Jonathan Odell (111)

Jonathan Odell (25 September 1737–25 November 1818) was a priest, physician, public official, and poet, and a member of the American Philosophical Society via his 1768 election to the American Society. Born in Newark, he graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1754. He then trained in medicine, before becoming a surgeon in the British army in 1757. After six years Odell chose to resign from the army and traveled to England where he was ordained in the Anglican Church in 1767. Soon afterwards he returned to New Jersey as a missionary with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He ministered to his community at Burlington as both a priest and a medical practitioner. As a Loyalist, Odell spent much of the War of Independence in British-occupied Philadelphia and New York. While serving as Philadelphia’s superintendent of the printing press, he published a number of writings meant to bolster British morale, including poems, songs, and satires. His most notable contribution to the Loyalist cause was facilitating the clandestine exchange of information between Benedict Arnold and British intelligence. In 1784, Odell joined other Loyalists in relocating to Nova Scotia where he helped to organize the new province of New Brunswick as secretary of the Council of the Province. Conversant in multiple languages, he translated French texts on silk cultivation for the nascent Silk Society and occasionally served as a German interpreter during wartime interactions with the Hessians. (PI, ANB, DAB)