I Googled "Thomas Hickey traitor" and was provided with a list of several websites and books, including the Bakeless one, that talked about the subject. I would return to Google several more times during my research to refine or expand the booklist, and in the process discover Google Books which allows the viewer to electronically search through and even see actual portions of a book online.
But at that moment I was more excited about reading "The Plot to Kidnap Washington" on the Internet in Newsday.com's New York History section.
"A miserably bungled plot to kidnap George Washington and assassinate his chief officers led to the hanging of one of his special guards, the jailing of the mayor of New York, and a stepped-up search for Loyalists on Long Island."
Among these "Loyalists" (American colonists who supported the British) were William Tryon the Governor of New York, and former Governor of North Carolina, and New York Mayor David Matthews.
(William Tryon)
"A weak link in the plot, however, was one of Washington's trusted Life Guard...Thomas Hickey, who has been described as 'a dark-complexioned man of five feet six, well set...an Irishman and hitherto a deserter from the British Army.' Hickey was himself jailed by American authorities for attempting to pass counterfeit notes, and he unwisely talked of the plot with a cellmate, another counterfeiter named Isaac Ketcham, who was from Cold Spring Harbor. "Ketchum, seeing an opportunity to be set free, squealed on Hickey. The ex-guard was court-martialed and found guilty of mutiny and sedition. On orders of Washington, and with 20,000 Continental soldiers as spectators, Hickey was hanged on June 28 in a field near Bowery Lane. ('We are hanging them as fast as we find them out,' a correspondent wrote to a friend in Boston.) Although other Life Guard members were also implicated, Hickey was the only one of the plotters to be executed."
This was even easier than I thought it would be. Now I figured I would just Google "Thomas Hickey Wethersfield" and find out when he lived in town and where. Then I'd have the whole story.
Nothing! Well Google actually never gives you "nothing". It tries its best, but sometimes what it comes up with is not exactly what you might be looking for. For example here is some of what my "Wethersfield Thomas Hickey" query generated.
"Design Review Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - May 18, 2005 ESS queried whether there were any issues to be concerned with regarding the Wethersfield Historic District. Joe Hickey responded that while the site is not... "2003 Salem 3 Mile Road Race ...12, Colchester, CT 23:26.6 7:49 154 86 19 Izard, Thomas, 48, Wethersfield, ... Norwich, CT 26:25.6 8:49 318 144 31 Thomas Hickey, 46, South Windsor, ... "Manchester Road Race - Timing ... AVERY JONATHAN GRANBY CT06035 AYRES JR THOMAS WETHERSFIELD CT06109 AYSON ... ALICE PARKERSBURG WV26104 HERNANDEZ LOUIS HICKEY CHRISTOPHER MANCHESTER ..."
I tried various other combinations of searches such as "Wethersfield Revolutionary War" which seemed to bring back a list of pretty much every Internet article concerning that conflict; and "Wethersfield Traitors" which pointed me to Silas Deane after whom our village's main road is named and whose treasonous activities are, from my parochial small town perspective, at best dubious - he was exonerated after all! In frustration I input "Wethersfield 1760" and was directed to "Wethersfield, CT Vital Records 1634 – 1868 - From the Barbour Collection as found at the CT State Library". There were no "Hickeys" listed.
I was at a digital dead end. So I ordered the book that Sol Henner had recommended through interlibrary loan and went to The Wethersfield Historical Society to do some old fashioned brick-and-mortar research.
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