27 www.ReadMPM.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.MountPleasantPodcast.com who continued to refuse the oath were sent to British-held Philadelphia. However, Mary managed to convince local officials to allow her instead to return to one of the family’s plantations, taking along her children and domestic servants. She was obviously strong physically and mentally, but such dire circumstances did in fact take a toll on her. Mary was reportedly seriously ill near the end of the war, though she eventually recovered. Four years later, her husband died suddenly when Mary was 39 years old and pregnant with her ninth child. The baby died shortly after his birth. She did not remarry but continued the role of managing her family and the three plantations that she had brought to the marriage – Cedar Grove, Hobonny and Old Combahee. When she died from a stroke at the age of 67, she left behind five of her children and 39 grandchildren. She is buried at Middleton Place. Mary’s sister-in-law, Henrietta Middleton, married the youngest signer of the Declaration, Edward Rutledge. Henrietta struggled with poor health and did not take part in her husband’s political aspirations, nor the social life enjoyed by Charleston’s elite planter class. She died after giving birth to her third child. Her husband then married Mary Shubrick. The new Mrs. Rutledge was a devoted stepmother to Edward’s three children, especially his daughter, and the two women became active in many charitable endeavors, including supporting efforts for the care and education of orphaned and homeless girls. Elizabeth Shubrick, a sister of Rutledge’s second wife, married Thomas Lynch Jr. Shortly before he signed the Declaration of Independence, Thomas contracted an unknown illness, possibly malaria, leaving the young man, only 26, in poor health. Three years after he signed the historic document, Elizabeth and Thomas set sail for the South of France, hoping for a climate that would be conducive to his recovery. However, the ship they were traveling on was lost at sea near the West Indies while en route. The couple had been married only seven years and had no children. Elizabeth Mathews was the first wife of Thomas Heyward, one of the youngest and wealthiest of the Founding Fathers. The couple had five children but only one lived to adulthood. Like her husband, Elizabeth was outspoken and not easily intimidated. When her husband was sent to the British prison in St. Augustine with Arthur Middleton and Edward Rutledge, Elizabeth refused to sign the oath of loyalty to the crown. She even went so far as refusing to comply with an order imposed by British officials to put candles in the windows of her home on Church Street to celebrate a recent British victory. She refused again two months later when ordered to do so on the first anniversary of the British occupation of Charleston. As retaliation for her disobedience, a mob of loyalists threw trash and rocks at the house. British officials later offered to repair the damage to her home, but Elizabeth refused, saying it would stand as evidence of the abuses the occupying army inflicted on city residents. When her husband was released from prison in 1781 and sent to Philadelphia, she joined him there and died in childbirth a year later. Not long ago, her unmarked grave was discovered in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, and a marker was installed to pay tribute to this remarkable woman. Currently, archaeological work is being done at the couple’s former plantation in Jasper County, and the public is encouraged to visit and learn more about the Heywards and the enslaved people who worked on the property. A full accounting of the lives of these four women remains a mystery. Also a mystery is whether their husbands would have been able to accomplish all that they did without them. But one thing is certain: these women and others like them met the challenges of the day while living in difficult times. And they deserve to be remembered. leading ladies Mary Rutledge is buried with her husband at St. Philip's Church. Elizabeth Heyward's burial site in Philadelphia.
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