Moravian Missionary, Teacher, Gardener, Diarist, & Botanist Anna Rosina Kliest Gambold (1762-1821)

Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania - Home of Anna Kliest. Moravian Historical Society

Anna Rosina Kliest Gambold (1762-1821) was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1762. She is often remembered by her contributions to the Moravarian Missions & her relationship to the Cherokee Nation, however, her love & contributions to the early botanical field should not go unnoticed. 

She was born to Daniel Klioest who had arrived, as a single man, from London in May of 1749. In 1756, he was listed as a widower in 1756 & then remarried to 1757 to Anne Felicitas Schuster who is believed to be Anna Rosina Kliest's mother. Daniel died in 1762 & Anna Rosina's mother died in 1765. 

There is little record of Anna's early life, though a record of her only education can be seen. Anna Rosina was then placed into the Moravian Single Sisters house in 1766 & stayed there until 1777, when she was 15 years old.

After her education, she served as a teacher for the Seminary School in Bethlehem where she began to teach art classes & later science courses. It is was at the school both that she extended her love of nature & botany to her students, but also used the schools vast library to continue her own education in botany. 

William Corniuels Reichel (1824-1876), though he was born after Anna's death, was able to complete interviews with students who had Anna as a teacher during her time at the School. He notes her love for nature & her nurturing spirit to pass this wisdom to her students by saying "As she walked out into the fields, she taught her joyous flock the lessons of wisdom from the great book of nature spread before them. The flowers, the trees, the stones, the clouds, the stars....she would have her pupils retain, in a happy manner, leading them unconsciously into the secrets of science by practical & familiar illustration". (Daniel. McKinley, Anna Rosina (Kliest) Gambold (1762-1821) Moravian Missionary to the Cherokees, With a Special Reference to her Botanical Interests).

In 1803, she left her teaching position by invitation of Bishop George Loskiel (1740-1814) to accompany him & his wife to Moravian missions in Ohio. Loskiel had become the Historian of the Missions in North America & needed to travel to different missions to survey them. This particular mission, he invited Anna to attend as his diarist & secretary. This position gave Anna both a taste of missionary work but also of the world around her.

1805 proved a busy year for Anna's life. She arrived at Nazareth in May of 1805, & was noted to have been recently engaged to Brother John Gamold, who was from Salem. John Gamold (1760-1827) is suspected to be the son of Hector Gambold who was married, Eleanor Gregg. Records of John's parents are limited, though they had 6 children. John was born in Shechem, New York, & was brought to Nazareth, PA to get his education. In 1773, he traveled to Bethlehem to learn his trade which would then take him back to Nazareth. 

By 1785, he had returned to Bethlehem to become the warden of the Bretehn's House, likely where he had heard of or met Anna. However, their paths were not destined for each other yet, as he traveled to Spingplace, GA in 1802 then to Friedberg, North Carolina to be a pastor. In 1805, he was directed to join the Springplace Missionary in GA. Before leaving, Anna & John were married & traveled to Springplace together. Springplace would become their home & the home to a majority of Anna's botanical work.

In 1801, a group of Moravian missionaries from Winston-Salem, N.C., started a mission and soon after, a boarding school in Springplace or Spring Place, Murray County, Georgia, This made the Vann plantation home to the first European-style school and Christian mission on Cherokee land.

Gambold was a farmer, teacher, missionary and published botanist. In March 1819, Gambold wrote an article for the American Journal of Science and Arts, cataloging flowers found along the nearby Conasauga River by their scientific name, with the plants' uses in Cherokee medicine and culture.

Their work at Springplace was to establish a school & relationship with Cherokee tribes. Her missionary work also coincided with her botanical work. Anna worked alongside many other Morvavians & botanical enthusiasts by growing, drying, documenting & sending her plants to others. In 1817,  Elias Cornelius visited Springplace & noted the vastness of her gardens noting that "Mrs. G is quite the Botanist, & has a very good garden of plants, both ornamental & medicinal." 

Sometime after this tour, Cornelius asked Anna to document the plants along the river which is how her first paper was published. In 1819, her article that examined flowers along the Conasauga River & their uses in Cherokee medicine was published in the American Journal of Science & Arts. 

Her contributions to botany also helped Henry Muhlenberg (1711-1787) who was a Moravian botanist minister. In his 1813 work Catalogus Plantarum Americae Septentrionalis, he dutifully thanked her for her contributions of seeds & specimens to his work. She also contributed to his 1817 posthumous work, Descriptio Uberior Gramminum et Plantarum Calamariaum Americae Septentrinalis, in which she supplied 25 specifies of plants for him to study.

After she married John Gambold in 1805, the couple moved  to Springplace, Georgia to evangelize among the Cherokee people. In Springplace the couple established a school. They were, however, hampered in their efforts at missionary work by the complexities of the Cherokee language. Eventually, as part of the removal of the Cherokee from their ancestral lands, the mission was shuttered by the government of the United States. 

Anna & her husband were part of the Moravian Mission at Spring Place, Georgia until Anna's death. The day before her death, after being ill for quite some time, she walked into her garden & enjoyed her plants bringing to spring up one more time. She died in Springplace in 1821 & is buried on the Vann plantation in God's Acre Cemetery.

Among the Moravians in Springplace, Sister Anna Rosina Kliest Gambold, wife of Brother Joseph Gambold, was the main author of the Springplace Mission Diaries from 1804-1821. These diaries aid in understanding Cherokee culture & history during the early 19C & Moravian missionary efforts in the South during this time.  

American New York Botanist Jane Colden (1724-1766)

The Fair Quaker, July 11, 1787 British Museum 

Jane Colden (1724-1766) was described as the "first botanist of her sex in her country" by 19C botanist Asa Gray (1810-1888) in 1843. Although seldom mentioned in early botanical publications, she wrote a number of letters resulting in botanist British naturalist John Ellis (1711-1778) writing to Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) of her work applying the Linnaean system of plant identification to American flora, "she deserves to be celebrated." Contemporary scholarship also maintains that she was the first female botanist working in America. She was regarded as a respected botanist by many prominent botanists such as: John Bartram, Peter Collinson, Alexander Garden, & Carl Linnaeus. Colden is most famous for her manuscript without a title, in which she describes the flora of the New York area, & draws ink drawings of 340 different species of them.

Colden was born in New York City, the 5th child of Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776), who was a physician who trained at the University of Edinburgh and became involved in the politics & management of New York after arriving in the city from Scotland in 1718, & his wife Alice Christy Colden, the daughter of a clergyman, brought up in Scotland in an intellectual atmosphere. Daughter Jane Colden was educated at home; & her father provided her with botanical training following the new classification system developed by Carl Linnaeus.  His scientific curiosity included a personal correspondence between 1749-1751 with Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778).

Her father thought women should study botany because of "their natural curiosity & the pleasure they take in the beauty & variety of dress seems to fit them for it."  It was true that floral illustrations filled British American colonial homes on English textiles and soft paste & porcelain tableware ordered by the gentry through their factors or sent in the holds of English ships to be sold in local shops.

