John Robeson (born 1725) was an American Tory who was employed by Captain Robert Rogers as a spy for the Queen's Rangers during the American Revolutionary War. Rogers recruited him as a spy in the autumn of 1776 after Robeson murdered Captain Charles Joyce, choosing to use him as a pawn of his instead of turning him in.
Biography[]
John Robeson was born in 1725 in Setauket, Long Island, New York, and he worked as an oyster farmer. Robeson was a homosexual, and he had secret trysts with British Army Captain Charles Joyce, meeting him at Lewis Field whenever he ordered his drummers to sound the retreat on their drums (Joyce claimed that this was to keep his men on their toes and to train them in the case of a surprise attack). Robeson was a supporter of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War, and in the autumn of 1776 he got into a fight with the local patriot Selah Strong in the Strong Tavern when he read aloud a newspaper article detailing George Washington's retreat into New Jersey; Strong said that this offended his wife Anna Strong. Joyce was injured by some shattered glass during the fight, and Joyce beat Strong down to the ground while also injuring Strong's friend Abraham Woodhull for attempting to intervene. Joyce was dismissed due to this incident, and Joyce blamed Robeson for the fight, angering him. Robeson stabbed him in the back and then cut his throat, leaving him dead. Woodhull was blamed for the murder, and Robeson and the British drummer, wearing Guy Fawkes masks, rose to his farm and burnt his shed down to make it appear as if the town hated him, spreading suspicion that he was the man behind Joyce's death. Later, Woodhull and Captain Robert Rogers worked together to solve the mystery, and Rogers had his drummer beat the retreat to expose the killer. Robeson appeared fidgety, so Woodhull confronted him and told him to meet him where Joyce had been killed. The two met there that night, and Robeson confessed his crime to Woodhull, with Rogers listening from nearby. Robeson had the drummer, also hidden, come out and attempt to kill Woodhull, but Rogers killed the drummer before Woodhull could be killed. Rogers decided to use Robeson as his eyes and ears in Setauket, telling him that he would report to him if he wanted to live; Rogers framed the drummer for the murder, ending the whole affair.