Portrait of 18C American Woman

Mrs. Gertraut Graff. Johann Valentin Haidt (1700-1780) Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Moravian women, whose chief duty was to their community & God, not to their family, husband, or self, worked jobs benefiting the larger community. They were freed from traditional familial duties.

The Moravians 1st came to British America during the colonial period. In 1735 they were part of General Oglethorpe’s philanthropic venture in Georgia. Their attempt to establish a community in Savannah did not succeed, but they did have a profound impact on the young John Wesley who had gone to Georgia during a personal spiritual crisis. Wesley was impressed that the Moravians remained calm during a storm that was panicking experienced sailors. He was amazed at people who did not fear death, & back in London he worshiped with Moravians writing that his “heart was strangely warmed.”

After the failure of the Georgia mission, the Moravians established a permanent presence in Pennsylvania in 1741, settling on the estate of evangalist George Whitefield. Moravian settlers purchased 500 acres to establish the settlement of Bethlehem in 1741. Soon they bought the 5,000 acres of the Barony of Nazareth from Whitefield’s manager, & the 2 communities of Bethlehem & Nazareth became closely linked in their agricultural & industrial economy.  Other settlement congregations were established in Pennsylvania, New Jersey & Maryland. They built the Pennsylvania communities of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lititz, & Hope. They also established congregations in Philadelphia & on Staten Island in New York. All were considered frontier centers for the spread of the gospel, particularly in mission to the Native Americans. Bethlehem was the center of Moravian activity in colonial America.

Bishop Augustus Spangenberg led a party to survey a 100,000 acre tract of land in North Carolina, which came to be known as Wachau after an Austrian estate of Count Zinzendorf. The name, later anglicized to Wachovia, became the center of growth for the church in that region. Bethabara, Bethania & Salem (now Winston-Salem) were the 1st Moravian settlements in North Carolina. In 1857 the 2 American provinces, North & South, became largely independent & set about expansion. Bethlehem in Pennsylvania & Winston-Salem in North Carolina became the headquarters of the two provinces (North & South).

The facet of Moravian life that bound the community together like no other was their dedication to missionary work; the Moravians were the most active Protestant missionaries of the 18C, sending community members to the West Indies, South America, & as far as South Africa. By 1760, the Moravians had sent out 226 missionaries & baptized more than 3,000 converts, including American Natives. In North America the key undertaking for Moravian missionaries was to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. The Moravians viewed the natives as heathens in need of spiritual enlightenment & guidance.

One feature of Moravian community life was the Choir System. People
were separated into “choirs,” or groups, based on their age, gender, & marital status. It was believed that individuals of like age & gender were best prepared & able to encourage each other’s religious growth. Members of the same choir ate, worked, worshiped, slept in dormitories, & attended school together. This communal living arrangement was intended to strengthen the unity of the society as members had to rely on choir-mates for support rather than their siblings or parents. The names of the choirs reflected the sex, age & marital status of those in the choir, such as the “Older Boys’ Choir,” ages 12-19 or the “Single Sister’s Choir,” age 19 until marriage.

All work performed by the Moravians during the pre-Revolutionary War years operated under a system known as the “General Economy,” in which all goods or money produced was considered the property of the community, not the individual. Under this system there was no private wealth or housing, nor any privately owned businesses. Every member’s contribution was collectively pooled & in exchange, necessities such as food, shelter & clothing were provided.

Marie Minier, a Single Sister in the Bethlehem community, praised the General
Economy in 1750 stating that, “For 12 years now I have enjoyed the care [of the General Economy] & eaten from one bread & been clothed, all of which to this hour has been great and of importance to me. I . . . accept things the way the Brethren do things, for it is a wonder to me daily that He has maintained so large a community, & we cannot say that we have ever gone without.” For single women like Marie Minier, the General Economy system afforded them relative security & independence; single women who chose not to marry did not need to rely on a father or brother for financial support, nor worry about becoming a financial burden. In other parts of 18C British America women who did not marry usually would have been socially & economically excluded, dependent on their fathers or male family members.

Yet by the 1760s, the system of communal property began to wear on the younger generations of ambitious Moravians who saw that in other communities hard work was rewarded with personal financial gain. In 1762, the General Economy was abolished in favor of self-owned & operated small businesses & private family homes.

To learn about the lives of 18C Moravian women see:

Faull, Katharine. Moravian Women's Memoirs: Their Related Lives, 1750-1820. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1997.

Smaby, Beverly Prior. "Female Piety Among 18th-Century Moravians." Pennsylvania History 64 (1997): 151-167.

Wachovia Historical Society, Winston-Salem, North Carolina & Old Salem, Inc., Winston-Salem, North Carolina 1750 Johann Valentine Haidt (1700-1780). Women portrayed as separate but sharing power at the Moravian Synod at Herrnhut.& "Forming the Single Sisters' Choir in Bethlehem." The Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society 28 (1994): 1-14

Sommer, Elisabeth W. Serving Two Masters: Moravian Brethren in Germany & North Carolina, 1727-1801. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2000.

Vogt, Peter. "A Voice for Themselves: Women as Participants in Congregational Discourse in the 18th-Century Moravian Movement." In Women Preachers and Prophets through Two Millennia of Christianity, edited by Beverly Mayne Kienzle and Pamela J. Walker, 227-247. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

New York Lady c 1790

Hannah Maley (Mrs. Johannes Cornelis) Cuyler (b. 1769), Unidentified Artist, circa 1790

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1755 John Wollaston 1733-1767 Elizabeth Harrison Randolph Mrs Peyton Randolph VHS

Portrait of 18C American Wom

1755 Jeremiah Theus 1716-1774 Mrs. Thomas Lynch (Elizabeh Allston Lynch) Reynolda House

Portrait of 18C American Woman

Miss Anna Rosina Anders. Johann Valentin Haidt (1700-1780) Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Moravian women, whose chief duty was to their community & God, not to their family, husband, or self, worked jobs benefiting the larger community. They were freed from traditional familial duties.

