Anna Keyes Knowlton
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Mrs. Anna Keyes Knowlton | |
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| Born | Anna Keyes September 1, 1743 Ashford, Connecticut, British America |
| Died | May 22, 1808 (aged 64) Ashford, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Natural causes |
| Resting place | Snow Cemetery, Ashford, Connecticut |
| Other names | Ana Keys
Anna Knowlton Widow Knowlton |
| Occupation | Farmer |
| Era | Revolutionary Era |
| Known for | Matriarch of the Knowlton family Spouse of Thomas Knowlton |
| Title | Consort of Col. Knowlton |
| Spouse(s) | Thomas Knowlton (m. 1759-1776) |
| Children | 3 sons and 6 daughter, including Frederick Knowlton, Polly Fitts Knowlton, and Lucinda Knowlton |
| Parent(s) | Sampson Keyes, Abigail Brooks |
| Family | John Keyes (b. 1744) |
Anna Keyes (September 1, 1743 – May 22, 1808) was an American woman who was born in Ashford, Connecticut who was a farmer and the wife of Colonel Thomas Knowlton, commander of the elite Knowlton's Rangers.[1] She is documented for over three decades of leadership in managing the 400-acre Knowlton estate alone.[2][3][4]
Early life
Anna Keyes was born on September 1, 1743, in Ashford, Connecticut, British America, to Sampson Keyes and Abigail Brooks.[5] She was the first-born of twelve children. She was born into a middle-class family in money and land.[6] Several of her siblings were born into the family home, including John Keyes (born 1744), who would later serve with her future husband.[1][6][7]
On April 5, 1759, fifteen-year-old Anna Keyes married eighteen-year-old Thomas Knowlton in Ashford, Connecticut.[1] Thomas continued to fight in the French and Indian War. During his first year of service after their marriage, Anna gave birth to their first son, Frederick Knowlton, on December 4, 1760.[1] Thomas continued to rise through the ranks before his promotion to lieutenant in 1762. His final campaign during this war was the British expedition against Cuba and the Siege of Havana in 1762, from which he returned home by August of that year.[1] These years showed Anna's early role in managing the household independently while her husband was in military campaigns.
Family life
After the French and Indian War, the Knowltons established themselves as a leading family in Ashford. Thomas was elected as a town selectman in 1773 at the unusually young age of 33.[8]
During these 12 years, Anna bore seven of her nine children. Following their eldest, Fredrick (born 1760), the household grew to include: Salley Knowlton (1763), Thomas Knowlton (1765), Polly Knowlton (1767), Abigail Knowlton (1768), Sampson Knowlton (1770), Anna Knowlton (1771–1772), and Anna Knowlton (1773).[9][1]
During the American Revolution, according to legends,[10] when the news of the Battle of Lexington reached Ashford in April 1775, Thomas was in the field plowing. As soon as he heard, he got on a horse and rode off to war. He actually marched with the people of Connecticut and didn't bring a horse with him but Anna was left alone. Anna was left with in charge of the 400-acre farm, its lifestock, the crops, and their seven children.[11] The hard work of the farm doubled for Anna as fifteen-year-old Fredrick joined the Continental Army to serve with his father.[11] In 1775 and 1776, Thomas was noticed by George Washington and became the commander of Knowlton's Rangers. By 1776, she was pregnant with her ninth child, Lucinda.
Thomas Knowlton died September 16, 1776, at the Battle of Harlem Heights.[1] At the time of her husband's death, Anna was many months pregnant with their ninth child, while their oldest son, Fredrick, was sent home by George Washington.[1][12]
Widowhood
After the death of Thomas, as seen, said and implied in Probate Court documents, Anna was left as the head of the 400-acre Ashford estate and the primary caretaker for their seven children.[13][14] As a widow, Anna immediately got full legal and financial responsibility for her husband's estate. She personally appeared before the Pomfret District Probate Court on November 5th, 1776 to enter her administratrix bond. This was 5 days before she gave birth to her final child, Lucinda Knowlton. She received also all of his possessions, worth about £749.[3] From 1776 through 1778, Anna is documented repeatedly settling debts, rates, and book accounts. Surviving receipts show her paying balances due to people such as William Tiffany and a woman named Mary Bender.[15][16] She also handled his lost items, including giving Isaac Perkins money for a gun taken at the Lexington Alarm and used at Cambridge, which had never been returned.[2]
Lucinda Knowlton was born on November 10th, 1776.[17]
Her youngest son, Sampson Knowlton, died on September 10, 1777.[9] According to legends,[18] Anna could also read and write, and she did often. She read the bible, was very religious and wrote the births and deaths of her children though its lost to time.[19] While her 1779 guardianship bonds prove she could not write her own name and signed with a mark,[14][13] historians emphasize that literacy in colonial New England was divided; many women were fully capable of reading the Bible and successfully managing large agricultural estates without possessing formal penmanship skills.[20] On January 9th 1779, Anna fought for guardianship over her daughters Anna and Lucinda Knowlton.[13]
