Judith Sargent Murray
From Philosopedia
Murray, an oil on canvas by John Singleton Copley
Murray, Judith Sargent Stevens (1751–1820)
Murray, the wife of the founder of American Universalism, John Murray, was the first native-born woman dramatist to have her plays professionally performed. Also, she was among the first to have published statements on women’s rights in the United States, for she wrote On the Equality of the Sexes (1790).
The daughter of the prominent Gloucester sea captain Winthrop Sargent, she wrote The Gleaner (3 volumes, 1798), a series of her essays, plays, and poems. That publication was subscribed to by George and Martha Washington. The pseudonym she used was Constantia.
Online, a John Sargent Murray Society is
- dedicated to honoring the life and legacy of the eighteenth-century essayist, poet, and playwright who was among America's earliest champions of female equality, education, economic independence, and political engagement.
The website describes a book by Bonnie Hurd Smith, The Letters I Left Behind, one that tells of Murray's correspondence and how it documents the years between 1774 and 1818. Smith includes a sentimental letter she wrote to Murray, whom she married in 1788:
- Letter 14 to Mr Murray
- Gloucester November 14 1774
- My Dear Sir
- If I am not mistaken in the character of the person I have the pleasure to address, it will be most agreeable to him, that I should lay aside all that awe, and reverence, which his unquestionable superiority demands, and approach him with the freedom of a sister, conversing with a brother whom she entirely esteems - I am not much accustomed to writing letters, especially to your sex, but if there be neither male nor female in the Emmanuel you promulgate, we may surely, and with the strictest propriety, mingle souls upon paper - I acknowledge a high sense of obligation to you, Sir, I have been instructed by your scriptural investigations, and I have a grateful heart - Your revered friend, Mr Relly, had taught me by his writings, the rudiments of the redeeming plan; but you have enlarged my views, expanded my ideas, dissipated my doubts, and led me to anticipate, and with sublime, and solemn pleasure, the coming of the resurrection [-] Those whom you have honoured by your social visits, will of course be solicitous for a repetition of the favour - The Gloucesterians wish they possessed a magnetic influence, which would irresistibly attract you to their circle - Nay, I believe, so extravagant is their self Love, that they would not hesitate, were it in their power, to establish you among them during the remainder of your life. For my own part, I cannot entirely condemn them, for when I reflect upon the benign influence of your message, upon its salutary, and universal efficacy, and the mild benevolence, with which you condescend to elucidate its nature, my own wishes are perfectly in unison with theirs. I have to request - if your leisure will allow, that you would honour me by a line and I pray you to believe me with all sentiments of esteem your most obedient &c &c