Moreover, he viewed such study as an ideal substitute for idleness among his female children, when he moved his family to the country in 1729. He believed gardening & botany "an Amusement which may be made agreable for the Ladies who are often at a loss to fill their time."  He went so far as to recommend that perhaps from Jane's example "young ladies in a like situation may find an agreable way to fill up some part Of their time which otherwise might be heavy on their hand May amuse & please themselves & at the same time be usefull to others."

1748-52 John Wollaston (American colonial era painter, 1710-1775) Cadwallader Colden

The family's move to a 3,000-acre estate in Orange County stimulated the botanical interests of both Cadwallader & Jane Colden. Cadwalleder Colden had been the first to apply the system of botanical classification developed by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (Linnaean Taxonomy) to an American plant collection & he translated the text of Linnaeus’ books into English.

A letter of 1755 from Colden to Dutch botanist Jan Gronovius (1666-1762) her father explained. "I have a daughter who has an inclination to reading and a curiosity for natural philosophy or natural History and a sufficient capacity for attaining a competent knowledge. I took the pains to explain to her Linnaeus' system and to put it in English for her to use by freeing it from the Technical Terms which was easily done by using two or three words in place of one. She is now grown very fond of the study and has made such progress in it as I believe would please you if you saw her performance. Tho' perhaps she could not have been persuaded to learn the terms at first she now understands to some degree Linnaeus' characters notwithstanding that she does not understand Latin."

Jane Colden far surpassed her father's idleness theory. She was the 1st scientist to describe the gardenia. She read the works of Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) in translation, and she mastered the Linnaean system of plant classification perfectly. She cataloged, described, & sketched at least 400 plants. She actively collected seeds & specimens of New World flora & exchanged them with others on both sides of the Atlantic.

Due to the lack of schools & gardens around the area, her father wrote to Peter Collinson, where he inquired about getting sent "the best cuts or pictures of [plants] for which purpose I would buy for her Tourneforts Institutes & Morison’s Historia plantarum, or if you know any better books for this purpose as you are a better judge than I am I will be obliged to you in making the choice" in order for Jane to continue her studies of botanical sciences.

In addition to obtaining books & illustration samples for his daughter, Cadwallader also surrounded her with like-minded scientists, including Peter Kalm & William Bartram. In 1754, a notable gathering with South Carolina scientist Dr. Alexander Garden (1730-1791) & William Bartram sparked Jane's interests even more & allowed the fruition of the collaboration & friendship between Jane & Garden to flourish. Garden, an active collector of his local flora, later corresponded with Jane, exchanged seeds & plants with her, & instructed her in the preservation of butterflies.  Garden wrote in a letter to British naturalist John Ellis (1711-1778) in 1755, that Jane Colden “is greatly master of the Linnaean method, and cultivates it with assiduity.” 

Of his daughter, Cadwallader wrote in a 1755 letter to Dr. John Frederic Gronovius, a colleague of Linneaus, that she possessed "a natural inclination to reading & a natural curiosity for natural philosophy & natural history." He wrote that Jane was already writing descriptions of plants using Linnaeus' classification & taking impressions of leaves using a press. In this letter, Cadwallader sought to earn her a position with Dr. Gronovius sending seeds or samples.

Between 1753 & 1758 Colden cataloged New York's flora, compiling specimens & information on more than 400 species of plants from the lower Hudson River Valley, & classifying them according to the system developed by Linnaeus. She developed a technique for making ink impressions of leaves, & was also a skilled illustrator, doing ink drawings of 340. For many drawings she wrote additional botanical details as well as culinary, folklore or medicinal uses for the plant, including information from indigenous people.

On January 20, 1756, Peter Collinson (1694-1768) wrote to John Bartram that "Our friend Colden's daughter has, in a scientific manner, sent over several sheets of plants, very curiously anatomized after this [Linnaeus's] method. I believe she is the first lady that has attempted anything of this nature." 

Colden participated in the Natural History Circle where she exchanged seeds & plants with other plant collectors in the American colonies & in Europe. These exchanges within the Natural History Circle encouraged Jane to become a botanist.

Through her father she met & corresponded with many leading naturalists of the time, including Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778). Carolus Linnaeus knew of Jane's work.  He corresponded directly with her father; and in a 1758, letter to British naturalist John Ellis (1711-1778) tells Linnaeus that he will let Jane know "what civil things you say of her."  One of her descriptions of a new plant, which she herself called Fibraurea, was forwarded to Linnaeus with the suggestion that he should call it Coldenella, but Linnaeus declined calling it Helleborus (now Coptis groenlandica).  Collinson reported to Carolus Linnaeus, "Your system, I can tell you obtains much in America. Mr. Clayton and Dr. Colden at Albany of Hudson's River in New York are complete Professors....Even Dr. Colden's daughter was an enthusiast."   He later wrote to Linnaeus, that  Jane Colden “is perhaps the first lady that has so perfectly studied your system. She deserves to be celebrated.” 

In 1756 Colden discovered the Gardenia & proposed a name after the prominent botanist Garden. In her manuscript she wrote that this plant was without an Order under the Linnaean system. In her description Colden wrote, " The three chives only in each bundle, & the three oval-shap'd bodies on the seat of the flower, together with the seat to which the seeds adhere, distinguish this plant from the hypericums; & I think, not only make it a different genus, but likewise makes an order which Linnaeus has not."  However, the name was not allowed because an English botanist named John Ellis had already named the Cape jasmine as Gardenia jasminoides, & was entitled to its use because of the conventions of botanical nomenclature.

1963 Reprint of the British Museum copy of Jane Colden's manuscript

Colden's manuscript, in which she had ink drawings of leaves & descriptions of the plants, was never named. Colden's original manuscript describing the flora of New York has been held in the British Museum since the mid-1800s. Her manuscript drawing consisted only of leaves & these drawings were only ink outlines colored in with neutral tint. Her descriptions  were "excellent-full , careful, & evidently taken from living specimens."  Colden's descriptions include morphological details of flower, fruit, & plant structure, as well as ways on how to use certain plants for medicinal or culinary purposes. Some of the descriptions include the month of flowering & the habitat where they are found.  Latin & common names for the plants are given.

In her section "Observat" (now known as observations) she pointing out to Linnaeus that "there are some plants of Clematis that bear only male flowers, this I have observed with such care that there can be no doubt about it." She spent long hours doing observations, which were consistent, accurate & replicable.

Colden married Scottish widower Dr. William Farquhar on March 12, 1759. She died in childbirth only 7 years later at the age of 41, along with the newborn. There is no evidence that she continued her botanical work after her marriage.

Her work on plant classification was noted in a Scottish scientific journal in 1770, 4 years after her death. Americans did not become aware of Colden's manuscript until 75 years later, when Almira Lincoln stated that another female botanist before her was the first American lady to illustrate the science of botany.  In spite of all of Colden's accomplishments, she was never formally recognized during her lifetime by having a plant named after her. The genus Coldenia is named after her father.

Early South Carolina Naturalist & Botanist Hannah English Williams (d 1722)

Hannah English Williams (d Dec. 16, 1722) is often described as the earliest woman naturalist & botanist in America. She was one of the first female in the American British colonies to gather plant and animal specimens for scientific collections. Her work aided the cataloging of many of South Carolina’s natural resources and contributed to advancing botanical and zoological understanding in that colony in England. 

