Penelope Barker

The only known portrait of American Revolution activist Penelope Barker which hangs in the Cupola House, Edenton. North Carolina.

Penelope Barker (June 17, 1728, Edenton, Chowan County, North Carolina − 1796) was an activist in the American Revolution who in 1774 organised a boycott of British goods known as the Edenton Tea Party.

Born Penelope Pagett, her parents were Samuel Pagett, a physician and planter, and Elizabeth Blount, who was the daughter of the prominent planter and local politician James Blount, who had been a leader in Culpeper's Rebellion of 1677.

Her father died shortly followed by her sister. Penelope then assumed responsibility for the family plantation and her sisters two children from her marriage to John Hodgson [1] Barker was married at a young age to John Hodgson, her sisters widower, who already had two children from the previous marriage. She bore him two more and was widowed at the age of nineteen and left to care for all four children[1]

She was remarried to the wealthy James Craven who was a planter. When he died in 1755 she inherited all of his estate and became the richest woman in North Carolina.

She married again to businessman Thomas Barker. They had three children, all died before their first birthdays. Thomas Barker sailed to England many times as a representative of North Carolina. In 1761, Thomas sailed to England and was unable to return for many years due to the British blockade of American ships [1]

On October 25, 1774, ten months after the famous Boston Tea Party, Barker organized a Tea Party of her own. Penelope wrote a statement proposing a boycott on British goods and 51 local women signed and published the letter opposing British taxation, sending it to a London newspaper. The gathering which, took place in the home of Elizabeth King, became known as the Edenton Tea Party. It was published in London but received misogynist ridicule there.[2]

After Thomas Barker returned in 1778, he and Penelope built a home in 1782, which is known today as “The Barker House”. Penelope and her husband both died in 1796 and are buried alongside each other in the Johnston family graveyard at Hayes Plantation, near Edenton.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Penelope Pagett Barker – History of American Women". womenhistoryblog.com. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Penelope Barker (1728–1796) National Women's History Museum entry. Accessed September 2014
  3. ↑ Martin, Jr., Michael G. (1979). "Barker, Penelope". NCpedia. Retrieved 21 April 2015.