New York Business Woman Mary Alexander 1693-1760

November 17, 2017, 1:00 am

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The Alexander Papers at the New-York Historical Society Library contain the records of the mercantile business of Mary Alexander and provide a glimpse into the life of a colonial NYC businesswoman

From the New-York Historical Society Library

Mary Alexander’s mercantile business specialized in “haberdashery,” or what today is called notions. Records from this firm include samples of fabrics that Mary Alexander had requested or purchased. According to the records, Mary ordered expensive silks and worsteds as well as plain, utilitarian materials. The sample above is from the 1730’s and includes swatches of silver lace and crepe. The fabric samples are still vibrantly colored and are beautiful to examine.

Mary Alexander was born in New York City in 1693. In 1711, she married Samuel Prevoost, an importer. The couple had three children and together ran their mercantile business. Mary contributed much of her inheritance to the business and generally acted as a business partner with her husband.

After Prevoost’s death around 1720, Mary married James Alexander, a notable attorney and politician. She had seven more children in her second marriage (only five lived to adulthood) and continued to run the Prevoost mercantile business. She sold goods in her store in front of their mansion on Broad Street and soon became one of the leading merchants in New York City. With her social connections and her successful business, Mary was a prominent member of colonial society and is reputed to have served as an informal advisor to many New York politicians. Mary Alexander died in 1760 and was buried with her husband at Trinity Church.

From the New-York Historical Society Library

All information and images in this posting are from the blog of the New-York Historical Society Library. This article written by library Curator of Manuscirpts Maurita Baldock. Click here for more from the N-YHS..

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Nearly 27-year-old James Monroe 1758-1831 Marries 17-year-old Elizabeth Kortright 1768-1830

November 20, 2017, 1:00 am

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On January 16, 1786, future President 27-year-old James Monroe (1758-1831) married 17-year-old New York beauty named Elizabeth Kortright (1768-1830). Elizabeth Kortright Monroe (1768-1830), wife of the 5th president of the United States, was the eldest daughter of 5 children of Laurence Kortright, a wealthy New York merchant of late 17C Flemish descent, & his wife, Hannah (Aspinwall) Kortright. Her father’s fortune, much enlarged by privateering during the French & Indian War, was greatly reduced during the Revolutionary War, but Elizabeth Kortright was reared in the exclusive & formal atmosphere of New York mercantile society. Considered one of the great beauties of the city, she first met James Monroe in 1785, when he was a Virginia delegate to the Confederation Congress sitting in New York.

Detail of a Miniature of Elizabeth Kortright (1768-1830).

The 6 ' tall Monroe, already a famous revolutionary & a practicing lawyer, married not for money, but for love. They were married on Feb. 16, 1786, at New York’s Trinity Episcopal Church. After a brief honeymoon out on Long Island, the newlyweds rode back to New York City to live with her father, until the Continental Congress adjourned. The Monroes returned to Virginia, where he had graduated from the College of William & Mary, & promptly started a family. They settled first in Fredericksburg & then in Albemarle County, Va. There Monroe practiced law & pursued a political career which found him successively United States Senator, minister to France, governor of Virginia, minister to Great Britain, Secretary of State, &, ultimately, president of the United States. In keeping with the custom of the day, Monroe shielded his private life from public view, by the & his wife were devoted to each other, & they were rarely separated. Three children were born to them: Eliza in 1787; a son in 1799 who died in infancy; & Maria Hester, in 1801 or 1802, who was married in the White House in 1820 to Samuel L. Gouverneur.

James Monroe (1758-1831)

Elizabeth & her daughter followed Monroe to Paris, when President George Washington appointed him ambassador to France in 1794. There, he & Elizabeth became enthusiastic Francophiles. Elizabeth, with her sophisticated social graces, adapted easily to European society. The French aristocracy referred to her as "la belle americaine." The violent fallout of the French Revolution marred the Monroes' sojourn in France. They acquired a lasting appreciate of French manners & styles which was later reflected in the furnishing they purchased for the White House. Both spoke French fluently. Members of the aristocracy whom the Monroes befriended were increasingly falling prey to the rebels' guillotine. In 1795, Elizabeth succeeded in obtaining the prison release of the wife of the Marquis de Lafayette. When he learned that the wife of America’s great friend the Marquis de Lafayette, the dashing Frenchman who had served on Washington's staff during the American Revolution, had been imprisoned by Robespierre & was in danger of being executed, Monroe, believing that direct appeals to the Committee of Public Safety would be of no avail, arranged for his wife to visit her. The tearful meeting of the women at the gate of the prison drew a large & sympathetic crowd, & the demonstration was sufficient to secure Madame de Lafayette’s release.

Elizabeth Kortright Monroe (1768-1830) by John Vanderlyn

When Monroe's term as ambassador ended in 1796, he brought his family back to America & settled on the Oak Hill plantation in Virginia. For the next 15 years, he shuttled his family between stints in Virginia political office & the occasional foreign appointment. In 1811, Monroe accepted President James Madison's offer to serve as U.S. secretary of state. Six years later, Monroe himself was elected president from 1817-1825.

After her husband’s appointment as Secretary of State in 1811 & his elevation to the presidency in 1817, Mrs. Monroe was constantly in the public eye. No accounts of her as a person, however, survive, although her regal bearing & distinguished appearance often inspired comment. “Her dress was superb black velvet,” one presidential guest recalled; “neck & arms bare & beautifully formed; her hair in puffs & dressed high on the head & ornamented with white ostrich plumes; around her neck an elegant pearl necklace” (quoted in Daniel Coit Gilman, James Monroe, 1883, pp. 182-83). She seems to have been easy & affable in small groups, but her public manner was marked by a formality & reserve which some labeled haughtiness.

During their 1st year in Washington, the Monroes lived in temporary lodgings until the White House, which had been destroyed by the British during the War of 1812, was repaired. As first lady, Elizabeth, usually very social, deferred to her husband's wishes to minimize White House social events. He & Elizabeth both deplored the opulent displays of the previous first lady, Dolley Madison, preferring more private, stately affairs modeled after European society.

Just after he assumed office, in June 1817, President Monroe embarked on a "Goodwill Tour" of the United States. Paying expenses out of his own pocket, the new president was greeted by cheering crowds & treated to celebratory picnics, dinners, & receptions in every city he visited. After touring New York, Philadelphia, & Baltimore, Monroe stopped in Boston, where a newspaper hailed his visit as the beginning of an “ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS.” Despite this phrase, while in the White House, the Monroes endured the depression called the Panic of 1819 & a fierce national debate over the admission of the Missouri Territory. Monroe is most noted for his proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which stated that the United States would not tolerate further European intervention in the Americas.

As First Lady she was inevitably compared with her predecessor, the warm & open-hearted Dolley Madison, who had elevated presidential receptions above the dull level of official functions. In a rapidly growing Washington, the Monroes introduced a new formality, & White House receptions took on an austerity reminiscent of George Washington’s administration, with Monroe & his wife receiving guests but manifesting little personal solicitude. In her 1st year Mrs. Monroe appeared only infrequently at White House dinners, & consequently ladies were seldom invited. She further announced that she would not make or return any calls, although it had been Mrs. Madison’s custom not only to return all calls but to pay her respects to visiting ladies. Many women, particularly the wives of Senators, took offense at the new rule, but Mrs. Monroe, supported by Louisa Catherine Adams, whose husband was then Secretary of State, prevailed, & the new policy became firmly set. Mrs. Monroe’s French-educated & somewhat formidable daughter Eliza (Mrs. George Hay) shared her social duties at the White House, where social life was also curtailed by Elizabeth's declining health. Washingtonians, eager to being seen with the powerful even back then, mistook the lack of White House social events for snobbery.

