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(WOMEN). (CONNECTICUT). Power of Attorney Granted by Elizabeth Stephens of Stonington to Benadam Gallup. February 18, 1730/31. Stonington, Connecticut.  Signed by Elizabeth Stephens, Her Mark. Witnesses Henry Stevens and Ghin...us (?) Stevens. Sheet 7.5 x 10 inches. 1 p. Ink. Wax seal at signature. $4,500.00

 

      Legal document of early settlers of Stonington; Elizabeth Stephens was no doubt the one of the same name born about 1693 to Henry and Elizabeth (Gallup) Stephens (ancestors of George W. Bush). Signatory witness Henry would have been her brother, born about 1681.

   Elizabeth appoints Benadam Gallup of Groton her power of attorney to negotiate any claims against her lands in Voluntown in Windham County.  Elizabeth?��s father, Henry, was an extensive land owner in Stonington, Plainfield, and Voluntown, and these lands were likely property inherited after his death in 1726.

   Colonel Benadam Gallup (no doubt a relative of Elizabeth?��s), was the son of Lieutenant Benadam Gallup, born October 26, 1716, married, August 11, 1740, Hannah Avery, of Groton. Colonel Gallup was an officer in the Revolution. He served with the militia in the Second Battalion of Wadsworth's brigade, raised in June, 1776; and was at the Brooklyn Front battle of Long Island, raised August 27, 1776; in the retreat to New York, August 27-30; in the retreat from New York City, September 15, with the main army at White Plains. Colonel Gallup died at Groton, Connecticut, May 19, 1800, and his wife died July 28, 1799.

   ?��Many women acted as their husbands' business agents. Given the power of attorney by their mates, they were involved in all aspects of finance, including bringing debtors to court. That colonial women often participated in various sorts of legal proceedings is indicative of the colonial society's pragmatic approach toward women. Pre-Revolutionary Americans often bent the Common Law system (which in England largely excluded women) to suit their needs. Daniel Boorstin has explained this anomaly by noting that colonial America had no learned monopolies. Or, as William Byrd put it in a letter discussing the attractions of the New World, America was free from 'Those three scourges of mankind - priests, lawyers and physicians.' In the early days there were no bar associations or medical associations establishing proficiency requirements. In consequence, a woman with aptitude could learn a skill informally and practice a profession.?��--A History of Women in America, by Carol Hymowitz & Michaele Weissman  (1984).

   "....as the American economy capitalized its productivity, and as individual wage earners replaced families as the basic production units, women found themselves excluded from their earlier work experience. Two activities in the colonies that underwent this limiting process were midwifery and informal exercise of the power of attorney.?��--Gordon & Buhl, ?��Sex and Class in Colonial & Nineteenth Century America,?�� in Berenice A. Carroll (ed.), Liberating women's history: theoretical and critical essays (1976).

   The authors go on to cite a ?��process in granting powers of attorney?Ķ documented in [colonial] Maryland?�� that was curtailed ?��[w]hen law became a career with perquisites denied to women?Ķ.?��

   Beyond women receiving power of attorney in the Colonial period, the question of women granting power of attorney would seem to be a rather different matter, an authority they were generally not likely to possess. We believe this document represents a woman's legal power rarely to be seen to function in colonial America.

      Colonial law was not uniform and varied widely from province to province; so it may be that in Connecticut (and Maryland) there may have been wider latitude for women.