History of American Women

Wife of Declaration of Independence Signer Benjamin Harrison Elizabeth Bassett was born on December 13, 1730, at Eltham, the family estate in New Kent County, Virginia. She was the daughter of William Bassett and a niece of Martha Washington. Elizabeth’s great-grandfather, William Bassett, came to America from Newport on the Isle of Wight and settled in Blissland in New Kent County, Virginia, where he died in 1671. Benjamin Harrison V Charles Willson Peale, Artist National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian Institution Benjamin Harrison V was born on April 5, 1726, at Berkeley Plantation, the family estate in Charles City County, Virginia, which is beautifully situated on the banks of the James River overlooking Petersburg and Richmond. He was the eldest son of…

Wife of Declaration of Independence Signer George Walton Dorothy Camber was born 1754 in Chatham County, Georgia, the daughter of Dorothy and Thomas Camber, who came to America from East Essex, England. She had two sisters and three brothers. The crown had given large tracts of land in the Colony of Georgia to her father. George Walton was born in December 1749 in Farmville, Cumberland County, Virginia, the fourth child of Robert Walton and Mary Hughes. George’s father died within a few months of his birth, and his mother died before he was seven. He was raised by his uncle, also named George Walton, of Prince Edward County, Virginia, who oversaw his education and welfare until he was apprenticed to…

Wife of Edward Rutledge Howe and the Commissioners John Ward Dunsmore painting of the 1776 meeting between British Admiral Richard Howe and the American Commissioners: Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge. Henrietta Middleton was born on November 15, 1750, at Charleston, South Carolina. Henrietta was the daughter of Henry Middleton, the second president of First Continental Congress, and the sister of Arthur Middleton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Edward Rutledge was born on November 23, 1749, at Christ Church Parish, South Carolina. He was the youngest of the seven children born to Dr. John Rutledge, who had emigrated from Ireland to South Carolina around 1735, and Sarah Hext Rutledge. Dr. Rutledge died on December 25, 1750, leaving…

Wife of Declaration of Independence Signer Elbridge Gerry Elbridge Gerry James Bogle, Artist Ann Thompson was born on August 12, 1763, and was educated in Europe. She was the daughter of Catharine (Walton) and James Thompson, a wealthy New York mechant from an old and highly honored family. Ann’s grandfather, Jacob Walton, first married Maria Beekman and later Polly Cruger. Both wives were members of distinguished colonial families in New York. Elbridge Thomas Gerry was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, on July 17, 1744, the third of Thomas and Elizabeth Greenleaf Gerry’s eleven/twelve children. A former ship’s captain who emigrated from England in 1730, Thomas Gerry was a pillar of the Marblehead community, serving as a justice of the peace and…