The Moravians 1st came to British America during the colonial period. In 1735 they were part of General Oglethorpe’s philanthropic venture in Georgia. Their attempt to establish a community in Savannah did not succeed, but they did have a profound impact on the young John Wesley who had gone to Georgia during a personal spiritual crisis. Wesley was impressed that the Moravians remained calm during a storm that was panicking experienced sailors. He was amazed at people who did not fear death, & back in London he worshiped with Moravians writing that his “heart was strangely warmed.”

After the failure of the Georgia mission, the Moravians established a permanent presence in Pennsylvania in 1741, settling on the estate of evangalist George Whitefield. Moravian settlers purchased 500 acres to establish the settlement of Bethlehem in 1741. Soon they bought the 5,000 acres of the Barony of Nazareth from Whitefield’s manager, & the 2 communities of Bethlehem & Nazareth became closely linked in their agricultural & industrial economy.  Other settlement congregations were established in Pennsylvania, New Jersey & Maryland. They built the Pennsylvania communities of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lititz, & Hope. They also established congregations in Philadelphia & on Staten Island in New York. All were considered frontier centers for the spread of the gospel, particularly in mission to the Native Americans. Bethlehem was the center of Moravian activity in colonial America.

Bishop Augustus Spangenberg led a party to survey a 100,000 acre tract of land in North Carolina, which came to be known as Wachau after an Austrian estate of Count Zinzendorf. The name, later anglicized to Wachovia, became the center of growth for the church in that region. Bethabara, Bethania & Salem (now Winston-Salem) were the 1st Moravian settlements in North Carolina. In 1857 the 2 American provinces, North & South, became largely independent & set about expansion. Bethlehem in Pennsylvania & Winston-Salem in North Carolina became the headquarters of the two provinces (North & South).

The facet of Moravian life that bound the community together like no other was their dedication to missionary work; the Moravians were the most active Protestant missionaries of the 18C, sending community members to the West Indies, South America, & as far as South Africa. By 1760, the Moravians had sent out 226 missionaries & baptized more than 3,000 converts, including American Natives. In North America the key undertaking for Moravian missionaries was to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. The Moravians viewed the natives as heathens in need of spiritual enlightenment & guidance.

One feature of Moravian community life was the Choir System. People
were separated into “choirs,” or groups, based on their age, gender, & marital status. It was believed that individuals of like age & gender were best prepared & able to encourage each other’s religious growth. Members of the same choir ate, worked, worshiped, slept in dormitories, & attended school together. This communal living arrangement was intended to strengthen the unity of the society as members had to rely on choir-mates for support rather than their siblings or parents. The names of the choirs reflected the sex, age & marital status of those in the choir, such as the “Older Boys’ Choir,” ages 12-19 or the “Single Sister’s Choir,” age 19 until marriage.

All work performed by the Moravians during the pre-Revolutionary War years operated under a system known as the “General Economy,” in which all goods or money produced was considered the property of the community, not the individual. Under this system there was no private wealth or housing, nor any privately owned businesses. Every member’s contribution was collectively pooled & in exchange, necessities such as food, shelter & clothing were provided.

Marie Minier, a Single Sister in the Bethlehem community, praised the General
Economy in 1750 stating that, “For 12 years now I have enjoyed the care [of the General Economy] & eaten from one bread & been clothed, all of which to this hour has been great and of importance to me. I . . . accept things the way the Brethren do things, for it is a wonder to me daily that He has maintained so large a community, & we cannot say that we have ever gone without.” For single women like Marie Minier, the General Economy system afforded them relative security & independence; single women who chose not to marry did not need to rely on a father or brother for financial support, nor worry about becoming a financial burden. In other parts of 18C British America women who did not marry usually would have been socially & economically excluded, dependent on their fathers or male family members.

Yet by the 1760s, the system of communal property began to wear on the younger generations of ambitious Moravians who saw that in other communities hard work was rewarded with personal financial gain. In 1762, the General Economy was abolished in favor of self-owned & operated small businesses & private family homes.

To learn about the lives of 18C Moravian women see:

Faull, Katharine. Moravian Women's Memoirs: Their Related Lives, 1750-1820. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1997.

Smaby, Beverly Prior. "Female Piety Among 18th-Century Moravians." Pennsylvania History 64 (1997): 151-167.

Wachovia Historical Society, Winston-Salem, North Carolina & Old Salem, Inc., Winston-Salem, North Carolina 1750 Johann Valentine Haidt (1700-1780). Women portrayed as separate but sharing power at the Moravian Synod at Herrnhut.& "Forming the Single Sisters' Choir in Bethlehem." The Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society 28 (1994): 1-14

Sommer, Elisabeth W. Serving Two Masters: Moravian Brethren in Germany & North Carolina, 1727-1801. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2000.

