JSM Timeline

 Judith Sargent Stevens Murray Timeline

ca. 1640 — Thomas Saunders of England, Judith’s maternal ancestor, settles at Cape Ann, Gloucester, Massachusetts.

1678 — Earliest record of JSM's paternal ancestor, William Sargent of England, in Gloucester.

1727 — JSM's father, Winthrop Sargent, is born in Gloucester.

1731 — JSM's mother, Judith Saunders, is born in Gloucester.

1750 — JSM's parents marry in Gloucester.

1741 — JSM's first husband, John Stevens Jr., is born in Gloucester.
1741 — JSM's second husband, John Murray, is born in Alton, England.

1751 — May 1: Judith Sargent is born in Gloucester.

1753 — JSM's brother, Winthrop, is born in Gloucester.

1755 — JSM's sister, Esther, is born in Gloucester.

1757–8 — JSM's sister, Catherine, is born and dies in Gloucester.

1758–9 — Another sister named Catherine is born and dies in Gloucester. 

1759 — (The Rev. James Relly of Wales publishes Union: or a Treatise on the Consanguinity and Affinity between Christ and His Church, the founding document of Universalism.) JSM writes poetry and letters to family.

1765 — (British Parliament issues the Stamp Act; colonists in Boston form Sons of Liberty in protest.)

1765 — JSM’s sister, Sarah, is born in Gloucester, and dies within the year. JSM begins to use the Sargent family library at about the age of fourteen.

1766 — (The Stamp Act is repealed.)

1767 — (Townshend Acts are levied by Parliament to tax colonial imports.)

1768 — JSM's brother, Fitz William, is born in Gloucester.

1769 — Judith Sargent marries John Stevens Jr., at age eighteen.

ca. 1769-70 — JSM's father, Winthrop Sargent, reads James Relly’s book, Union, and begins to gather “adherents” to Universalism in his Gloucester home.

1770— (In Boston, British troops and colonists clash in an episode that was dubbed “The Boston Massacre.”)

John Murray sails from England to America.

1770–2 — Judith Sargent Stevens sits for her portrait by John Singleton Copley; it is titled "Portrait of Mrs. John Stevens."

1771 — Another sister named Sarah is born in Gloucester; she dies four years later.

1772 — JSM's sister, Esther, marries John Stevens Ellery of Gloucester.

1773 — (Many Townshend Act duties are repealed, but Parliament passes the Tea Act  granting exclusive profit to the East India Company; “Indians” dump tea into Boston Harbor.)

1773-5 — (An "arms race" is on; colonists make every effort to secure and hide what they might need to defend themselves against the British.) 

1774 — (The British close Boston’s port and pass more “intolerable acts” as punishment; representatives from the twelve colonies meet in Philadelphia and support Massachusetts’ resistance to the intolerable acts [this group is considered the first Continental Congress]; calls for limits to Parliament’s authority grow; General Thomas Gage, the military English governor in Massachusetts, calls for 10,000 British troops to quell anticipated rebellion; George III sends 3,500 troops; African Americans in Boston sign Negro Petition for Freedom.)

1774 — John Murray arrives in Gloucester. JSM probably begins to create her first letter book this year, at age twenty-three.

1775 — (February 25: In an incident now known as "Leslie's Retreat," British troops arrive  in Salem in search of canon and gun powder; April 19: Still searching for arms and powder, British troops march to Lexington and Concord and engage in the first battles of the war; June 17: Battle of Bunker Hill; second Continental Congress assembles at Philadelphia where George Washington is named Commander in Chief of the Continental Army; he takes command of the New England militia units at Cambridge; war commences.) 

British vessels off the coast of Gloucester. General Washington appoints John Murray as chaplain of the Rhode Island Brigade despite objections by the established clergy. JSM's brother, Winthrop, enlists in the Massachusetts Artillery at Cambridge; he serves as a lieutenant in Gridley’s Regiment, then as captain-lieutenant under General Henry Knox; Judith’s father serves on Gloucester’s Committee of Safety, as a government agent, and co-owner of privateeringv vessels; her uncle Paul Dudley Sargent enlists in the patriotic cause and earns the rank of colonel; her uncle Epes Sargent and aunt Catherine Osborne Sargent are forced to leave Gloucester for their Loyalist beliefs; they eventually return; her Loyalist uncle John Sargent moves his family to Halifax. Judith’s sister, Sarah, dies; Judith pens an essay defending Loyalists and    decrying mob rule although it is not published until 1794.

1776 — (July 4: Declaration of Independence is signed at Philadelphia; it is soon published and read publicly throughout the colonies; Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense; Washington’s army drives the British from Boston; war activities move west and south.)

