Objets D'Arts #R2C2 - ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Reverse of the brooch engraved:

In Memory of
Grace Galloway
Born Nov, 30th 1729
Died Feby, 6th 1872

And the Ring Engraved
Lawrence Growdon Gallaway

Grace, whose diaries and poetry are preserved in the Library of Congress, has become a major figure in both American Colonial history and Women's history. Deserted by her husband, a prominent Loyalist and British Civil Commissioner in Philadelphia, she was left to the mercy of the advancing Rebel forces under George Washington after the British fled from Philadelphia in June 1778. Although initially under the protection of Major Genral Benedict Arnold, now an American byword for treachery but then a Rebel commander, she was driven from her house and estate and made virtually destitute. Legend has it that she assisted Arnold in his abrupt defection to the Britich cause by smuggling letters hidden in a hollow quill pen. She died in 1782, as the locket inscribed. That she was unimpressed by her husband's behaviour is suggested by one of her surviving poems "Never get tyed to a man, for once when you are yoked, tis all mere joke, of seeing your freedom again"