Vogt, Peter. "A Voice for Themselves: Women as Participants in Congregational Discourse in the 18th-Century Moravian Movement." In Women Preachers and Prophets through Two Millennia of Christianity, edited by Beverly Mayne Kienzle and Pamela J. Walker, 227-247. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1755 Benjamin West 1738-1820 Mary Bethel Boude Mrs Samuel Nat Gal Art

In Business - From Virginia Aristocracy to Boarding House Cooking Mary Randolph (1762-1828)

Mary Randolph (1762-1828)

Mary Randolph (1762-1828), early Southern cookbook author, was born in Virginia at either Tuckahoe, her father’s plantation in Goochland County, or Ampthill, that of her mother’s family in Chesterfield County. Both parents were members of the planter aristocracy. Mary’s father, Thomas Mann Randolph (1741-1793), served Virginia in the colonial house or burgess; in the Revolutionary conventions of 1775 & 1776., & later in the state legislature; her mother, Anne (Cary) Randolph, was a daughter of Archibald Cary (1721-1787), planter & statesman. Mary was the oldest of 13 children. Her brother Thomas Mann Randolph (1768-1828) became a Congressman & governor of Virginia & married Martha Jefferson (daughter of kinsman Thomas Jefferson.)

Growing up in this close-knit clan, Molly Randolph, as she was known, was married in December 1780 to a 1st cousin once removed, David Meade Randolph (1760-1830), of Predque Isle, Chesterfield County. Of their 8 children, 4 lived to maturity; Richard (born 1782), William Beverley (1789), David Meade, & Burwell Starke (1800). Her husband, after serving as a captain in the Revolutionary War, was appointed by President Washington United States marshal (a federal court official) for Virginia, making his home in Richmond. There, at the turn of the century, he built Moldavia, a handsome residence on South 5th Street. But his Federalist politics brought his removal from this post by President Jefferson.

To support their growing family the Randolphs sold Moldavia & moved to more modest quarters, where Mrs. Randolph conducted a fashionable boardinghouse. Soon dubbed “the Queen,” she attracted, says a Richmond chronicler, “as many subjects as her dominions could accommodate. . . .There were few more festive boards. . .Wit, humor & good-fellowship prevailed, but excess rarely” 

Mary Randolph had been noted for her knowledge of cooking even before her boardinghouse days. From her practical experience as keeper of a large establishment, & perhaps in the hope of further augmenting the family income, she compiled the book of recipes which was published (under her own name) in 1824 in Washington as The Virginia Housewife. As the preface indicated, it was written to meet the need she had encountered, on entering housekeeping, for a book “sufficiently clear & concise to impart knowledge to a Tyro.” The work was well received; a second edition followed in 1825, & it was often republished-in Baltimore in 1831 & 1838, in Philadelphia in 1850. The recipes were practical in details & specific as to weights & measures, much simpler than those in the 18C English cookbooks which had previously supplied the American market. The regional emphasis made the work especially popular in the South. “Every Virginia housewife,” a later writer (Letitia Burwell) recalled of the antebellum period, “knew how to compound all the various dishes in Mrs. Randolph’s cookery book.”

But Mrs. Randolph lived for less than 4 years after the 1st edition of her cookbook. Little is know of her then save that she was living in Washington, D.C., at the time of her death. Possibly the care of an invalid son hastened her end, for the stone on her grave terms her “a victim of maternal love & duty.” By her own wish she was buried at Arlington, the residence of her cousin George Washington Parke Custis, stepson of George Washington & father of Mary Custis (Mrs. Robert E.) Lee.

See: Notable American Women 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Eds. Edward James, Janet James, Paul Boyer. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1754 Joseph Blackburn fl 1752-1778 Mrs David Chesebrough Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art tells us that Mrs. Chesebrough, born Margaret Sylvester, was the wife of a wealthy and prominent merchant in Newport, Rhode Island. The couple later lived in Stonington, Connecticut. Blackburn seems to have been trained in England before coming to work on this side of the Atlantic. He apparently spent a couple of years as a portraitist in Bermuda before establishing himself in New England. This likeness, dated 1754, is one of his first American works. A decade later he was back in England, presumably supplanted in American colonial painting by the young and rapidly developing Copley, who was becoming a major figure. The Museum's portrait shows Blackburn's skill in rendering drapery and details of costume, and in making his sitters look fashionable and elegant.

1773 Portrait of an American Woman

Mrs. John Winthrop 1773 John Singleton Copley (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1738–1815 London)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art tells us that Hannah Fayerweather (1727–1790) was the daughter of Thomas and Hannah Waldo Fayerweather. She was baptized at the First Church in Boston in February 12, 1727. She was married twice, in 1745 to Parr Tolman and in 1756 to John Winthrop, a professor of mathematics and natural history at Harvard University and a noted astronomer. Although this portrait has traditionally been dated 1774, a receipt dated June 24, 1773, places its execution in the previous year. The portrait is one of a number in which Copley prominently featured a beautifully reflective tabletop.

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1754 Joseph Blackburn fl 1752-1778 Mary Sylvester Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art tells us that Mary Sylvester (1725–1794) was born at Southold, Long Island. She was the daughter of Brinley and Mary Sylvester and the sister of Margaret, later Mrs. David Chesebrough. Her portrait was most likely painted in 1754, the year in which Blackburn painted the portrait of her sister and of Abigail Chesebrough (Stonington Historical Society, Connecticut). In accordance with her unmarried status, Blackburn depicted Mary Sylvester as a shepherdess, the lamb at her side a symbol of purity and innocence. Although an exact source has not yet been identified, it has been assumed that Blackburn derived this allegorical representation from a British mezzotint. In 1756 Mary Sylvester was married in Newport to Thomas Dering, a Boston merchant. 