John Murray’s health fails; he returns to Gloucester where he raises money for the relief of the poor; JSM has herself inoculated against the small pox.

1777 — (French supplies help Americans win the Battle of Saratoga; the two countries form an alliance that will be pivotal to victory over England.)

JSM's brother, Winthrop, is captain of the 3rd Continental Artillery; he is appointed aide-de-camp to General Robert Howe until the close of the war; he takes part in the New Jersey campaign and spends the winter at Valley Forge.

1778 — (France enters the war.)

Brother Winthrop Sargent in Battle of Monmouth. Judith Stevens, Winthrop Sargent (JSM's father), Judith Saunders Sargent (JSM's mother), Epes Sargent III (JSM's uncle), Catharine Osborne Sargent (JSM's aunt), and ten other Universalists are suspended from First Parish in Gloucester for not attending.

1779 — (Spain enters the war.)

Universalists sign Articles of Association in defiance of First Parish creating their own organization, the Independent Church of Christ; Judith’s name is included in the document. JSM writes “On the Equality of the Sexes” but publishes it in 1790.

1780 — The first American Universalist meeting house is built in Gloucester and dedicated on Christmas Day. JSM agrees to adopt Anna and Mary Plummer, her husband’s orphaned nieces; Anna lives with her for several years; JSM also takes in Polly Odell, a young orphaned Saunders cousin.

1781 — (Americans win the Battle of Yorktown; the colonies agree to sign Articles of Confederation.)    

1782 — First Parish seizes goods from the Universalists in lieu of the church taxes they refused to pay, including silver plate and a ship’s anchor from the Sargents. JSM publishes her Universalist catechism in Norwich, Connecticut, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire; she moves into her new house in Gloucester (today, the Sargent House Museum).

1783 — (September 3: Britain, France, Spain, and the Americans sign treaties ending the war; as a result of two law suits, slavery is now illegal in Massachusetts.)

John Murray and the Universalists bring a case against First Parish before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for their right to support their own minister and their own church—not First Parish. Winthrop Sargent commissioned brevet major before he musters out; he joins the Society of the Cincinnati.        

1784 — As Constantia, JSM publishes poetry in the Gentleman and Lady’s Town and Country Magazine; October: she publishes “Desultory Thoughts Upon the Utility of Encouraging a Degree of Self-Complacency, especially in Female Bosoms” in the same magazine.  

1785 — Universalists publish An Appeal to the Impartial Public by the Society of the Christian Independents, Congregating in Gloucester to explain their legal position; JSM’s name is among the signers; An Answer to the appeal follows; John Murray responds with a strongly-worded broadside. Universalists meet in Oxford, Massachusetts, to draft a Charter of Compact to serve as a model of legal rights and duties for other Universalist societies to follow. JSM spends the winter barricaded in her Gloucester home with John Stevens to avoid his arrest and incarceration in debtors’ prison.

1786 — (Shay’s Rebellion in western Massachusetts threatens law and order in the new nation; Benjamin Rush publishes Thoughts Upon Female Education.)
    
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules in favor of the Universalists and in favor of freedom of religion. JSM's brother, Winthrop Sargent, is appointed by Congress as a land surveyor in Ohio; clashes with Native Americans ensue.

1786 — JSM's husband, John Stevens, escapes Gloucester for the West Indies.     

1787 — (The Convention in Philadelphia begins the process of drafting and ratifying the Constitution.)

Winthrop Sargent, Manasseh Cutler, and others form the Ohio Company to open up the Northwest Territory; Winthrop appointed secretary of the Company and the Territory, acting as governor in Arthur St. Clair’s absence. JSM receives word that John Stevens has died; she is now widowed and poor.

1788 — (February 6: Massachusetts ratifies the Constitution and formally joins the Union as a state.)

Winthrop Sargent in the Northwest Territory; he marries Rebecca/Rowena Tupper; she dies in childbirth within a year. January: The legality of marriages performed by John Murray is challenged; he sails to England for his safety; July: the Massachusetts legislature rules in favor of John Murray; he returns to Gloucester; October 6: Judith marries John Murray in Salem, Massachusetts, at age thirty-seven; on their honeymoon journey, she meets John and Abigail Adams in Braintree. Christmas Day: John Murray is ordained as pastor of the Independent Christian Church of Christ in Gloucester.

1789 — (The new American government is launched from New York; George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States on April 30.)
    
JSM's brother, Fitz William, marries Anna Parsons. August: Judith’s son, Fitz Winthrop Murray, is born but dies at birth; Judith nearly dies; using the pen name "Constantia," she publishes poetry in the Massachusetts Magazine until 1794.

1790 — (Congress votes to make Philadelphia the capital city for ten years while the construction of a new capital city begins on the Potomac River.)
    
