In the nave of Westminster Abbey there is a monument to Major
John André, executed as a spy by the Americans in 1780. Designed
by Robert Adam and carried out by Peter Mathias Van Gelder it was
erected at the expense of King George III. It shows a mourning
figure of Britannia with a lion, seated on the top of a
sarcophagus. On the front of this is a relief showing George
Washington in a tent receiving a petition and Major André being
led away to execution. The inscription reads:
SACRED to the MEMORY of MAJOR JOHN ANDRÉ, who raised by his
Merit at an early period of Life to the rank of Adjutant General
of the British Forces in America, and employed in an important
but hazardous Enterprise fell a Sacrifice to his Zeal for his
King and Country on the 2nd of October AD 1780 Aged 29,
universally Beloved and esteemed by the Army in which he served
and lamented even by his FOES. His gracious Sovereign KING GEORGE
the Third has caused this Monument to be erected.
The Remains of Major JOHN ANDRÉ Were, on the 10th of August
1821, removed from Tappan, By JAMES BUCHANAN ESQr His Majesty's
Consul at New York, Under instructions from His Royal Highness
The DUKE of YORK, And, with the permission of the Dean and
Chapter, Finally deposited in a Grave Contiguous to this
Monument, On the 28th of November 1821.
John André was probably born in Paris on May 2nd 1751 the son
of Anthony and Marie-Louise André (daughter of Paul Girardot of
Paris). His father was a merchant, residing in later life at
Clapton, London; he died there on 14th April 1769 aged 52 and was
buried in the family vault in St Augustine's churchyard, Hackney.
His mother died in Bath on 22nd February 1813 aged 91. John had
one brother, William Louis, and three sisters. William was
baptised at St Martin Outwich in London on 25th November 1760 and
was later made a baronet by George III in honour of the memory of
his brother. He died unmarried in 1802 and the title became
extinct.
John was educated in Geneva and on January 25th 1771 purchased
a commission in the British Army and was shortly posted to
America. He was captured and interned at Lancaster, Pennsylvania
and exchanged for some American prisoners in November 1776. He
came to the attention of the British authorities because of the
detailed secret maps he had drawn while a prisoner. In 1779 he
was appointed Adjutant General, with the rank of Major, to
General Sir Henry Clinton, Commander of the British Army in New
York. André was sent on a secret mission to General Benedict
Arnold to negotiate the surrender of West Point to the British.
However he was captured within the American lines, in civilian
dress (contrary to orders given by General Clinton), with
incriminating plans of West Point concealed in his boot. He was
taken before General George Washington’s board of inquiry and in
spite of every effort to obtain his pardon, he was hanged as a
spy on 2nd October 1780 and buried beneath the gallows at Tappan,
New York. Even before his execution André had aroused the
sympathy of the British and the Americans. As he walked to the
gallows he was watched by many sobbing women, one of whom is said
to have given him a peach which later grew into a tree above his
grave. He became a romantic hero in England and after the war the
monument was erected in the Abbey and it was proposed that his
bones should be brought back for burial. In 1821 his remains
were, at the Duke of York's request, brought from America and
buried with the funeral service in front of his monument in the
Abbey. A small lozenge stone marks the grave. The wooden chest in
which the bones were enclosed is still in the Abbey's triforium
(not accessible to the public).
A monument, with an inscription written by Arthur Penrhyn
Stanley, Dean of Westminster, was erected in 1879 by Cyrus Field
on the site of André's execution at Tappan. Also on the monument
at Tappan are the following lines:
"He was more unfortunate than criminal,
An accomplished man and a gallant officer".
- George Washington
Colonel J.L. Chester, an American genealogist who edited the
"Westminster Abbey Registers", did a lot of research into the
André family. James André, of Nismes in France, was the earliest
ancestor he could find. His son David became a merchant at Genoa
in Italy and died there 8 March 1737/8 but his will was proved in
London. The other son John married Louise Vazeille and had seven
children. Their third son William (d.1747) went to Geneva and
married Mary Privat (d.1767). William had ten children and three
of the sons, Anthony, David and John-Louis came to England. (Two
other sons, David and John, became merchants and both married and
had children). Anthony married Marie Louise Girardot and their
son was Major John. John and his brother William Louis, and
sisters Mary Hannah (d.1845), Ann Marguerite (d.1830) and Louisa
Catherine (d.1835) all died unmarried.
Photos of the monument, gravestone and chest which contained
his bones can be purchased from Westminster Abbey Library.
Sources:
J.L.Chester, Marriage, Baptismal and Burial Registers of
the Collegiate Church of St
Peter, Westminster, 1876
Brian R.Boylan, Benedict Arnold: The Dark Eagle, New York,
1973, p.119 and following.
A.P.Stanley, Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, 5th
edn. 1882
Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, London, 1844
A self portrait sketch of André is in Yale University Art
Gallery.