On February 16, 1805, Lucinda Knowlton died in Ashford, Connecticut, at the age of 28 with no confirmed husband or children.[17]
Death
Anna Keyes died on her farm in Ashford, Connecticut on May 22, 1808, at the age of 64.[4] Her death is recorded in the Ashford vital registers and that she died of natural causes typical for her age.[1] [21]
Legacy
Anna Keyes is a documented example of female economic agency in the early American Republic. Following her husband's death in 1776, she went from a legal status of coverture to that of a feme sole ("woman alone"), granting her full legal and property rights under Connecticut law.[22][23]
Her legacy is defined by her stewardship of the Knowlton family property and possessions during the Revolutionary War. By personally settling the debts her husband owed, she made sure that the Colonel's legacy was not affected debt.[2][24]
Anna's final resting place is in Snow Cemetery in Ashford, and her monument also serves as a cenotaph memorial for her husband, who is burried in an unmarked grave in New York.[1] [21]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Stocking, C. H. W. (1897). The History and Genealogy of the Knowlton Family in England and America. New York: Knickerbocker Press.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Isaac Perkins, "Receipt to Anna Knowlton for Gun used in Lexington Alarm," 1777.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Pomfret District Probate Court, "Administratrix Bond for Anna Knowlton, Estate of Col. Thomas Knowlton," 1776.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ashford Town Records, Vital Records of Ashford, Connecticut, Vol. 4, "Death of Anna Knowlton," 1808.
- ↑ "KEYES, Anna, d. Samson & Abigail, b. Sept. 1, 1743," Ashford Vital Records, Vol. 1, p. 69 (transcribed in the Barbour Collection of Connecticut Vital Records, Connecticut State Library).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Keyes, Asa (1880). Genealogy: Robert Keyes of Watertown, Mass., 1633. Solomon Keyes of Newbury and Chelmsford, Mass., 1653, and Their Descendants. Brattleboro, VT: Geo. E. Selleck. pp. 12–15.
- ↑ Woodward, Ashbel (1860). Memoir of Col. Thomas Knowlton, of Ashford, Connecticut. Boston, MA: Henry W. Dutton & Son.
- ↑ Woodward, Ashbel (1861). Memoir of Col. Thomas Knowlton, of Ashford, Connecticut. Boston: Printed by H. W. Dutton & Son.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Ashford Town Records, Vital Records of Ashford, Connecticut, Vol. 4, "Births and Deaths of the Knowlton Family," 1763–1775.
- ↑ Bayles, Richard M. (Richard Mather) (1889). History of Windham County, Connecticut . University of Connecticut Libraries. New York, Preston.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 iarchive:memoirofcolthoma00wood/page/6/mode/1up|Book
- ↑ Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, "Lt. Col. Thomas Knowlton," 2024.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Anna Knowlton and Samson Keyes Fiduciary Guardianship Bond for Anna and Lucinda Knowlton. Pomfret District Probate Court Records, Vol. 4, p. 113 (January 5, 1779). Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Anna Knowlton and Samson Keyes Fiduciary Guardianship Bond for Abigail Knowlton. Pomfret District Probate Court Records, Vol. 4, p. 112 (January 5, 1779). Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
- ↑ William Tiffany receipt, 26 December 1776, Ashford.
- ↑ Mary Bender receipt to Widow Anne Knowlton, 13 June 1777.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 "KNOWLTON, Lucinda, d. Thomas & Anna, b. Nov. 10, 1776; d. Feb. 16, 1805," Ashford Vital Records, Vol. 3, p. 32 (transcribed in the Barbour Collection of Connecticut Vital Records, Connecticut State Library).
- ↑ Larned, Ellen D. (1880). History of Windham County, Connecticut: Volume II. Worcester, MA: Charles Hamilton. pp. 132–135.
- ↑ Traditional family lore often attributes the maintenance of a "lost family Bible record" to colonial matriarchs, a claim unsupported by the physical archival record of the Knowlton family.
- ↑ Monaghan, E. Jennifer (2005). Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America. University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 378–381.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 "Anna Keyes Knowlton (1743-1808) - Find a Grave..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2026-03-15.
- ↑ Dayton, Cornelia Hughes (1995). Women Before the Bar: Gender, Law, and Society in Connecticut, 1639–1789. University of North Carolina Press.
- ↑ Connecticut, Probate Court (Pomfret District). Administration of the Estate of Thomas Knowlton, November 5, 1776. Record Group 004, Connecticut State Library Archives, Hartford, CT.
- ↑ Pomfret District Probate Court Records, Vol. 4, pp. 112–113 (January 5, 1779). Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
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