The Loyalist priest who fought Alexander Hamilton with anonymous pamphlets

Health · Published 19 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Before he was a founding father, Alexander Hamilton was a young man engaged in a fierce, anonymous pamphlet war. His opponent was not a soldier, but a controversial Anglican clergyman who used the written word to defend the British Crown during the American Revolution.

Samuel Seabury, born in Connecticut in 1729, was a complex figure of the revolutionary era. A highly educated man, he graduated from Yale at just 15 years old in 1744 and later studied medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland. While he served various parishes in New York and New Jersey, his most significant historical impact came from his role as a strident Loyalist during the 1770s.

Seabury gained notoriety through a series of anonymous essays known as the 'Letters of a Westchester Farmer.' Writing under the pseudonym 'A. W. Farmer,' he used these pamphlets to argue against American independence, warning that abandoning established authority for the uncertainty of revolution would endanger life and property. This sparked a direct literary confrontation with a young Alexander Hamilton, who published several rebuttals, including 'The Farmer Refuted' in 1775.

His political convictions made him a target for American Patriots. Following the approval of boycotts by the First Continental Congress, Seabury faced intense pressure, including arrest and brief imprisonment in New Haven in 1775. His life was marked by significant upheaval; his farm was ransacked and his son was beaten by local forces. Eventually, Seabury escaped Westchester via boat across the East River to join British forces under General William Howe.

Despite the political turmoil, Seabury's religious legacy endured. In 1783, he was elected bishop of Connecticut. Because his American citizenship prevented him from taking the required oath to the British Crown in England, he sought consecration from the Episcopal Church in Scotland, achieving this in Aberdeen on November 14, 1784. He later served as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States' inaugural bishop.

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