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Part of the American
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Margaret Sharpe Gaston 1755 ~ 1812
Heroism and strength of character, which
in peaceful times would have remained latent in a serene
personality, were often brought forth to shine most
illustriously through pressure of cruelty in the Revolutionary
War. Such was the case of Margaret Gaston. She was born Margaret
Sharpe into a quiet old England household in the county of
Cumberland, England, about 1755, and her parents desiring her to
have every advantage of education in the Catholic faith, sent
her to France when a very young girl. She was brought up in the
seclusion and calm of convent life. Her two brothers, however,
were extensivdy engaged in commerce in this country and she came
out to visit them. Then began for this retiring, timid young
woman, a tumultuous era of New World romance and soul-trying
grief. It was during her sojourn that she met Dr. Alexander
Gaston, a native of Ireland, of Huguenot ancestry, to whom she
was married at Newbern, in the twentieth year of her age. But
the happy married life of these two young people was destined to
be of brief duration and tragic end.
Doctor Gaston was one of the most zealous patriots in North
Carolina, and while his devotion to the cause of liberty won for
him the confidence of the Whigs, it also gained him the
implacable enmity of the opposite party. At length, so actively
expressed was his patriotism and so great was his influence, a
price was placed on his head by the loyalists.
On the 20th of August, 1781, a body of Tories entered Newbern,
being some miles in advance of the regular troops, who had come
by forced marches with a view to taking possession of the town.
The Americans, taken by surprise, were driven to capitulation
after an ineffectual resistance. Gaston, unwilling to surrender
to the foe, hurried his wife and children across the river from
their home, hoping to escape with them and proceed to a
plantation eight or ten miles distant "He reached the wharf with
his family," the old account runs, "and seized a light scow for
the purpose of crossing the river; but before he could stow his
wife and children on board, the Tories, eager for his blood,
came galloping in pursuit There was no resource but to push off
from the shore, where his wife and little ones stood, the wife
alarmed only for him against whom the rage of the enemies was
directed. Throwing herself in agony at their feet, she implored
his life, but in vain. Their cruelty sacrificed him in the midst
of her cries for mercy, and the musket which found his heart was
levelled over her shoulder."
It is wonderful that the convent-bred girl did not go
distraught, but, instead, a fierce heroic strength seemed to
animate her whole being. Even the indulgence of grief was denied
to the bereaved wife for she was compelled to exert herself to
protect the remains of her murdered husband while her ears rang
with the inhuman threats that the "rebel should not even have
the rest of the grave." After she had found men brave enough to
aid her in carrying the body home, she was obliged to protect
the beloved lifeless form from desecration, and by its side she
watched constantly until it was deposited in the earth through a
midnight burial
Margaret Gaston was now left alone in a foreign land, both her
brothers and her eldest son having died before the tragic taking
of her husband. A boy three years of age and an infant daughter
demanded all the care and protection she could get for them in
the pioneer country. Many women possessed of her sensibility and
shrinking nature would have been overwhelmed, but the severe
trials only served to develop the admirable energy of her
character. She never laid aside the habiliments of sorrow; the
anniversary of her husband's murder was kept as a day of fasting
and prayer; and to the great object of her life, the support and
education of her children, she devoted herself with a firmness
and constancy which wrested success despite the most adverse
conditions.
When she had finally sent her son to Princeton College, where he
was soon bearing away the first honors, it happened that her
house and furniture were destroyed by fire, yet her letters to
him breathe not one word of the calamity which, with her slender
resources must have been severely felt, because she feared he
might feel called to abandon his studies and rally to her
support. The fact that this son, William Gaston, became a
distinguished citizen of the country, was to his mother a
sufficient reward for all she had borne with deep piety and
stoic reserve.
Those who spoke of Margaret Gaston invariably named her as the
most dignified as well as the most devout woman they had ever
seen. She survived the husband she had seen murdered thirty-one
years, in which time she never made a visit save to the
suffering poor. Her home life was yet one of great activity,
attending the sick and indigent, and the poor sailors who came
to Newbern looked to her as a ministering angel. She passed away
in this town where she had stepped from the convent to become a
bride.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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