of like the Mayflower here. If you get a chance a like Podcasts check out the Podcast Angry History, they try very hard to right the wrongs of history, particularly the show called Australian a Founding a Convicts. This has some great points similar to what I mentioned here.
Josh,
I really agree that this is a very vague term. I agree people like Washington, Franklin and Adams are definatly FF, however, I think there are others, though not well known who are just as important. I mentioned him before but for my money the first person who should always be called a FF is Roger Sherman! He is the only man to sign the Articles of Association, the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution! What more could anybody of his time do? Now didn’t become a president like Washington, Adams and Jefferson, and he wasn’t a world inventor like Franklin, but for my money he is just as important! For that matter, men like James Wilson, Robert Morris (though both men fell on financial trouble later in their lives) and George Clymer all signed both the Declaration and the Constitution, why then is a upstart like Hamilton more important then them, I have yet to find a answer. Now if say Franklin had some hard times near the end of his life would we still have remembered him for everything he had done? I go back to Robert Morris, this man virtually bankrolled the entire Revolution, even paying out of his own pockets to keep the army together before the crossing of the Delaware!
There are more to the FF then just the big names.
Thank you everyone for the welcome! Dan, thank you for the kind words, I have currently visited 10 signers. In Philly I have visited Robert Morris, James Wilson, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, Joseph Hewes, Francis Hopkinson and George Rush. At Laurel Hill Cemetery I visited Thomas McKean, and in Princeton I visited Robert Stockton, and John Witherspoon. I have driven past the cemetery where John Hart is buried in Hopewell, NJ but have yet to stop because of the snow!
My blog http://tombtours.blogspot.com is where I share my own tour as well as giving a little info on those I visit. My BIG news is that I just teamed up with a app developer and we pare going to build a app that is part tour, part game for ‘Tomb Hunters’ to visit different historical figures! We are still planning but as soon as I get more info I will share it here.
Again thank you for the welcome!
Is Honeyman real? So many different sources differ on this, Dywer’s ‘The Day is Ours!’ Does not mention Honeyman at all, and this book is an amazing narrative about the Crossing of the Delaware and the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. Stryker’s ‘The Battles of Trenton and Princeton’ was written about 100 year after the battles and he does mention Honeyman, this was not long after Honeyman’s grandson publish the story. Fisher’s ‘Washington’s Crossing’ mentions Honeyman in the appendix, explaining that there is not enough source material to be able to verify the story, and Ketchum’s ‘Winter Soldiers’ however, talks a lot about Honeyman.
Two other books, Bakeless’s ‘Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes’ dedicated almost four pages to Honeyman and ‘Best Little Stories from the American Revolution’ by Kelly has almost two pages. In almost all the books that include the story of Honeyman the story does not change, which I would think would be a sign of people trying to make the story fit into the period, so to me Honeyman is real! Secondly, if Honeyman was not real, why would the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated the fountain to a myth. However, if Honeyman is not real his story is just one of the many myths of the revolution, after all, there is no proof that Nathan Hale ever muttered the words he is most famous for ‘I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country’ before he was hung as a spy, yet monuments to this man including numerous statues exist today!
