Patriots, Prisoners & Passengers: Women's History Month

“I long to hear that you have declared an independency ... I desire you would remember the ladies” - Abigail Adams to husband John, 1776

At Staatsburgh, portraits of Ruth Livingston Mills’s ancestors feature prominently throughout the house. This was by design, as Ruth’s pedigree—alongside her family’s generational wealth and her impeccable hostessing skills—was one major factor in her quest to become queen of Gilded Age Society. On a tour of the mansion, the accomplishments and prominent offices held by the men in her family are highlighted, as they feature so greatly in American revolutionary history. But the women associated with Ruth’s family—Elizabeth Lewis, Margaret Livingston, Catherine Livingston, and Mary Lincoln—have their own stories of courage, duty, and perseverance amidst the turmoil of revolutionary America.

Celebrating Women’s History Month and marking REV250—the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution in 2025—we are remembering ‘the ladies’ and highlighting four revolutionary women in Ruth Livingston Mills's family tree.

 

Elizabeth Annesley Lewis (1715-1778)

Elizabeth, Ruth’s great-great-grandmother, was captured at her home in Long Island by the British in the autumn of 1776. Her husband was Francis Lewis, a merchant with a royal land grant, who later joined the patriot cause as a member of the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence. In retribution for her family’ s part in the revolution, Elizabeth was imprisoned under horrific conditions for three months until General Washington was able to arrange her freedom through a prisoner swap.

Elizabeth Lewis was driven to an untimely death by the hardships she was forced to undergo from the British. She contracted a fever which developed into lingering consumption and died within two years of being released from prison. She lived to see her children married, but not to see her country liberated from British rule. Sadly, no known portraits of Elizabeth survive today.

Daughters of the American Revolution medal depicting Elizabeth Lewis' imprisonment and her enslaved servant suppling her with goods.

Julia Delafield, a great-granddaughter of the signer, wrote in her biography of Francis Lewis: “The conduct and careers of her children is the best eulogy of Mrs. Francis Lewis.” From this same source, Elizabeth’ son, Morgan Lewis, is quoted as saying, “My idea of the happiness of Heaven is a reunion with my mother." Her bravery was commemorated with this pewter medallion, struck by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) during the Bicentennial as part of their “Great Women of the American Revolution” series.

Margaret Beekman Livingston (1724-1800)

Margaret Beekman, another great-great grandmother of Ruth, was born in Rhinebeck, New York, and was the only heir to her grandfather’s abundant lands in Rhinebeck and Southern Dutchess County, as well as a vast fortune. She married Robert “The Judge” Livingston at age eighteen, and together they had ten children. Based on their letters, she was a source of great emotional support to him throughout his life and political career. He wrote, “you are the cordial drop with which Heaven has graciously thought fit to sweeten my cup.”

Margaret's portrait on display in Staatsburgh's Main Hall. Photo by Pieter Estersohn.

Famed artist Gilbert Stewart painted Margaret's original  portrait at Clermont SHS.

The Judge passed away unexpectedly in 1775 at age 57, leaving Margaret to fend for herself and several of their ten children during the American Revolution. In a letter to her son, Robert, residing in Philadelphia, dated July 6, 1776, she wrote “My Dear Son, Whether this will ever meet your Eye I can’t tell, I hope it may – God only knows what will be the End of these troubles, I fear much for your safety.” Of course, she, too, had much to fear about her own family’s safety at their Hudson Valley estate, Clermont. In the same letter to her son, she wrote that they are in fear of danger from the Torries. Her fear was well founded, for in the following year, 1777, the British army would destroy her home, and all the other buildings on the estate, as retaliation for the Livingston family’s support of the revolution. Margaret and her children, still residing at home, had escaped to a relative’s house in Connecticut before the burning. She was soon back at the estate and managed to have the house rebuilt during the war in time to host George and Martha Washington in 1782.

Like Elizabeth Lewis, Margaret has been recognized as a female patriot by the DAR for her patriotic service, including paying the supply tax in 1779.

Catherine Livingston (c.1733-?)

Catherine Livingston was not born into, nor did she marry into, the powerful Livingston family; she was enslaved by them. Catherine was a Black freedom-seeker who used the events of the American Revolution to both self-emancipate from her enslaver, Robert Livingston, and secure freedom outside of the newly established United States.

Catherine's name in the Inspection Roll of Negroes. 
Courtesy of the National Archives.

All of the women profiled in this essay—Elizabeth Annesley Lewis, Margaret Beekman Livingston, and Mary Cushing Lincoln—were enslavers. While they supported the national cause for independence from Great Britain alongside their husbands—one of whom signed the Declaration declaring “all men are created equal”—each household benefited from the enslavement and forced labor of Black men and women for decades. It is unclear how many people were enslaved in the Lewis household, yet we know the names of at least two individuals, King (ironically) and Phebe Henry, who were granted their freedom upon, or even after, the death of Francis Lewis. Earlier, as British troops carried Mrs. Lewis away to prison, an unnamed enslaved man followed her and supplied her with clothes and food – a scene depicted on the DAR medallion above. Before the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1783 (long before New York’s abolition in 1827), the names of two people enslaved in the household of Mrs. Lincoln were recorded, including Cato and Flora.[i] Back in New York, Mrs. Livingston enslaved 15 individuals at Clermont in 1790 – more than anyone else in the surrounding area, with the exception of her husband’s cousin, Robert Livingston the third lord of Livingston Manor, who enslaved 44 people. 

