Brookhaven Town wants to buy Culper spy ring property

Brookhaven Town officials said they hope to buy a Setauket property linked to the Revolutionary War-era Culper spy ring.

The town board on Dec. 19 voted unanimously 7-0 to buy the land on Dyke Road where a farmhouse associated with spy-ring member Abraham Woodhull once stood. Town officials did not disclose a proposed purchase price for the property, which is privately owned.

Woodhull, whose code name was Samuel Culper, and other spies used coded messages and invisible ink to collect information on British troops and send the intelligence to Gen. George Washington, commander of the Continental Army.

The Culper ring was profiled in the nonfiction book, “Washington’s Spies,” by Alexander Rose; a fictionalized account of the ring is featured in the AMC series, “Turn: Washington’s Spies.”