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Wife of Thomas Paine, Author of Common Sense Thomas Paine was born on January 29, 1737, in Thetford, England. His father, Joseph, was a poor Quaker corset maker who tried to provide his son with an education at the local grammar school, but eventually was forced to apprentice him to his trade. Paine was unable to accept this occupation. For the next 24 years, he failed or was unhappy in every job he tried. He went to sea at 19, lived in a variety of places, and was for a time a corset maker like his father, then a tobacconist, grocer, and teacher. On September 27, 1759, Thomas Paine married Mary Lambert. His business collapsed soon after. Mary became pregnant,…

Wife of Declaration of Independence Signer Robert Treat Paine Robert Treat Paine Edward Savage and John Coles, Jr., Artists Sarah Cobb was born on May 15, 1744, in Taunton, Massachusetts, where her father, Captain Thomas Cobb, was a prominent citizen, magistrate, and member of the legislature. Her mother was Lydia Leonard, whose father and grandfather were both called Captain James Leonard, had been prominent in the early history of Bristol County. Her brother, General David Cobb, served all through the Revolution, three years of that time as an aide on the staff of George Washington. Sarah’s early life and education were similar to that of other daughters of well-to-do citizens of the commonwealth. Robert Treat Paine was born in Boston…

Wife of Declaration Signer William Whipple Katharine Moffat was born in 1734 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the daughter of John Moffat, who came to America as a ship captain engaged in the timber trade. About 1724, John Moffat had married a young woman of means named Katharine Cutt, and through trade and land speculation, they became one of New Hampshire’s wealthiest couples. Of their five children, four survived – three daughters and one son. William Whipple was born January 14, 1730, in Kittery, Maine, son of Captain William and Mary Cutt Whipple. His mother was the daughter of Robert Cutts, a wealthy and distinguished ship-builder, who established himself at Kittery, and at his death left her a handsome fortune. Young…

Wife of Revolutionary War Patriot Henry Knox Lucy Flucker, born in 1756, was the daughter of Thomas Flucker, the Royal Secretary of the Province of Massachusetts and a loyalist in Boston, Massachusetts. Henry Knox was born into poverty in Boston in 1750, an ordinary man who rose to face extraordinary circumstances. He left Boston Latin Grammar School at a young age to apprentice to a bookbinder, helping to support his widowed mother and younger brother. Henry Knox eventually worked his way to opening his own bookshop in Boston at the age of 21. The young gentlemen of privilege congregated there, and Henry observed their manners and soon could be mistaken for one of them. His keen interest in military strategy…

Wife of Declaration of Independence Signer: William Hooper Image: William Hooper William Hooper was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1742. His early education, at the age of seven, was seven years at the Boston Latin School. When he completed these studies, he entered the sophomore class of Harvard College in 1757, at age 16, graduating in 1760 with a B.A. degree and in 1763 with a M.A. degree. Although William Hooper’s parents wanted him to enter the clergy, but much to the chagrin of his father rejected the ministry as a profession. The next year, he further alienated his Loyalist father and isolated himself from his family by studying law under James Otis, a brilliant but radical Boston lawyer. After…