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When I first found out about the Culper spy ring, I was intrigued, and decided to focus it on for book one of Passport to Romance & Relics.
But there are no known records that point to the identity of Agent 355, so all the documentation that appears in this novel are products of my imagination.
The original Culper codebook, devised by Major Benjamin Tallmage, is, in real life, archived at the Library of Congress, on loose sheets, not within a ledger book, as I’ve depicted. I’ve also taken the liberty of imaging that it might’ve been loaned out for Vanessa’s fundraiser gala. Also, the codebook actually ends at number 763, but I’ve taken the liberty of adding the number 764 to mean ‘inn.’ I also made up their using the anagram code method. But you never know—they could have!
In the Ford Mansion, there are recreations of Colonial life as it would’ve most likely appeared during the Revolutionary time period when Washington made his headquarters there. But to my knowledge, there are no original documents—only recreations—there. However, for the sake of this plot, I made up a display with Washington’s desk and his original documents, for Jake and Vanessa to discover.
According to historical documents, Agent 355 is first mentioned in a letter from Woodhull to Townsend dated August 1779. However, for the sake of this plot, I’ve changed the timeline of when Agent 355 might’ve joined the Culpers, so it fit with the arrival of the French fleet at Newport, RI in July of 1780. (From my research, it wasn’t clear exactly when she did join the spy network.)
I’ve taken poetic license with the Townsend lineage, too. The Therese Smith character is completely fictional, as is the story of the cloak, thimble and needle. Also, Sally Townsend, to my knowledge, didn’t work at her brother’s shop.
The New York Public Library’s manuscripts and archives division keeps individuals’ papers. For the sake of this plot, I interpreted that to mean diaries, too, so I made up Sally Townsend’s journal for Vanessa and Jake to read.
And finally, I took poetic license with what the manuscripts and archives division of NYPL would allow, in terms of Jake and Vanessa being able to conduct the invisible ink test on the antique letter.