John the Painter by Jessica Warner: "It remains a mystery why Aitken suddenly embraced the cause of American independence... but around 1775, when he overheard someone declare that the Navy depended on the royal dockyards and that without them the war was as good as lost, he instantly knew what to do: he would burn down the dockyards, the Americans would win the war and he would return to America a hero... In Portsmouth Aitken set fire to the dockyard ropehouse and in Bristol he torched three mer chantmen, some homes and warehouses... He was hanged on March 10 1777, from the mizzenmast of a ship in the Portsmouth dockyard... And what did the Americans make of this young man who lay down his life for American independence? They completely ignored him."
