Ten American Girls from HistorySweetser, Kate Dickinson
History
Ten American Girls from History
Sweetser, Kate Dickinson
United States -- Biography; Women -- Biography
Pretty Dorothy a bride! Mrs. John Hancock at her gallant husband's
side, receiving congratulations, with joy shining in her dark eyes,
which were lifted now and again to her husband, only to be answered by
a responsive glance of love and loyalty. They were a handsome and a
happy pair, to whom for a few hours the strife of the colonies had
become a dream--to whom, despite the turbulent struggle in which
Hancock must soon again play such a prominent part, the future looked
rose color, because now nothing but death could part them.
* * * * *
Vivacious Dorothy had not only now become Mrs. John Hancock, but she
was also called _Madam_ Hancock! Oh, the bliss of the dignified title
to its youthful owner! She read with girlish satisfaction the item in
a New York paper of September 4th, which reported, "Saturday last, the
Honorable John Hancock and his Lady arrived here, and immediately set
out for Philadelphia." With still greater pleasure a few days later
she set herself to the establishing of a home in that city which was
to be her first residence as a married woman. And well did she carry
out her design to make John Hancock a worthy comrade, for besides
accomplishing all the necessary duties of a housekeeper, she quickly
acquired the dignity and reserve needed for the wife of a man filling
such a prominent position in the colonies during the war for
Independence. There was much lavish living and extravagant elegance of
dressing, with which she was obliged to vie, even in the town where
the Quakers were so much in evidence; and meeting, as she did, many
persons of social and political importance, it was impossible for
pretty Dorothy to be as care-free and merry now as she had been in the
days when no heavy responsibilities rested on her shoulders.
So well did she fill her position as Madam Hancock that she won golden
opinions from the many distinguished men and women who came together
under Hancock's hospitable roof-tree; her husband noting with ever
increasing pride that his Dolly was more deeply and truly an American
woman in her flowering than ever he could have dreamed she would
become when he fell in love with her on that Sunday in June. And
loyally did he give to her credit for such inspiration as helped to
mold him into the man who received the greatest honors in the power of
the colonists to bestow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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