The Connecticut State Library & Museum of Connecticut History is located in the State Supreme Court building in Hartford. There was one very harried looking librarian at the desk and about twenty patrons, most of them sitting at wooden tables looking at their laptops. The man in front of me had the uniform of an H.V.A.C company and was looking for help in finding diagrams of the heating and cooling systems in one of the state buildings.
The librarian, wearing a tweed jacket and a tie that looked like he had pre-tied it and slipped over his head but not quite under one side of his shirt collar, was walking him through a folder of blueprints while at the same time nervously scouting the horizon for incoming information emergencies.
When my turn came I gave him my printout with the catalog numbers I was looking for. He jumped up quickly and said, "Follow me." as he darted into a hallway behind his desk. I took off in hot pursuit and barely caught sight off him turning into a side room and then again as he went into one of the aisles of books in that room.
"Here they are." he said as I came running up to him. "Just bring them back to me when you are finished." And he rushed away back down the aisle. I took the books from the shelves and, with a little luck, retraced my path back to the main room where I found an empty spot at a table and began reading.
The Lossing book was three volumes; Godfrey's one - so I looked at the smaller one first.
"Hickey, Thomas: Private, Commander-in-Chief's Guard, commanded by Captain Caleb Gibbs; in arrest New York June 15, 1776; court-martialed June 26, 1776 and found guilty of a breach of the 5th and 30th articles of war, and sentenced to be hanged; sentence approved by the Commander-In-Chief June 27, 1776 to take effect June 28, 1776 at 11 a.m.; hanged June 28, 1776."
I checked the index for other references to Hickey but there were none.
(Flag of the Commander-in-Chief's Guard)
According to the Lossing book:
"[Hickey] was a dark-complexioned Irishmen, and had been a deserter from the British army several years before. He had lived in Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he bore a good character, and was selected for the guard from Knowlton's Connecticut rangers. He had the confidence of the commander-in-chief, and was a favorite at Richmond Hill. Having enlisted in the conspiracy, to him was intrusted the work of destroying Washington."
Lossing then relates the story of the poisoned peas.
"The guardsman was tried by a court-martial, and on the testimony of the housekeeper and one of the corps, whom the culprit had unsuccessfully attempted to corrupt, he was found guilty of 'mutiny and sedition and of holding a treacherous correspondence with the enemies of the colonies' and was sentenced to be hanged."
Lossing seems to be saying Hickey was tried, convicted and hanged for the abortive laced legumes plot. The only footnote for this information reads
"These facts were related to a friend of the writer (Mr. W.J. Davis), by the late Peter Embury, of New York, who resided in the city at the time, was well acquainted with the general's housekeeper, and was present at the execution of Hickey."
From its placement the annotation seems to refer to the story of the poisoned peas but not to either the Wethersfield or Knowlton's Rangers references. Even if it did, because it was provided verbally to the author as hearsay evidence by someone now deceased, it is unverifiable - even more unfortunate if this work, published in 1866, is the first one in which the claim of Hickey's Wethersfield residency is mentioned.
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