As part of Rev250, a multi-year program commemorating 250 years since the start of the American Revolutionary War, social and cultural historian Judy Anderson gave a talk on notable Marbleheaders.
Held at the Robert “King” Hooper Mansion, now home to the Marblehead Arts Association, Anderson held a talk on its inhabitants during the time of the Revolutionary War, alongside other notable resident Col. Jeremiah Lee.
Anderson pointed out that while Lee and Hooper are well-known, their families are not.
“They were the two major employers in town… we don’t hear about their families… I’ve always thought it was really important to understand the families,” Anderson said.
“No one was not touched by the Revolution,” Anderson added. “There was tragedy and sadness and starvation and widows,” she added.
Anderson said that Lee had one wife, while Hooper had four in sequence.
Hooper’s four wives were Ruth, Ruth, Hannah, and Elizabeth.
Anderson said that in catalogs about John Singleton Copley’s portraits from that time period, Hannah Hooper is often listed as Hooper’s only wife.
“They didn’t bother to look any further because they were dealing with 300 portraits, and later on, they just kept reiterating information that’s already out there,” Anderson said.
“So, nobody realized she was his third wife, and he had two wives before them, and she was not even the mother of his children,” she said.
Hooper’s first wife, Ruth, was only married to him for two years, before she died.
Of Hooper’s wives, his first, Ruth, is the only one to have a known gravestone.
Hannah had brought multiple children to Hooper’s family, by way of being a widow herself, marrying Hooper at 37 years old.
Anderson said that the it was not uncommon for there to have been many widows during this time period, especially in Marblehead, as men were often at sea as fishermen or crew on trading vessels.
Lee’s only wife, Martha, married him in 1745. They were married for 30 years, having nine children, six living beyond infancy. Their eldest son attended Harvard before joining the regiment his father commanded before the Revolutionary War, which went on to become Col. John Glover’s regiment. Two of their daughters went on to get married and have children of their own.
“Most women will expect to be married once or twice, or maybe three times,” Anderson said about women in the time period in Marblehead.
Anderson said that leading up to the Revolutionary War, in March of 1775, a majority of Marblehead residents had turned against the British after an economic sanction had been put in place, which closed off the Atlantic Ocean to New England fishing.
“That took away the entire town’s livelihood, whether you were the fisherman, or the merchant crew,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that some estimates claimed there were approximately 400 widows left after the Revolutionary War, and that in a town of 1,000 families, nearly 1,500 men served during the war. Anderson said this represented nearly every able-bodied man and boy in town.
