reactivated the Ring. Upon that request to reactivate, Townsend wrote what is likely his last report on September 19, 1782: The last packet... has indeed brought the clearest and unequivocal Proofs that the independence of America is unconditionally to be acknowledged, nor will there be any conditions insisted on for those who have joined the King's Standard.... Sir Guy himself says that he thinks it not improbable that the next Packet may bring orders for an evacuation of N. York. A fleet is getting ready to sail for the Bay of Fundy about the first of October to transport a large number of Refugees to that Quarter.... Indeed, I never saw such general distress and dissatisfaction in my life as is painted in the countenance of every Tory at N.Y. Later life After the war, Townsend ended his business connections in New York and moved back to Oyster Bay. He never married and shared his family's home, and grew old with his sister Sally. Townsend likely had a son, Robert Townsend, Jr., and it is unclear who the child's mother was. One possibility is Townsend's housekeeper, Mary Banvard, to whom Robert Sr. left $500 in his will. Another possibility is that the mother was a Culper Ring member, who is known only as Agent 355, but this is unlikely. Indeed, there is some question as to whether Robert, Jr., was Townsend's son at all. Solomon Townsend once claimed that Townsend's brother William was actually the father. Townsend died on March 7, 1838, at 84 and took his "Culper" identity to the grave. The identity of Samuel Culper, Jr. was discovered only in 1930 by the New York historian Morton Pennypacker. The Townsend home in Oyster Bay is now the Raynham Hall Museum. In popular culture Robert Townsend is portrayed by actor Nick Westrate on the AMC period drama Turn: Washington's Spies. Robert Townsend appears in the USA Network television series White Collar in the episode "Identity Crisis". See also Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War Intelligence operations in the American Revolutionary War Notes External links Raynham Hall Museum Intelligence operations 1753 births 1838 deaths Spymasters People from Oyster Bay (town), New York People of New York (state) in the American Revolution American spies during the American Revolution