This chintz quilt came to the Museum at Michigan State University
with the story that it was made by Abigail Adams,
although there is little evidence.
Read more here:
“Sat 26th Fine day – Mrs. Seaton sent us some fine pears in
return for some figs – I went to see Mrs. Tayloe, Custis, Rush, - & Adams.
Mrs. [Louisa Catherine] Adams showed me how to do the border of the Quilt....”
(possibly in the 1840s) Dairy of Anna Maria Brodeau Thornton (1775?-1865)
In the 1840s everybody was making quilts including Washington's society ladies. We also have a few surviving early quilts from the upper class. Anna Maria Thornton's diary mentions quilting help from her neighbor Mrs. John Quincy Adams, but we have no record of any surviving quilts from any of the ladies Anna Maria mentioned above.
Maria Hester Monroe,
daughter of President James Monroe is supposed to have stopped
adding to this hexagon mosaic in the early 1830s
when her father was dying. It's now in the
collection of the James Monroe Museum in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Anna Maria kept a diary from
1798 to 1865. Published entries from 1800 give us
a picture of life in brand new Washington City. She wrote of an unsuccessful shopping trip in the nation's
capitol:
"—Went to a shop in New Jersey avenue, to look for some
black Chintz.—A poor little Store—there are too few inhabitants for any
business to be carried on extensively.—"
An optimistic view of Washington in 1800
Only the entries for 1800 have been published, although you might find the microfilms of the diaries in your library. It's a shame all her entries are not available in print or on line. One reason may be that official summaries of her papers at the Library of Congress
tend to be dismissive:
"Wife of architect William Thornton. Diaries and notebooks
primarily describing social life in Washington, D.C., with extensive detail
about housekeeping and expense matters."
Anna Maria, watercolor by her husband
But her life and records reveal more than the surface. We view the Federal period and England's corresponding Regency era backwards through a Victorian lens, which often renders real life invisible. The story of Anna Maria and her mother is rather long, so to entertain you while you read it I've inserted some shopping tips--- new reproduction prints for period quilts.
Shopping: Kaye England has a 2012 botanical chintz
& coordinating stripe.
Nothing is quite what it seems, beginning with a mysterious birthdate and birthplace. The 1860 census lists Anna Maria's birthplace as "unknown", but she is presumed to have been born in
England in 1775. Her mother showed up with a French name in Philadelphia in the 1770s, possibly
with this infant in utero or in hand.
The American Revolution was just beginning and the first few years of Madame
Brodeau's residence were under British military occupation, an exellent place to reinvent oneself.
In late 1775 Robert Morris and Benjamin Franklin placed a
public notice in the Pennyslvania Gazette: "Mrs. Brodeau, from England,
Takes this Method of acquainting her Friends and the Public in general, that
she has opened a Boarding School, in Walnut-street, near the Corner of
Fourth-street, where young Ladies will be genteely boarded, and taught to read
and speak the French and English Language, the Tambour, Embroidery, and every
Kind of useful and ornamental Needle-Work..."
Shopping: Metropolitan Fair, my latest Moda
collection is Civil War era,
but these scribble prints, also called seaweed
or coral prints were classic in the early 19th century too.
According to her
daughter's obituary Madame brought letters of introduction "to the first
people of that city from persons of the highest distinction in England, [Her school] was liberally patronized as she was a
very accomplished woman, of elegant manners, and a perfect encyclopedia in all
that pertained to English life and society." According to newspaperman Benjamin Perley Poore, Mrs. Brodeau "displayed great ability as a
teacher." Betty Ring in her study of schoolgirl samplers noted the
"well-established boarding school for girls kept by Ann Brodeau," who
had 27 females living in her household on Laurell
Court listed in the 1790 census. That year George Washington considered sending his niece Harriott Washington to Mrs. Brodeau's but thought the terms, "(especially the Board) appear to be high. ...Mrs Brodeau was
I understand once of Mr. Morris's family; this may occasion a prediliction in
that quarter." Washington was making a little joke about Morris's wealth and inability to hold on to it.