Hannah English Williams’s  birth date, birthplace, and parents’ names are unknown. She lived in Charleston. Her husband, Matthew English, by whom she had 2 children, arrived aboard the Carolina with the 1st European settlers in 1670. She may have followed shortly thereafter. Her birth date, birthplace, and parents’ names are unknown.  

Naturalist Hannah William's Yellow Tipt Carolina Butterfly (now known as Dog's Head) Petiver's Gazophylacium naturae et artis...1767

Two South Carolina wills mention Hannah English Williams' children. In a 1710 South Carolina Will, proved 26th October, 1711, William Williams of Carolina planter, and gives to his son-in-law Henroyda English, all of his estate, real and personal. His mother Hannah Williams, widow to William Williams, declares the above will to have been made with her consent. The 1694 South Carolina Will of Charles Clarke, of Berkley County, dated November 2, 1694, mentions Mrs. Mary Spragg, daughter of Mrs. Hannah Williams, to whom he leaves a house and lot, bounding on late belonging to Gov. Thomas Smith. Mentions also William Williams, gentleman, of Carolina, and leaves the remainder of his property to William Williams and Mrs. Mary Spragg.

After her 1st husband's death, Hannah married planter William Williams between 1692-4. Her 1,000-acre plantation was at Stony Point on the Ashley River. As the widow Hannah English, she was awarded a warrant of 500 acres near Stony Poynt in November 1692. In May 1695, as Mrs. Hannah English alias Williams, she was granted another warrant for 500 acres on land on the north side of Ashley River called Stony Poynt. This 1000 acres of land was a wealthy source of undiscovered wildlife. This land would have provided her with unlimited opportunities for finding native plants, butterflies, vipers, snakes, lizards, birds, insects, shells & plants.

As early as 1701, she began a regular correspondence with James Petiver, a London apothecary and Fellow of the Royal Society. Williams & Petiver corresponded from 1701 to 1713, & he listed those items he wished her to procure when she joined his network of collectors. Petiver encouraged her interest in natural history, declaring Williams the “discoverer” of unique butterflies & describing her as “my generous benefactress.” He instructed Williams how to preserve specimens for shipping, with “each stuck on a pin or in a little viall drowned in Rum or Brandy.” Petiver described Williams’s contributions in his published serial booklets entitled Musei Petiveriani Centuria Prima Rariora Naturae.A February 6, 1704, letter from Williams to Petiver accompanied a shipment of “Some of Our Vipers & Severall Sorts of Snakes Scorpions & Lizzards” in addition to shells, a bee nest, & a “few Other Insex.” She promised to send “some Mockin birds & Red birds” in the spring because, “If I should send you any Now the Could would Kill them.” She also enclosed a “Westo Kings Tobacco pipe & a Queens Petticoat made off Moss” & asked for newspapers & “medisons.” 

Williams’s son met Petiver in England to discuss collections his mother had been gathering, until she heard false reports of Petiver’s death. Petiver expressed his respect for Williams by naming some butterfly species for her. In 1767, Petiver’s Gazophylacium Naturae et Artis included illustrations of Williams’s orange girdled Carolina butterfly (also called the viceroy, which mimics monarch butterflies), Williams’s yellow tipt Carolina butterfly (popularly called dog’s head), & Williams’s selvedge-eyed Carolina butterfly (known as creole pearly eye).

Naturalist Hannah William's Selvedge Eyed Carolina Butterfly (now known as Creole Pearly Eye) Petiver's Gazophylacium naturae et artis...1767

Records indicate that Williams was buried on December 16, 1722, in St. Philip’s Churchyard, Charleston.

See:
“An Account of Animals and Shells Sent from Carolina to Mr. James Petiver, F.R.S.” Philosophical Transactions [of the Royal Society of London] 24 (1704–1705): 1952–60.

Smith, Beatrice Scheer. “Hannah English Williams: America’s First Woman Natural History Collector.” South Carolina Historical Magazine 87 (April 1986): 83–92.

Stearns, Raymond P. “James Petiver, Promoter of Natural Science, c. 1663–1718.” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, n.s., 62 (October 1952): 243–365.

Stearns, Raymond P. Science in the British Colonies of America. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970.

Aristocratic Virginian William Byrd records his Tea Drinking (& Women) in his 1709-1712 Diary

William Byrd II (1674–1744) by Sir Godfrey Kneller

Tea in The Diary of William Byrd

William Byrd II  (1674-1744) was born in Henrico County, Colony of Virginia. His father, Colonel William Byrd I, had come from England to settle in Virginia. When he was seven years old, his father sent him to London for schooling. He was educated at Felsted School in Essex, England, for the law. While there, Byrd became engrained in London's society & politics. Not only did he study law, but in 1696, at age 22, he was also elected by friends in the aristocracy as a Fellow in the Royal Society. He also served as a representative of Virginia in London. He was a member of the King's Counsel for 37 years. 

Byrd returned to Richmond upon the death of his father in 1705. He had a very large inheritance, & was now required to run the estate. He returned to the Colony following his schooling & lived in lordly estate on Westover Plantation.

Soon after a Portuguese priest encountered tea in China in 1565, the Dutch, then linked with Portugal, became aware of it. The Dutch West Indies Company began to bring it to Europe from China. It has been mentioned in France since at least 1636. But by the end of the 18C, it was favored most by the Dutch & the English, who began exporting it to their American colonies about 1717.

Historian Barbara Carson tells us that In the early 18C, the uses of tea in the American colonies were largely medicinal & ceremonial. The so-called secret diary kept in shorthand code by William Byrd allows us to look at the early use of hot beverages by one of Virginia’s wealthiest men. For nearly four years, from February 1709 to September 1712, Byrd made entries in his diary almost every day. The entries are repetitive in their mention of his personal habits, & it is therefore likely that the diary offers a somewhat accurate record of his use of hot beverages, Byrd recorded only a few details relative to his drinking behavior & did not identify the household items relating to it. 

Fewer than 10 percent of his daily entries mention tea, chocolate, or coffee drinking, with tea being noted most frequently. For this very wealthy, early Virginia gentleman, who clearly could have afforded to make a habit of tea drinking, it does not appear to have been a daily ritual. The few mentions of tea in the diary are, however, revealing.

Tea was often associated at this time with the treatment of illness or with formal ceremonies of official greeting & not as refreshment offered to guests after dinner or in the evening. Nor was it a breakfast beverage, Byrd’s usual breakfast consisted of milk, served boiled rather than cold. On the infrequent mornings when he drank tea, which he often referred to as “milk tea,” taken with bread & butter, he some-times mentioned being sick. He seems to have suffered from malaria for which he also drank sage tea & a bark infusion. 

Although he hosted many overnight guests at Westover, his plantation on the James River, he rarely mentions tea offered for breakfast on these occasions. The major exception is the visit of Governor Spotswood in June of 1710. Byrd offered tea to the governor on three mornings & chocolate on the fourth. 

When in Williamsburg on business, Byrd met with the governor & other officials in the morning. Tea, or occasion-ally chocolate, was served at these times. It seems to have been presented as a kind of salute, a formal recognition of status or membership at the beginning of their discussions.

