Wikipedia

Jean Moncure Wood

Jean Wood (née Moncure; May 22, 1753 – March 4, 1823) was the first lady of Virginia from 1796 to 1799 as the wife of James Wood, the 11th governor of Virginia. She was also a notable early female poet in Virginia and influential in charitable circles.

Jean Moncure Wood
First Lady of Virginia
In role
December 1, 1796 – December 1, 1799
GovernorJames Wood
Preceded byMary Ritchie Hopper Brooke
Succeeded byElizabeth Monroe
Personal details
Born
Jean Moncure

(1753-05-22)May 22, 1753
Virginia Colony, British America
DiedMarch 4, 1823(1823-03-04) (aged 69)
Virginia, U.S.
SpouseJames Wood (m. 1775)
Children1

Early life and family

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Wood was born on May 22, 1753, the third daughter of Reverend John Moncure and Frances Brown, Scottish immigrants.[1][2][3] She grew up in Stafford County, Virginia. In 1775, she married James Wood, and they had one daughter who died in childhood.[4][5][6]

Governor's wife

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During the late 1770s, Wood suffered a bout of severe illness from which she recovered.[7][8]

Wood served as one of the early first ladies of Virginia upon her husbands election as Virginia's governor. As the governor's wife, she was a prominent figure in Virginia society and charitable circles.[4][9] The Executive Mansion was not yet built during this period, so during her husband's term as governor they lived at Chelsea Hill and also resided at their Glen Burnie estate.[10][11]

In 1807, she established the Female Humane Association to aid women and children in need, of which she served as president.[12][13][14] The organization is considered as one of the first examples of a women's charity in Virginia, and was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1811.[15][16][17]

Poet

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Wood was a noted poet and writer,[18][19] and several of her works were posthumously published in an 1859 volume entitled Flowers and Weeds of the Old Dominion.[20][21][22] After her death, her unpublished volume of poems in manuscript was favorably reviewed by the Southern Literary Messenger.[23][24]

Death

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Wood died on March 4, 1823, aged 69.[1][25] She is interred in the Shields-Robinson Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.[4] Upon her death, the Richmond Enquirer wrote that "none had greater compassion for the afflicted".[26]

Legacy

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After her death, a charitable relief association at Hampden–Sydney College was named as the "Jean Wood Society" in her honor.[4] The charitable organization Wood established is still in operation today and is now known as the Memorial Foundation for Children.[27] Wood is referenced on multiple occasions in the Papers of George Washington.[7][8]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Death Notice". Virginia Evangelical and Literary Magazine. 1823.
  2. ^ Ryan, Edward L. (1940). "Poplar Vale". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 48 (3): 202–206. ISSN 0042-6636.
  3. ^ Lewises, Meriwethers and Their Kin. Genealogical Publishing Com. 1984. ISBN 978-0-8063-1072-5.
  4. ^ a b c d Southern Literary Messenger. 1850.
  5. ^ Lyne, Cassandra (1933). "Reminiscences of Mrs. William Lyne of Orange". The William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine. 13 (3): 184–186. doi:10.2307/1921596. ISSN 1936-9530.
  6. ^ Tyler, Lyon Gardiner (1908). Men of Mark in Virginia: Ideals of American Life; a Collection of Biographies of the Leading Men in the State. Men of Mark Publishing Company.
  7. ^ a b "Founders Online: To George Washington from Colonel James Wood, 12 November 1778". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
  8. ^ a b "Founders Online: To George Washington from Colonel James Wood, 17 January 1779". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
  9. ^ Adams, Oscar Fay (1898). A Dictionary of American Authors. Houghton, Mifflin.
  10. ^ Confederate Veteran. S.A. Cunningham. 1928.
  11. ^ Greene, Katherine Glass; Glass, William Wood (1946). Brig. General and Governor James Wood, Junior, and the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia. Pifer Print. Company.
  12. ^ Scott, Mary Wingfield (c. 1940). "Female Humane Society, Richmond, Virginia". The Valentine. The Valentine. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
  13. ^ "A Guide to the Memorial Foundation for Children Records, 1811-2006 (bulk 1926-1999) Memorial Foundation for Children Records, 1811-2006 (bulk 1926-1999) 42432". ead.lib.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
  14. ^ Murray, Gail S. (1995). "Charity within the Bounds of Race and Class: Female Benevolence in the Old South". The South Carolina Historical Magazine. 96 (1): 54–70. ISSN 0038-3082.
  15. ^ Varon, Elizabeth R. (2000-11-09). We Mean to Be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia. Univ of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-6608-5.
  16. ^ Kerrison, Catherine (2015-05-05). Claiming the Pen: Women and Intellectual Life in the Early American South. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-5432-5.
  17. ^ Bryson, William Hamilton (2000). Virginia Law Books: Essays and Bibliographies. American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0-87169-239-9.
  18. ^ Newman, Carol Montgomery (1903). Virginia Literature. University of Virginia.
  19. ^ Kierner, Cynthia A.; Treadway, Sandra Gioia (2015). Virginia Women: Their Lives and Times--Volume 1. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-4263-4.
  20. ^ "Wood, Jean Moncure, 1753-1823 | The Online Books Page". onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
  21. ^ Lewis, John; Lewis, John Moncure; Scott, Huldah Lewis; Wood, Jean Moncure (1859). Flowers and weeds of the Old Dominion: poems. Frankfort, Ky.: A.G. Hodges, printer.
  22. ^ Flowers and Weeds of the Old Dominion: Poems. A.G. Hodges, printer. 1859.
  23. ^ Alderman, Edwin Anderson; Harris, Joel Chandler; Smith, Charles Alphonso; Kent, Charles W.; Knight, Lucian Lamar; Metcalf, John Calvin (1910). Library of Southern Literature: Compiled Under the Direct Supervision of Southern Men of Letters. Martin and Hoyt Company.
  24. ^ Bruce, Philip Alexander; Stanard, William Glover (1977). The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Virginia Historical Society.
  25. ^ Herringshaw, Thomas William (1914). Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States; Illustrated with Three Thousand Vignette Portraits ... American Publishers' Association.
  26. ^ Greene, Katherine Glass (1926). Winchester, Virginia, and Its Beginnings, 1743-1814. Shenandoah Publishing house. ISBN 978-1-933607-48-1.
  27. ^ "About the Foundation". Mfcrichmond. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
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