Lesson plan
Robert Spring
Robert Spring (1813–1876) was an English-born forger who forged letters from luminaries like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Horatio Nelson. Robert Spring was born in England but there is no information about his life prior to his emigration to the United States. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, around 1858 and became an antiquarian and bookseller. Sometime in the 1870s, Spring began to forge letters from historical people like Washington and Franklin. He used his own mixture of special ink on contemporary paper. At first, he used sheets of paper he had cut from the fronts or backs of old books. Spring created numerous forgeries of letters, payment orders and other papers with forged signatures of George Washington. He wrote the first payment orders on printed forms of the Office of Discount and Deposit at Baltimore. He made numerous copies of an autographed pass through American lines, issued with numerous different names - sometimes that of the intended buyer. Another common forgery was a supposed letter to one Jabez Huntington, a sheriff of Windham, Connecticut, that was an order to release a prisoner held in the county jail - with varying dates and names. He probably produced those to order in large quantities. Sometimes Spring acquired genuine documents, traced them to make copies, "aged" them with coffee grounds and sold them as original.…
Article summary
Robert Spring (1813–1876) was an English-born forger who forged letters from luminaries like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Horatio Nelson. Robert Spring was born in England but there is no information about his life prior to his emigration to the United States. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, around 1858 and became an antiquarian and bookseller. Sometime in the 1870s, Spring began to forge letters from historical people like Washington and Franklin. He used his own mixture of special ink on contemporary paper. At first, he used sheets of paper he had cut from the fronts or backs of old books. Spring created numerous forgeries of letters, payment orders and other papers with forged signatures of George Washington. He wrote the first payment orders on printed forms of the Office of Discount and Deposit at Baltimore. He made numerous copies of an autographed pass through American lines, issued with numerous different names - sometimes that of the intended buyer. Another common forgery was a supposed letter to one Jabez Huntington, a sheriff of Windham, Connecticut, that was an order to release a prisoner held in the county jail - with varying dates and names. He probably produced those to order in large quantities. Sometimes Spring acquired genuine documents, traced them to make copies, "aged" them with coffee grounds and sold them as original.…
Key claims
- date of death: 1876-12-14 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- The record states that the date of death is "1876-12-14". What evidence would count against this claim?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
No sources recorded.
Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.