Unlike tea, Byrd does seem to have thought of chocolate as a breakfast beverage. He mentions it about two-thirds as often as he does tea. He records that he drank chocolate with the women who were attending his wife when she gave birth to a son in June 1709, otherwise his references are not connected with specific occasions. He mentions drinking coffee only four times: with the governor (July 5 & 6, 1710), with women (March 1711), & at home with visitors (April 9, 1711). 

He notes visits to Williamsburg’s coffeehouses, however, on more than 60  days. Although he played cards, gambled, & frequently lost money in these establishments, he may not have been drinking coffee. On October 29, 1710, he wrote, “Walked to the coffeehouse where I drank two dishes of tea.” 

At the time when Byrd was writing, tea was about to begin its slow climb to dominance among hot beverages. Although merchants had sporadically imported tea from China to England & then to the American Colonies in the late seventeenth century, the East India Company only secured partial access to the Port of Canton in 1713. Direct & regular shipments of tea from China began in 1717...

See: "Determining The Growth And Distribution Of Tea Drinking In 18C America" by Barbara G. Carson (1941-2011) 

For much more about Byrd's interaction wit women. see 

Louis B. Wright and Marion Tinlin (eds.), The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712 (Richmond, Va.: Dietz Press, 1941)

One of the Many Teapots of Mary Ball Washington (c 1708-1789) Geo Washington's Mother

 

Mary Ball Washington’s teapot. Mary loved tea & tea sets, & she trained all her children in the genteel art of tea serving & drinking, something George would carry with him his whole life. This 18th century teapot is Chinese porcelain & was part of Mary’s “red & white china” collection. This teapot was left in Mary’s will to her granddaughter Betty Lewis Carter. Today you can find it at The Mary Washington House History Museum. 

In 1772, George Washington purchased a house from Michael Robinson in Fredericksburg, Virginia for his mother. Mary Ball Washington spent her last 17 years in this home. The white frame house sits on the corner of Charles & Lewis Streets & was in walking distance to Kenmore, home of Mary's daughter Betty Fielding Lewis. 

The house is just a short drive from Ferry Farm on the Banks if the Rappahannock River, where Mary Washington raised her son who would become the 1st President of The United States of America. The Rappahannock River in eastern Virginia is the country's longest free-flowing river in the eastern United States, running for approximately 185 miles, from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the west to the Chesapeake by south of the Potomac. The Rappahannock was long a gathering place & an area of occupation for very early indigenous peoples. During the British American colonial era, early settlements in the Virginia Colony were formed along the river.

Amherst College history professor Martha Saxton writes in The Widow Washington, that after she was widowed, she didn’t have the money to send George to school in England, as was common for well-to-do Virginia families at the time. She needed him & his siblings to help run Ferry Farm. 

Mary Ball was born c 1708 or 1709, in Lancaster County, Virginia. Her father died when she was 3, & her mother remarried & had more kids. After her step-father died just a few years later, Mary grew up in a matriarchal household. She watched as her mother exercised authority & independence. When Mary was 12, her mother died, & she moved in with her half-sister.

Mary was 22, when she married Augustine Washington, a 36-year-old widower. They had George in 1732. Over the next 10 years they would have 5 more children (one died shortly after childbirth). Augustine died in 1743, when George was 11 years old, leaving Mary to raise their 5 children & run Ferry Farm. 

She did the best she could to provide her children with an education. Although she could barely afford it, she loaned George money for dancing lessons, which she knew were essential for entrance into elite Virginia society. (He ended up paying her back.)  George Washington’s education as a boy at Ferry Farm included copying The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation to learn the correct etiquette and moral code of Virginia’s gentry class. By strictly following its advice, young Washington molded his character into that of a Virginia gentleman.

George began to work away from Ferry Farm, his home base, in the late 1740s-1752, to become a land surveyor & then to join the Virginia militia.  During the Revolutionary war, George & his mother went 5 years without seeing each other. In 1782, she wrote a letter to George describing how difficult the war experience was for her. “I was truly uneasy,” she wrote. George visited her on the way to his presidential inauguration in 1789, the last time he would see her. By then she was living in a house in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she gardened & read. She died in August of that year, at age 81.

See: Mary Washington House Museum on Facebook

See Ferry Farm on Facebook 

See: Ferry Farm on Lives & Legacies Blog

See: How George Washington's Iron-Willed Single Mom Taught Him Honor

See: The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019). 

Tea & Gossip - Satire in Early 18C Britain

 

John Bowles (1701?-1779), a British publisher & printer, produced this satire on gossiping women at the Tea Table in the early 18C.  Here five fashionable ladies drink tea at a table placed on a carpet in an affluent interior. On the table, as well as the tea service, are a closed fan, a muff and an open book lettered, "Chit Chat." A devil lurks beneath the table and Envy drives Justice and Truth out of a door at upper left; two gentlemen eavesdrop at an open window on the right. On the back wall, left to right: an alcove with shelves displaying porcelain, a fireplace above which is a painting showing a monk carrying a woman on his back towards a church or monastery, and a mirror in an elaborate frame. Three columns of etched verse describe the slanderous conversation taking place.
Etching and engraving

The inscription below the title with 69 lines of verse in 3 columns tells the tale...
"How see we Scandal (for our Sex too base) 
Seat its dread Empire in the Female Race, 
'Mong Beaus & Women, Fans & Mechlin Lace. 
Chief Seat of Slander! Ever there we see, 
Thick Scandal circulate with right Bohea. 
There Source of blakning Falshoods Mint of Lies 
Each Dame th' Improvment of her Talent tries, 
And at each Sip a Lady's Honour Dies 
Truth rare as Silence; or a Negro Swan, 
Appears among those Daughters of the Fan. 
Coumnta has the Chair, and deals the Tea, 
In Scandal none more eloquent than she. 
Great President! how just Precedence claim, 
Thy great Demerits, and thy greater Fame! 
In Female War the Dame's profoundly Skill'd; 
Her Tongue [The Magazine of Lies] is Steel'd 
With Rancour; & her Eyes, tho' form'd for none 
But the Destruction of our Sex alone, 
Can at Superior Worth take artfull Aim, 
And blast the Growth of Virtuous Cffilia's Fame, 
Destructive Malice Triumphs in her Smiles, 

Stabs home as Death and Sure as Would kills
Livia—for Sly Invention next to none,
By blaming other's Fictions rents her own:
By feigning to oppose she forms a Lie,
And hides her Malice in Hypocrisy.
Late at a Ball, where Livia constant is,
Her Charms Successfull, young Amanda tries;
Fairer than Blossoms of the Month of May,
Less fresh the Rose, nor Phillis self so Gay.
Steps so engaging, moves with Such a Grace;
Such cheerfull Sweetness Smiling in her Face,
With Wonder & Delight she fills the Plaee.
Each Youth with warm Desire, devours her Charms,
And thinks her clasp'd already in his Arms,
Each Eye with Greediness the Fair Surveys,
Nor ought is heard but in Amanda's Praise.