March and April: As "Constantia," JSM publishes “On the Equality of the Sexes” in the Massachusetts Magazine; May: Constantia publishes “On the Domestic Education of Children” in the Massachusetts Magazine; May: JSM journeys to Philadelphia with John Murray for the first national Universalist convention; in New York, she meets President George Washington, Martha Washington, and their granddaughter, Eleanor (“Nellie”) Custis, and renews her acquaintance with Vice President John Adams and Abigail Adams.    

1791— (The Bill of Rights is ratified; rise of Jefferson’s republican party.)

Massachusetts Magazine declares "Constantia" one of its ablest writers. August 22: Judith gives birth to Julia Maria Murray.    
    
1792 — (Mary Wollstonecraft of England publishes Vindication of the Rights of Woman.)
    
February: JSM assumes a male persona to publish “The Gleaner” column series in the Massachusetts Magazine through December 1794; September: "Constantia" publishes “The Repository” column series in the Massachusetts Magazine through December 1794.

1793 — (The British seize American ships trading in the French West Indies; the “Reign of Terror” begins in France; in America, a Fugitive Slave Act is passed; the ban on theatrical entertainment in Boston is lifted.)
    
John Murray is called to serve the Universalist church in Boston; he divides his time between the Gloucester and Boston congregations. June: JSM's mother dies; December: Her father dies.

1794 — John Murray decides to serve the Boston church exclusively; the Murray family moves to Franklin Place, Boston (also known as the Tontine Crescent), a new townhouse development designed by Charles Bulfinch in the European style.

1794 — JSM develops “The Reaper,” a column for the newspaper the Federal Orrery; only five installments appear.

1795 — (Jay’s Treaty is signed, clarifying trade regulations with Britain and providing free travel along the Spanish-held Mississippi River but causing conflict with France; the Treaty of Grenville is signed, opening up land in Ohio; Pinckney’s Treaty is signed, further solidifying American sovereignty over lands won from Britain in 1783.)

March 2: JSM's first play, "The Medium: or, Happy Tea-Party" (later renamed "The Medium, or, Virtue Triumphant") is performed at the Federal Street Theatre in Boston; her daughter, Julia Maria, almost dies from a recurring “throat  disorder.”

1796 — (John Adams is elected president; angered by America’s favoritism of England in trade, France seizes American ships and breaks off diplomatic relations.)
    
JSM meets the Marquis de Lafayette in Boston; she hopes to adopt Caroline Augusta, her brother Winthrop’s illegitimate daughter, but Winthrop is unable to gain custody; March: JSM's second play, "The Traveller Returned," is performed at the Federal Street Theatre; she decides to self-publish a book, The Gleaner, and begins to solicit subscribers.

1797 — (French corruption is exposed in the XYZ Affair; American and French vessels fight an undeclared war at sea for the next two years; real war is imminent.)
    
JSM continues to solicit subscribers to The Gleaner.  
 
1798 — (American negotiations with France are failing; there is public clamor for war with France.)
    
Winthrop Sargent is appointed the first governor of the Mississippi Territory; he moves to Natchez, marries Mary McIntosh Williams of Natchez, and begins to send his step-children and then children to Massachusetts and New Hampshire for their schooling; JSM oversees, corresponds with, or boards her nieces and nephews. Julia Maria, age seven, begins to study with Francis Nichols.

1798 — JSM publishes The Gleaner, in three volumes, and dedicates the book to John Adams.

1799 — (George Washington dies; President Adams negotiates a peaceful settlement with France and avoids war.)

John Murray is close to death from a “tumor” in his side; her own health failing, JSM makes plans for Julia Maria to live with her cousin Epes Sargent IV of Hampstead, New Hampshire.

1800 — (Thomas Jefferson is elected president; many of Judith’s friends and relatives are removed from political office; the seat of American government moves to the new capital Washington.)  

American novelists Henry Sherbourne and Sally Sayward Barrell Keating Wood praise The Gleaner and predict its timeless importance.

1801 — Under the Jefferson administration, Winthrop Sargent is replaced as governor of the Mississippi Territory; he retires in Natchez, and sends his step-daughter, Anna Williams, to live with JSM and pursue her education in Boston.

1802–3 — JSM helps Clementine Beach and Judith F. Saunders (a cousin) open a female academy in Dorchester, Massachusetts; she publishes poetry in the Boston Weekly Magazine as "Honora Martesia" until 1805.

1803 — (President Jefferson doubles the size of the United States by “purchasing” Louisiana; Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explore the western part of the country; resumption of hostilities between Great Britain and France begins.)

Julia Maria attends Bury (or Berry) Street Academy.

1804 — (Napoleon is proclaimed Emperor of France; Alexander Hamilton is killed in a duel with Aaron Burr.) 