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1754 Joseph Blackburn fl 1752-1778 Abigail Chesebrough (Mrs. Alexander Grant) Art Inst Chicago

Abigail Chesebrough (1734–1807) was the daughter of David Chesebrough (1702–1782, eminent merchant & slave trader in Newport) and Abigail Rogers (1706–1737); and the stepdaughter of Mrs. Margaret (Sylvester) Chesebrough (1719–1782). The sitter's mother Mrs. Abigail Rogers Chesebrough died in Newport in 1737 at the age of 27, and lies buried in the Common ground. The daughter Abigail was married to Alexander Grant (1730–1783), eldest son of Sir Alexander Grant, of Scotland. It was while the Chesebroughs were residing here Sept. II, 1775, that "the Hon. Mrs. Abigail Grant, lady of Sir Alexander Grant, arrived at Newport from London via New York," to pay them a visit. Mr. Chesebrough's second wife was Margaret Sylvester, who, with her sister Mary, the wife of Thomas Dering, also sat for Joseph Blackburn, the artist, in Newport in 1754.

Portrait of 18C American Woman

Miss Anna Nitschmann. Johann Valentin Haidt (1700-1780) Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Moravian women, whose chief duty was to their community & God, not to their family, husband, or self, worked jobs benefiting the larger community. They were freed from traditional familial duties.

The Moravians 1st came to British America during the colonial period. In 1735 they were part of General Oglethorpe’s philanthropic venture in Georgia. Their attempt to establish a community in Savannah did not succeed, but they did have a profound impact on the young John Wesley who had gone to Georgia during a personal spiritual crisis. Wesley was impressed that the Moravians remained calm during a storm that was panicking experienced sailors. He was amazed at people who did not fear death, & back in London he worshiped with Moravians writing that his “heart was strangely warmed.”

After the failure of the Georgia mission, the Moravians established a permanent presence in Pennsylvania in 1741, settling on the estate of evangalist George Whitefield. Moravian settlers purchased 500 acres to establish the settlement of Bethlehem in 1741. Soon they bought the 5,000 acres of the Barony of Nazareth from Whitefield’s manager, & the 2 communities of Bethlehem & Nazareth became closely linked in their agricultural & industrial economy.  Other settlement congregations were established in Pennsylvania, New Jersey & Maryland. They built the Pennsylvania communities of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lititz, & Hope. They also established congregations in Philadelphia & on Staten Island in New York. All were considered frontier centers for the spread of the gospel, particularly in mission to the Native Americans. Bethlehem was the center of Moravian activity in colonial America.

Bishop Augustus Spangenberg led a party to survey a 100,000 acre tract of land in North Carolina, which came to be known as Wachau after an Austrian estate of Count Zinzendorf. The name, later anglicized to Wachovia, became the center of growth for the church in that region. Bethabara, Bethania & Salem (now Winston-Salem) were the 1st Moravian settlements in North Carolina. In 1857 the 2 American provinces, North & South, became largely independent & set about expansion. Bethlehem in Pennsylvania & Winston-Salem in North Carolina became the headquarters of the two provinces (North & South).

The facet of Moravian life that bound the community together like no other was their dedication to missionary work; the Moravians were the most active Protestant missionaries of the 18C, sending community members to the West Indies, South America, & as far as South Africa. By 1760, the Moravians had sent out 226 missionaries & baptized more than 3,000 converts, including American Natives. In North America the key undertaking for Moravian missionaries was to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. The Moravians viewed the natives as heathens in need of spiritual enlightenment & guidance.

One feature of Moravian community life was the Choir System. People
were separated into “choirs,” or groups, based on their age, gender, & marital status. It was believed that individuals of like age & gender were best prepared & able to encourage each other’s religious growth. Members of the same choir ate, worked, worshiped, slept in dormitories, & attended school together. This communal living arrangement was intended to strengthen the unity of the society as members had to rely on choir-mates for support rather than their siblings or parents. The names of the choirs reflected the sex, age & marital status of those in the choir, such as the “Older Boys’ Choir,” ages 12-19 or the “Single Sister’s Choir,” age 19 until marriage.

All work performed by the Moravians during the pre-Revolutionary War years operated under a system known as the “General Economy,” in which all goods or money produced was considered the property of the community, not the individual. Under this system there was no private wealth or housing, nor any privately owned businesses. Every member’s contribution was collectively pooled & in exchange, necessities such as food, shelter & clothing were provided.

Marie Minier, a Single Sister in the Bethlehem community, praised the General
Economy in 1750 stating that, “For 12 years now I have enjoyed the care [of the General Economy] & eaten from one bread & been clothed, all of which to this hour has been great and of importance to me. I . . . accept things the way the Brethren do things, for it is a wonder to me daily that He has maintained so large a community, & we cannot say that we have ever gone without.” For single women like Marie Minier, the General Economy system afforded them relative security & independence; single women who chose not to marry did not need to rely on a father or brother for financial support, nor worry about becoming a financial burden. In other parts of 18C British America women who did not marry usually would have been socially & economically excluded, dependent on their fathers or male family members.

Yet by the 1760s, the system of communal property began to wear on the younger generations of ambitious Moravians who saw that in other communities hard work was rewarded with personal financial gain. In 1762, the General Economy was abolished in favor of self-owned & operated small businesses & private family homes.

To learn about the lives of 18C Moravian women see:

Faull, Katharine. Moravian Women's Memoirs: Their Related Lives, 1750-1820. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1997.

Smaby, Beverly Prior. "Female Piety Among 18th-Century Moravians." Pennsylvania History 64 (1997): 151-167.

Wachovia Historical Society, Winston-Salem, North Carolina & Old Salem, Inc., Winston-Salem, North Carolina 1750 Johann Valentine Haidt (1700-1780). Women portrayed as separate but sharing power at the Moravian Synod at Herrnhut.& "Forming the Single Sisters' Choir in Bethlehem." The Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society 28 (1994): 1-14

Sommer, Elisabeth W. Serving Two Masters: Moravian Brethren in Germany & North Carolina, 1727-1801. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2000.