This Livia saw, and heard with Envy Straight, 
She, turning speaks her well disembl'd Spite, 
Yes (Livia cries) the Damsel Dances well, 
Her Mein is gracefull, and her Air Genteel: 
And is (I dare say) Chast; tho' comon Fame 
(Which seldom utters Truth delights in Blame) 

Censures her Intimacy with my Lord
Yon vicious powder'd Beau, with Ribbond Sword 
Enough, she gains her Point; thro' all the Throng 
The Scandal Spreads, improves on ev'ry Tongue, 
Who is the charming Fair, if any ask, 
'Tis answer'd Straight, a Sister of the Mask. 
Such are the Rest, and thus the Dames agree 
To load each absent Fair with Lifamy. 
Each Virtuous She, that dares these Belles outshine 
Falls a Sure Victim to their Goddess Spleen. 
Nor Hope, Thomasia, Justice from the Fair 
One Word in Virtue's Praise, is Treason there, 
'Tis so like Truth; nor blame, dear injur'd Maid, 
Of Spite or Calumny, the needfull Trade. 

The ninth Comand [were Moses Law in force] 
Would Stop their Breaths, or Murder their Discourse, 
Wits' Stocks would fall, Spoil many a pretty Tale, 
And hated Dumbness on the Sex entail, 
And wer't not pity Maura should be mute? 
Or Amia's pretty prating Mouth be shut? 
What nothing but the Truth? What then's become 
Of Gratia? she must Lie or else be Dumb. 

Be Dumb! she'll ne'er consent, she'll sooner Die, 
Or wear her Painted Callicoe awry, 
Than with that ninth Old-Fashiond Law comply, 
And loose her dear lov'd Volubility." 

One of the Earliest Paintings of an American Drinking Tea

 

Susanna Truax Drinking tea in the British American colonies, Gansevoort Limner, possibly Pieter Vanderlyn 1687-1778. 

Historian Barbara Carson tells us that Direct and regular shipments of tea from China began in 1717 (Chaudhuri 1978,388). Shortly thereafter, British artists depicted elite and middle-class families gathered around tea tables...For the American colonies, however, visual depictions of tea equipment are rare. The earliest, dated around 1730, is a portrait from New York of Susanna Truax at the age of about four. This painting, attributed to the artist known as the "Gansevoort Limner," possibly Pieter Vanderlyn, reflects the early presence of the Dutch in New York. The Dutch were in fact among the first to bring tea to North America. In the painting, the young girl is shown standing beside a tea table. A small teapot rests on a protective stand or pad with a cup and saucer and a sugar dish nearby. Susanna, who seems to be eating sugar with a spoon, drank her tea with a minimum of equipment.

See: "Determining The Growth And Distribution Of Tea Drinking In 18C America" by Barbara G. Carson (1941-2011) 

Taking Wine & Tea on a 1754 Picnic while Fishing on the River in Annapolis, Maryland

Fishing in the British American colonies was a social sport, & the outcome was as unpredictable then as it is nowadays. This poem appeared in the 1754 Maryland Gazette about preparing a list of items to take on a picnic & fishing trip on the Severn River in Annapolis.

1730s-40s  Print by John Simon, After Jacopo Amigoni, Published by Thomas Burfordi. 

Six bottle of wine, right old, good and clear;
a dozen at least, of English strong Beer:
Six quarts of good Rum, to make Punch and Grogg
(the latter a Drink that’s now much vogue)
some Cyder, if sweet, would not be amiss:
Of Butter Six pounds, we can’t do with less.

A tea Kettle, Tea, and all the Tea Geer,
To treat the Ladies and also small Beer.
Sugar, Lemons, a Strainer, likewise a Spoon;
Two China Bowls to drink out of at Noon:
A large piece of Cheese, a Table Cloth too,
A sauce-pan, two Dishes, and a Corkscrew:
Some Plates, Knives and Forks, Fish Kettle or pot,
And pipes and Tobacco must not be forgot:
A frying pan, Bacon or Lard for to Fry:
a tumbler and Glass to use when we’re dry
A hatchet, some Matches, a Steel and a Flint,
Some touch-wood, or Box with good tinder in’t.
some vinegar, Salt, some Parsley and Bread
or else Loaves of Pone to eat in it’s stead:
and for fear of bad Luck at catching of Fish
Suppose we should carry- A READY DRESSED DISH

George Morland “A Party Angling” or “Fishing Party

18C Lady Fishing in August

1774 John Harrower notes Women & Tea Drinking on the Rappahannock about 7 Miles below Fredericksburg

 John Harrower Leaves London for Virginia, 1774, where he writes, This pleace is verry pleasantly situated on the Banks of the River Rappahannock about seven Miles below the Toun of Fredericksburgh, & the school’s right above the Warff so that I can stand in the door & pitch a stone on board of any ship or Boat going up or coming doun the river.

John Harrower, a 40-year-old shopkeeper & tradesman, lived in the far north of the British Isles. Like many of the 40,000 residents of the Scottish Highlands who left after 1760, he found little opportunity there. Harrower made his way to London already swelled as thousands looked unsuccessfully for employment. After several weeks, Harrower signed an indenture to travel to Virginia as a schoolmaster. He sailed with 71 other male indentees, some from London, but many others from across England & Ireland. With his relatively privileged training, Harrower found a new life on a tidewater plantation. These excerpts from his journal tell of his time in London, journey across the Atlantic, his arrival in Virginia, & mentions the women there.

From John Harrower:

Munday 18th [January 1774] This day I got to London & was like a blind man without a guide, not knowing where to go being freindless & having no more money but fifteen shillings & eight pence farthing a small sum to enter London with; But I trust in the mercys of God who is a rich provider & am hopefull before it is done some way will cast up for me. I took up my lodging at the old Ship Tavern in Little Hermitage Street, Mr. George Newton being the landlord, but in Prison for debt at present.

Wednesday 19 Jay. 1774 This day I shifted my cloaths & put on a clean Ruffled Shirt, clean Britches & waistcoat & my Brown Coat. I not having any other cloaths on ever since I left Lerwick but my blew Jacket & Bigg Coat above it & a plain shirt. At 11 am I called to see Capt. Peery, but was told he would not be at home untill 5 pm. Having eat nothing for 24 houres, I dinned in my Lodging this day which cost me l/2 Str. After dinner I took a walk with the mate of a ship a Scotsman who carried me through Virginia Street, London Street, part of White Chappel Street, down to London Hospitall, through Ragg fair, the Minnories Round Tour hill, & the Tour, through Saint Catharins, & Bur street & so home.  At 5 pm called again at Capt. Perrys & the first face I saw was Willie Holcraw of Coningsburgh who I found staid here as a servant, & while I was speacking to him, Capt. Perry came home & he immediately knew me, & desired me to walk in which I did, & after sitting some time & drinking some tea, I called Capt. Perry aside & made my Intentions known to him, at same time begged his advice & assistance; He told me he hardly thought there would be any Business got for me in London. But told me to call on him at the Jamacia Coffee House to morrow at Change time. I then went home, & soon went to Bedd.

Thursday 20th Jay. 1774 This morning breackfast at home & paid 6d. for it. At noon called at the Jamacia Coffee House & soon after seed Capt. Perry & waited here & [at the?] Change untill 3 pm. but no appearance of any Business for me. The time I was in the Coffee house I drank 3ds. worth of punch, & I was obliged to make it serve me for Dinner. At night I hade l/2d. worth of bread & 1d. of Cheese & a poynt of Porter for supper it being all I cou’d afford.

