History of American Women

Wife of Declaration of Independence Signer Abraham Clark Abraham Clark and his signature on the Declaration of Independence Sarah Hatfield was born in 1728, the eldest daughter of Isaac and Sarah Price Hatfield, a farming family in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Abraham Clark was born February 15, 1725, and in his boyhood, he was too frail for farm work. His father, Thomas Clark, realized that Abraham had a natural gift for mathematics, so he hired a tutor to teach Abraham the profession of surveying. Clark’s love of study, and the generosity of his character, naturally made him popular – his opinion was valued, and often sought. He was called to fill various offices, the duties of which rendered himself highly useful…

John Morton Wife of Signer of the Declaration of Independence John Morton Anne Justis was born in 1730 in Kingsessing, Pennsylvania, a neighborhood in the southwestern section of Philadelphia. She was the daughter of Morton Justis and Brita Walraven Justis, Swedish immigrants. John Morton was born in 1724 in Chester County, Pennsylvania, on a farm in Ridley Township. They were neighbors in the farmland of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, both of Swedish extraction, whose ancestors immigrated to the lower counties of Pennsylvania at the opening of the eighteenth century. John’s father died a few months before his birth. When John was about seven years old, his mother his mother married an Englishman, John Sketchley. His stepfather was an intelligent and gifted…

Wife of Signer John Witherspoon Image: John Witherspoon John Witherspoon was born on February 5, 1722, at the village of Gifford, near Edinburgh, Scotland. The males in his family were all clergymen, and he was trained to become a Presbyterian minister. At the age of four, he could read the Bible. He attended grammar school at the neighboring town of Haddington. At age 13, he entered college, and earned Master of Arts (1739) and Doctorate of Divinity (1743) degrees from the University of Edinburgh. In 1743, the Haddington Presbytery licensed him to preach, and he was ordained two years later at Beith, Ayrshire, as a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) minister. He occupied that pulpit until 1757, and there he met…

John Hart Wife of Declaration of Independence Signer John Hart Deborah Scudder was the only child of Richard Scudder from Scudder Falls, and she had a distinguished family history, going back almost to the Mayflower. Deborah’s great-grandfather, John Scudder, came to Salem, Massachusetts, on the James in 1635. With his brothers Thomas and Henry, John Scudder moved from there to Southold, Long Island, in 1651, to Huntington in 1657, and to Newtown in 1660, where he was prominent in town affairs. John Hart was born, probably in 1711, in Hopewell Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Edward Hart, John’s father, was a Justice of the Peace, a Public Assessor, and a farmer. He arrived in Hopewell about 1710, at the age…

Wife of Declaration of Independence Signer Philip Livingston Image: Philip Livingston Christina Ten Broeck was born in Albany, New York, on December 30, 1718, the daughter of Albany civic leader Dirck Ten Broeck and his wife Margarita Cuyler, and the great-granddaughter of Albany mayor Dirck Wesselse Ten Broeck. She was the third of twelve children, and grew up in Albany with her sisters and brother in a comfortable home on Market Street. Philip Livingston was born January 15, 1716, at his father’s townhouse in Albany, and spent most of his childhood there or at the family manor at Linlithgo on the Hudson River, about 30 miles to the south. He was born into the well-to-do and prominent family. His father,…