James Monroe (1758-1831) by Gilbert Stuart

During her husband’s 2nd term Mrs. Monroe’s always delicate health failed rapidly, & her public appearances became more rare. She preferred to spend as much time as possible at Oak Hill, their country home in Loudoun County, Va., some twenty miles from the capital, where she was joined by Monroe upon his retirement in 1825. She died at Oak Hill in 1830 & was buried there. Of her death the aged ex-President wrote to James Brown, “After having lived with the partner of your life, in so many vicissitudes…& afforded to each other comforts which no other person on earth could do…to have her snatched from me…is an affliction which none but those who feel it, can justly estimate” (Dec. 9, 1830), John Deposit, University of Virginia Library). According to the family, Monroe burned 40 years' worth of their intimate correspondence.

James Monroe (1758-1831) painted by Rembrandt Peale about 1824-1825

Upon Elizabeth's death in 1830, Monroe moved to New York City, to live with his daughter Maria Hester Monroe Gouverneur who had married Samuel L. Gouverneur in the White House. Monroe’s death occurred the next year. In 1903 Elizabeth Monroe’s body was re-interred beside that of her husband in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, VA.

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1776 America's First Female Lighthouse Keeper - Hannah Thomas 1731-1819

November 23, 2017, 1:00 am

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The Gurnet, a 27 acre peninsula forming the northern boundary of Plymouth Bay, is located a few miles northeast of Plymouth Rock. The Pilgrims knew the land as “the gurnett’s nose,” apparently naming the area for similar headlands in the English Channel, where the gurnet fish flourished along Devonshire’s shores. When Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1606, to map the Gurnet and Clark’s Island, he found thick pine forests & Native Americans fishing for cod using lines made of tree bark with wooden fish hooks to which a spear-shaped bone was attached.

Lighthouse at Plymouth (Gurnet), now Saquish Beach, MA. The Gurnet became part of Plymouth on January 7, 1638. By the 1770s, 75 fishing vessels were based in the area, and at one point, Duxbury was one of the world’s leading shipbuilding enters. Under the direction of the Massachusetts Legislature, the first Plymouth Lighthouse, a wooden keeper’s dwelling measuring 15 by 30 feet, equipped with a lantern at each end of its roof, was completed in September 1768 at a cost of £660. The twin lights, exhibited at a height of 86 feet above the sea, distinguished the station from the single light used at Boston.

Gen John Thomas (1724-1776) Husband of Hannah Thomas (1731-1819). He was born in 1724. Marshfield Plymouth County Massachusetts, & died Jun. 2, 1776. Chambly Monteregie Region Quebec, Canada.

The lighthouse was built on land rented for 5 shillings a year from Dr John & Hannah Thomas. Hannah Thomas was born on April 20, 1731, in Middleborough, Plymouth, Massachusetts. She married Dr John Thomas in 1761. Originally, the lighthouse built on their property had 2 towers which were first lit in 1769. Dr John Thomas was appointed the keeper of both lighthouses, since the towers were constructed on his land. John, a surgeon, the 1st keeper served, until he joined the Continental Army. He recruited a regiment of volunteers from Plymouth County to help repel the British in the Siege of Boston, & then served as a major general leading troops in Quebec, where he died of small pox on June 2, 1776.Along with raising their 3 children, his widow Hannah took over John’s lighthouse post, making her the first woman lighthouse keeper in America.

It is said that in 1776, after Fort Andrew was erected at Gurnet Point, the H.M.S. Niger reportedly sailed around the Gurnet toward Plymouth Harbor, exchanging fire with the fort’s 6-cannon battery and, many believe, destroying one of the lighthouse beacons in the process.

Plymouth’s worst shipwreck occurred in 1778, when the American privateer General Arnold was trapped in a blizzard less than a mile from Plymouth Light. Choosing to forego the risk of entering Plymouth’s inner harbor without a pilot, the captain dropped anchor hoping to ride out the storm. As the gale rose to hurricane force, the vessel drug anchor running aground on White Flats. Before residents of the Gurnet could construct a causeway over the ice to reach the stranded vessel, 72 of the its crew of just over 100 froze to death in view of the light.

After the American Revolution, the lighthouse was refurbished & put back in service with Hannah Thomas as keeper. The prevailing work at a lighthouse included tending the light; cleaning lighthouse instruments & buildings; & keeping records of supplies; all traditional women’s work. Women had long been associated with maintaining the lights & fires within a home. This female task was noted in ancient Greece where the goddess “Hestia stays at home on Mount Olympus to keep the fires alight.” During the Early American Republic, women continued the practice of maintaining fires for cooking & warmth, as well as candles & lamps for illumination.

Hundreds of American women have kept the lamps burning in lighthouses since Hannah Thomas tended Gurnet Point Light from 1776-1786 in Plymouth, MA, staying at their posts for periods ranging from a few years to half a century. Caring for a lighthouse was a continuous occupation, making it necessary for the keeper to live where she worked. Thus, the light station was not just a government job, but also a way of life. Most of these women served in the 19C, when the keeper lit a number of lamps in the tower at dusk; replenished their fuel or replaced them at midnight; and every morning polished the lamps & lanterns to keep their lights shining brightly.

Several of these women were commended officially for their courage in remaining at their posts through severe storms & hurricanes. The power of ferocious storms & rushing water affected the physical structures, & took a heavy toll on the keeper, at times causing the death of the keeper or a family member. On 13 March 1832, a ferocious ice sweeping down Hudson River during spring breakup destroyed the Stuyvesant Light. Keeper Volkert Witbeck & some family members were able to survive, but Elizabeth, aged 11, and Harriet, aged 13, perished.

A few female lighthouse keepers went to the rescue of seamen, when ships capsized or were wrecked.

Ida Lewis (1842 –1911) was an American lighthouse keeper noted for her heroism in rescuing people from the seas.

Hannah Thomas, who had served since 1776, hired Nathaniel Burgess (or Burges) to act as keeper in 1786, and that same year a coasting sloop traveling from Boston to Plymouth struck a sand bar near the Gurnet. Two of the seamen from the vessel trudged 7 miles through a bitter snowstorm to reach Gurnet Lighthouse. Keeper Burgess fed & warmed them beside the fire, dispatching his assistant, perhaps Hannah’s son John, to bring in the rest of the crew.

In 1790, the light was ceded to the U.S. government, & Hannah Thomas' son John Thomas took over as keeper. His salary of $200 per annum was lower than at other lighthouses, because the Gurnet was deemed an acceptable place to live with ample fishing & land with good soil to garden.

1843 photo of the twin Plymouth Lights. Photo from US Navy

After the lighthouse was completely destroyed in a fire on July 2, 1801, the merchants of Plymouth and Duxbury funded the construction of a temporary beacon. On April 6, 1802, Congress voted to repay them $270 and appropriated $2,500 to rebuild the lighthouse on the Gurnet. The Thomas family was paid $120 for the land on which twin, 22' tall lighthouses, spaced 30 feet apart, were built in 1803.

During the late 18C - early 19C, the US federal lighthouse service furnished some provisions, but almost all keepers found it necessary to have a garden & some livestock. Kate Moore described in the New York Sunday World, in 1889, the extra care necessary for survival at Black Rock Harbor Light in Connecticut: "I had a lot of poultry & 2 cows to care for, & each year raised 20 sheep, doing the sheering myself - and the killing when necessary. You see, in the winter you couldn’t get to land on account of the ice being too thin, or the water too rough. Then in the summer I had my garden to make and keep. I raised all my own stuff, and as we had to depend on rain for our water, quite a bit of time was consumed looking after that."Kate’s family moved to the lighthouse in 1817, her father had a paralyzing stroke in 1819, & Kate kept the lighthouse functioning until his death in 1871, becoming the official head keeper from 1871-1878.

