Harris 1 Dionte Harris Dr.

Leigh Ryan ENGL348P 1 April 2014 Darnalls Chances Lettice Lee Lettice Lee: wife, mother, educated businesswoman and homeowner? The interesting Lettice of Darnalls Chance was not the average eighteenth century woman; she was powerful, outwardly powerful. By managing her own business as well as maintaining her own home all the while being a wife and mother, Lettice proves to be a model of the positive results that can occur when women are allowed to demonstrate power. Darnalls Chance: located in Upper Marlboro, Marylandis a historical treasure. Living in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, I was surprised that a surviving plantation was so close to my home. The house is named after Henry Darnall, a relative of Lord Baltimore, one of the wealthiest men of the colony of Maryland. While the estate may be named after him, Mr. Chance never lived in it. James Wardropa wealthy Scottish tobacco merchant owned the house after purchasing twenty acres of land. Darnalls Chance is a beautiful brick homeGeorgian in its architecture. During the tour the docent noted that a previous owner renovated the mansion; however, Mr. Wardrop left inventory that noted every detail of the house, which allowed for the Prince Georges County Department of Parks and Recreation to restore it to original condition. As before mentioned the estate once spread over twenty acres; however, today the home sits on less than three acres. In its prime the estate held fifteen bedrooms, indoor and outdoor kitchens, ornamental and vegetable gardens, an indoor wine cellar, and a brick burial vault. It also housed fifteen slaves. Walking

Harris 2 into the house we are presented with two immediate rooms: a parlor and a retreat. The family used the parlor to entertain guests, while the retreat offered a place for the women to convene separately from their husbands after feasting. The master bedroom is connected to the parlor, a perplexing arrangement until the docent explained that the mansion lacked fireplaces on the upper levels and this floor plan allowed heat to rise there. Moreover, Mr. Wardrop displayed his wealth with his original choice of paint color, determined from paint analysis to have been a dark blue-grey color. And when I asked about the color choice, the docent explained darker paints were more costly to produce and so demonstrated and symbolized wealth and status. Having wealth and a home, the only thing missing from James Wardrops life was a wife. In 1747 Thirty-five year old Wardrop married Lettice Lee, the twenty-one year old daughter of Virginias Phillip Leea wealthy man and the owner of over two thousand acres of landand together they lived in the mansion. Well educated, Lettice assisted her husband with his tobacco and alcohol businesses. She would ultimately take over the businesses. James and Lettices marriage proved to be odd because white women averaged ten to twelve children during this time and there is no record of Lattice and James having children together. Did that fact give her more time to assist in the business? To read? To work? To be as admirable as she turns out to be? We have no definite answers, but we can notice in society today how the absence of children can presents opportunities to do certain things that we would not be able to do as a parent. In 1760 James succumbed to illness in New York City. Being a businesswoman, Lettice had signed a marriage, or prenuptial, agreement with James. The agreement stated that if Lettice should outlive her husband, she would get the entire estate: over twelve thousand acres of land. Due to James death in 1760 Lettice officially became a homeownerinheriting over twenty acres of land. As an educated women Lettice, at

Harris 3 the event of James death, opted to the Dowers right: accepting a third of the land. While there is no formal documentation as to why Lettice decided to only take a third of the estate, it can be inferred that she realized that the taxes on the property would deplete her inherited finances since she did not work. Another assumed reason is that she did not have any children and reasoned that the entire estate was too much land for her to manage alone. Another interesting thing to note is that after Wardrops death Lettice changed the paint in the house to a cream color, thereby not only lightening the mood in the house during her time of mourning but also portraying her newfound power as the homeowner. Lettice owned Darnalls Chance and no one had the authority to control her decisions of what to do with it. Lettice remarried to Dr. Thompson of New York, who had treated James Wardrop during his fatal illness. Thompson, Scottish, is accredited in advancing the inoculation of smallpox, yet a prenuptial agreement was still composed for Lettice notably had more financially than him. The agreement stated that if Lettice should outlive her husband that she would inherit nothing, but her children, if they were to have any, would receive their fathers estate. Lettice and Dr. Thompson have two children: Alice and Mary born in 1765 and 1767 respectively. Dr. Thompson dies of dysentery, or bloody stools, in 1768, which leaves unemployed Lettice with two young children to care for. With inherited finances, Lettice had enough to sustain her lifestylestill she went to work. An admirable choice for a woman of the time period, and quite different from those we read about that appeared to be completely dependent on their husbands. But women had few choices of occupation, and the little choices they had were all domestic. That being said, Lettice distilled and sold alcoholwhich today is still viewed as one of the least domestic occupations. We know that Lettice continued to run James Wardrops alcohol business due to a court case

Harris 4 record in which she sued, and defeated, a male patron for not paying for alcohol. Lettices tenacity to sue further exemplifies that she is not the average woman of the eighteenth century. Not afraid to speak up, she knew her rights; moreover, she knew that as a single woman she could sue for herself. Knowing her rights only propelled Lettice in becoming one of Americas pioneering businesswomen, and her alcohol shop excelled. Lettice marries a third time to her childhood friend Colonel Joseph Simm in 1775. While we cannot validate this, the docent rationalized that historians assume that Lettice married Simm in order to keep her children stable in the event of her death. Lettices third prenuptial agreement stated that if Lettice paid Simm a certain sum of money, then she could use Darnalls Chance solely for her alcohol business in addition to her children being taken care of in the case of her. This was her last marriage for Lettice died on April 3, 1777. Encompassed within the walls of Darnalls Chance is a story more than deserving of telling: the story of Lettice Leedaringly independent and bravely different. Being a wife, mother, businesswoman, and head-of-household is hard enough today, but to be all of that and more in the late eighteenth century proves that Lettice Lee is an American historical great whose life and legacy is more than worthy of being taught and celebrated in our schools.

Harris 5 Works Cited Hobson, Courtney. Docent for Darnells Chance Museum. 30. March 2014