On 17 September 1776, the British diplomat Sir Joseph Yorke wrote to Lord Suffolk to convey his suspicions about an individual who seemed to be collecting information in the Netherlands relevant to the rebellious Americans:

I have learnt that Macintosh is certainly in correspondence with America! His original business in Holland was to study the minute parts of the constitution of the Republic, and to transmit the model to the trans-Atlantic legislators. I make no doubt he has ingrafted other information upon that original commission, and does as much mischief as ever he can: still, however, Your Excellency may look upon Dumas, as, properly speaking, the Congress agent.

York to Lord Suffolk, 17/09/1776

A year later, on 31 December 1777, James Moylan—a pro-Revolution commercial agent in France—wrote from L’Orient to the diplomat Arthur Lee on the subject of a suspicious character:

Mackintosh has not been here Since my arrival, but I learn there were grounds for our Suspicions of him

Moylan to Lee, 31/12/1777

Could Macintosh and Mackintosh be the same individual? If so, could this be my Macintosh? Suspected by the British as a spy for the Americans, yet suspected by the Americans in turn? Right now, I have no idea; all I have is circumstantial evidence:

1. Macintosh was often in the Hague and Amsterdam in 1776;
2. Correspondence places him in L’Orient at the time Moylan was writing (indeed on the very same day);
3. He took an active interest in the American Revolutionary War and advocated a compromise, but fundamentally sided with the British.

Did Macintosh’s irrepressible political curiosity lead both parties simply to mistake his intentions? Are there sufficient grounds here for speculation?