Person Record
Metadata
Name |
Bringhurst, Mary Lawton, 1761-1793 |
Othernames |
"Polly" Lawton |
Notes |
The journal of American history (Associated Publishers of American Records) - v. 4 (1910) - v. 4, no. 4 Oct 1910 "Historic Minatures in America" Mary Lawton, a Quaker, born in Newport 25 Nov 1761, was the daughter of Robert Lawton and Mercy Easton. She married John Bringhurst (1764-1800), a Philadelphia merchant of Quaker ancestry, 30 April 1789 at the Friends Meeting House in Newport. They must have returned to Philadelphia soon thereafter, for it was almost certainly in that city that she was painted by Peale in 1790. The French Army's Count Segur spoke in his memoirs of meeting with this beautiful, well-spoken Quakeress, and it seems to be his description of her that has assured her a place in colonial history. She died only three years after her miniature was painted. (Annals 353; Gustafson 142; Journal of American History 569-70; Segur 290-91) Described by her admirer, the Comte de Segur: "My first interview with her father would have been our last, had not the door to the drawing-room suddenly opened, and a being who resembled a nymph rather than a woman entered the apartment. So much beauty, so much simplicity, so much elegance, and so much modesty were, perhaps, never combined in the same person. Her gown was white, while her ample muslin neckerchief, and the envious muslim of her cap, which scarcely allowed me to see her light-colored hair, seemed vainly to endeavor to conceal the most graceful figure imaginable. Her eyes appeared to reflect as in a mirror the meekness and purity of her mind. The use of the familiar word "thou" gave to our acquaintenance the appearance of an old friendship. Certain it is that if I had not been married and happy, I should, whilst coming to defend the liberty of the Americans, have lost my own at the feet of Polly Leiton." (Harper's New Monthly Magazine, September 1879) |
