Hercules Mulligan was an Irish-American tailor and spy during the American Revolutionary War.
16 Facts About Hercules Mulligan
1.
2.
Hercules Mulligan was a member of the Sons of Liberty.
3.
Hercules Mulligan later went on to open a tailoring and haberdashery business, catering to wealthy officers of the British Crown forces.
4.
Hercules Mulligan was introduced to Alexander Hamilton shortly after Hamilton arrived in New York by Hercules Mulligan's brother, Hugh, and took him on as a lodger.
5.
Hercules Mulligan knew the Crugers, Hamilton's patrons for whom he had clerked in St Croix, and helped Hamilton sell their cargo that was to be used for his education and upkeep.
6.
Hercules Mulligan had a profound impact on Hamilton's desire for revolution.
7.
In 1765, Hercules Mulligan became one of the first colonists to join the Sons of Liberty, a secret society formed to protect the rights of the colonists and to oppose British policies that limited them.
8.
Hercules Mulligan was a member of the New York Committee of Correspondence, a group that rallied opposition to the British and coordinated with groups in other colonies through written communications.
9.
Hercules Mulligan remained in New York as a civilian unexposed after George Washington's army was driven out during the New York campaign in summer 1776.
10.
Hercules Mulligan's slave, Cato, was a Black Patriot who served as a spy together with Hercules Mulligan, and often acted the role of courier, in part through British-held territory, by exploiting his status as a slave, letting him pass on intelligence to the Continental Army without being detained.
11.
Hercules Mulligan was discharged in 1783 and moved to Plymouth, Massachusetts.
12.
Hercules Mulligan was cleared of suspicions of possible Loyalist sympathies after the British evacuated New York City and General Washington entered it at the end of the war, when Washington had breakfast with him on the day after.
13.
Hercules Mulligan retired in 1820 and died in 1825, aged 84.
14.
Hercules Mulligan was buried in the Sanders tomb behind Trinity Church.
15.
Hercules Mulligan appears in the first act of the play as a friend of Alexander Hamilton, John Laurens, and Marquis de Lafayette, working as a tailor's apprentice and subsequently a soldier and spy in the American Revolution.
16.
Hercules Mulligan initially had a rap that explained his withdrawal from the army, which was eventually cut in order to elaborate on his role of spy in Yorktown.