By Pauline Murphy

 

Hercules Mulligan was born in Coleraine, Co. Derry, in 1740. At the age of six Hercules emigrated with his family to America where his father set up an accounting business in New York City. Hercules was a studious youth and attended New York’s Kings College (now known as Columbus University).

When he graduated, Hercules worked as a clerk for his father. He went from there in a different direction and decided to become a tailor. Hercules set up a very successful tailoring business which catered to wealthy clients and officers of the British army.

Hercules married Elizabeth Sanders in 1773 at Trinity Church, Manhattan. The couple had five daughters and three sons. Elizabeth was the niece of British Navy Admiral Charles Sanders.

Hugh Mulligan, brother of Hercules, took in a lodger called Alexander Hamilton who arrived in New York in 1772. The Mulligan brothers became friends with the future founding father of the United States and Hercules has been credited with influencing Hamilton in the cause for American liberty.

Hercules was one of the first members of the revolutionary organisation, The Sons of Liberty. It was founded to advance the fight against unfair taxation by the British government on Americans.
In 1775, Hercules led a group of fellow Sons of Liberty in a march down Broadway to Bowling Green where there stood a large equestrian statue of King George III.

Hercules flung a rope over the statue and with his group they pulled it down. They smashed the statue into pieces and melted the smashed bits into musket balls.

A year later Alexander Hamilton was appointed George Washington’s aide-de-camp and he recommended his old friend Hercules to General Washington. Upon Hamilton’s recommendation, Washington appointed the Coleraine man as his confidential correspondent for New York.

Hercules had incredible access to high-ranking British officers who were his clients at his tailoring business. He would listen in on conversations between officers but, he would also charm them with his Irish wit and loosen their lips with generous amounts of whiskey. Each bit of information he collected from the British officers proved highly valuable to Washington’s army.

Hercules also perfected a technique where he would gauge troop movements by timing when officers would pick up their uniforms from his shop.

Continue reading in this year’s Saint Patrick’s Day Annual