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Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton 1759-1846, poet, humiliated child, betrayed wife, + a snarky John Adams

November 26, 2017, 1:00 am

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Gilbert Stuart Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Mrs. Perez Morton (Sarah Wentworth Apthorp)

Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton (1759-1846) was an early American poet whose published work of the 1790s, received praise of her contemporaries, who called her "the American Sappho" after the Greek lyric poetess. But her life was anything but lyrical. She felt humiliated as a child, when her father was accused of having Tory tendencies. Her carefully chosen, popular, politically-correct, patriotic husband had an affair with her younger sister right in their home, resulting in the birth of a little girl. Her sister wrote her a letter of apology just before taking her own life. Once again, Sarah was the focus of a huge scandal in her community. John Adams chose to defend her husband from any culpability in her sister’s suicide. And her husband was found guiltless. Yes, the husband had an affair with her younger sister which produced a child, before she committed suicide; but the older husband should be forgiven & all should be forgotten. It was the male dominated 18C; and after-all, men will be men. John Adams then recommended that the family -- her husband, her father, her brother, & herself -- restore “peace & harmony between them…again to embrace in friendship & affection.” The clever, patriot husband went on to become a political leader in the state. Sarah did as she was told & reunited with him until his death in 1837.

Sarah was born in Boston, Mass., the 3rd daughter of 10 children of James & Sarah (Wentworth) Apthorp. Her father, a 3rd generation British American of Welsh ancestry, was a well-to-do Boston merchant, as was her mother’s father, Samuel Wentworth, who came to Boston from a distinguished New Hampshire family.

Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Mrs. Perez Morton (Sarah Wentworth Apthorp) c 1802,

Until age 10, Sarah lived in the Charles Apthorp mansion on King Street (later State Street) in Boston. Her parents then moved to Braintree, MA, where she lived until her marriage. At this time, Braintree was the home community of the prominent Adams, Quincy, & Hancock families. Braintree provided access to the social & cultural aspects of Boston, with the addition of rural beauty, which Sarah often celebrated later in poems.  In Braintree, the Apthorps attended the Episcopal Christ Church, which was associated with Loyalists at the beginning of the Revolution. Town records of June 1777, list her father James Apthorp among persons suspected of being "inimical" to the colonial cause. He & his family suffered great local unpopularity because of his suspected Tory sympathies.

In 1781, Sarah Apthop married Perez Morton, a popular, young, politically-correct, Boston lawyer & patriot, whose reputation would cement Sarah’s name among the patriots. After graduating from Harvard in 1771, Perez Morton studied law & was admitted to the Massachusetts bar as an attorney in 1774. During the Revolution, he was a leading member of the Committee of Safety & the Committee of Correspondence. He was also an active Mason. In April 1776, he was praised for his delivery of the funeral address for General Joseph Warren, a fellow Mason killed during the Battle of Bunker Hill. John Adam's wife Abigail wrote at the time, "A young fellow could not have wished a finer opportunity to display his talents." In 1778, Perez Morton served as major & aide-de-camp to General Hancock in the Continental Army.

In 1784, just 3 years after her marriage, Sarah Morton became mistress & manager of her ancestral home, Apthorp House, on State Street. Here she hoped to put the Loyalist whispers of her past behind her & regain her natural place in the fashionable, aristocratic social life of a younger generation of Bostonians.

James Brown Marston (American artist from Salem, MA, 1775-1817) Painting of State Street or The Old State House 1801 The Apthorp mansion was the 2nd building from the right.

The newlywed Sarah's wishes for elite acceptance seemed to be coming true. The Mortons became members of a prominent social circle. Along with the James Swans, Harrison Gray Otises, Isaac Winslows, & others, the Mortons formed a club in the winter of 1784–85 for playing cards & dancing. Although bets were limited to 25 cents, the group’s activities quickly were criticized in the newspaper.

The society Sarah so desperately wanted became the target of ridicule & sarcasm. The Massachusetts Centinel (Boston), January 15, 1785, declared that the club was deemed"an Assembly so totally repugnant to virtue, as in its very name (Sans Souci, or free & easy ),"& it was encouraged to disband. Later, the club was satirized in a play, “Sans Souci, alias, Free & Easy:–Or, an Evening’s Peep in a Polite Circle. An entirely new entertainment in 3Acts, printed in late January 1785.” In the play, the newlywed Mortons, who were identified as Mr. & Madam Importance, were portrayed as pompous, snobbish, & exclusive.

Apparently, neither her elite social activities, however, nor the birth of 5 children prevented Sarah from pouring her emotions into verse, which she had begun to do as a shunned young girl in Braintree. Sarah & Perez had 4 daughters & a son. Sarah Apthorp Morton (1782–1844), Anna Louisa Morton (1783–1843), Frances Wentworth Morton (1785–1831), & Charlotte Morton (1787–1819) lived to adulthood. The only son to live beyond infancy, Charles Ward Apthorp Morton was born in 1786, & died in 1809. Another baby boy, born in April 1789, lived only 18 hours.

Gilbert Stuart (American artist, 1755-1828) Mrs. Perez Morton (Sarah Wentworth Apthorp) c 1802,

In 1786, Sarah’s younger sister Frances "Fanny" Theodora Apthorp (1766–1788) had come to live with the Mortons in Boston. Fanny & the head of the house, Perez Morton, became lovers, while Sarah was expecting their 5th child in 6 years. That child was Charlotte, born in September of 1787. It would be their last. Shortly after Charlotte's birth, in the autumn of 1787, Fanny also gave birth to a daughter of Perez Morton. Fanny & Perez apparently carried on their affair for nearly another year. The Apthorp family was in an uproar. Sarah & Fanny's brother James wanted to challenge Perez Morton to a duel. Fanny’s diary & letters from August 1788, include instructions to Perez Morton to take care of her child "for you know in the sight of heaven you are the Father of it." The day before Sarah's sister Fanny decided to take poison to end her life on August 28, 1788, instead of publicly confronting Perez Morton, as the sisters' father had requested, Fanny left a note begging forgiveness from her family, especially from her sister Sarah.

Although Perez Morton was implicated by a jury in Fanny’s suicide, his friends John Adams (1735–1826) & James Bowdoin (1726–1790) defended him in the Massachusetts Centinel on October 7, 1788: "...the accusations brought against a fellow citizen, in consequence of a late unhappy event, & which have been the cause of so much domestick calamity, & publick speculation, have...been...fully inquired into by their Excellencies James Bowdoin, & John Adams, Esq’rs...the result of their inquiry is, that the said accusations are not, in any degree, supported.“ Criticism of Adams & Bowdoin’s defense & disregard of the jury’s findings appeared in the Herald of Freedom & the Federal Advertiser.

The scandal gained strength with the announcement of the publication of one of the 1st American novels, The Power of Sympathy Or, the Triumph of Nature, in January 1789. Although the novel was set in Rhode Island, its plot was clearly the story of Fanny Apthorp & Perez Morton, whose name was only weakly disguised as "Mr. Martin." The author clearly wanted to cash in on Sarah & her family’s tragedy.

The illicit affair & subsequent suicide seemed to have no ill effect on Perez Morton’s career as a professional politician. Morton, as a Democratic-Republican, was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in May 1794. After he & his reunited wife Sarah moved to Dorchester, Perez was elected to the House of Representatives in 1803, & in 1806 was elected Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He was appointed attorney general in 1811, & held the office for 20 years.

Soon after the emotionally debilitating scandal, Sarah Morton’s 1st published poem,"Invocation to Hope," appeared in the July 1789 issue of the recently established Massachusetts Magazine under the pseudonym "Constantina."

Her subject matter was predominately patriotic, celebrating the new nation, its ideals, & its leaders. From 1789 to 1793, she contributed to the “Seat of the Muses” in the recently established Massachusetts Magazine, 1st under the pseudonym “Constantia” & later as “Philenia,” the pen name by which many of her generation came to know her.

