Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820)
Judith Sargent Murray as an early American writer and advocate for women’s education and rights, including but not limited to: a woman’s right to an education, a woman’s right to work and earn a wage, and woman’s right to manage their finances. Her most famous work was the essay On the Equality of the Sexes.
Some of Judith’s accomplishments were:
Multi-genre author of poems, plays, essays, a novel, and a biography (co-author).
Met George and Martha Washington at the Presidential Mansion in New York City on August 9, 1790.
Founding member of the first Universalist church in America (1779).
Wrote the first American Universalist catechism (1782).
Traveled with her second husband, John Murray, to the General Convention of Universalists in Philadelphia, May 25-June 8, 1790.
First American to have plays performed in the Boston’s Federal Street Theatre:
The Medium; or Virtue Triumphant, March 2, 1795;
The Traveller Returned March 9-10, 1796.
First American woman to have a regular column (actually two columns) in an American magazine/newspaper: The Gleaner and The Repository, 1792-94, both in the Massachusetts Magazine, pseudonyms: The Gleaner, Constantia, The Reaper, Virgilius.
Earlier publications in the Gentleman and Lady’s Town and Country Magazine, 1784; pseudonym Constantia; Massachusetts Magazine, 1790-92; and later in the Boston Weekly Magazine, 1802-1805, pseudonym Honora Martesia.
First American woman to publish a multi-volume collection of her writings: The Gleaner (1798).
To do this, Murray recruited 800 subscribers prior to publication and secured the endorsements of two presidents: George Washington and John Adams.
One of a few women whose portraits were painted by both John Singleton Copley and Gilbert Stuart.
Judith Sargent was born in Gloucester on May 1, 1751, into a prominent seafaring family. Her mother was Judith Saunders and her father was Winthrop Sargent, descended from Epes Sargent, who arrived in Gloucester in the late 17th century. The Sargent family was considered to be cultured, politically aware, and civically active. Much of her knowledge was self-taught through her family’s library which allowed her to read history, philosophy, geography, and literature. Her deep interest in education and her family’s support lead her to write poetry from at a young age.
Judith Sargent married John Stevens on October 3, 1769 when Judith was only eighteen years old. She was young when she married John Stevens. The house the Museum is located in was constructed for Judith Sargent and John Stevens about a decade after their marriage.
Unfortunately, Stevens inherited financial difficulties from his father’s estate, and like many others of his time, suffered further financial losses during the Revolutionary War. The expenses he incurred constructing the new house, coupled with unwise speculations and failed maritime investments, led Stevens to financial ruin. In the spring of 1786, he turned ownership of the new house to his father-in-law, and fled the country. John Stevens died in 1787 in debtor’s prison on St. Eustatius Island, leaving Judith Sargent a poverty-stricken widow.
After the death of John Stevens, Judith married her long-time friend and minister, Reverend John Murray on October 6, 1788 in Salem.