Abraham Woodhull

Abraham Woodhull (October 7, 1750 – January 23, 1826) was a leading member of the American Culper Spy Ring in New York City and Setauket, New York, during the American Revolution. He used the alias "Samuel Culper", later "Samuel Culper, Sr.," a play on Culpeper County, Virginia, suggested by George Washington. The Culper Ring was a successful operation which provided Washington with valuable information on the British Army headquartered in and operating out of New York, from October 1778 until the end of the American Revolutionary War. After the United States gained independence, Woodhull served as a magistrate and a judge in Suffolk County, New York. 2Background Woodhull was a descendant of Richard Lawrence Woodhull, Esq., a wealthy settler of Setauket and a relative of New York militia Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull. His parents were Judge Richard Woodhull (1712–1788) and Mary Woodhull (née Smith). Woodhull served as a lieutenant in the Suffolk County, New York, militia in the fall of 1775 but resigned after a few months. Woodhull was motivated by the murder of his older cousin, Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull of the New York militia, who was wounded by sword and bayonet cuts after being captured on August 29, 1776. According to some reports, General Woodhull was deprived of medical care and food and suffered an agonizing death on September 20, 1776. Though he was inflamed against the British by this event, Abraham Woodhull did not immediately take up arms or begin spyin