Well, it would have helped if i had spelled Margaret BRENT's name correctly...lol. She is rather obscure if you haven't studied women's history, but very important to know about. We tend to think that women have always had a FAR backseat in public life until the recent decades. Actually women in colonial America had many fewer obstacles to public life than women had as they moved thru the 19th century and into the 20th.
Margaret Brent, her sister Mary and 2 brothers emigrated to Maryland from Grt Brit in 1638. The Brent sisters established their own plantantions, which they ran w/out their brothers' help. In fact, Margaret Brent often acted as her brothers' representative and business adviser. Collecting payment in those days often involved suing in court. Records show "Mistress Brent" participating in 134 separate court actions in 8 yrs and she usually won.
Brent was a close friend of Lord Calvert, MA's gov'nor and he called her to his bedside, giving the "briefest will in the history of law": "I make you my sole executrix. Take all and pay all." As executrix, Brent assumed responsibility for Clavert's estates and became the power of atty for Lord Baltimore, C's brother, then in London.
Brent had established herself a a major political figure and many believed she should be governor. She didn't seek that post, but in 1648, she appeared before the MA Assembly and asked for 2 votes in the assembly: 1 as C's executrix, the other as Lord B's "attorney." It was the 1st time in parliamentary history that a woman had sought political recognition in a governing body and had attached to her the title of "atty." She was denied the votes in the assembly and protested against any proceedings that effected her "jobs" if she did not have a say in the proceedings. As could be expected, the story heard by Lord Baltimore in England, led him to believe she was opposing him, so he turned against her.
See more at http://www.aboutfamouspeople.com/article1014.html
or at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_BrentElizabeth Haddon Estaugh is of more local interest, but represents the equality that Quakers bestowed on the girls and women. EHE's father had bought 600 acres in "West" Jersey (now known as "South" Jersey) in what is now Camden Co. He became ill and in 1701 sent his 20 yr old dgt, w/ his power of atty to settle the land. Because Quakers believed that everyone should be able to read the Bible for themselves, they educated boys and girls, so her father felt she was prepared to handle the task before her. Can you imagine a 20 yr old, leaving a comfortable home, getting on a small sailing ship, crossing a "dangerous" ocean, going to a place of which she had very little information but of which there were rumors of "savages" and wild animals, a place w/ few towns, let alone cities, w/ only a servant as a companion?
EHE stayed for a night w/ Quaker acquaintances who were still living in a cave along the Deleware River, having not build a home for themselves. She hired people to clear some of her land and set to establishing a "plantation." (large farms were called p's even in the north at that point.) W/in a year she had a small house, some crops planted, met w/ the Lenni Lenape Indians in the area and proposed to John Estaugh, a Quaker minister that she had met briefly some yrs before in England. She managed the farm, became known for her herbs, medicines and healing - some of which she learned from the LL and eventually gave the property for the Quaker Meeting House in what is now Haddonfield, NJ. She served as clerk to the women's meeting for 50 yrs and died at 82 yrs old, being rather famous for her charity to the poor and the sick.
She had proved to be extraordinary in a number of ways, including her fierce sense of personal independence, in an era when women had few rights, and in her zealous dedication to Quaker beliefs. She retained to the last, control of her affairs.
More at
http://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2008/08/elizabeth-haddon-estaugh.htmlPatience Lovell Wright is considered the first woman sculptor in America, but she also acted as a "spy" in London, having gone there after the was a fire in her studio in Bordentown, NJ.
See more at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patience_WrightYou probably know more about the women at the founding of the country, i'll get back to them at a later time.................jean
