Old Bergen Church Cemetery
Jane Tuers
Died 1834 · A heroine of the American Revolution
Jane Tuers and her husband Nicholas lived as farmers in Bergen Township, New Jersey — now known as Jersey City.
The plaque marking the site of Jane Tuers’s home, placed in 1925
One day in September 1780, while selling farm goods in British-occupied Manhattan, Jane stopped in Fraunces Tavern and spoke with the owner, Samuel Fraunces. He told her that British soldiers were in his tavern toasting the hero of the Battles of Saratoga, General Benedict Arnold, who was to deliver West Point to the British.
Many historians believe Samuel Fraunces to have been of mixed race — a “passing” Black man of French ancestry, born in the West Indies. As a woman and a man of color, two marginalized figures of society, Jane and Samuel commanded much less attention from British officers. Their covert discussions flew beneath the radar within the hotbed of British occupation.
Jane, being of Dutch heritage and speaking Dutch within her household, would have felt little allegiance to England or its king. Adding further motive to her espionage, her own brother had joined a militia to support the American cause but was captured and imprisoned by the British.
The Tuers homestead in Bergen
When Jane returned to Bergen later that day, she informed her brother Daniel Van Reypen about the conspiracy. Van Reypen rode to Hackensack to meet with General Anthony Wayne, who then sent him on to inform General George Washington. This information confirmed what Washington had suspected of Arnold, who would later defect to the British to escape prosecution.
The arrest of British officer John André three days later confirmed the plot, and West Point’s capture by the British was averted. West Point, and its key strategic location, has safely remained within American control ever since.
Jane died in 1834 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Lot 136 in the Old Bergen Church Cemetery.