Anna Strong

Anna Smith Strong (April 14, 1740 – August 12, 1812) who was a delegate to the first three provincial congresses in colonial New York. He also was a captain in the New York militia in 1776.

The Strong's children were Keturah S. (married James W. Woodhull), Thomas Shepherd (married Hanna Brewster), Margaret, Benjamin, Mary (died young), William Smith, Joseph (died young), George Washington, and another Joseph. Thomas became a judge and fathered Selah B. Strong. Circa 1925, a Selah Strong was oblivious to Anna Smith Strong's involvement in the Culper Spy Ring.

Anna's father was Colonel William Smith, son of Henry Smith and grandson of Colonel William Smith, a justice of the supreme court established in New York in 1691. Historian Richard Welch writes that the tradition of the clothesline signal is unverifiable, but it is known that the British suspected a woman at Setauket who fit Anna's profile.