Bridget Richardson Fletcher

Bridget Richardson Fletcher (1726–1770) was a hymn writer and religious poet. Her songs provide insight into the life of Colonial women, providing insight into times of sadness and joy. She describes her views on the ideal couple, where women are prized and women submit to men. Her works were among the first women's poems in Colonial America.

Personal life

Bridget Richardson, the daughter of Sarah and Captain Zachary Richardson, was born on April 23, 1726, in Chelmsford[1][2] in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, which was an agricultural area. It is possible that her father Zachary was a farmer.[3] She had 14 siblings.[2] She was among the minority of 40% of the female population that were literate during her time of life. It is unknown if she attended a school or not.[3]

Bridget married Timothy Fletcher, a tavern owner, becoming Bridget Richardson Fletcher.[2] They were married in Chelmsford on February 15, 1746.[4] The Fletchers lived in Westford, Massachusetts, a town neighboring Chelmsford. Their six children included Jesse, Josiah,[5][3] and Elijah Fletcher.[2] They had three daughters, one of whom died in infancy.[3]

Fletcher's son Elijah, a Congregationalist minister,[2] graduated from Harvard College.[6] Elijah's daughter Grace, was the first wife of Daniel Webster.[7][8] Sons Josiah and Jesse moved to Ludlow, Vermont with Jesse's wife Lucy Keyes and their baby about 1782.[5]

Fletcher died on June 8, 1770.[2][9] She is buried at Fairview Cemetery, Chelmsford, Massachusetts. In 1773, her son published her liturgical work.[10][lower-alpha 1]

Writer

After her death, the book Hymns and Spiritual Songs On Special Occasions of Fletcher's works was published.[2][11] It is said that the book was published at the request of her friends. Fletcher did not likely intend that the songs would go beyond her circle of friends and family.[10][12] Most of her works conform to standard ballad stanza and meter of the 18th century.[3]

Her body of works reflects the spiritual growth that Fletcher experienced from a point in her life when she was melancholy, like the song No Darkness Be Compared with Spiritual Darkness, No Sorrow Like Soul Sorrow to her later years when she was grateful and closer to God's spirit.[2] She wrote about sin, redemption, and grace.[2][11] She describes spiritual desolation with images of darkness, nighttime, and prison. Spiritual joy is described with images of day, light, and feasting. Fletcher describes life as a Christian as a journey or warfare.[3]

Her songs centered on family life like childrearing, marriage, and proper conduct. In the hymn LXX. The Duty of Man and Wife. Fletcher asks couples to live in harmony and unity, the husband loving and prizing his wife, and the wife to submit as is fair.[12][13] Writing hymns about women at the time was considered a "landmark in American hymns".[14]

... the new ideal counseled that male authority should be restrained and held in reserve to ensure that mutual affection, cooperation, and consent among husbands and wives served as the basis for everyday decision-making.[13]

— Mark E. Kann, The gendering of American politics

Legacy

Susanne M. Zweizig wrote in her American National Biography article about Fletcher,

While it is unlikely that Fletcher will ever be considered a major American poet, her verse provides important insights into the spiritual life of one eighteenth-century woman, and the religious and poetic conventions of her culture. Moreover, it establishes Fletcher as one of the earliest known women poets published in colonial America.[3]

Notes
  1. Snodgrass says that the book was published in 1774.[2]

References
  1. "Bridget Richardson, Chelmsford, April 23, 1726", Vital Records of Chelmsford Massachusetts to the Year 1849, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1914
  2. Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2017-11-10). American Colonial Women and Their Art: A Chronological Encyclopedia. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 157. ISBN 978-1-4422-7097-8.
  3. Zweizig, Suzanne M. (1999). American National Biography. New York : Oxford University Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-19-520635-7.
  4. Dodd, Jordan, "Bridget Richardson, married on February 15, 1746, Chelmsford", Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850., Liahona Research, comp.
  5. Furr, Rosa Lee (2003). Antebellum Piedmont Virginia : the land of Sodom or a land of opportunity? : the lives and impressions of three transplanted New Englanders. p. 13.
  6. Sibley, John Langdon (1967). Biographical sketches of graduates of Harvard University. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. New York, Johnson Reprint Corp. p. 156.
  7. "Fletcher, Grace (1781-1828)". New Hampshire Historical Society.
  8. Dunn, Jacob Piatt (1919). Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood. Chicago : American Historical Society. p. 1236.
  9. "Bridget Fletcher, June 8, 1770, Westford", Vital Records of Chelmsford Massachusetts to the Year 1849, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1914
  10. Cowell, Pattie (1981). "Bridget Richardson Fletcher". Women Poets in Pre-Revolutionary America, 1650-1775. SJK Publishing Industries, Inc. pp. 247–252. ISBN 978-0-87875-192-1.
  11. Levernier, James; Wilmes, Douglas R. (1983). American writers before 1800 : a biographical and critical dictionary. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press. pp. 587–588. ISBN 978-0-313-22229-0.
  12. Mulford, Carla (2002). Early American writings. New York : Oxford University Press. pp. 819–820. ISBN 978-0-19-511840-7.
  13. Kann, Mark E. (1999). The gendering of American politics : founding mothers, founding fathers, and political patriarchy. Westport, Conn. : Praeger. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-275-96111-4.
  14. The Feminist companion to Literature in English : women writers from the Middle Ages to the present. London : Batsford. 1990. p. 558. ISBN 978-0-7134-5848-0.

Further reading
  • A Dictionary of British and American Women Writers, 1660-1800. Edited by Janet Todd. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld, 1985. Biographies begin on page 27.
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