Freiday 21st This morning I seed an advertisement for Bookeepers & Clerks to go to a Gentleman [at?] Philadelphia. I went as it directed to No. 1 in Catharine Court Princes street, but when I came there I was told they were served. I then waited again on Capt. Perry untill after 3 pm, But to no purpose. I this day offered to go steward of a ship bound to Maryland but could not get the birth. This day I was 3 or 4 miles through London & seed St. Pauls Church, the Bank of England where I seed the Gold lying in heaps, I also seed Summerst house, Gild hall, Drury Lane, Covingarden, Adelphus Buildings & severall other pleaces. I then returnd & near my Lodgings I dinned at an eating house & hade 4d. worth of roast Beiff 1d. worth of bread & a poynt of small beer, in all 5 1/2 d.

Saturday 22d. Jay. 1774 This morning I seed an advertiesment in the Publick Ledger for a Messenger to a publick Lodge, Sallery 15/Str. per week & another advertisement for an under Clerk to a Mercht. to both which I wrote answers & went to the places apointed, & found at each place more than a dozen of Letters before me, so that I hade litle expectation that way they being all weel acquanted & I a stranger. I then went to Change to see if any thing would cas[t] up but to no purpose, so I returned hom at 4 pm & spent the evening in a verry sollitary manner supping on bread & Cheese as usuall.

Sunday 23d. This morning I drank some purle for breackfast & then I took a walk in the forenoon through severall streets, & at 1 pm I returned to the eating house I hade formerly been at & dinned which cost me 6 1/2 today having hade 1d. worth of pudding more than I formerly hade. In the afternoon I went to a Methodists Meeting, the Text was in the V Chap: Mathew & the 20th Verse. After sermon I came home & being solitarry in my room I made the following Verses which I insert on the other side of this leaf.
Now at London in a garret room I am,
here frendless & forsaken;
But from the Lord my help will come,
Who trusts in him are not mistaken.
When freinds on earth do faint & faile,
And upon you their backs do turn;
O Truely seek the Lord, & he will
Them comfort that do murn.
I’ll unto God my prayer make,
to him my case make known;
And hopes he will for Jesus sake,
Provide for me & soon.

Munday 24th. This morning I wrote six tickets to give to shipmasters at Change seeking a stewards birth on board some ship, but could not get a birth. I also wrote a petition in generall to any Mercht. or Tradesman setting forth my present situation, & the way in which I hade been brought up & where I hade served & in what station, at same time offering to serve any for the bare suport of life fore some time. But all to no effect, for all pleaces here at present are intierly carried by freinds & Intrest, & many Hundreds are sterving for want of employment, & many good people are begging….

Wednesday 26th. This day I being reduced to the last shilling I hade was oblidged to engage to go to Virginia for four years as a schoolmaster for Bedd, Board, washing & five pound during the whole time. I have also wrote my wife this day a particular Accot. of every thing that has happned to me since I left her untill this date; At 3 pm this day I went on board the Snow Planter Capt. Bowers Comr. for Virginia now lying at Ratliff Cross, & imediatly as I came on board I reed, my Hammock & Bedding. At 4 pm came Alexr. Steuart on board the same Ship. He was Simbisters Servt. & hade only left Zetland about three weeks before me. We were a good deall surprised to meet with on[e] another in this place.

Thursday 27th Jay. 1774 This day ranie weather. The ships crew imployed in rigging the ship under the Direction of the mate & I was imployed in getting my Hammock slung. At 2 pm came on board Alexr. Burnet nephew to Mr. Frances Farquharson writter in Edinburgh & one Samuel Mitchell a Cooper from Yorkshire & both entred into the birth & Mace with Stewart & me.

Freiday 28th. This day the ships crew imployed as Yesterday.

Saturday 29th. This day came on board Alexr. Kennedy a young man from Edinburgh who hade been a Master Cooper there & a Glasgow Man by trade a Barber both which we took into our Mace, which compleated it being five Scotsmen & one Yorkshire man, & was always called the Scots Mace, & the Capt. told me he was from the Toun of Aberbothick in Scotland, but that he [had] note been there since he was fifteen years of age but hade been always in the Virginia trade which I was verry glade to hear. . .

Sunday 6th. At 7 am got under way with a fair wind & clear wr. [weather] & at 11 am came to an anchor off Gravesend & immediatly the Mercht. came on board & a Doctor & clerk with him & while the Clerk was fulling up the Indentures the doctor search’d every servt. to see that they were sound when two was turned ashore haveing the clap, & Seventy five were Intend to Capt. Bowres for four Years.

Munday 7th. Feby. 1774 This forenoon imployed in getting in provisions & water; at 4 pm put a servant ashore extreamly bade in a fiver, & then got under saile for Virginia with seventy Servants on board all indented to serve four years there at their differint Occoupations myself being one of the Number & Indented for a Clerk & Bookeeper, But when I aravied there I cou’d get no such birth as will appear in its place. At pm we came to an anchor at the Nore it blowing & snowing verry hard.

Tuesday 8th. At 5 am made saile from the Nore with the wind at W.N.W. Clear weather & blowing hard. At 2 pm got off a Pillot from Deall to take our River Pillot ashore for which Boat Capt. Bowers paid one & a half Guineas, & after buying some Gin here we stood streight to sea Under Close R. T. sails & our fore saile, a verry high sea running all this day.

Wednesday 9th. Wind at V.N.V. Steering V.B.S. in Company with the Price Freggate of Eighteen Guns bound to Jamacia. At noon caste out the Rd [reefs?] out of the Topsailes. . . .

Tuesday [May] 10th. [after the ship has arrived in Virginia] At 2 am wegh’d & stood up with the tide, came to an Anchor at 6 am & lay untill Do. 8 when we weigh’d with a fair wind & got to our Moorings at 6 pm at the Toun of Fredericksburgh.

Wednesday 11th. At 10 am Both Coopers & the Barber from our Mace went ashore upon tryall. At night one Daniel Turner a servt. returned on board from Liberty so drunk that he abused the Capt. Cheif Mate & Boatswan to a verry high degree, which made to be horse whipt. put in Irons & thumb screwed. An houre after he was unthumbscrewed, taken out of the Irons, but then he was hand cuffed, & gagged all night.

Thursday 12th May 1774, All hands quite on board this day. Turner ungagged But continoued in handcuffs.

Freiday 13th. This forenoon put ashore here what bale goods we hade remaining on board. In the afternoon Mr. Burnet, Stewart & myself went ashore on liberty to take a walk & see the Toun, who’s principall street is about half an English Mile long, the houses generally at a little distance one from another, some of them being built of wood & some of them of brick, & all covered with wood made in the form of slates about four Inches broad, which when painted blew you wou’d not know it from a house sclated with Isedell sclate. In this Toun the Church, the Counsell house, the Tolbooth the Gallows & the Pillary are all within 130 yds. of each other. The Market house is a large brick building a litle way from the Church. Here we drank some Bottles of beer of their own brewing & some bottles of Cyder for which we paid 3 1/2 per bottle of each. Returned on board in the evening. Turner still in handcuffs.