Dr. William Thornton 1759-1828
Portrait by Gilbert Stuart 1804
On October 13, 1790 Dr. William Thornton, about 30 years old, married the younger Anna Brodeau, then fifteen. Thornton was also an emigrant, born in the West Indies of a Quaker family, with a medical education from Scotland and England. He did not care for doctoring and found his calling in architectural design, winning a competition to design the Philadelphia Library Company's new hall in 1789.
Thornton's first building The Philadelphia Library Company
shows the classical look he was known for.
After their marriage the Thorntons spent two years in Tortola
visiting his family. Like most well-to-do Barbadians, the Thornton's money was
based on slavery and sugar, a Quaker contradiction. Thornton's sympathy lay with the slaves but his ideas for manumission and transportation back to Africa excited no interest in the West Indies. The couple returned to the
United States in late 1792.
In 1793 George Washington accepted Thornton's design for the
nation's new capitol building and the following year the Doctor moved to Washington
taking Anna and her mother. Anna's diaries record her husband's architectural
career, designing homes for the elite. Among his commissions: John Tayloe's
Octagon House and Thomas and
Martha Custis Peter's Tudor Place. Yet he never made a living from architecture,
an economic need President Jefferson addressed by appointing him superintendent
of the Patent Office in 1802.
Benjamin Latrobe's plan for the Capitol
superseded Thornton's design,
causing bad blood between them.
The dome, rotunda and two wings were
Thornton's ideas, however.
Anna Maria's diaries also record her unofficial work as the
architect's assistant. She was his draftsman translating ideas into
drawings and maps.
"I was employed in altering & making circles on a
map to shew the distances from the Capitol and President's House after one
which Dr T— had done at the Office—In the evening I was netting on a Shawl. —Mr
Middleton brought home a little table & Dr T's rulers.—"
Anna Maria's painting of the Madison's Montpelier in Virginia
"I began to copy on a larger Scale the elevation &
ground plan of the House.—Mr Middleton sent home a Ruler, Frames for the Window
blinds—and a thread winder.—"
The Thorntons lively social life included friends and
neighbors among the wealthy and the influential, entertained with flair in their home at
1331 F Street NW. The house next door was home to Dolley and James Madison and later John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams. Anna Maria's musical talents were in demand at the President's House and elsewhere. Diarist William
Dunlap summarized their charms, "
His company was a complete antidote to dullness....The Doctor draws very well but he writes
abominably. His lady paints very prettily & is an accomplished woman." (Dunlap must have read the Doctor's unpublished romance novels.)
Shopping: Most of Jo Morton's repros are Civil-War era or
later but these foulards with seaweed details
are enough like early
Indiennes to be quite useful.
The Doctor bred race horses on their Maryland farm and
experimented with steam ships. His reputation
as a temperamental eccentric explains feuds with capitol co-designer Benjamin Henry Latrobe and
fellow engineer Robert Fulton. He was also remembered as bad with money (no bar
to social status at the time.) Despite Tortola plantation income and a federal
salary he was always in debt with preferred investments in thoroughbreds, local
race tracks and North Carolina gold mines.
Anna and William had no children and shared their home with
Mrs. Brodeau and several slaves. In the 1800 census three are listed. Thornton's
Quaker upbringing did not prohibit him from keeping slaves and spending the
money from slavery's sugar plantations.
But he remained interested in the slave's welfare, working for colonization
societies that advocated relocation back to Africa.
After William Thornton died in 1828 at about 70 years of
age, Anna Marie was shocked to find he had willed his house [legally not their house] to the American
Colonization Society. (There is some diagreement as to whether this is true.) While she might live there until her death she could not
sell it to pay his debts. During particularly difficult financial stretches she
and her mother rented smaller quarters and leased the house or parts of it. At some point she sold it to Dr. Thomas Miller who permitted her to board there.
In 1865 the Sanitary Commission offices were at 1333 F St. NW.
The house to the right may be the Thorntons.
