Thomas Digges and the London Literary Underground during the Revolutionary War
Seized Papers, Literary Hijinks, and the Emergence of Munchausen's Tales
When Rudolf Raspe was down in out in London, expelled from the Royal Society of London, and facing suit from his tailor for arrearages in his account, it is apparent that he was not without allies. As David Shavin details Benjamin Franklin who had met with Raspe in Hanover in 1766 to consult with him about Raspe’s recent translation of certain of the philosopher Leibniz suppressed works had maintained a correspondence with Raspe and had referred Raspe to the Lunar Society of Britain where Raspe was able to procure employment on a steam engine project. This was a few years before Raspe anonymously wrote The Amazing Adventures of Baron Munchausen, dedicating the work to Parliament, and around the time that he had solicited funds in London’s monthly Review for an Egyptian expedition.
At the time given the ongoing American Revolution correspondence out of England to Franklin, regarded by some as the plenipotentiary of America, was not with out risks; hence, correspondents would frequently deploy pseudonyms and Raspe in particular being down and out would correspond via the care of intermediaries. It was in reviewing the Raspe/Franklin correspondence that the figure of Thomas Atwood Digges first presented. And through Digges the character of Raspe’s London social milieu is somewhat filled out.
It is obvious that beyond Digges’ willingness to take care of certain of Raspe’s correspondences that Raspe and Digges were friends who enjoyed a certain social intimacy. It could not be more clearly illustrated than in an observation to Franklin in one of Digges’ personal correspondences reflecting on Raspe. Digges reported to Franklin as follows:
Poor Raspe has been often with me lately and is much down in the mouth at the treatment He lately has rec’d from a Russian nobleman by whom he is likely to loose some money.
Thomas Digges to Benjamin Franklin, September 6, 1779.
Digges was a shipping agent who operated out of London and Lisbon who had been born into an established family in Maryland and who was a proponent of the Revolutionary cause having given an oath of loyalty to Franklin. And the affinities between Raspe and Digges run deeper.
While Raspe had been accused of mishandling the Hessian Landgrave’s gems, Digges fell on the outs with Franklin over funds advanced in procuring supplies for the Colonial revolutionary forces. Though Franklin apparently was never satisfied with the explanation Digges provided, Digges continued throughout his life to actively suppor the cause of the American republic. Apologies on Digges’ behalf began to circulate in the mid-twentieth century. It was observed that Digges had maintained something of an underground highway for Colonial seamen who had be imprisoned in the most wretched conditions in Britain because of their participation in the war for independence. They would come to the door of Digges’ house in London’s Strand under the cover of night where Digges’ would typically take them in, provide them financial support, and spirit them in the dark of night to East London for safe passage to Amsterdam where the seamen would find freedom from the Crown. This practice had stressed Digges fiscally though apparently he continued to make arrangements to satisfy his obligations, though apparently not always in a most timely fashion.
Digges papers and records had been confiscated as well in the early months of 1781 from his offices kept apart from his home after a letter in the possession of a young American art student, John Trumbull, addressed to Digges’ street address but not to Digges personally, had been seized implicating Digges in “a suspicious adventure” in support of the Revolution. This contributed apparently in Digges inability to make an accounting to Franklin. Digges apparently hid out in and around Bristol and Bath through the Summer and early Fall of 1781, until Lord North, the Prime Minister, through his agents settled on a plan to have Digges act as an intermediary for the Crown in suing for peace with Franklin and Adams both of whom were residing in Europe at the time. In exchange for this service Digges reported at the time that British authorities had promised to return his records were promised and he apparently he made the unlikely move of returning to his home in the Strand. Digges had served as an intermediary for these purposes previously in 1779.1
An apparent literary affinity that has emerged, as well. In the same milieu as the apologies for Digges began to emerge a well supported suggestion arose that Digges was in fact the first North American born person to have written a novel. The anonymously penned The Adventures of Alonso published in London in 1775, was attributed to Digges. Set in the Atlantic shipping topology of London, Lisbon, and Cadiz as well in the diamond trade of Brazil, amidst the plots of elopement, cross-dressing, diamond prospecting, slavery, death, sexual depravity, justice, and inheritance, an extended ship board dialogue contained in the novel set during an oceanic crossing reflected sharply on the economic policies of the Portuguese Prime Minister, the Marquis of Pombol. Pombol advocated policies favoring private interests. And so to this extent Raspe had an apparent literary ally in writing Munchausen’s Tales for anonymous publication in 1785.2
William Bell Clark, “In Defense of Thomas Digges.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 77, No. 4 (Oct., 1953), pp. 381-438 on JSTOR. Jstor.org, www.jstor.org/stable/20088510
Thomas Attwood Digges, Robert H Elias, and Thomas J Mcmahon, Adventures of Alonso: Containing Some Striking Anecdotes of the Present Prime Minister of Portugal-- in Facsimile. Anonymously Printed in London in 1775, and Now Attributed to Thomas Atwood Digges (1741-1821) of Warburton Manor, Maryland. The First American Novel (New York, United States Catholic Historical Society, 1943).