From George Washington to Mary Dagworthy, 6 August 1780
To Mary Dagworthy
Hd Qrs [Peekskill] 6 Augt 1780
Some time since I was honored with your letter of the 17th July, with a sum of money the result of your subscriptions at that time.1 So much patriotism, while it is a pleasing and fresh proof of the spirit of the ladies of Jersey, entitles them to every applause. The army feel most sensibly both the design and the benefaction.
I have to request the ladies that till it is known in what manner the Philada subscriptions are to be applied, that they will suspend sending forward any more, or rather that if it is their pleasure, that they will consult Mrs President Reed on the occasion—and unite their subscriptions with Those of Philada. I have the honor
G.W.
Df, in James McHenry’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. No reply from Dagworthy to GW has been found.
On 4 July, a group of women in Trenton assembled to form a society for “promoting a subscription for the relief and encouragement of those brave Men in the Continental Army, who, stimulated by example, and regardless of danger,—have so repeatedly suffered, fought and bled in the cause of virtue and their oppressed country.” The group named other prominent women in all the counties of New Jersey as correspondents (New-Jersey Gazette, 12 July).
Mary Dagworthy (c.1748–1814) was the secretary of the society, charged with its correspondence. She later married Abraham Hunt, a wealthy Trenton merchant.
1. Dagworthy wrote to GW on 17 July from Trenton: “By order of Mrs Dickinson and the other Ladies of the Committee, I have transmitted to your Excellency by Colonel Thompson Fifteen Thousand four hundred & eighty eight Dollars, being the Subscriptions receiv’d at this place, to be disposed of in such manner as your Excellency thinks proper, for the benefit of the Continental Soldiers—As the other subscriptions come in, they will be forwarded without delay” (ALS, DLC:GW).
Mary Cadwalader Dickinson (c.1745–1791), the wife of New Jersey militia major general Philemon Dickinson, was one of the four committee members of the society.