Category: Women in the American Revolution

First Woman Executed in the New United States Bathseba Ruggles was born February 13, 1745, to Timothy Ruggles, a very wealthy man who had held some of the most prominent positions in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Bathsheba was said to be her father’s favorite child, was educated well and had everything money could buy. Joshua Spooner was born in 1741. Ruggles, a lawyer and chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Worcester, Massachusetts, was a strong-willed and determined man and an avowed Loyalist (British supporter). Under public censure for his refusal to sign the Stamp Act protest as a Massachusetts delegate to the 1765 Stamp Act Congress, Ruggles may have arranged the marriage of his daughter Bathsheba to…

Wife of Virginia Statesman Edmund Pendleton Sarah Pollard was born on May 4, 1725, daughter of Joseph and Priscilla Pollard. Edmund Pendleton was was born into the Virginia colony’s elite on September 9, 1721, in Caroline County, Virginia. However, his father’s early death and the subsequent loss of the family’s property left Pendleton to shift for himself. His upper-class origins eventually served him well, but his early years were ones of struggle.

North Carolina Revolutionary War Heroine Image: Martha Bell Monument In 1928, Bell was honored with a granite monument at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park which reads: Loyal Whig, Enthusiastic Patriot, Revolutionary Heroine. Martha McFarland was born in 1735 in Alamance County, North Carolina. In 1759, Martha married Colonel John McGee, a prosperous farmer and trader who came to North Carolina in 1750. They had five children: Jane (1760-1835), Susannah (1761-1843), John (1763-1836), William (1768-1817) and Andrew McGee (d. 1819). The McGees were among the wealthiest people in the county. John McGee died in 1773, but left his family well provided for. Martha carried on his business and farming, just as he had been doing. His farming operations were quite extensive…

Great American Heroine Esther De Berdt was born October 22, 1746, in London, England, one of two children of Martha Symon De Berdt and Dennis De Berdt, an English businessman who traded with the colonists in Delaware and Massachusetts. The fair-haired, attractive young Esther was a lively talker and a lover of books. The De Berdt children grew up near the Houses of Parliament, in Artillery Court, with summers spent in Enfield. Arriving in Philadelphia from London as a young bride, Esther De Berdt Reed had by 1774 become a zealous American Patriot. The Ladies Association she founded made shirts for the soldiers of the Continental Army, and became for the model for similar drives in Maryland, New Jersey and…

Heroine of the Battle of Guilford Court House Image: Statue of Kerenhappuch Norman Turner Guilford Court House National Military Park Historians are undecided about the exact birth date of Kerenhappuch Norman, but it is assumed that she was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, in about 1715. She was the daughter of a well known tobacco planter, Isaac Norman, Jr. and his wife, the former Frances Courtney. Kerenhappuch Norman married James Turner, the son of a prominent family and also a tobacco planter, in Spotsylvania County in 1733. Deed records show that following the wedding, Isaac Norman gave 50 pounds and 100 acres of his home plantation to his daughter and her new husband.

Georgia Heroine of the Revolutionary War Nancy Morgan Hart Painting by Louis S. Glanzman According to Revolutionary lore, Nancy Hart famously outwitted a group of Tories who had invaded her home. She served them liquor, and once they were drunk, filched their weapons, which she used to shoot two of the men and hold the rest captive until help arrived. Nancy Morgan was born in the Yadkin River Valley of North Carolina in 1753. She grew up to be a very tall, muscular woman with red hair, blue eyes and a smallpox-scarred face. Nancy was feisty and had a quick temper. Local Cherokees referred to her as war woman. She was illiterate but ran her household well and was knowledgeable…

South Carolina Heroine of the Revolutionary War Emily Geiger Monument Inscription: Heroine of the Revolutionary War Captured while delivering secret message From Gen Greene to Gen Sumter Held captive at Fort Granby July 3, 1781 During the Revolutionary War, the Carolina colonies were invaded by the British in 1781. Patriot Generals Nathanael Greene, Thomas Sumter, Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, and Francis Marion were waging an all-out campaign to rid South Carolina of the British. General Greene had spent 28 days trying to capture the fort at Ninety-Six, South Carolina, but had been forced to retreat when he discovered that British General Lord Francis Rawdon was coming with reinforcements. General Greene felt that Rawdon’s men were vulnerable to attack, but…

Patriot and Heroine of the Revolutionary War Historic Brattonsville Revolutionary War historic site that includes the log cabin home of Martha and William Bratton in South Carolina Martha Robertson was born about 1750 in Rowan County, North Carolina. Not much is known about her early life, but her acts of heroism during the Revolutionary War are very well known. Martha Robertson married William Bratton, a Pennsylvanian of Irish parentage, who lived in the York District of South Carolina, just below the North Carolina border. In the troubled times that preceded the American Revolution, the Brattons’ courage and deportment gave them great influence among their neighbors and friends. The year 1780 was a dark period for the patriots of South Carolina,…