Portraits of the First & Second
Lords of Livingston Manor
on display in Staatsburgh.

Among those 44 was Catherine. Catherine lived and labored on Livingston Manor under her enslaver, Robert Livingston, the third lord of the Manor – whose father’s and grandfather’s portraits hang in Staatsburgh’s Main Hall. In 1775, perhaps concealed amongst the unrest caused by the outbreak of the American Revolution, Catherine fled.

Eight years later, Catherine is recorded in the famous Inspection Roll of Negroes—commonly referred to as the "Book of Negroes"—from 1783. It is unclear where Catherine resided during the war, nor her actions throughout the conflict. During the American Revolution, the British government had made several assurances of freedom to any enslaved persons, like Catherine, who ran-away from their rebel enslavers and crossed to the British side – so Catherine may have been residing in British-occupied New York City. The Paris Peace Treaty with the new United States called for the British to return all seized “property” to the victorious Americans - included enslaved people. Yet, as the British were evacuating New York in 1782, Sir Guy Carleton intended to honor those earlier promises of freedom made to thousands of Black men and women. A three-person committee representing both nations eventually compiled a register of over 3,000 names of Black Loyalists who were departing New York for British-occupied Nova Scotia - and freedom.

Among them was Catherine. On July 31, 1783, British authorities recorded Catherine, then 50 years old, in the Book of Negroes, noting she was “stout of her age.” The following month, she sailed on HMS Clinton—a 134’ long, 12-gun fifth-rate armed transport frigate—alongside 254 other Black Loyalists and a crew of 73 Navy sailors and officers. Catherine disembarked on September 2 at Annapolis, Nova Scotia. It is unclear how she fared once she reached freedom in Canada.

HMS Clinton was originally a 32-gun French frigate, Espérance.
This 1782 print depicts the British HMS Pearl (left) capturing
Espérance (right) off the Bermudas on September 30, 1780.
Courtesy of Royal Museums Greenwich. 

Mary Cushing Lincoln (1734-1816)

Mary Cushing Lincoln is a great-great grandmother of Ruth Livingston Mills on her maternal side. In 1756, at the age of 21, Mary Cushing, whose ancestors were among the founders of Hingham, Massachusetts, married Benjamin Lincoln. Charles van Hogendorp, a young nobleman attached to the Dutch ambassador, visited Lincoln and his wife, Mary at their lifelong home in Hingham. “Imagine the effect on me of his noble simplicity,” the young man wrote, “when, during the evening, sitting in front of the fire, Lincoln spoke to us, smiling all the while, ‘I lived here for twenty years after my marriage and never dreamed of war. Here is my place, and here is that of Mrs. Lincoln’s, and it’s here that we pass our evenings talking together.”

The only known portrait of Mary Cushing Lincoln to survive; 
painted in 1809 by itinerant artist, J. R. Smith.
Note that in the background is a portion of the Henry Sargent portrait of her husband.
Courtesy of the Hingham Historical Society.

Twenty years—and the birth of eleven children—had passed when Benjamin Lincoln was called to military duty. Between the years 1775 and 1783, Benjamin was away fighting in the war, leaving Mary to run the family homestead, raise their children (only seven of whom made it to adulthood), manage their finances, and secure supplies for Benjamin. Like other colonial women, she was forced to deal with the stresses of wartime all by herself; stockpiling supplies should they be forced to evacuate, supplementing family income, and assuming full responsibility for their husbands’ farms, trades, and businesses. According to research done by historian Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, Mary was an astute financial manager.[ii] Without Mary’s contributions, it would have been impossible for Benjamin to serve so long in the war.

Benjamin Lincoln's portrait in
Staatsburgh's Library.
Photo by Pieter Estersohn.

Over the course of his military career, he led the forces that drove the British from Boston Harbor, was appointed a major general of the Continental army by Congress, and was wounded in the battle of Saratoga. Their eldest son, Ben, wrote to his father, “My mother’s spirits are good as she is informed that the shot went through your leg just below the calf and that the bone was only fractured,” referring to the elder Benjamin’s recent wound received on the battlefield, before continuing “She hopes soon to hear of your recovery, and nothing makes her more unhappy than being deprived of an opportunity to administer the healing balm and bind up your wound.”[iii]

While Benjamin was home recovering, Mary contracted smallpox and was battling the disease for a prolonged period, nearly losing her eyesight, when Benjamin had to return to active duty. In a letter to his children on July 28, 1778, Benjamin Lincoln acknowledged that her “cares and burdens are greatly increased by my absence,” and stressed the propriety of “lessening her cares, lightening her bur[d]en, & treating her with every mark of tenderness, duty, and respect.”

Hopefully we can all lessen the cares and lighten the burden on all the women—revolutionary or not—in our own lives.

 

Staatsburgh is grateful for the work of historian Michelle Marchetti Coughlin for bringing so much of Mary Cushing Lincoln’s story to light. Watch a short interview with Coughlin from the Hingham Historical Society HERE.

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[i] Michelle Coughlin, “Research Report on Mary Cushing Lincoln (1734-1816)” Unpublished report, April 7, 2023.

[ii] Coughlin, “Research Report.”

[iii] Coughlin, “Research Report.”