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The following article(s) appeared in Trend & Tradition: The Magazine of

©2016-2021 THE COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. GOING TO WORK FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN 18TH- CENTURY WILLIAMSBURG

BY SUSAN BERG Driven by circumstance and necessity, women in the sometimes worked outside the home. Marriage stripped women of some legal rights, essentially designating them as dependents and curtailing their rights to issue contracts, to control their property, to sue and even to keep wages that they earned. Called coverture, its origin was in English common law, where women essentially relinquished their legal and economic identities in exchange for their husbands' support and protection. But these restrictions did not apply to unmarried and widowed women of the time. They could manage their An unaffected desire to

please, an indefatigable attention to my business ...'

Clementina Rind

in a notice to readers in The Gazette soldier in the Revolutionary War, David Miller returned to Williamsburg and his mother' s household. The amenities Vobe offered her guests included meeting rooms and a repository for lost-and-found items. Guests could buy theater and lottery tickets. They could hire horses and riding chairs. At the printing office, she purchased engraved prints to hang in her tavern and dozensof packs of playing cards for her guests for gaming. She took an interest in her slaves. She arranged to have two slaves baptized by the rector of , and she also sent some of them to the Bray School a school in Williamsburg for slaves and free blacks. One of Vobe' s slaves,Gowan Pamphlet, managed to carry on his activities as a Baptist preacher either without Vobe' s knowledge or by negotiating with her for time away

from the tavern. The brought unexpected prosperity to tavern keepers as Williamsburg became a primary recruitment center. Vobe Jane Vobe was a widow in 1765, regularly hosted Continental officers running a tavern " where all the best including in the weeks before the final people resorted," according to a French decisive battle at Yorktown in 1781 — traveler writing in his diary. Members of Gov.Thomas Nelson, a commanding the Burgesses, the Governor' s Council general of a Virginia militia, and the and the gentry frequented her tavern. Baron von Steuben, a Prussian- born, and Thomas French-speaking tactical taskmaster Jefferson were among her patrons. credited with emphasizing the Sometime in the , she gave birth Continental Army' s need for military to a son, David Miller, whose father, discipline. Vobe kept a tavern in Williamsburg Robert Miller, was bursar at the College until 1785, long after had of William & Mary. After serving as a moved to

Richmond. 54 TREND & TRADITION • WINTER 2016 NAME Catherine Rathell

JOB YEARS Mid- 1760s - 1775

Catherine Rathell, a milliner by soup ladles and medicine. She also trade, arrived in Fredericksburg provided lodging for gentlemen. from in late 1765 or early Her letters to Norton reveal her high 1766, and was advertising her goods in standards, priding herself on having Williamsburg by April 1766. She spent the best & most fashionable goods the next nine years managing millinery in Williamsburg." Rathell's terms for shops in various cities in Virginia and in her customers, " for ready money only," Annapolis, Md. She was unmarried and were a deviation from the standard

there is no information about her birth, credit transactions and she used them her parents or family, or her education. to promote herself with English During the decade preceding the merchants with whom she preferred Revolution she was one of at least seven to do business. When a shipment of women milliners in Williamsburg. goods didn't measure up, she returned Her correspondence with John the product and requested a refund. Norton, a London merchant, acting as In 1771, she traveled to to an agent for Virginia merchants, and personally select her orders. the numerous detailed advertisements Rathell' s political persuasions she placed in offer remain a mystery. Following the insight into her business practices. A adoption of the Continental savvy businesswoman, she pursued Association, an action of the First trade by moving her shop to various Continental Congress that prohibited cities: Fredericksburg, Williamsburg, trade with England, she advertised Petersburg and Annapolis, making in April 1775 that she was selling all sure she was in Williamsburg when her stock and returning to England. the General Courts and the courts of This trade boycott threatened all oyer and terminer were in session and Williamsburg milliners, whose business Colonists would flock to the capital. was dependent on imported British Rathell stocked a diverse inventory of goods. The next news of her clothing and accessories. She sold other is in The Virginia Gazette in various items: lottery and play tickets, 1776 announcing her death when jewelry, riding and walking sticks, silver her ship sank within sight ofLiverpool.