Vogt, Peter. "A Voice for Themselves: Women as Participants in Congregational Discourse in the 18th-Century Moravian Movement." In Women Preachers and Prophets through Two Millennia of Christianity, edited by Beverly Mayne Kienzle and Pamela J. Walker, 227-247. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

18C Months portrayed by Women in 1767 Calendar

London printmakers published hundreds of popular & satirical mezzotints between 1760 and 1800, many of which quickly found their way to the British American colonies and later to the new republic.

These 1767 calendar prints published by Carington Bowles & Robert Sayer in London, give a glimpse into the everyday life of gentlewomen in the larger British world which is seldom found in more formal art. They depict clothing changes across the seasons as well as outdoor activities.

January. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

February. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

March. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

April. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

May. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

June. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

July. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

August. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

September. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

October. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

November. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

December. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1754 John Wollaston Mrs Charles Carroll at Detroit Institute of Arts

Charles Carroll II (1702–1782) known as Charles Carroll of Annapolis to distinguish him from his similarly named relatives, was a wealthy Maryland planter and lawyer. Around 1726, Carroll began courting Elizabeth Brooke, the daughter of Clement Brooke and Jane Sewall.  They were not married, however, until 1757, when their son Charles was twenty years old. Charles Carroll of Annapolis inherited and extended his father's fortune but, as a Roman Catholic, was barred from participation in Maryland politics.  While the younger Charles Carroll of Annapolis was born into a religious minority with few rights, he had all the advantages that wealth could provide. Like many sons of wealthy Marylanders, Carroll of Annapolis was sent to England to study law, but he returned to Maryland on his father's death in 1722, in order to inherit the family estates.  Charles Carroll the Settler, was the first Attorney General of Maryland, and upon his death, his son, Charles Carroll of Annapolis inherited the family fortune & home. 

Their only child was Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737–1832), planter, businessman, investor, and the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the last of the signers to die, who was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of Charles Carroll of Annapolis and his common-law wife, Elizabeth Brooke. An only child, Carroll was sent at the age of 10 to the Jesuit college of St. Omers, in French Flanders, where Maryland’s Catholic gentry sent their sons because the colony’s laws, which denied “papists” the right to vote, to hold office, to practice law, and to worship publicly, also forbade them to maintain religious schools. Young Carroll studied abroad for 16 years, ending with a thesis in philosophy at the college of Louis le Grand in Paris in 1757.

Nowhere is the depth of the bond between the Carroll son and his parents more painfully revealed than in Charley's letter of June 10, 1761, in which he expressed bis anguish and despair upon learning that his beloved Mama, whom he bad last seen as a boy of ten, had died 3 months earlier:

Dr Papa,

I received yesterday the afflicting news of my dear Mama's

death. Yr. Letter, if any thing cou'd, wou'd have given some comfort: 

but what comfort can there be for so great a loss. I loved my

Mama most tenderly: how strong how cogent were the motives of

my love! How affectionate, how tender, how loving a mother was

she to me! What fond delusive hopes have I entertained of seeing

her again! I was too credulous: all my imaginary Joys are vanished

in an instant: they are succeeded by the bitter cruel thought of

never seeing more my loved lost Mother: the greatest blessing I

wished for in this life was to see to enjoy my Parents after so long a

separation to comfort to support them in an advanced age: one is

for ever snatched from me! May God almighty Dr. Papa preserve

yr. health & grant you a long life: were you to leave me too, oh then

I shou'd be compleatly miserable indeed: death wou'd then be the

only comforter of a sad, distressed, unhappy son. Pray Let not yr.

loss affect you too deeply: it may impair yr. health: remember you

are now my only consolation in this world.

You do not mention in yr. letter my Mama's speaking of me in

her last sickness: I must certainly often have been the ohject of her

thoughts & subject of her conversation: did she not frequently wish

to see me? Did she not so much as say remember me to my dr. absent son? 

How little does he now think of his dying mother! What

grief what affliction will my death give him! Oh had I seen her in

her last moments to take a last farewell that had been some sad relief: 

even this was denied me. (CC to CCA, June 10, 1761 Dear Papa, Dear Charley, i: 212-13)

from

Dear Papa, Dear Charley, The Peregrinations of a Revolutionary Aristocrat, as Told by Charles Carroll of Carrollton and His Father, Charles Carroll of Annapolis, with Sundry Observations on Bastardy, Child-Rearing, Romance, Matrimony, Commerce, Tobacco, Slavery, and the Politics of Revolutionary America by Ronad Hoffman

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1753 John Singleton Copley 1738-1815 Mrs. Joseph Mann (Bethia Torrey)  MFA

When Bethia Torrey was born on December 30, 1731, in Boston, Massachusetts, her father, William (1701–1769) was 30, and her mother, Bethiah Bass, was 27. The young Bethia married Joseph Mann who was born in 1723 in Boston, Massachusetts. She had eight brothers and four sisters. At the age of 15 Copley painted the portrait of Mrs. Joseph Mann (Bethia Torrey), a Boston baker's daughter. When she married Joseph Mann, he had just been named a Boston constable.  Her portrait pose—holding a sting of pearls—and attire of a scoop-neckline dress with white trim—were directly taken from a mezzotint of Princess Anne the 18th century, young artists were encouraged to learn their craft through the attentive copying of the Old Masters. Despite claims that Copley was not formally trained, he had more advantages as an aspiring artist than most of his colonial British American contemporaries. He spent 3 formative years of his youth from 1748 to 1751 in the home and shop of his stepfather Peter Pelham (1695–1751), who was a London-trained engraver from whom he probably received instruction in drawing, printmaking, and portraiture and whose collection of English portrait prints provided the young Copley with valuable source material.  Copley had the opportunity to work in his stepfather's shop, where he was taught the art of engraving, and met several Boston-based painters, whose studios Copley could visit. Unfortunately, Peter Pelham died in 1751, when Copley was only 13.