The often humiliated Sarah chose to champion the plight of Native Americans & African slaves. Her 1st long poem, Ouâbi or the Virtues of Nature, An Indian Tale. In Four Cantos, published in December 1790, was even hailed in London, where it inspired a 3-act play. Though Sarah claimed to depict authentic native customs, her fictional Indians reflected the currently accepted literary view, not real life in the American forest, & the virtues her Native Americans exhibited were in the “noble savage” tradition. However, her reviewers, both English & American, were comfortable with these traditional descriptions & greeted her work favorably. In choosing a subject “wholly American” Sarah Morton hoped to tap into the patriotic urge which immediately followed the Revolution. She still longed to be identified with the patriot cause.

Sarah expressed abolitionist views about slavery in America in a few poems, including "The African Chief," which appeared in the June 9, 1792, issue of the Columbian Centinel describing a slave’s decision to die in order to escape the horrors of the Middle Passage & slavery. The last stanza reflected the poem's examination of heroic death & suicide:
Let sorrow bathe each blushing cheek,
Bend piteous o’er the tortured slave,
Whose wrongs compassion cannot speak,
Whose only refuge was the grave.

In November 1792, Sarah chose to become one of the founders of the Boston Library Society. Her literary interests also extended to the theater. Both she & her husband were involved in repealing the 1750 colonial law entitled "An Act to prevent Stage Plays, & other Theatrical Entertainments,"& her husband Perez Morton was a trustee & shareholder of the resulting Federal Street Theatre.

Portrait of Perez Morton. By Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin. ca.1793-1814.

In Boston, Perez Morton, an elegant figure with polished manners, became a leader of the old Jacobin Club, which held meetings at the Green Dragon Tavern, & also became a decided Democrat. A political poet of Boston thus satirizes Perez Morton:
" Perez, thou art in earnest, though some doubt thee !
In truth, the Club could never do without thee !
My reasons thus I give thee in a trice, —
You want their votes, and they want your advice !

" Thy tongue, shrewd Perez, favoring ears insures, —
The cash elicits, and the vote secures.
Thus the fat oyster, as the poet tells,
The lawyer ate, — his clients gained the shells."

Contemporaries, who knew Sarah's identity, reading her 1794 poems "Marie Antoinette"& "Bativia" would know, that they were a blatant statement, that she did not share her husband’s pro-French sentiments.

The sex, betrayal, & suicide scandal had made Sarah famous. Sarah’s verses, under a variety of loosely-held pseudonyms, continued to appear regularly in the Massachusetts Magazine’s "Seat of the Muses" column through 1793, as well as in the Boston Columbian Centinel until 1794. They were also reprinted in Philadelphia, New York, & New Hampshire journals. After the turn of the century, her poems appeared occasionally in the Monthly Anthology & Boston Review until 1807. Hailed by fellow magazine poets as the “Sappho of America”& the “Mrs. Montagu of America,” she soon found entrée to other poetry corners in newspapers & magazines of the period.

In 1797, Sarah Morton moved from Boston to nearby Dorchester, where she lived in the 1st house which she designed; & after 1808, the family took residence in Morton’s Pavilion, built by her husband. During these years Sarah relished making her home a gathering place for the American literati & other distinguished visitors.

Also in 1797, she published her poem, Beacon Hill. A Local Poem, Hsitoric & Descriptive, dedicated to the “Citizen Soldiers who fought, conquered, & retired under the Banners of Freedom & Washington.” In the introduction to Beacon Hill, Sarah Morton defended her "application to literature...It is only amid the leisure & retirement, to which the sultry season is devoted," she wrote, "that I permit myself to hold converse with the Muses; nor does their enchantment ever allure me from one personal occupation, which my station renders bligatory; but those hours, which might otherwise be lost in dissipation, or sunk in languor, are alone resigned to the unoffending charms of Poetry & Science."

Sarah intended to publish Beacon Hill as the 1st segment of an ambitious larger work. "The apprehensive feelings of the author,"Sarah Morton explained, "did not permit her at present to offer more than the first book." The poem, dedicated to the Revolutionary soldiers who fought under George Washington, looks at the end of the Battle of Bunker Hill, the siege of Boston, & the Declaration of Independence & pays tribute to Washington & the Revolutionary leaders in each colony.
William Bentley (1759–1819), pastor at Salem’s Second Congregational Church, wrote in his diary in November 1797, "The talk now about Mrs. Morton’s Poem, Beacon Hill, & it is said to exceed any poetic composition from a female pen. She is called the American Sappho. Mr. Paine calls her so. Besides Mr. Stearns is soon to publish The Lady’s Philosophy of Love, which they have begun to praise before they have seen it."

However, The Reverend Mr. Bentley also voiced his doubts about the quality of the poetry; & it does not appear that Sarah Morton was encouraged to complete the other installments of "Beacon Hill," at least they were never found or published. In 1799, she offered the companion piece, The Virtues of Society. A Tale, Founded on Fact.

In 1823, Sarah Morton published a compilation of prose & poems in My Mind & Its Thoughts, in Sketches, Fragments, & Essays. It was the 1st work to which she signed her own name. In addition to new poems written to celebrate national & local events, the 1823 volume contained careful revisions of poems published earlier in newspapers or journals under her various pseudonyms. The book’s essays bounced from marriage, to physiognomy, to the sexes, to civility, & age. Sarah wrote in the introduction,"Thus occupied—with neither leisure, nor disposition, nor capacity to write a Book, there has always been opportunity to pen a thought, or to pencil a recollection." A list of subscribers at the end of the volume is topped by "John Adams, late President of the United States"& "His Excellency John Brooks, Governor of Massachusetts." In total, 34 women & 125 men on this "subscribers" list were convinced to order copies of the book in advance of its publication. Many of the poems, such as "Stanzas To A Recently United Husband" or "Lamentations Of An Unfortunate Mother, Over The Tomb Of Her Only Son," are extremely personal & sad. Her "Apology" at the end of the text openly suggests that writing poetry brought her consolation from the many disappointments & grief she experienced in her life.

Perez Morton died in Dorchester on October 14, 1837, leaving all his real & personal estate to "my beloved wife Sarah Wentworth Morton." After his death, Sarah moved from Dorcester back to the Braintree house, where she had lived as a child, when the family had been humiliated because of her father's Loyalist leanings. Here she would come full circle to live out the rest of her life.

In 1846, Sarah died in Quincy, aged 86, & was buried in the Apthorp tomb in King’s Chapel, Boston. None of her children survived her. Her will instructed, that she be interred in the Apthorp family vault in King’s Chapel. She also requested that the remains of her daughter Frances Wentworth & her son, Charles, be re-interred in the family vault; so that she would have her "own remains between those of my two dearly beloved & lamented children."

By the time of her death, her fame as a poet had been mostly forgotten. Not one of her obituaries in the Quincy Patriot, Boston Daily Mail, or Daily Evening Transcript made any mention of her literary career. Without an ounce of compassion, they noted simply, that she was the widow of the late "Honorable" Perez Morton. The extant ledgers of the Boston Library Society attest to the numerous books she read as the years passed; & the inventory of her estate compiled at her death contains more than 250 books, including 20 volumes of Shakespeare & 9 volumes of Pope.

Information from article on Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton at the Worcester Art Museum website.

This posting also based in part on information from Notable American Women edited by Edward T James, Janet Wilson James, Paul S Boyer, The Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1971

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18C Women Across the Globe

October 28, 2017, 1:00 am

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1761
James Otis gives a four hour speech against the Writs of Assistance

October - George III becomes King of England 1763

1763
The Seven Years war ends with the Treaties of Paris and Hubertusburg.

9 May - Fort Detroit attacked by Pontiac, thus beginning Pontiac's Rebellion. (Ends 1766)

7 October - The Royal Proclamation by King George III, limits American Colonial expansion to the East of the Appellation Mountains.

1764
Sugar Act passed by Parliament to offset expenses of the French and Indian War and to maintain England's newly acquired territories.

The Currency Act passed by Parliament. Prevents the colonies from issuing their own form of legal tender.

May- James Otis raises the issue of taxation without representation in a Boston town meeting.

