Elizabeth Randolph

Wife of Founding Father Peyton Randolph Peyton Randolph and Elizabeth Harrison were married on March 8, 1746; they were among Williamsburg, Virginia’s leading citizens in the quarter century before the American Revolution. A second-generation Virginian, Peyton Randolph studied law in London and became Attorney General of Virginia in 1744. Though they had no children of their own, the Randolphs undoubtedly raised several of Elizabeth’s younger siblings after her parents’ early deaths. The date of Elizabeth Harrison’s birth is unknown. Her parents – Benjamin and Anne Carter Harrison – were both deceased by 1745, leaving nine children, the youngest only three years old. When Elizabeth married Peyton Randolph in 1746, some of the children went to live with their only other…

Read Article

Susanna Wright

Quaker Poet on the Pennsylvania Frontier Image: Wright’s Ferry Mansion This restored 1738 house interprets the life of poet Susanna Wright, and contains a superb collection of 18th-century decorative arts. In the Pennsylvania Colony, frontierswoman and poet Susanna Wright became a prothonotary – the principal court clerk – of the colony, enhancing her stature as a legal counselor to her mostly illiterate neighbors, for whom she prepared wills, deeds, indentures, and other contracts. She also served as an arbitrator in property disputes. Susanna Wright was born in Lancashire, England, to Quaker parents John and Patience Wright, who immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1714, and lived for a decade in Chester, Pennsylvania. The Wrights brought their three youngest children – James, Elizabeth,…

Read Article

Clara Barton

Civil War Nurse, Educator and Humanitarian Clara Barton – pioneer teacher, government clerk and nurse – is one of the most honored women in American history. She began teaching school at a time when most teachers were men. She was among the first women to gain employment in the federal government. Barton risked her life when she was nearly 40 years old to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field during the Civil War. Then, at age 60, she founded the American Red Cross in 1881 and led it for the next 23 years. Childhood and Early Years Clara Harlowe Barton was born on Christmas day, 1821, in Oxford, MA, to Stephen and Sarah Barton. Clara’s father was…

Read Article

Anne Geddy

Colonial Virginia Woman Image: James Geddy House Located on the Palace Green across from Bruton Parish Church, the two-story James Geddy House is one of the original buildings in the Historic Area. The low-pitched roof and lack of dormers are unusual features, as are the door and balcony above the front porch. The beautiful home also housed the diverse business ventures of the Geddy family – from a foundry to a watch repair. Anne Geddy was the wife of James Geddy Sr., who probably arrived in Virginia from Scotland sometime before 1733. Geddy was primarily a gunsmith, but he also worked in wrought iron and cast brass. By 1738, he had located his business on two lots on a site…

Read Article

Mary Alexander

Colonial New York Woman Image: Mary Alexander Burial Site Trinity Churchyard, Manhattan Mary Spratt Provoost Alexander (born 1694, New York) was a dry goods importer and real estate entrepreneur in New York City, who was descended from wealthy merchants on all sides. Mary’s mother and grandmother ran their husbands’ mercantile businesses after their deaths. Mary’s grandmother, Cornelia DePeyster, who raised Mary from the age of seven, was a major merchant in her own right, and was rated one of the wealthiest people in New York in 1695. Mary married the thriving Dutch merchant Samuel Provoost in 1711. The Spratts, de Peysters, and Provoosts were all prominent families of colonial New York. When Samuel died around 1720, he left his fortune…

Read Article

Eliza Lucas Pinckney

Colonial South Carolina Woman Eliza Lucas was born on the Caribbean island of Antigua in the West Indies in 1722, the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel George Lucas of the British Army and his wife. She had two younger brothers and a younger sister. Eliza attended a finishing school in England where French, music, and other traditionally feminine subjects were stressed, but Eliza’s favorite subject was botany. In about 1738, the Lucas family migrated from Antigua to a farming area near Charleston, South Carolina, where Eliza’s mother died soon thereafter. George Lucas bought several plantations, but he was soon recalled to Antigua, and Eliza was left to take care of her siblings and to manage his three plantations.

Susannah Randolph

Colonial Virginia Woman Image: Lady Susannah Beverley Randolph Artist: Edward Caledon Bruce Oil on canvas Susannah Beverley was born about 1692 and became the wife of Sir John Randolph about 1718 – there are no records of the exact dates. If she was 26 at the time of her marriage, she was rather mature for a colonial bride. Her eldest sister was the wife of her husband’s eldest brother, which may suggest how they met. Whatever the uncertainties, there is no doubt that Sir John found her to be an excellent mate, or that she reared children of unusual ability. In almost two centuries of colonial Virginia history, there was only one woman who had a certifiable claim to the…

Read Article

Isabella Fogg

Civil War Nurse from Maine In the spring of 1861, when men were called to join the Union army and fight for their country, Isabella Fogg of Calais, Maine felt that she was called also. She felt compelled to leave the quiet and seclusion of her home, and do all that a woman could do to sustain the hands and the hearts of those who had the great battle of freedom to fight. About this time, changes occurred in Fogg’s family, which seemed to release her from pressing obligations to remain at home. Isabella Fogg followed her son Hugh, a member of the 6th Maine Regiment, to Washington, DC, and she soon volunteered to work for the Maine Camp and…

Read Article

Catherine Blaikley

Colonial Virginia Woman Image: Bruton Parish Church Williamsburg, Virginia Catherine Blaikley, born in 1695, lived in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her husband was merchant William Blaikley, who was reported to have been a wealthy merchant there. William Blaikley died in 1736, and left her a considerable amount of money and property. In a will written February 10, 1734, Blaikley bequeathed “unto my loving wife Catherine Blaikley, all my whole estate of lands, houses, Negroes, goods, and chattels, meaning my houses and lots in Williamsburg and 50 acres of land in Powhatan.” During her 35-year widowhood, Catherine Blaikley lived in the house now called the Blaikely-Durfey House on Duke of Gloucester Street. The property inventory shows that the house was a half story…

Read Article

Mary Musgrove Bosomworth

Queen of the Creek? Image: General James Oglethorpe Meeting with Tomochichi and Mary Musgrove Mary Musgrove was born Coosaponakesee sometime around 1700, at Coweta Town on the Ockmulgee River in northern Georgia. Her father was an English trader from the South Carolina Colony and her mother was a Creek Indian of royal blood – a niece of the emperor of the Creek Nation. Mary spent her first 10 years among her mother’s people, becoming thoroughly acquainted with the Creek language and ways. Despite her mixed heritage Musgrove was considered a full member of Creek society and the Wind Clan. In this matrilineal society children took the clan identities of their mothers.