Squirrels in paintings of 18C American Women & Children

1757 Joseph Badger (American artist, 1708-1765). Rebecca Orne (later Mrs. Joseph Cabot)

In the British American colonies, people raided squirrel nests for their young, & the young squirrels were sold in the city markets. I am curious about animals appearing in paintings with 18C Americans. Are they real? Or are they just emblems symbolizing some quality trait of their owners?

Reliable art historians Roland E. Fleischer, Ellen Miles, Deborah Chotner, & Julie Aronson suggest that these squirrels are not real. They suggest that the squirrels are either copied from emblem books such as Emblems for the Improvement and Entertainment of Youth published in London in 1755, or from English prints. The latter theory is supported by the fact that some of the squirrels depicted in the paintings are composites of squirrels found in both America & England.  The 1755 emblem book describes the meaning of the emblem, "A Squirrel taking the Meat out of a Chestnut. Not without Trouble. An Emblem that Nothing that's worth having can be obtained without Trouble and Difficulty." 

Actually squirrels in imagery seem to have had various symbolic meanings throughout the ages. Sometimes they were seen as symbols of grasping covetousness; because of their hoarding food for winter, they were seen as greedy.  At other times they were seen as an affectionate friend. Later squirrels were symbolic of obedience & personal restraint.

All right, we all know that patience & diligence are virtues, but is there more than meets the eye here, or perhaps less?
1765 John Singleton Copley (American artist, 1738-1815). Frances Deering Wentworth (Mrs. Theodore Atkinson, Jr.)

British clergyman, Edward Topsell (c 1572-1625) , described squirrels in his Beastiary as “sweet sportful beasts and…very pleasant playfellows in a house,” despite their predilection for chewing up their owner’s woolen garments. Since they could easily chew their way through wood, special tin cages were developed, possessing metal bars sturdy enough to house them.

While visiting the British American colonies in 1748, Peter Kalm noted, “The gray and flying squirrels are so tamed by the boys that they sit on their shoulders and follow them everywhere.”   Colonial tinsmiths began making amusing cages for these pet squirrels in the forms of mills with waterwheels.
1760s William Williams (American artist, 1727-1791). Deborah Hall. Detail

From The Virginia Gazette, December 15, 1768
A young Lady's COMPLAINTon the DEATH of her SQUIRREL .

A thing so pretty as my PHIL,
A thing so sprightly and so queer,
The pet I lov'd so very dear,
To rob me of the pretty elf,

For him I've lost each night's repose,
Nothing enjoying but my woes.
Oh could my squirrel but survive,

But he is gone ! ne'er to return!
And useless 'tie to sigh and mourn.
I'll therefore seek another pet ,

Amongst the fops or empty beaus,
Because he'd surely make me fret,
And prove a very worthless pet.

In The Pennsylvania Gazette of October 10, 1771, Melcher Wisinger announced that he had wire work for sale including cages for birds and squirrels.

An advertisement in The Pennsylvania Gazette of October 10, 1792, gave notice that William Zane had for sale squirrel chains.

On Dec. 31, 1798, Philadelphia resident Elizabeth Drinker noted in her diary that her son William had “bought a flying squirrel in market, brought it home to please the children,” and added ruefully, “I should have been better pleased had it remained in the woods.” 

Later, in 1799, Drinker noted in another entry that. “An account in one of the late papers of a natural curiosity, I think ’tis called, to be seen in Walnut Street; a fine little bird, a beautiful flying squirrel, a rattlesnake, and other animals, are living in the most amicable terms in a neat, strong box or cage. William went yesterday to see them; the bird was hopping about, ye squirrel laying asleep in a corner; 2 or 3 frogs in the box; the snake appeared torpid, but would stir when disturbed by a stick. The torpid situation of ye snake accounts to me for their friendly living together.”
1770 Attributed to Cosmo Alexander (American artist, 1724-1772).

In the 19th century New American Cyclopaedia the squirrel is examined in detail. "The cat squirrel, the fox squirrel of the middle states, is...found chiefly in the middle states, rarely in southern New England; it is rather a slow climber, and of inactive habits; it becomes very fat in autumn, when its flesh is excellent, bringing in the New York market 3 times the price of that of the common gray squirrel...They are easily domesticated, and gentle in confinement, and are often kept as pets in wheel cages... The red or Hudson's bay squirrel...is less gentle and less easily tamed than the gray squirrel."

1760 Joseph Badger (American artist, 1708-1765). Portrait of Two Children. One hold a coral teething rattle and the boy on the left holds a pet squirrel.

Peter Kalm, the Swedish-Finnish explorer & naturalist who traveled through North America from 1748 - 1751, published an account of his travels in a journal En Resa til Norra America, which was translated into German, Dutch, French, & English.  He described more than squirrel pets in British colonial America.  Although there are no paintings including pet beavers or raccoons, Kalm noted, “Beavers have been tamed to such an extent that they have brought home what they caught by fishing to their masters. This is often the case with otters, of which I have seen some that were as tame as dogs, and followed their master wherever he went; if he went out in a boat the otter went with him, jumped into the water and after a while came up with a fish."