July- James Otis publishes "The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved."

August - Boston merchants begin to boycott British luxury goods.

1765
22 March - The Stamp Act is passed by the British Parliament.

24 March --The Quartering Act: required the colonies to provided barracks and supplies to British troops.

29 May - Virginia's Resolutions on the Stamp Act

6 June - The Massachusetts House of Representatives resolves to propose an inter-colonial meeting to resist the Stamp Act.

7 October - The Stamp Act Congress meets in New York

19 October - Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress.

20 December - James Otis delivers an oration against the Stamp Act before the Governor and Council in Boston.

1766
January-- Resistance to the Quartering Act in New York

18 March - Repeal of the Stamp Act

18 March - The Declaratory Act. Parliament asserts its right to make laws binding on the Colonies.

1767
The Townshend Duties go into effect.

Non-Importation: The colonist protest the new taxes by agreeing to stop importing British goods.

1768
11 February -- Massachusetts Circular Letter

10 June - The Sloop "Liberty" owned by John Hancock was seized in Boston Harbor for Revenue Law violations by customs officials.

October - British Troops arrive in Boston to enforce the customs laws.

1769
At the beginning of this year all thirteen colonies became united to and determined to preserve their liberties at all costs.

1770
Townshend Acts repealed except the tax on tea

End to Non-Importation

New York Riot over the Quartering Act compliance of New York Assembly.

5 March - The Boston Massacre. Crispus Attucks, the first Black American Patriot, is killed in this incident.

1771
May 16-- Battle of Alamance fought in Burlington, North Carolina

1772
Attack on the "Gaspee" - This was a British customs schooner that was burned by Rhode Island colonists off Namequoit Point. Known today as the Gaspee Affair.

Sam Adams pressures the Boston Town Meeting to set up the "Committee of Correspondence" to state the colonies’ rights and grievances.

John Sevier organizes independent Republic of Watauga in Tennessee

1773
To save the bankrupt British East India Company, Parliament passes the Tea Act.

5 November - The Boston Town Meeting Resolutions against the Tea Act

16 December - The Boston Tea Party: 342 chests of tea are dumped into Boston Harbor.

31 December - Samuel Adams gives an account of the Boston Tea Party in a letter to Arthur Lee.

1774
January - Benjamin Franklin is reprimanded and humiliated by the Privy Council for leaking the letters of the Massachusetts Governor, Thomas Hutchinson.

Boston Port closed by Parliament until the destroyed tea was paid for by those responsible.

The Coercive Acts are passed by Parliament.

Quartering Act: expands the Act of 1765

Virginia Conventions begin.

25 August - The first popular Assembly called by the people, anywhere in North America, convened in defiance of British rule in Tyron Palace at New Bern, North Carolina.

5 September - The First Continental Congress opens for business.

7 October - The Quebec Act. This act grants the French Catholics of Quebec the right to freedom of Religion among other assurances.

14 October - Declaration and Resolves by the First Continental Congress

1775
New England Restraining Act: Parliament passed an act banning trade between the New England colonies and any other country besides Great Britain.

23 March - Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death Speech by Patrick Henry

18 April - Paul Revere's Famous Midnight Ride

19 April - The American Revolution begins with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

20 April - The Siege of Boston Begins

5 May - The Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia.

10 May - Fort Ticonderoga captured by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen.

10 May - The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia with John Hancock as president of Congress.

15 May - The Congress votes to go to war with Britain, George Washington is appointed the Commander of the Continental Army.

10 June -- John Adams proposed that Congress consider the forces in Boston a Continental army, and suggested the need for a general. He recommended George Washington for the position.

16 June - Washington accepts promotion to General & Commander In Chief

17 June - Charlestown Massachusetts was burned down by the British.

17 June - Battle of Bunker Hill (Breeds)

22 June - The Continental Congress issues Continental Currency

30 June - Congress impugns Parliament and adopts Articles of War

1 July - Congress resolve to forge alliances with the Indians

3 July -- George Washington takes command of the Continental Army in Cambridge Massachusetts

5 July - Congress adopts The Olive Branch Petition

The Continental Congress searches for Foreign Aid

6 July - Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms

26 July - Postal system created. Benjamin Franklin is first Director.

August - The Invasion of Canada begins.

23 August - King George III issues the Proclamation of Rebellion.

13 October -The Continental Congress Creates the United States Navy

November - Virginia Governor, Lord Dunmore offers freedom to all slaves who would fight for the British.

7 November - Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, declares Martial Law

22 December - Congress named Esek Hopkins commodore of the fledgling American navy. Soon after, Congress authorized privateering, and issued rules for dealing with enemy vessels and plunder.

Virginians defeat British at Great Bridge; British bombard Norfolk

1776
2 January - The Continental Congress publishes The Tory Act.

14 February - Common Sense written by Thomas Paine.

27 February - Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, North Carolina.

17 March Siege of Boston ends when the British pull out and sail for Halifax. The Continental Army is located on Dorchester Heights.

12 June - The Virginia Declaration of Rights adapted by the Virginia Convention. Drafted by George Mason

2 July - Declaration of Independence approved and signed by John Hancock, the other Delegates sign two days later.

4 July - The American Colonies declares Independence

8 July - The US Declaration of Independence was read in public for the first time by Col. John Nixon in Philadelphia's Independence Square. The
Liberty Bell in Independence Hall tolled after the reading.

July - British Troops land at New York harbor.

23 June - British Commodore Sir Peter Parker prepares a Naval strike on the Charleston, South Carolina coast.

29 June - South Carolina's Edward Rutledge opposes Independence

27 August - Battle of Long Island, New York.

6 September - HMS Eagle attacked by David Bushnell's "Turtle". The Turtle was the first attack submarine in history. The pilot was Sgt. Ezra Lee.

15 September - The Battle of New York.

16 September - The Battle of Harlem Heights.

20 September - The Fire of New York.

11-13 October - The Battle of Valcour Island.

28 October - The Battle of White Plains.

14 December - Geary's Dragoons ambushed between the small villages of Flemings-Town (Flemington) and Ringoes.

23 December - The American Crisis written by Thomas Paine.

26 December - Battle of Trenton, New Jersey.

December - Benjamin Franklin is sent by Congress to France to seek French aid for the cause.

1777
Congress adopts the American flag with thirteen stars and stripes

3 January - The Battle of Princeton

20 January - The Battle of Millstone, near Somerset Courthouse, New Jersey.

27 February - Battle of Moores Creek Bridge.

25 April - Danbury, Connecticut destroyed by British forces led by General Tryon.

28 June - Battle of Fort Moultrie

Burgoyne's invasion from Canada begins. It ended in failure at the Battle of Saratoga.

5 July - Burgoyne captures Fort Ticonderoga, The Marques De Lafayette arrives in America.

7 July - Battle of Hubbardton, Vermont

9 July - New York elects its first governor

10 July - British General Richard Prescott captured in Rhode Island

27 July - The Jane McCrea atrocity

2-22 August - Battles of Fort Stanwix and Oriskaney

16 August - Battle of Bennington, Vermont.

11 September - Battle of Brandywine Creek

16 September - The Paoli Massacre

19 September - Battle of Freeman's Farm

26 September - British Occupy Philadelphia

4 October - Battle of Germantown

7 October - Battle of Bemis Heights

19 October - The Battle of Saratoga , where General Burgoyne surrenders to General Horatio Gates.

22 October - 15 November The Battles of Forts Mercer and Mifflin.

15 November - The Articles of Confederation written.

Philadelphia is captured by the British

Washington's Army retreats to Valley Forge

Conway Cabal

1778
6 February - Treaty of Paris signed by France and the United States. This treaty turns the American Revolution into a World War.