In summer 1835, Anna Maria, her 88-year-old mother, slaves Maria Bowen and 18-year-old John Arthur were among those living at the F Street house. One hot night a drunken Arthur broke into Anna Maria's bedroom with an ax. His mother stopped the attack. Arthur ran away but was soon captured. The assault was national news, exactly the kind of retribution every slave owner feared. A civil disturbance targeted free blacks. Arthur Bowen, sentenced to hang, was spared by Anna Maria Thornton's pleas to President Andrew Jackson. Instead of being imprisoned he was sold in 1836.
News in the Salem Massachusetts Gazette, 1835
Ann Brodeau (?-1836)
"A perfect encyclopedia in all that
pertained to English life and society"
Shopping: Quilting Treasures has a chintz
with a fancy machine ground
& a coordinating panel print.
The elder Anna Brodeau died in 1836, leaving Anna
Maria without family. She lived in Washington until her death at 90 after the
Civil War. Virginia Miller who lived with her as a child wrote a memoir in 1914:
"I would say she was quite small, whether that was due
to her being an old lady or not I do not know, but as I remember her she was
very short. She always wore dainty white caps and the hair which showed in
front was brown. She had beautiful big brown eyes, keen yet soft, wore a simple
black dress with a little white shawl thrown round her shoulders. Her hearing,
eyesight, mind and memory were good to the very last and she was always alive
and interested in whatever concerned her friends and in the current news of the
day... Many times I had heard Mrs. Thornton speak of her husband having
invented the first steamboat and her grief over the little recognition his
talents and services had ever obtained...."
Anna Maria died in August, 1865, remembered well enough that
her obituary was reprinted nationwide, although she would not have been pleased
and might very well have been surprised to read it. Beginning
with the erroneous assertion that she died at 100, it goes on to say:
"A correspondent of the New York Express says: Mrs. Thornton was a daughter of the unfortunate
Dr. William Dodd (a Chaplain of George the Third,) who was executed for
forgery, in London, in 1777. His widow and daughter emigrated to Philadelphia
soon after that sad event, under the feigned name of Brodeau...It is believed
that Mrs Thornton never knew that she was the daughter of Dr. Dodd. Dr. Thornton
was, however, aware of the fact, having, probably, been Informed of it by her
mother before his marriage. He disclosed it some years afterward to Col.
Bomford, with whom he was very Intimate, and through Col. Bomford it became known
to other friends of the Thorntons."
What a blabbermouth! George Bomford (1780–1848) was indeed good friends with the Doctor.
In 1865 Americans would have recalled England's
Reverend Dodd and his hanging. His poetry books were sold into the 19th century. Described by a contemporary as "a voluminous writer, and possessed considerable abilities, with little judgment and much vanity," Dodd was badly in debt in the 1770s. Rather than ignoring
red ink as the rest of Georgian London did, he forged a bond to pay off his
creditors. The penalty was execution. Friend Samuel Johnson defended Dodd,
taking his pleas of innocence as gospel with the famous line: "Depend upon
it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates
his mind wonderfully."
One of Dodd's minor crimes was marriage to "the
daughter of a servant woman, which was not considered a good match by his
friends," according to a biography. Another says, "He hastily united
himself on the 15th of April, 1751, with Miss Mary Perkins, daughter of one of
the domestics of Sir John Dolben." Friends attributed Dodd's downfall to Mary Perkins Dodd's luxurious
tastes but they remained married until his death. At his
trial he pleaded for mercy not for himself but for his future widow.
"I have a wife, my Lords, who for 27 years has lived
an unparalleled example of conjugal attachment and fidelity, and whose
behaviour during this trying scene would draw tears of approbation, I am sure,
from even the most inhuman." He made no mention of future orphans.
Washington's historian Allen C. Clark used the same papers to write a biography of the couple in 1914. Read it here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=B9QRAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=allen+c+clark+%22doctor+and%22&source=bl&ots=5Tyh3EJ8y-&sig=Orb5Xz5V3trvLaj0tXy0pbLgX14&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gDUUUP30G4qe8gTWq4CwDA&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=allen%20c%20clark%20%22doctor%20and%22&f=false
Read a biography of William Dodd here
http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=36441
Shopping: The elusive swag print
from Blue Hill Fabrics. It's the perfect border.