“The raccoon can in time be made so tame as to run about the streets like a domestic animal; but it is impossible to make it leave off its habit of stealing. In the dark it creeps to the poultry, and kills a whole flock in one night. Sugar and other sweet things must be carefully hidden; for if the chests and boxes are not always locked, it gets into them and eats the sugar with its paw. The ladies, therefore, have some complaint against it every day."

1760 John Singleton Copley (American artist, 1738-1815). Boy (Henry Pelham) with a Squirrel on a fine chain.

1760 John Singleton Copley (American artist, 1738-1815). Boy (Henry Pelham) with a Squirrel. Detail

1771 John Singleton Copley (American artist, 1738-1815). Daniel Crommelin Verplanck with Squirrel

1790 Denison Limner Probably Joseph Steward (American artist, 1753-1822). Miss Denison of Stonington, Connecticut possibly Matilda.

1798 Ralph Earl (American artist, 1751-1801). Elizabeth Eliot (Mrs. Gershom Burr)

Portrait of 18C American Woman

1753 John Durand fl 1765-1782 Eliz Boush CWF

18C American Women & Girls with Dogs & Cats

Dogs & cats appear in portraits of 18C American women, but I am not sure if these pets are emblems or symbols or copies of English prints, or are they actual pets?

Before the 1760s, most dogs appear in colonial American paintings with children. Smaller pet dogs often were referred to as comfort dogs. Most other dogs depicted in 18C English & Anglo American paintings were sporting dogs.  William Shakespeare had noted fox-hunting hounds in A Midsummer Night's Dream, when Theseus, duke of Athens, tells Hippolyta of "the music of my hounds, matched in mouth like bells / Each under each. A cry more tunable / Was never holloed to nor cheered with horn." 

1710 Justus Engelhardt Kuhn (fl 1707-1717). Eleanor Darnall 1704 - 1796 with Dog

During the 17C in colonial British America, life for a dog could prove tenative, especially during the Salem witch trials. From June to September in 1692, 156 people were accused; 14 women, 5 men, & 2 dogs were hanged--children accused the dogs of giving them the "evil eye."

However, Pennsylvania's founder William Penn (1644-1718) took a more sympathetic approach to dogs.  He wrote in his Reflexions and Maxims that "men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children."

1710s Justus Engelhardt Kuhn (fl 1707-1717) Young Girl with Dog

An increase in dogs as pets occurred just as scientific classification of species of plants & animals was growing. The 1st official classification of English breeds was published in 1570, by British physician John Caius (1510-1573) in De Canibus Britannicis, or Of English Dogges.  Among other types, he identified bloodhounds & terriers, otter hounds & Maltese. During the 18C, an era of taxonomies & catalogues, Georges Buffon (1707-1788) & Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) expanded on the definition of Caius, with Linnaeus listing such animals as the Shepherd's Dog, the Pomeranian, the Iceland Dog, the Lesser Water Dog, the Mastiff, & the Barbet.

1715 Attributed to Charles Bridges (1670-1747). Child of Rev. Richard Chase (1692-1742) of London and Maryland, and his wife Margaret Frances Townley (d. 1741) with Dog

As the scientific interest in dog species grew, the expanding love of humans for canines was endorsed by philosophers, playwrights, and poets. Voltaire wrote, "the best thing about man is the dog." Alexander Pope declared that "histories are more full of examples of fidelity of dogs than of friends."

In Pope's Essay on Man, he writes condescendingly of Native Americans & their faithful dogs.
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the Solar Walk, or Milky Way;
Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n,
Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, an humbler heav'n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the wat'ry-waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christian thirst for gold.
To be, contents his natural desire,--
He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
1728 New York Depeyster Limmer. Depeyster Twins: Eva & Catherina with Dog

Writing tributes to beloved pets increased into the 18C.  In 1693, English poet & diplomat Matthew Prior (1664-1721) wrote a short elegy at the death of True, a pet of Queen Mary II:
Envious Fate has claim'd its due, 
Here lies the mortal part of True.

English poet John Gay (1685-1732) published "An Elegy on a Lap-Dog" in 1720:
 He's dead. Oh lay him gently in the ground! 
 And may his tomb be by this verse renown'd. 
 Here Shock, the pride of all his kind, is laid; 
 Who fawned like man, but ne'er like man betray'd.
1730s Child of the Pierpont Family with Dog

In Scotland, Robert Burns (1759-1796) wrote that "the dog puts the Christian to shame."

In the British American colonies in 1738, Benjamin Franklin wrote, "There are three faithful friends—an old wife, an old dog, and ready money."
c. 1735 Charles Bridges (1670-1747). Anne Byrd with Dog

The rise in fox hunting in both England and its American colonies spawned a need for a medium-sized hound with the stamina to follow prey for miles, a keen nose for scent, & a bark that could summon his master from a distance. While women did not participate in the hunt itself, they were part of the audience & the elegant suppers that followed the hunt.

One of the first packs of hunting dogs was brought to America in 1650 by Robert Brooke of Maryland. They were black & tan & chased the slower gray fox. Often recorded as English hounds, these dogs now are thought to have been the Irish Kerry Beagle.