Savannah Georgia is Captured by the British

12 May - General Benjamin Lincoln, surrenders Charlestown South Carolina to the British

28 June - Battle of Monmouth Courthouse.

1779
British surrender to Americans at Vincennes

John Paul Jones, in Bon Homme Richard, defeats Pearson, in the Battle of the Serapis

Spain joins the French to fight the British

16 July - Battle of Stony Point

1780
12 May - Charlestown, South Carolina captured by the British

16 August - Gates defeated by Cornwallis at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina.

23 September - Benedict Arnold's Plot to Hand over West Point to the British discovered.

2 October - Major Andre, hanged for his part in the Arnold Treason.

7 October - Battle of Kings Mountain. Patrick Ferguson is Killed in this British defeat.

Rochambeau arrives with a French Force of 5,500 men to assist the americans in their cause.

1781
Articles of Confederation go into effect; were drafted in 1777

Robert Morris becomes the Superintendent of Finance in the Continental Congress.

French Admiral de Grasse arrives with his powerful French fleet in American waters.

17 January - The Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina.

15 March - Battle of Guilford Courthouse. This is a costly victory for the British despite the fact that they won.

25 April - Battle of Hobkirk's Hill.

22 May - 20 June - Siege of Ninty - Six

General Nathaniel Greene pacifies the interior of South Carolina and Georgia by driving out the British forces.

8 September - Battle of Eutaw Springs

6-20 October Siege of Yorktown- Cornwallis surrenders to the Americans that ends the War for Independence.

1782
30 November - Provisional Peace

1783
15 March - Newburgh Conspiracy: George Washington stops a revolt among his officer corps by simply taking a pair of glasses out of his pocket to read a letter.

June - Most of the Continental Army disbands

Loyalists and British evacuate New York. The Loyalist began to evacuate in April of that year and the British would finally be gone by November.

Pennsylvania soldiers march on Congress and surround Independence Hall to protest their condition. The members of Congress escape to Princeton, New Jersey.

September 3, 1783 - The Paris Peace Treaty officially ends the American Revolution.

4 December - George Washington bids farewell to his Officers in New York. He is reportedly to have said to his officers, "I cannot come to each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged to you if each will come and take me by the hand."

23 December - George Washington gives up his command of the Continental Army and retires to Mount Vernon.

1786
Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts forcibly closes court systems

Annapolis Convention concludes September 14, suggests Philadelphia Convention

1787
25 May - 17 September Constitutional Convention opens. The United States Constitution framed, sent to Congress and states by the delegates of the convention.

13 July - Northwest Ordinance adopted by Continental Congress

Federalist Papers begin publication in newspapers

1788
New Hampshire is 9th state to ratify Constitution. It is now the law

First settlement in Ohio is Marietta, named for Marie Antoinette

1789
French Revolution. Bastille falls Jul 14. Declaration of Rights Aug 26th

George Washington & John Adams elected as first President and Vice President

The Judiciary Act specifies numbers of Federal courts and judges

1791
15 December - The first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, becomes a part of the United States Constitution.

This timeline compiled by Rick Brainard
Timeline from 18th Century History here

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18C Early American Timeline 1700-1709

December 2, 2017, 1:00 am

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1700
Population of the British American colonies: about 260,000 people. Boston has 7,000 people and New York, 5000. Jewish population of America numbers between 200 and 300.

Massachusetts representative assembly orders all Roman Catholic priests to vacate the colony within three months, an action also taken by the New York legislature.

Anglicans in England grow concerned that their church does not have a significant presence in North Carolina. The Reverend Daniel Brett becomes the first Anglican minister to serve in the colony. Brett’s disorderly behavior causes him to be called “the Monster of the Age.”

The first public library is established at Bath, North Carolina, with books sent from England by the Reverend Thomas Bray.

Pennsylvania legalizes slavery.(See this blog for more information of enslaved women in the 18th century.)

1700 Mrs Augustus Jay. Attributed to Gerrit Duyckinck (1660–ca. 1712).

1701
Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, is founded.

Charter of Privileges Granted by William Penn, esq. to the Inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Territories, October 28

Charter of Delaware; October 28

1708-10 Artist: Henrietta Johnston 1674-1729. Subject: Mrs. Pierre Bacot (Marianne Fleur Du Gue)

1702
Queen Anne, the younger sister of Mary, ascends the English throne. England declares war on France after the death of the King of Spain, Charles II, to stop the union of France and Spain. This War of the Spanish Succession is called Queen Anne's War in the colonies, where the English and American colonists will battle the French and their Native American allies, plus the Spanish for the next eleven years. 1702-1713.

In Maryland, originally founded by Catholic proprietors, the Anglican Church is established as the official church, financially supported by taxation imposed on all free men, male servants, and slaves.

Surrender from the Proprietors of East and West New Jersey, of Their Pretended Right of Government to Her Majesty; April 15

New York passes An Act for Regulating Slaves prohibiting more than 3slaves from meeting together, slaves from testifying in court, and trading by slaves.

1708-09 Artist: Henrietta Johnston 1674-1729 Portrait of an Unknown Lady of South Carolina

1703
Massachusetts requires those masters who liberate slaves to provide a bond of 50 pounds or more in the event that the freedman becomes a public charge.

Connecticut assigns the punishment of whipping to any slaves who disturb the peace or assault whites.

Rhode Island makes it illegal for blacks and Indians to walk at night without passes.

1708-1709 Artist: Henrietta Johnston 1674-1729. Subject: Mary DuBose Mrs Samuel Wragg

1704
February. Deerfield, Massachusetts is destroyed and 100 residents including women and children are abducted, a consequence of Queen Anne's War.

The Boston News-Letter. Is the first printed version of a formerly handwritten newsletter sent to New England governors by the Boston postmaster is published. It offers local information and foreign news reprinted from English papers. It would continue until 1776 as a mouthpiece for the governor and the Loyalists.

Quakers in the North Carolina assembly are forced to resign after refusing to take a new oath to Queen Anne.

1710 Artist: Henrietta Johnston 1674-1729. Subject: Susanne Le Noble, Mrs Alexander de Chastaigner.

1705
The Virginia Slave Code codifies slave status, declaring all non-Christian servants entering the colony to be slaves. It defines all slaves as real estate, acquits masters who kill slaves during punishment, forbids slaves and free colored peoples from physically assaulting white persons, and denies slaves the right to bear arms or move abroad without written permission.

In New York, a law against runaway slaves assigns the death penalty for those caught over 40 miles north of Albany.

Massachusetts declares marriage between African Americans and whites illegal.

Charles Griffin, the first schoolteacher in North Carolina, operates a school in Pasquotank County. He later moves to Edenton and runs a school there for several years.

1706
January 17, Benjamin Franklin is born in Boston.

South Carolina declares the Anglican Church its official church.

Connecticut requires that Indians, mulattos, and black servants gain permission from their masters to engage in trade.

1707
Settlers in Charlestown, South Carolina successfully defend their town against an attack by French and Spanish colonists from Havana and St. Augustine

England, Scotland and Wales are combined into the United Kingdom of Great Britain by the Act of the Union, in a plan endorsed by Queen Anne.

1708
“That Properly Belongs to Every Christian Man” This record of Ann Walker's appearance before the governor and Council in Williamsburg documents one part of a continuing dispute between her and George Walker, her husband, over their religious beliefs and practices.(See this blog for more on Ann Walker's plight.)

Surveyor John Lawson, who began a thousand-mile journey through the colony at the end of 1700, publishes A New Voyage to Carolina. It describes the colony’s flora and fauna and its various groups of American Indians. Lawson also publishes a map of Carolina.

New York declares blacks, Indians, and slaves who kill white people to be subject to the death penalty.

Connecticut requires that Indians, mulattos, and black servants gain permission from their masters to engage in trade.

1709
Bathsheba Bowers (1672/3-1718) writes An Alarm Sounded to Prepare the World to Meet the Lord in the Way of His Judgments.(See this blog for more on the life and writings of Bathsheba Bowers.)

