Isabella Graham

Isabella Graham (July 29, 1742, Lanarkshire, Scotland - July 27, 1814, New York City) was a Scottish-American philanthropist and educator.

Isabella Graham was born on 29 July 1742 in Lanarkshire, Scotland and was the only daughter of Janet (née Hamilton) and John Marshall, a landowner. She grew up on an estate at Elderslie, near Paisley. With money from a legacy left by her grandfather she attended the boarding school of Mrs Betty Morehead for seven years. The Graham family were known for their piety and Isabella became a communicant of the Church of Scotland at the age of seventeen at the Laigh Kirk, Paisley where John Witherspoon, later a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence, was the minister .

In 1765 she married Dr. John Graham, an army surgeon in the Royal Americans regiment. Two years later, she went with him to Canada. They had three daughters and two sons, one of which died in infancy in Scotland. The surviving children were; Jessie, Joanna (Joanna Bethune), Isabella and John. Her husband was ordered to Antigua and she travelled there with him, her children and two indigenous girls. On 17 November 1774 John Graham became ill with fever and died on the 22nd of the month. She would never remarry and would from then on wear the clothes of a widow. Pregnant with her fifth child at the time of her husband's death, she chose to return to Scotland with her children. After the birth of her son, Graham struggled to provide for her children and her elderly father. As a way to care for her family, she opened a small school in Paisley and later a boarding school for young ladies in Edinburgh.

She founded the Penny Society, later known as the Society for the Relief of the Destitute Sick, a friendly society for poor members, who contributed a penny a week to create a fund for providing for them when sick.

...
Wikipedia