Grace Growden Galloway

In 1727, Grace Growden (later Galloway) was born in Pennsylvania.[2] Her father, Lawrence Growden, had an immense amount of power and respect through his business interests and great wealth, possessing such luxuries as a four-wheeled coach.[4] Lawrence Growden was the proprietor of Durham Iron Furnace and held a position on the Pennsylvania assembly; in addition he owned ten thousand acres of land.[2][5] Galloway was thus raised with an immense amount of privilege, but she was not necessarily happy.[1][6] Despite her father's wealth and power, Grace's childhood was lonely and filled with egotistical men.[1]

In 1753, Grace Galloway married Joseph Galloway.[6] Joseph quickly gained prominence as a lawyer and soon became one of the most powerful politicians in Pennsylvania.[7] When Grace's father died, Joseph inherited Grace's share of her father's property: Trevose (Growden Mansion), Belmont, Richlieu, King's Place, and Durham Lands.[5] Joseph and Grace had four children, but only their daughter, Elizabeth (Betsy), survived to adulthood.[4]

Before the American Revolution, Grace Galloway was one of the most prominent figures in Pennsylvania society,[1] in part because Joseph Galloway, a strong loyalist, held a continuous seat in the assembly from 1757 to 1776 (except for 1764) and served as the Speaker of the House from 1766 to 1775.[4] Their social standing began to decline when it became clear the British were losing the war, but the Galloways remained true to their loyalist commitments even in a society that was highly revolutionist.[3] Joseph was removed from the speakership and became a public example that loyalism would not be tolerated in the new age. As the war started going poorly for the British, Joseph and daughter Elizabeth sought protection with the British, leaving Grace behind to defend and reclaim the family land.[4] Grace never saw her husband or daughter again.[1] Grace's continued loyalist beliefs and the fact that Joseph had abandoned her made her a social pariah.[5] Grace worried that the family names of Galloway and Growden were being ruined.[5] Grace recounted in her diary: "No one will take me in and all the men keep away from me... I am fled from as pestilence".[8] This was especially hard for Grace because she had enjoyed such status for all of her life to that point.[1]

Grace Growden Galloway began to keep a diary the day after Joseph fled with the British evacuation.[3] The diary began as a way for her to keep her husband up to date on her daily activities, but after three weeks it became a way for her to record her feelings, conversations, and activities. She used the diary to record things that she could not say in public.[3] The diary became an autobiography and a way to document how she was trying to regain her daughter Betsy's inheritance.[5] The diary opens by describing her treatment by the Commissioners of Forfeited Estates (how they were confiscating loyalist lands). The chief justice had ordered the land that the Galloways inherited to be confiscated.[5] Grace used the diary as a place to claim the land as her own – she did not refer to it as Joseph's or the commissioners', although technically it belonged to Joseph Galloway.[5] Grace claimed that the land was willed to her, and despite the fact that she could not own land singularly, she had told Joseph to keep her name on the property deed.[5] However, Joseph had not complied with this request: he had signed the deed but left out Grace's name.[5]

Overall, the diary matches well with the complaints of other loyalist women about being left behind.[5]

When the rebels ascended to power, Grace Growden Galloway lost her property, carriage, and status—but still considered herself superior.[3] Galloway would not move out of her house, so the Supreme Executive Council decided to move a new tenant in.[5] When she still refused to move, they changed the locks on her doors. She was physically removed by force.[5] At this point, Grace began to advocate very strongly that the Galloway estate was hers and that she should not be punished for the mistakes her husband made.[5] Historian Carol Berkin claims, "Grace Galloway sought to separate her fate from her husband's, to demand that the punishment meted out to him for his actions fall on him alone."[1] She lost this battle.[5] While marriage and feme covert (married women whose legal rights were absorbed by those of their husband's) left Grace without legal rights, politics had erased her social standing.[1] After the revolution, Grace felt that she was not only being stripped of her property but also her social standing.[5] She was ashamed to go to Polly Wharton to ask for transportation and boarding and further humiliated. Even more so when her request was denied.[5] She describes the same in her diary: "My heart was ready to burst at the mean figure I must cut in begging to go to another persons house & be told I cou'd Not ... I was so Mortified & Troubled that 1 cou'd not sleep all Night".[8]

Finally, Galloway was invited to buy back her own property on January 30, 1779,[5] and even allowed to put it in her name.[5] However, if she were to make this deal, she would be legally and politically "uncovered" and liable to be charged with treason.[5] Grace Galloway discussed the debate in her diary, "First, shou'd I Claim & they Grant me the whole I then made Myself a subject to the state & owning their Authority subject Myself to All the Penalties of their Laws & there by banish myself from my husband & Child or render Myself liable to an Attainder".[8] In addition, Galloway would have to pay taxes which would go against her conscience since the money would go to the Rebels' military.[5][8] Galloway decided to be neither a Loyalist or a Rebel so that she would not have to take her property back in the way that was offered.[5] When Galloway died in 1782, she willed her estate to her daughter, Betsy.[5] Legally, Grace had no right to do so since technically it was owned by the Supreme Executive Council.[5] After the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, parts of the property were returned to Betsy, and after Joseph Galloway's death, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that Grace should not have been punished for Joseph's wrongdoings.[5] Consequently, they returned the full estate to Betsy and Grace's heirs.[5] The estate has now been turned into a museum operated by the Historical Society of Bensalem Township in Pennsylvania. The estate is open to visitors.

As a female loyalist, Grace Galloway has been of interest to many authors discussing feme covert. In addition, Grace Galloway's diary has provided the perspective of women who supported the English, and in turn, were punished. Works that have drawn on Galloway's diary include:

• Kerber, Linda K (1997). Women of the Republic. Institute of Early American History and Culture. ISBN 978-0-8078-4632-2.
• Baxter, Beverley (1 January 1978). "Grace Growden Galloway: Survival of a Loyalist, 1778–79". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 3 (1): 62–67. doi:10.2307/3345995. JSTOR 3345995.
• Tillman, Kacy Dowd (2016). "Women Left Behind: Female Loyalism, Coverture, and Grace Growden Galloway's Empire of Self". Women's Narratives of the Early Americas and the Formation of Empire. pp. 141–155. doi:10.1057/9781137543233_10. ISBN 978-1-349-58102-3.
• Berkin, Carol (2005). Revolutionary Mothers. Knopf. ISBN 978-1-4000-4163-3.
• Evans, Elizabeth (1975). Weathering the Storm. Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-13953-1.
• Berkin, Carol (1997-07-01). First Generations. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-8090-1606-8.
• Engle, Paul (1 October 1976). Women in the American Revolution. Follett Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-695-80603-3.
• Baldwin, Ernest H. (1 January 1902). "Joseph Galloway, the Loyalist Politician". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 26 (2): 161–191. JSTOR 20086024.

• Works by or about Grace Growden Galloway at Internet Archive