The Queen's Acceptance of the Surrender of Government New Jersey; April 17

See Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/

↧

18C Early American Timeline 1710-1729

December 5, 2017, 1:00 am

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1710
3,000 German men and women from the Palatinate settle near Livingston Manor on the Hudson River in New York to produce naval stores. When the colony fails, the settlers go first to the Mohawk Valley (in New York) and finally to eastern Pennsylvania.

The English Parliament passes the Post Office Act which sets a postal system for the American colonies controlled by the postmaster general of London and his deputy in New York City.

New York forbids blacks, Indians, and mulattos from walking at night without lighted lanterns.

1711 Artist: Henrietta Johnston 1674-1729. Subject: Henriette Charlotte de Chastaigner, Mrs Nathaniel Broughton

1711
Pennsylvania prohibits the importation of male & female blacks and Indians.

Rhode Island prohibits the clandestine importation of male & female black and Indian slaves. (See this blog for more information of enslaved women in the 18th century.)

1711-13
Tuscarora Indian War in North and South Carolina. Hostilities break out between Native Americans and settlers in North Carolina after the massacre of male & female settlers there.

1712
The Carolina colony is officially divided into North Carolina and South Carolina.

Charles II's Grant of New England to the Duke of York, 1676 - Exemplified by Queen Anne; October 30

The Pennsylvania assembly bans the import of male & female slaves into that colony.

In Massachusetts, the first sperm whale is captured at sea by an American from Nantucket.

Grace Smith writes The Dying Mothers Legacy: Or the Good and Heavenly Counsel of that Eminent and Pious Matron, Mrs. Grace Smith, late Widow to Mr. Ralph Smith of Eastham in New-England. Left as a Perpetual Monitor to Her Surviving Children; As It Was Taken from Her Own Mouth a Little Before Her Death, by the Minister From that Town Where She Died. Boston, Printed and sold by Timothy Green, at the lower-end of Middle-Street, 1712

An alleged slave revolt in New York City leads to violent outbreaks. Nine whites are killed and eighteen slaves are executed.

New York declares it illegal for male & female blacks, Indians, and slaves to murder other blacks, Indians, and slaves. And New York forbids freed blacks, Indians, and mulatto slaves from owning real estate and holding property.

In Charleston, South Carolina male & female slaves are forbidden from hiring themselves out.

1713
England's South Sea Company is allowed to transport 4,800 male & female slaves per year into the Spanish colonies of North America.

Queen Anne's War ends with the Treaty of Utrecht.

1714
George I becomes king of England (r. 1714–27).

Tea is introduced for the first time into the American Colonies.

1715 Artist: Henrietta Johnson 1674-1729. Subject: Mary Magdalen Gendron, Mrs Samuel Prioleu 1691-1765

1715
Yamasee tribes attack and kill several hundred male & female Carolina settlers.

Rhode Island legalizes slavery.

Maryland declares all slaves entering the province and their descendants to be slaves for life.

1716
South Carolina settlers and their Cherokee allies attack and defeat the Yamassee.

The first group of black slaves is brought to the Louisiana territory.

1717-18 Artist: Henrietta Johnston 1674-1729. Mary Griffith (Mrs Robert Brewton, Mrs William Loughton) 1698-1761

1717

Scots-Irish immigration begins, with most settling to western Pennsylvania.

New York enacts a fugitive slave law.

1718
French found New Orleans.

The Tuscarora people are defeated in a war with North Carolina colonists. With many of their people killed they move north to live with other Iroquois nations in New York Colony.

Blackbeard, the pirate, is killed, putting an end to pirate raids along the southern colonial coast.

North Carolina’s first free school, endowed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, opens at Bath.

1719 Artist: Henrietta Johnston 1674-1729. Subject: Judith DuBose (Mrs Joseph Wragg) 1698-1769.
1719-41
The American Weekly Mercury is the first newspaper launched in Philadelphia by Andrew Bradford (1686-1742). It would publish six of Franklin's "Busy-Body Papers" in 1729 and continue publication until 1746.

The Boston Gazette is the second newspaper in Boston is launched by William Brooker (fl. 1715-1720) and printed by Benjamin Franklin's older half-brother, James Franklin (1697-1735). The paper would become the official organ of the government and continue until 1741.

1720 Attributed to Gerrit or Gerardus Duyckinck Subject: Portrait of a Lady

1720 Artist: Gerardus Duyckinck 1695-1746. Subject: Mrs Johannes van Braght b 1673. Her husband was an alderman for the City of New York.

1720
Estimated population of colonies: 475,000. Including Boston (pop. 12,000), Philadelphia (pop. 10,000), and New York (pop. 7000).

A smallpox epidemic in Boston prompts Cotton Mather and Zabdiel Boylston to experiment with inoculation against the disease. Mather had learned of the practice from Onesimus, his slave, who had himself been inoculated as a child and knew inoculation to be a widely accepted medical practice in Africa.

1720-25 Attributed to Schuyler Limner (active ca. 1715–1725) Portrait of a Lady (possibly Tryntje Otten Veeder)

Benjamin Franklin leaves Boston for Philadelphia, a trip that he chronicles in his Autobiography.

South Carolina planters settle along the Lower Cape Fear River and begin developing the rice and naval stores industries. They bring large numbers of enslaved people and establish a large, plantation-style slave system.

Virginia abolishes manumissions.

1720-28 Artist: Gerardus Duyckinck 1695-1746 Subject: Grace Mears, Mrs Moses Levy

1724
The French build forts on the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, and the Niagara rivers.

French Louisiana prohibits slaves from marrying without the permission of their owners.

The population of male & female black slaves in the American colonies reaches 75,000.

Riots occur in Philadelphia as poor people tear down the pillories and stocks and burn them.

1725 Artist: Charles Bridges 1670-1747. Subject: Evelyn(1708-1737) daughter of William Byrd II and Lucy Parke.

1725
Explanatory Charter of Massachusetts Bay; August 26

1726
Zabdiel Boylston: An Historical Account of the Smallpox Inoculated in New England. Boylston details his experiments with smallpox inoculation in Boston, in which only 6 of his 244 patients die of the disease. This figure compared with the 844 out of 5,757 Bostonians who died of smallpox naturally during the same epidemic. One of the first of its kind written by an American physician.

1727 John Smibert 1688 - 1751. Eleanor Nightengale

1727
George II becomes king of England

Benjamin Franklin founds the Junto Club.

Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776): History of the Five Nations. Colden's greatest achievement is this tribal history of the Iroquois Indians based on firsthand observation.
1728
Elizabeth Hanson (1684-1737) writes God's Mercy Surmounting Man's Cruelty, a polished literary account of Hanson's 1724 capture by the French and Indians. (See Hanson's account on this blog.)

Jewish colonists in New York City build the first American synagogue.

1729 Artist: John Smibert 1688-1751. Subject: Mrs. Tyng.

1729
Benjamin Franklin prints, publishes and largely writes the weekly Pennsylvania Gazette.

See Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/

↧

18C Early American Timeline 1730-1739

December 8, 2017, 1:00 am

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1730

The population in the colonies is estimated at 655,000

William Parks of Maryland establishes a printing press in Virginia.

Baltimore is founded in the Maryland colony.

Both men & women begin wearing white stockings, made of silk or cotton.

John Wesley (1703-1791) & Charles Wesley (1707-1788) found the Methodist sect in Oxford, England

North Carolina Cherokee leaders visit London & confer with the king. They pledge friendship to the English & agree to return runaway slaves & to trade exclusively with the British.

America's first synagogue, Shearith Israel (The Remnant of Israel) is built on Mill Street in Lower Manhattan.

1731

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and members of his Junto Club found a circulating library in Philadelphia, the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), wife of George Washington, is born on June 2 near Williamsburg, Virginia.

Work is begun on building Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Public concerts are held in Boston & Charleston, S.C.

The Spanish reverse a 1730 decision & declare that slaves fleeing to Florida from Carolina will not be sold or returned.

