This is a placeholder post. Feel free to ignore, although this first figure is quite the character!
A Smithsonian article here.
Abigail Adams famously referred to Patience Wright as “the queen of sluts.” Wright was somewhat famously irreverent, even around British nobility.
(Aside: I’m reading A Found Mother now, about Abigail Adams. Put “reading” in quotes since I’m only managing about 3 pages a day).
Short bio: Wright was an artist who made lifelike wax figures and acted as a spy for the American cause while living in London (she wrote her secret messages on paper scrolls and hid them in her wax figures).
Wikipedia page here.
Smithsonian article here. She fell out of favor in London after the Revolution, including with Franklin (partly because she encouraged him to support a British rebellion.)
More on Patience Wright, born in Bordentown, NJ. Sister, Rachel, also artistic.
Two minute video.
Jumping to Sarah Wentworth Morton. Her husband’s father owned an establishment called The White Horse Tavern, located within the red circle on the map below.
Most subsequent sources that I’ve read assume that the incorrect attribution of The Power of Sympathy is the one to her. Most people I’ve seen believe Wm Hill Brown is the author. I’ve read most of it.
This is where Sarah Morton’s father operated his business — on Merchant’s Row. Either he or her grandfather or both were slave traders. Need to clarify.
Since Boston was a much much smaller landmass back then, there were many fewer wharves.