1805 — (Napoleon is victorious in Austria and Russia; the British begin to interfere with American vessels in the French West Indies; Mercy Otis Warren publishes History of theRise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution, Interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations.)

JSM writes her third play, The African; the manuscript has not been found.    

1806 — Judith’s nephews enroll at Harvard College one by one; she gives permission to the Rev. Robert Redding of England to reissue The Gleaner in that country; it is not clear if he did.

1807 — (The American frigate USS Chesapeake is seized and boarded by the British; Jefferson calls on Congress to pass an Embargo Act banning American ships from foreign ports; the port of Boston is deeply affected; federalists hope to oust Jefferson.) 

JSM’s widowed sister, Esther, moves to Franklin Place; JSM makes a second trip to Philadelphia with John Murray and Julia Maria.

1808 — (James Madison is elected president.)
    
Judith’s future son-in-law, Adam Lewis Bingaman of Natchez, arrives at Franklin Place to board there briefly before commencing his studies at Harvard College.

1809 — (Congress repeals the Embargo Act; diplomacy with Britain fails.)
    
At age sixty-eight, John Murray suffers a paralyzing stroke.
   
ca. 1810 — JSM sits for her portrait by Gilbert Stuart; she is one of very few women to be painted by both Copley and Stuart.

1811 — (President Madison reestablishes “non-intercourse” with Britain.)
    
JSM’s sister, Esther, dies in Boston.

1812 — (America declares war against Great Britain.)
    
JSM's nephew, George Washington Sargent, is living at Franklin Place; Julia Maria Murray and Adam Lewis Bingaman marry secretly; Adam returns to Natchez. JSM publishes Letters and Sketches of Sermons with John Murray.    

1813 — June 10: JSM's granddaughter, Charlotte Bingaman, is born in Boston.

1814 — (Napoleon is defeated; the British send more troops to America to burn down the city of Washington; American troops arrive in Boston to protect the city; in December, Britain and the United States sign a treaty to end the war.)

1815 — (With improved internal transportation, westward expansion increases; so does the confiscation of Native American land and the systematic "removal" the people.)
    
JSM's nephew, William Fitz Winthrop Sargent, is living at Franklin Place. John Murray dies and is buried at Granary Burying Ground in Boston; his body is moved in 1837 to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. JSM completes and publishes John’s autobiography, Records of the Life of the Rev. John Murray.

1816 — (James Monroe is elected president.)

1817 — Winthrop Sargent journeys to Cambridge to have his son William reinstated at Harvard; JSM's young cousins David Urquhart and Winthrop Sargent Harding arrive at Franklin Place to board while attending Harvard.

1818 — Adam Lewis Bingaman sends for his wife (Julia Maria) to join him in Natchez. JSM pens the last letter included in her letter books; she moves with Julia Maria and Charlotte to the Natchez plantation called "Fatherland."

1820 — Winthrop Sargent dies in New Orleans. June 9: JSM dies at the Natchez plantation "Oak Point" but is buried at "Fatherland;" Charlotte Bingaman dies and is buried at Fatherland.

1821 — Nov. 7: Judith’s grandson, Adam Lewis Bingaman Jr., is born.

1822 — JSM's brother, Fitz William, dies in Newton, Massachusetts. Julia Maria Murray Bingaman dies and is buried at Fatherland, next to her mother and daughter.

1865 — The only child of Adam Lewis Bingaman Jr. dies, leaving no direct descendants of Judith Sargent Murray and John Murray.

1881 — Richard Eddy, in a biographical sketch of JSM written for The Universalist Quarterly and General Review, first reports the incorrect information that JSM's papers were, after her death, “utterly rotted and spoiled by the mildew"; this oft-repeated statement discouraged further research on her. 

1917 — JSM's final home in Gloucester opens as a museum—the Sargent-Murray-Gilman House; later, the name “Hough” is added making it the Sargent-Murray-Gilman-Hough House; eventually, the name is shortened to the Sargent House Museum.

1931 — The University Press of Orono, Maine, publishes Vena Bernadette Field’s master’s thesis, “Constantia: A Study of the Life and Works of Judith Sargent Murray, 1751–1820” in the Maine Bulletin.

1974 — Alice Rossi includes JSM's essay “On the Equality of the Sexes” in the landmark women’s studies book The Feminist Papers.

1984 — The Rev. Gordon Gibson, a Unitarian Universalist minister, discovers JSM's letter books in Natchez at the antebellum mansion "Arlington"; he persuades the owner to donate them to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History at Jackson; he also locates the Bingaman family Bible, which remains in private hands.

1989 — Under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Mississippi Department of Archives and History conserves and publishes JSM's letter books on microfilm — making the letter books accessible!