1732

George Washington (1732-1799), first President of the United States, is born on February 22 in Virginia.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) begins publishing "POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK" (for the year 1733) which contains weather predictions, humor, proverbs, & epigrams.

A theatrical company from London performs for the first time in New York City.

Georgia is the last of the thirteen English colonies to be settled. It is established not so much for economic opportunity, but to be a military barrier between Spanish-owned Florida & the Carolinas. It is also set up as a refuge for former prisoners & the poor. It also would prevent slaves escaping from South Carolina from reaching Florida, where they could gain their freedom. Charter of Georgia; June 9.

Slaves aboard the ship of New Hampshire Captain John Major kill both captain & crew, seizing the vessel and its cargo.

1733

The Molasses Act, passed by the English Parliament, imposes heavy duties on molasses, rum and sugar imported from non-British islands in the Caribbean to protect the English planters there from French and Dutch competition.

James Oglethorpe (1696-1785) names Georgia in honor of King George II. He also founds the city of Savannah.

The first serious outbreak of influenza sweeps through New York City and Philadelphia; about three-fourths of the population is affected.

The New York "WEEKLY JOURNAL" is published by John Peter Zenger (1697-1746), opposing policies of the colonial government.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) preaches on “The Great Awakening” in New England—a religious revival that emphasizes man’s sinful nature.
Jews settle in Savannah, Georgia.

Quaker Elihu Coleman's A Testimony against That Anti-Christian Practice of MAKING SLAVES OF MEN is published.

Rebekah Chamblit (1706-1733) reportedly conveys A DECLARATION, DYING WARNING AND ADVICE OF REBEKAH CHAMBLIT. A YOUNG WOMAN AGED NEAR TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS, EXECUTED AT BOSTON SEPTEMBER 27TH. 1733. BEING THEN FOUND GUILTY OF FELONY, IN CONCEALING THE BIRTH OF HER SPURIOUS MALE INFANT, OF WHICH SHE WAS DELIVERED WHEN ALONE THE EIGHTH DAY OF MAY LAST, AND WAS AFTERWARDS FOUND DEAD... (See the Declaration on this blog.)

1734

John Peter Zenger, editor of the NEW YORK WEEKLY Journal, is imprisoned in New York for upholding freedom of the press. He is accused of libeling New York Governor William Cosby. In 1735, Zenger is acquitted when his attorney, Andrew Hamilton, says that the charges cannot be libelous because the accusations against Cosby were true. While Zenger is imprisoned, his wife continues to publish the newspaper.

1735

John Adams (1735-1826), 2nd President of the U.S., is born on October 30, in Massachusetts.

The first opera performed in the colonies, “Flora,” opens in Charleston, South Carolina.

Women’s status in the colonies changes due to increasing wealth. Newspapers tell of runaway wives and elopements.

John Peter Zenger: A BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE CASE AND TRYAL OF JOHN PETER ZENGER. Zenger explains the story of the court case that links his name to the notion of freedom of the press. Arrested for alleged libelous statements made in several issues of the New-York Weekly Journal in 1734, Zenger had been brought to trial in 1735. The jury found him not guilty, & the acquittal gained an important precedent for American freedom of the press

Under an English law Georgia prohibits the importation & use of black slaves. Georgia petitions Britain for the legalization of slavery.

Louis XV, King of France, declares that when an enslaved woman gives birth to the child of a free man, neither mother nor child can be sold. Further, after a certain time, mother and child will be freed.

Scots-Irish immigrants begin coming to North Carolina in large numbers, settling mainly in the Piedmont. Most are second-generation colonists moving south down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania, Maryland, & Virginia, but a few come directly from Northern Ireland.

Ann Smith Franklin publishes "A BRIEF ESSAY ON THE NUMBER SEVEN." She is one of the first women printers in the American colonies, and the essay deals with the possible biblical significance of the number seven.

1736

Charles Theodore Pachelbel (1690-1750) gives organ concerts in New York City, bringing the Bach tradition to the New World.

Elisabeth Mixer, daughter of Deacon John Mixer and Abigail Fiske who had married in Connecticut on 15 August 1695 and gave birth to Elisabeth on 30 December 1702, revealed AN ACCOUNT OF SOME SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES AND RAPTUROUS AND PIOUS EXPRESSIONS OF ELISABETH MIXER…OF WHAT GOD HAD DONE FOR HER SOUL, IN ORDER TO HER ADMISSION INTO THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ASHFORD.

1737

The first colonial copper coins are minted, also in Connecticut.

Thomas Penn, son of William, attempts to claim more lands from the Minisink tribe of the Delaware. The original agreement, made by William Penn , was that as much land would be claimed as a man could walk in a day & a half, understood by all to mean 30 miles. Thomas Penn, wanting to expand further west, hires two trained athletes to "walk" along newly cut paths & assists them with boats across streams. The "walkers" cover sixty miles & this incident becomes known as The Walking Purchase, the beginning of the end for the Quaker peace policy in the colony

1738

Population in the colonies is estimated at 800,000.

A smallpox epdemic begins in South Carolina.

The first successful glass factory is founded in Salem County, New Jersey.

Mail is first carried regularly through North Carolina on the post road that runs from Boston to Charlestown, S.C.

Elizabeth Timothy (?-1757) begins publishing the weekly newspaper, the "SOUTH CAROLINA GAZETTE."

John Wesley (1702-1791) and George Whitefield (1713-1779) immigrate to Savannah, Georgia as leaders of the “Great Awakening.” Whitefield's sermons promote the "Great Awakening" throughout the 1740s. One of the thousands impressed by his eloquence is Benjamin Franklin, who writes in his Autobiography, "I happened soon after to attend one of his Sermons, in the Course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a Collection, & I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in my Pocket a Handful of Copper Money, three or four silver Dollars, and five Pistoles in Gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the Coppers. Another Stroke of his Oratory made me asham'd of that, and determin'd me to give the Silver; & he finish'd so admirably, that I empty'd my Pocket wholly into the Collector's Dish, Gold and all." Other preachers in this movement included Theodore Frelinghuysen of the Dutch Reformed Church, Gilbert Tennent (Presbyterian), and Jonathan Edwards.

Georgia's trustees permit the importation of black slaves.

Mary Katherine Goddard born in Connecticut. Becomes publisher of the Maryland Journal and 1st female postmistress.(See posting on Mary Katherine Goddard in this blog.)
Spanish Florida promises freedom and land to runaway slaves.

Imprint about Patience Boston (1711-1735) was published in Boston by S. Kneeland and T. Green, A FAITHFUL NARRATIVE OF THE WICKED LIFE AND REMARKABLE CONVERSION OF PATIENCE BOSTON ALIAS SAMSON; WHO WAS EXECUTED AT YORK, IN THE COUNTY OF YORK, JULY 24TH. 1735. FOR THE MURDER OF BENJAMIN TROT OF FALMOUTH IN CASCO BAY, A CHILD OF ABOUT EIGHT YEARS OF AGE, WHOM SHE DROWNED IN A WELL.

1739

War of Jenkins' Ear: England declares war on Spain; border skirmishes erupt between colonists in South Carolina and Georgia and the Spanish in Florida.

A measles epidemic breakes out in Boston.

Moravian Church founded in America by Bishop A. G. Spengenberg(1704-1792). Moravians introduce Saint Nicholas as a central feature of Christmas celebrations.

Violent uprisings by black slaves occur on three separate occasions in South Carolina. The Stono Rebellion refers to slaves in Stono, South Carolina, sacking & burning an armory & killing whites. The colonial militia puts an end to the rebellion before slaves are able to reach freedom in Florida.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney (c. 1722-1793) begins writing her journal. Her compiled letters and journal become the life chronicle of one of the leading women of the colonial era, a prominent South Carolina planter and mother of political figure Charles Pinckney (1757-1824). Not published until 1850, it reveals an intellectually curious successful 18th century businesswoman.

See Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.

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