Her maiden name was Champion. She was the daughter of Col. Henry Champion and Deborah Billard.
Find A Grave contributor Historybuff claims:
During the revolutionary war she was known to carry dispatches to General Washington for her father and once even carried the payroll across Tory lines. She was never caught but came very close until they dismissed her for an old woman. She was 22 at the time. IShe played a part of our nations history which she was always proud of.
BUT another FAG contributor says:
While it is possible that she was helpful to her father, Col. Henry Champion, during the Revolution, _we have no real evidence to either support or refute this broad claim_ -- and. more specifically, the "letter" that has for over a century been held up as "proof" _is a fabrication_, very likely a pleasant fiction concocted within the family that escaped into the wider world, in part via the DAR.
An extremely careful and scholarly series of blog posts by a Boston writer named J.L. Bell were published several years ago that quite thoroughly undercut the notion that Deborah rode through British lines carrying messages to Washington in Boston. Among other relevant historical facts, Washington was in Cambridge, not Boston, and the British did not post sentries outside the city.
The series of Bell's blog posts begins at: boston1775 (dot) blogspot (dot) com/2014/01/introducing-story-of-deborah-champion.html ; the entire run of fifteen (!) posts can be read en masse at: boston1775 (dot) blogspot (dot) com/search/label/Deborah%20Champion .
Find A Grave contributor Historybuff claims:
During the revolutionary war she was known to carry dispatches to General Washington for her father and once even carried the payroll across Tory lines. She was never caught but came very close until they dismissed her for an old woman. She was 22 at the time. IShe played a part of our nations history which she was always proud of.
BUT another FAG contributor says:
While it is possible that she was helpful to her father, Col. Henry Champion, during the Revolution, _we have no real evidence to either support or refute this broad claim_ -- and. more specifically, the "letter" that has for over a century been held up as "proof" _is a fabrication_, very likely a pleasant fiction concocted within the family that escaped into the wider world, in part via the DAR.
An extremely careful and scholarly series of blog posts by a Boston writer named J.L. Bell were published several years ago that quite thoroughly undercut the notion that Deborah rode through British lines carrying messages to Washington in Boston. Among other relevant historical facts, Washington was in Cambridge, not Boston, and the British did not post sentries outside the city.
The series of Bell's blog posts begins at: boston1775 (dot) blogspot (dot) com/2014/01/introducing-story-of-deborah-champion.html ; the entire run of fifteen (!) posts can be read en masse at: boston1775 (dot) blogspot (dot) com/search/label/Deborah%20Champion .
Her maiden name was Champion. She was the daughter of Col. Henry Champion and Deborah Billard.
Find A Grave contributor Historybuff claims:
During the revolutionary war she was known to carry dispatches to General Washington for her father and once even carried the payroll across Tory lines. She was never caught but came very close until they dismissed her for an old woman. She was 22 at the time. IShe played a part of our nations history which she was always proud of.
BUT another FAG contributor says:
While it is possible that she was helpful to her father, Col. Henry Champion, during the Revolution, _we have no real evidence to either support or refute this broad claim_ -- and. more specifically, the "letter" that has for over a century been held up as "proof" _is a fabrication_, very likely a pleasant fiction concocted within the family that escaped into the wider world, in part via the DAR.
An extremely careful and scholarly series of blog posts by a Boston writer named J.L. Bell were published several years ago that quite thoroughly undercut the notion that Deborah rode through British lines carrying messages to Washington in Boston. Among other relevant historical facts, Washington was in Cambridge, not Boston, and the British did not post sentries outside the city.
The series of Bell's blog posts begins at: boston1775 (dot) blogspot (dot) com/2014/01/introducing-story-of-deborah-champion.html ; the entire run of fifteen (!) posts can be read en masse at: boston1775 (dot) blogspot (dot) com/search/label/Deborah%20Champion .
Find A Grave contributor Historybuff claims:
During the revolutionary war she was known to carry dispatches to General Washington for her father and once even carried the payroll across Tory lines. She was never caught but came very close until they dismissed her for an old woman. She was 22 at the time. IShe played a part of our nations history which she was always proud of.
BUT another FAG contributor says:
While it is possible that she was helpful to her father, Col. Henry Champion, during the Revolution, _we have no real evidence to either support or refute this broad claim_ -- and. more specifically, the "letter" that has for over a century been held up as "proof" _is a fabrication_, very likely a pleasant fiction concocted within the family that escaped into the wider world, in part via the DAR.
An extremely careful and scholarly series of blog posts by a Boston writer named J.L. Bell were published several years ago that quite thoroughly undercut the notion that Deborah rode through British lines carrying messages to Washington in Boston. Among other relevant historical facts, Washington was in Cambridge, not Boston, and the British did not post sentries outside the city.
The series of Bell's blog posts begins at: boston1775 (dot) blogspot (dot) com/2014/01/introducing-story-of-deborah-champion.html ; the entire run of fifteen (!) posts can be read en masse at: boston1775 (dot) blogspot (dot) com/search/label/Deborah%20Champion .
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