This is John Batchelor, conversation with Professor Benjamin Carp, his book, The Great New York Fire of 1776,

A Lost Story of the American Revolution. Who set the fire? Was it accidental? Was it on purpose? The British,

the British had defeated George Washington in the Battle of Long Island. The British had just defeated

George Washington in the Battle of Harlem Heights. Washington and what was left of his

army had been driven or were being driven out of Manhattan, all of it, eventually, crossing

the river into New Jersey.

However, the mystery remains.

Who set the fire?

Here, Professor Karp speaks of the fire at Trinity Church.

How did the fire at Trinity Church start?

It was very far from where everyone agrees the fire started on the west side wharves.

Benjamin Carp, the great New York fire of 1776. Much more of this later. Yes, again, is it possible

that what's called a flaming brand, right, like a wooden shingle on fire being blown by the wind

that then smacked into the steeple of Trinity Church and made it catch fire? Could that have happened

by accident? Possibly. But witnesses said that Trinity Church caught fire way too fast after the fire at Whitehall slip for this to have been possible.

And it is worth saying that the British and many loyalists already had a kind of prejudice against the Americans.

They thought that the Continental Army and the leading rebels were heavily affiliated with dissenting Protestant churches, Presbyterians, and congregationalists in particular.

And they believed that the rebel cause already had animus against the Church of England and would have targeted Trinity Church deliberately for that reason.