TREND & TRADITION • WINTER 2016 55 I

NAME

JOB YEARS

1773- 1774

Clementina Rind became the Within a few months, Virginia' s House

proprietor of a business through of Burgesses elected Rind as Public Printer personal tragedy. Her husband, William for the Colony, a post that he held until Rind, who ran a printing office, died at his death in 1773. Left with five the age of43, leaving an estate valued at small children to support, Clementina 272, halfofwhich was represented by took over the family business. A week later, equipment used in his shop. The Rind in her first issue as editor of The Virginia family had moved to Williamsburg from Gazette, she retained the masthead that Annapolis in 1766 when William was her husband had used, " Open to ALL solicited by some Virginia burgesses PARTIES, but Influenced by NONE." to publish a second newspaper, whose In that same issue she sought sympathy content was not controlled by the from her readers, emphasizing the current governor. As Thomas Jefferson wrote 40 financial plight of her family: " May that years later: " We had but one press, and All Ruling Power, whose chastening Hand that having the whole business of the has snatched from my dear Infants and government, and no competitor for public myself our whole Dependence, make me favor, nothing disagreeable to the governor equal to the Task." She asked for prompt could be got into it." Prior to his arrival in payment from those placing advertisements Williamsburg, these burgesses sent articles and requested continued favor from the deemed too radical by the Williamsburg House ofBurgesses, hoping to inherit her printer to Rind. He had printed them in husband' s position as public printer. This The Gazette. position, which had the responsibility of

56 TREND & TRADITION • WINTER 2016 printing the General Assembly' s laws and And make you happy as you're Clementine Rind' s choice of content, including proceedings, government proclamations good and great... science, education and and paper currency, carried with it a salary society news, set her of £450. There was controversy during her publication apart. Clementina Rind was not the only tenure. An ATTENTIVE OBSERVER, printer in Williamsburg at that time. Her writing anonymously in Purdie and shop was located in what is presently the Dixon' s Gazette, criticized her for Ludwell- Paradise House, one block from sacrificing her husband' s principles by where her competitors, Alexander Purdie refusing to print a piece that leveled and John Dixon, ran a printing office and serious allegations against certain published a newspaper, also named The individuals. In the next issue of her Virginia Gazette, as well as books, almanacs newspaper, Rind wrote that having and printed forms. received a "severe reprimand" she felt While both newspapers carried much obligated to defend herself and indicated of the same content, Rind' s editorial that "When the author gives up his sensibilities were evident in her inclusion name, it shall, however repugnant to my of recent developments in science, inclination, have a place in this paper." improvements in education and amusing Her most memorable accomplishment vignettes ofEuropean high society. She came in August 1774, a month before frequently printed Virginia counties' her death. Virginia was preparing to send resolves and similar measures passed by a delegation to the First Continental other Colonies to protest the Port Congress in , which was Act, which closed that port to trade. convening to respond to the Intolerable Her coverage of the arrival of Lady Acts, punitive laws that Parliament Dunmore to join her husband, the royal had imposed on the Colonies. Thomas governor, in 1774 contrasts sharply Jefferson wrote instructions to the with Purdie and Dixon' s factual — but delegates, but the House of Burgesses impersonal — reporting of that event. found them too extreme to endorse. Rind's account is graphic, describing a Instead, Clementina Rind printed them misfiring of the cannon in the salute to as an anonymous publication, Lady Dunmore and the serious injuries that A Summary View ofthe Rights ofBritish resulted to the men and slaves attending America, which was also issued in it. "They received considerable damage; Philadelphia, and London. the arms, face, and eyes ... being bruised; This was the first document to oppose one of them having lost three fingers ... British rule over the Colonies, and the other is much burnt in the face." She Jefferson's role in writing the pamphlet includes her own verse of warm welcome to was widely known. Two years later, he the governor' s wife, describing her delight was chosen to write the Declaration of in having the family reunited, and at the Independence. In this pamphlet, Rind same time, intimating how her own tragedy fulfilled the purpose for which her has influenced her life. husband had been brought to Virginia. Her death following a "tedious and Long may they live — to virtue aspire, painful illness" was announced in an issue And catch the bright of The Virginia Gazette, printed by example of their sire. John Pinckney, bearing the masthead " for May watchful angels ever guard their fate, the benefit of Clementina Rind's estate."

TREND & TRADITION • WINTER 2016 57 Women Entrepreneurs

NAME Christiana Campbell

JOB YEARS behind the Capitol. Christiana Campbell is remembered on Campbell owned Early 1750s - Late her grave marker several slaves, some of as " Sincere in her professions, whom she baptized An enemy to and sent to the Bray oppression, A friend to the distressed, Christiana Campbell was born School. And like Vobe, The means whose

in 1733, the daughter of John Campbell found favor with members of relief she generously exercised and

Burdett, a Williamsburg tavern keeper. the gentry. Washington was a frequent promoted." She married Ebenezer Campbell, an guest of hers, recording several stays from apothecary from Petersburg, who died 1762 to 1774. in 1752 leaving her with two daughters. Campbell continued in business until Within 10 years, Campbell returned to sometime after 1776. She died in 1792 in Williamsburg and established herself as Fredericksburg, Va., where she had gone a tavern keeper. In 1771 she moved into to live with her daughter Ebe Day and the tavern that Vobe had just vacated her family.

58 TREND & TRADITION • WINTER 2016