Historian James Horn tells us that in 1799, a wry New England minister gave a glimpse of the sport:

From about the first of Octor. this amusement begins, and continues till March or April. A party of 10, and to 20, or 30, with double the number of hounds, begins early in the morning, they are all well mounted. They pass thro' groves, Leap fences, cross fields, and steadily pursue, in full chase wherever the hounds lead. At length the fox either buroughs out of their way, or they take him. If they happen to be near, when the hounds seize him, they take him alive, and put him into a bag and keep him for a chase the next day. They then retire in triumph, having obtained a conquest to a place where an Elegant supper is prepared. After feasting themselves, and feeding their prisoner, they retire to their own houses. The next morning they all meet at a place appointed, to give their prisoner another chance for his life. They confine their hounds, and let him out of the bag—away goes Reynard at liberty—after he has escaped half a mile—hounds and all are again in full pursuit, nor will they slack their course thro' the day, unless he is taken. This exercise they pursue day after day, for months together. This diversion is attended by old men, as well as young—but chiefly by married people. I have seen old men, whose heads were white with age, as eager in the chase as a boy of 16. It is perfectly bewitching. The hounds indeed make delightful musick—when they happen to pass near fields, where horses are in pasture, upon hearing the hounds, they immediately begin to caper, Leap the fence and pursue the Chase—frequent instances have occurred, where in leaping the fence, or passing over gullies, or in the woods, the rider has been thrown from his horse, and his brains dashed out, or otherwise killed suddenly. This however never stops the chase—one or two are left to take care of the dead body, and the others pursue. 

1720s-30s Gerardus Duyckinck (1695-1746). Around 1735, the New York artist Gerardus Duyckinck painted the portrait of young Jacomina Winkler, who was probably 10 or 12.  She is holding a very unhappy, probably fanciful, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in her lap.  Poses & dogs were often copied from English mezzotint engravings.

Avid fox hunter George Washington, who named his dogs Sweet Lips, Venus, & True Love, during the Revolutionary War, even returned a dear pet, a stray terrier, to the enemy - its owner, British General Howe, along with a note that read: "General Washington does himself the pleasure to return ...a dog, which accidentally fell into his hands."

Thomas Jefferson did not particularly share his fellow Virginian's attachment to dogs.  In 1789, returning from his assignment as ambassador to France, he imported "shepherd's dogs" for Monticello & later presented Washington with puppies.
1755 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). The Gore Children with Dog

In Williamsburg and its environs, the Virginia Gazette often carried advertisements for lost dogs. In 1751, Alexander Finnie, who ran the Raleigh Tavern, offered to pay "Half a Pistole" to anyone who returned his "spaniel BITCH, with white and brown spots." In 1752 Williamsburg, a pet dog Ball, a reddish spaniel was lost, and his owner James Spiers was willing to part with a dollar to get him back. In 1774, Glasgow, a brown-and-white bulldog with an iron collar, had gone missing and his owner offered 20 shillings for his return. In the same paper in 1777, a pet black Pomeranian called Spado was stolen and a $20 reward was offered.

In the only written connection between dogs and women that I have found yet---in 1775, Williamsburg's Virginia Gazette printed,
"On the Death of a Lady's Dog"
Thou, happy creature, art secure
From all the troubles we endure..

1758  John Singleton Copley (American artist, 1738-1815). Mary and Elizabeth Royall with Dog

1767 John Singleton Copley (American artist, 1738-1815). Girl with Bird and Dog

1771 John Singleton Copley (American artist, 1738-1815). Mary Elizabeth Martin with Dog

1785 John Singleton Copley (American, artist, 1738-1815) Daughters of King George III (Sophia, Mary and Amelia) Painted while Copley was in England.
1730 John Smibert (1688-1751). Mrs Nathaniel Cunningham with Dog
C 1750 John Wollaston (1710-1775) Magdalen Charlton (Mrs. Thomas Dongan) with Dog
c 1760 Benjamin West (1738-1820). Anne Allen (later Mrs. John Penn) with Dog.  John Penn (1729-1795) was the last governor of colonial Pennsylvania, serving from 1763-1771 & 1773-1776, & he was a grandson of William Penn. Portrait of the daughter of West's benefactor Chief Justice William Allen may have been painted as West was traveling from Pennsylvania to Italy and then to England.
1760 English artist James McArdell (1728-1965) after Joshua Reynolds Joshua Reynolds (English Rococo Era Painter, 1723-1792) The model for Copley's painting below.
1763 John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) Mrs Jerathmael Bowers with Dog

c 1770-90s Unknown artist, Child with a Dog

1772 William Williams (Colonial American painter, 1727-1791). The William Denning Family with Dog
1773 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). Christian Stelle Banister & Son John with Dog

Begun in 1773 Charles Willson Peale (American painter, 1741-1827) The Peale Family with Dog

Ralph Earl (American born painter, 1751-1801) Portrait of a Child. Painted while Earl was in England
1787 Henry Benbridge (1743-1812). Hartley Family with Dog
1785-90 Beardsley Limner Possibly Sarah Bushnell Perkins (1771 - 1831). Elizabeth Davis (Mrs Hezekiah Beardsley) with Dog

1790 Ralph Earl (American artist, 1751-1801). Abigail Starr (Mrs. William Taylor) and Son Daniel with Cat

1787 Christian Gullager (American artist, 1759-1826 Sarah Greenleaf (Mrs Oflin Boardman) & Benjamin Greenleaf Boardman with Dog

1787 Unknown artist, Child with Dog
1789 - 1791 Payne Limner. Martha Payne with Cat

1790 Payne Limner Alexander Spotswood Payne & John Robert with Dog

1797 Christian Gullager Christian Gullager (American artist, 1759-1826) Baby with Dog

1798 John Ritto Penniman 1782–1841  Family Group with Dog

By the dawn of the 19th century, there could be no doubt that dogs were an integral part of the American family.

 John Trumbull (American painter, 1756-1843) Sarah Trumbull with a Spaniel 1802