Saturday 14th. Nothing remarcable. Turner still in handcuffs.

Sunday 15th. All last night a great deall of thunder & Lightning. This day Mr. Anderson came to toun & came on bord, & spacke to severall of the servts. Turner still handcuff’d.

Munday 16th May 1774 This day severalls came on board to purchase servts. Indentures & among them there was two Soul drivers. They are men who make it their bussines to go on board all ships who have in either Servants or Convicts & buy sometimes the whole & sometimes a parcell of them as they can agree, & then they drive them through the Country like a parcell of Sheep untill they can sell them to advantage, but all went away without buying any.

Tuesday 17th. This day Mr. Anderson the Mercht. sent for me into the [cabin? ] & verry genteely told me that on my recomendations he would do his outmost to get me settled as a Clerk or bookeeper if not as a schoolmaster which last he told me he thought wou’d turn out more to my advantage upon being settled in a good famely. The ships crew & servants imployed in getting ashore all the cask out of the hould, no sales this day.

Wednesday 18th. This day the ships crew & servants imployed in getting out the ballast & unrigging the ship. One Cooper, one Blacksmith & one Shoemaker were settled with Masters this day.

Thursday 19th. One Farmer’s time sold & one Cabinet Maker on tryall.

Freiday 20th. This day we got the first four Hhds. of Tobacco on board; Turner still continous handcuffed.

Saturday 21st May 1774 This day one Mr. Cowly a Man twixt fifty & sixty years of age, a servt., also three sons of his their ages from Eight to fourteen were all settled with one McDonald a Scotsman.

Sunday 22d. All hands quiet on board.

Munday 23d. This morning a great number of Gentlemen & Ladies driving into Town it being an anuall Fair day & tomorrow the day of the Horse races. At 11 am Mr. Anderson begged [me] to settle as a schoolmaster with a freind of his one Colonel Daingerfield & told me he was to be in Town tomorrow, or perhaps to night, & how soon he came he shou’d aquant me. At same time all the rest of the servants were ordred ashore to a tent at Fredericksbg. & severall of their Indentures were then sold. About 4 pm I was brought to Colonel Daingerfield, when we imediatly agreed & my Indenture for four years was then delivered him & he was to send for me the next day. At same time ordred to get all my dirty Cloaths of every kind, washed at his expence in Toun; at night he sent me five shillings on board by Capt. Bowers to keep my pocket.

Tuesday 24th. May 1774 This morning I left the Ship at 6 am having been sixteen weeks & six days on board her. I hade for Breackfast after I came ashore one Chappin sweet milk for which I paid 3 1/2 Cury. At 11 am went to see a horse race about a mille from Toun, where there was a number of Genteel Company as well as others. Here I met with the Colonel again & after some talk with him he gave me cash to pay for washing all my Cloaths & Something over. The reace was gain’d by a Bay Mare, a white boy ridder. There was a gray Mare started with the Bay a black boy ridder but was far distant the last heat.

Wednesday 25th. I Lodged in a Tavern last night & paid 7 1/2 for my Bedd & 7 1/2 for my breackfast. This morning a verry heavy rain untill 11 am. Then I recd. my Linens &ca. all clean washed & packing every thing up I went on board the ship & Bought this Book for which I paid 18d. Str. I also bought a small Divinity book called the Christian Monitor & a spelling book, both at 7 1/2 & an Arithmetick at 1/6d. all for my own Accot.

Thursday 26th. This day at noon the Colonel sent a Black with a cuple of Horses for me & soon after I set out on Horseback & aravied at his seat of Belvidera about 3 pm & after I hade dined the Colonel took me to a neat little house at the upper end of an Avenue of planting at 500 yds. from the Main house, where I was to keep the school, & Lodge myself in it.

This pleace is verry pleasantly situated on the Banks of the River Rappahannock about seven Miles below the Toun of Fredericksburgh, & the school’s right above the Warff so that I can stand in the door & pitch a stone on board of any ship or Boat going up or coming doun the river.

Freiday 27th. This morning about 8 am the Colonel delivered his three sons to my Charge to teach them to read write & figure. His oldest son Edwin 10 years of age, intred into two syllables in the spelling book, Bathourest his second son 6 years of age in the Alphabete & William his third son 4 years of age does not know the letters. He has likeways a Daughter whose name is Hanna Basset __ Years of age. Soon after we were all sent for to breackfast to which we hade tea Bread, Butter & cold meat & there was at table the Colonel, his Lady, his Childreen, the housekeeper & myself. At 11 am the Colonel & his Lady went some where to pay a visite, he upon horseback & she in her Charriot. At 2 pm I dined with the Housekeeper the Childreen & a Stranger Lady. At 6 pm I left school, & then I eat plenty of fine straw berries, but they neither drink Tea in the afternoon nor eat any supper here for the most part. My school Houres is from 6 to 8 in the Morning, in the forenoon from 9 to 12 & from 3 to 6 in the afternoon.

Source: John Harrower, The Journal of John Harrower, An Indentured Servant in the Colony of Virginia, 1773–1776 (New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1963), 14–19, 38–42.

1788 Parents & Children - An American Family at Tea

1788 Johannes Eckstein (American artist, 1736-1817) The Samuels Family (with tea!)

Family portraits are rare in the early 18C British American colonies, perhaps because they were expensive & usually so large, that they required a sizable public parlor for display. Most 18C colonial American houses were not spacious. Family portraits are also much more complicated for the artist, and there were few artists available in colonial America early in the 18C. But the incidence of family portraits grew, as the number of painters & spaces in homes also grew.

Some gentlemen had family portraits painted as a sign of wealth & as a factor in gaining respect & power in the new world. The painting announced that they were important, entitled to be the natural leader in the new society. Other family paintings commemorated a specific event. Most were not painted to be tucked away for private family contemplation, but to act as a public icon or an emblematic memory for an audience larger than the immediate family. The composition of family paintings was changing throughout the 18C as well.

The concept of family was evolving as emerging Enlightenment ideas began to impact everyday domestic life & family values in colonial America. Slowly throughout the century, the strict patriarchal family concept was beginning to change. English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) implied that women should have greater authority in the family & the home. In portraits, artists began to display the woman on nearly the same level as the husband.

Artists began to feel that they could portray married couples as congenial companions. Painters began to portray men participating more in the rearing of their children, they were no longer just expected to be distant strict disciplinarians. Americans were beginning to believe that children needed to be loved & to play. The individual was also becoming more important in 18th-century America. Artists often used props to signify something about the talents, skills, & identities of individuals within these families. In one way or another, each of the following portraits reflects changing patriarchal values, gender relations, attitudes towards women & children, and the growing democratization of American society. But women did not receive the right to vote in the United States until 1920.

Tea in the Lfe of a Wealthy Widow in 18C New York

Margarita Schuyler was a wealthy housewife in the countryside near Albany, New York. She was born in January 1701, the daughter of Johannes Schuyler & Elsie Staats Wendell. She was raised by her widowed mother & grew up in the Schuyler house in Albany, New York, & at the family farm, where she enjoyed the company of a large extended family. At the age of 19, in December 1720, she married her first cousin Colonel Phillipus Schuyler. The couple had no children. They made their home at their country seat north of Albany called the Flats, which became a retreat for family and visitors. Her husband died in February, 1758. By that time, his wife was known as "Madame Schuyler," a gracious hostess & matriarchial figure in Albany social circles. Madame Schuyler knew better than to remarry, because then her husband would own all of her assets.  Instead she lived just as she chose for 54 more years as a widow.  She died at the Flats on August 28, 1782, at the age of 81. Ann Grant describes the older Madame Schulyer in her memoir.
"After the middle of life, she went little out; her household, long since arranged by certain general rules, went regularly on, because every domestic knew exactly the duties of his or her place...
"She began the morning with reading the Scriptures. They always breakfasted early, and dined two hours later than the primitive inhabitants, who always took that meal at twelve. This departure from the ancient customs was necessary in this family, to accommodate the great numbers of British as well as strangers from New York, who were daily entertained at her liberal table. After breakfast she gave orders for the family details of the day...her household affairs...went on in a mechanical kind of progress, that seemed to engage little of her attention, though her vigilant and overruling mind set every spring of action in motion...
"Having thus easily and speedily arranged the details of the day, she retired to read in her closet, where she generally remained till about eleven; when, being unequal to distant walks, the colonel and she, and some of her elder guests, passed some of the hotter hours among those embowering shades of her garden, in which she took great pleasure...
"From this retreat they adjourned to the portico; and while the colonel either retired to write, or went to give directions to his servants, she sat in this little tribunal, giving audience to new settlers, followers of the army left in hapless dependence, and others who wanted assistance or advise, or hoped she would intercede with the colonel for something more peculiarly in his way, he having great influence with the colonial government...
"At the usual hour her dinner-party assembled, which was generally a large one...There was more choice and selection, and perhaps more abundance at her table, than at those of the other primitive inhabitants...Her dinner-party generally consisted of some of her intimate friends or near relations and strangers sometimes invited, merely as friendless travelers, on the score of hospitality, but often welcomed for some time as stationary visitors, on account of worth or talents, that gave value to their society; and, lastly, military guests... Conversation here was always rational, generally instructive, and often cheerful...
"The afternoon frequently brought with it a new set of guests. Tea was always drank early here...with so many petty luxuries of pastry, confectionary, &c. that it might well be accounted a meal by those whose early and frugal dinners had so long gone by...

 "In Albany it was customary, after the heat of the day was past, for the young people to go in parties of three or four, in open carriages, to drink tea at an hour or two’s drive from town. The receiving and entertaining this sort of company generally was the province of the younger part of the family; and of these parties many came, in summer evenings, to the Flats, when tea, which was very early, was over...

"The young people, and those who were older, took their different walks, while Madame sat in her portico, engaged in what might comparatively be called light reading, essays, biography, poetry, &c. till the younger party set out on their return home, and her domestic friends rejoined her in her portico, where, in warm evenings, a slight repast was sometimes brought; but they more frequently shared the last and most truly social meal within..."

Memoirs of an American Lady: with Sketches of Manners and Scenery in America, as they existed previous to the Revolution written by Anne Mc Vickar Grant. First published by Strahan and Preston, Printers-Street, London, in 1808.

Tea Drinking Moves to the Masses - 2 Preachers write that some 18C Farm Women served Tea. Some didn't, but times were changing...

Before British taxation efforts & the American Revolution politicized tea, the acquisition of new domestic equipment for serving this hot beverage & the display of genteel behavior when drinking it had come to signal social know-how & refinement among colonists, especially the women. Although the casual perusal of travel journals, letters, diaries, & other personal writings from the period might suggest that tea drinking almost immediately became widespread throughout the colonies, further examination reveals different patterns of consumption at various times & within differing populations.

Around 1750, Israel Acrelius (1714-1800) asserted in his history of the Swedish settlement on the Delaware River that “tea, coffee, & chocolate are so general as to be found in the most remote cabins, if not for daily use, yet for visitors, mixed with Muscovado [a partially refined sugar].”  Israel Acrelius was a Swedish Lutheran missionary & priest. Beginning in 1749, Acrelius took a post in Wilmington, Delaware, site of a Swedish Lutheran congregation. He returned to Sweden in 1756 & in 1759, he published his History of New Sweden, which dealt with the religious & secular history of the area. This book was translated into English by William Morton Reynolds, who learnt Swedish for the purpose, & published in 1874.

The Virginian Devereaux Jarratt (1733-1801) presented a different picture, however, when he reminisced about his childhood in the 1740s: "Our food was altogether the produce of the farm, or plantation except a little sugar, which was rarely used. We made no use of tea or coffee for breakfast, or at any other time; nor did I know a single family that made any use of them…. I suppose the richer sort might make use of those & other luxuries, but to such people I had no access. We were accustomed to look upon, what were cdlcd gentle folks, as beings of a superior order." Jarratt was the rector of Bath Parish in Dinwiddie County & one of the most influential evangelical leaders in Virginia’s Anglican Church whose autobiography, The Life of the Reverend Devereux Jarratt, was published in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1806.

Evidence of African American tea use & tea ware. When Jullian Ursyn Niemcewicz from Poland visited Mount Vernon in 1797, he wrote: "We entered one of the huts of the blacks, for one can not call them by the name of houses. They are more miserable than the most miserable of the cottages of our peasants. The husband & wife sleep on a mean pallet, the children on the ground; a very bad fireplace, some utensils for cooking, but in the middle of this poverty some cups & a teapot." Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1758-1841) was a Polish author & statesman. His Under Their Vine And Fig Tree. Travels through America in 1797-1799, was published in 1805. It is reported that a few African American potters were sufficiently familiar with tea wares to copy European shapes in ordinary earthenware.  

While tea, tea wares, & social tea drinking were important in the 18C, they were not universal. Wealthy families in America initially began to serve tea on social occasions. They bought significant quantities of equipment & usually used it according to earlier precise British rules of conduct & performance. About 1750, however, colonials with less money began to set their social ambitions & took advantage of the tea wares that producers were supplying in many materials & designs & at a wide range of price levels.

Throughout the colonies Americans were buying teapots, cups & saucers, & other items. Those made of silver, hard-paste porcelain from China, or soft-paste & hard-paste porcelain from England & Europe were expensive, but similar items, made of earthenware or stoneware, became available at lower prices.

As the century progressed, innovations in ceramic production further expanded the range of available wares in terms of price & appearance. Poorer customers with limited amounts of cash or credit could participate in the growing consumer revolution. A major transformation in both demand & production was well underway by the middle of the 18C. Gradually ordinary people assumed the right to spend a little money to express & show off their personal taste.

A 20C historian estimated that by the time of the Revolution about 2/3 of white adults could have had tea every day (Shammas 1990, 64). In 1759, Ezra Stiles, the president of Yale, traveled to 18C Cape Cod where he counted 1,940 families of whom 1,500, or 77% drank tea (Stiles 1916, 31). 

See: Determining The Growth And Distribution Of Tea Drinking In Eighteenth-Century America

See: Rodris Roth, Tea Drinking in 18th-Century America: Its Etiquette & Equipage. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1961). This excellent book by Rodris Roth that can be found online in its entirety at Project Gutenberg.