Hastening the Deliverance of Her Country: Esther DeBerdt Reed and the Ladies Association of Philadelphia

Raised in England by her wealthy merchant parents, Esther DeBerdt was well-educated, opinionated and determined. She married Joseph Reed and settled in Philadelphia, where she took up the cause of American independence.
From Elizabeth F. Ellet, The Women of the American Revolution (New York: Baker and Scribner, 1848)

On June 10, 1780, just weeks after the British Army seized control of the city of Charleston, a broadside began circulating throughout the American colonies entitled “The Sentiments of an American Woman.” Authored in Philadelphia by 33-year-old Esther DeBerdt Reed (1746–80), the broadside was a call to action for American women. Drawing her inspiration from legendary female figures of history who eschewed “the weakness of their sex” to “hasten the deliverance of their country” — including Roman heroines, female monarchs, Old Testament women and Joan of Arc — Esther made a resounding case for women to do more than offer good wishes to American soldiers fighting in the Revolutionary War. Seeking to boost the morale of men who were suffering under the weight of crushing defeats, meager rations and inadequate supplies, Esther proposed a donation campaign by the women of America to collect funds for Gen. George Washington to use as he deemed “most advantageous to the Soldiery.”

Following the publication of the broadside, Esther organized the Philadelphia Ladies Association to collect the donations throughout the city. The campaign met with resounding success, raising more than $300,000 (Continental currency) in three weeks. The publication of “Sentiments” and the birth of the Philadelphia Ladies Association represented a remarkable political achievement for Esther DeBerdt Reed and established a model of public female activism through benevolent organizations that became central to American women’s political lives well into the 20th century.

Esther DeBerdt was born in October 1746, the second child and only daughter of Dennys DeBerdt and Martha Symons. The DeBerdts were of Dutch descent and made their home in London, England, where Dennys conducted a lucrative merchant business and was heavily involved in trade with the American colonies.

Dennys had one business partner but employed no clerks; his wife, and later Esther, served in that capacity. A wealthy commercial family that sought to improve their status, the DeBerdts ensured that their son and daughter received a thorough education. Esther studied the Bible, penmanship, writing and history, and she learned to read French. She regularly attended Parliamentary debates with her mother, where she watched with keen interest as British elites debated how best to govern the country. She and her mother also joined Dennys’ Sunday afternoon business dinners, attended by men whom Dennys invited to the DeBerdt home to gather knowledge of the American markets, deepen commercial and political connections, and evaluate the character of those with whom he hoped to do business. Observing the English system of patronage politics in action, Esther herself became adept at cultivating favor and influence — skills that became indispensable as she reached adulthood.

The DeBerdts were religious dissenters; they followed the teachings of John Calvin rather than worshipping in the state Church of England. In a society where politics and religion were inextricably linked, Dennys’ nonconformist beliefs influenced how and with whom he conducted business.

Theologically aligned with the Presbyterians and Congregationalists in America and believing that such a connection strengthened the integrity of his transactions, Dennys often sought to do business with families from New England and the Delaware River region who shared his beliefs. His trade associates included the firm of Reed & Pettit, which operated in Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey. Dennys imported British goods to America through Andrew Reed, a Presbyterian of Scottish descent, and Andrew’s son-in-law Charles Pettit, who in turn sold those goods to shops in Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Intercontinental trade relationships often extended beyond the realm of business, and such was the relationship between DeBerdt and Reed. When Reed’s 22-year-old son Joseph traveled to London at the end of 1763, correspondence from America arrived in care of Dennys DeBerdt. In fact, Andrew rebuked Joseph in a March 1764 letter for allowing him “from a letter of Mr. DeBerdt . . . [to] find that you arrived [in London] . . . 3 months ago.”

Joseph Reed (1741–85) graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and studied law with Richard Stockton, one of the best lawyers in the colony. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1763 and continued his studies in London at the Inns of Court, the professional association for lawyers in Great Britain. The Inns of Court provided education, lodging, offices and the opportunity for Joseph to mingle with the wealthy sons of English gentry who also studied there. He was a frequent guest of the DeBerdts, and he used his contacts in both Great Britain and the American colonies to assist Dennys with his business ventures. There, he soon became acquainted with 16-year-old Esther.

Throughout 1764, Esther and Joseph interacted regularly in Esther’s London home and at the DeBerdt country estate in Enfield. By the fall of that year, they were smitten, and Joseph asked Dennys for permission to formally court and marry Esther. Much to the young couple’s dismay, Dennys refused and banned the two from privately communicating with one another.

Publicly, Joseph and Esther complied with Dennys’ wishes and for several months the two had no contact. Privately, Esther desired to rekindle the relationship, and on November 14, 1764, she wrote to Joseph of her enduring feelings.

Cognizant of her disobedience and its consequences, Esther told Joseph that she had written to him several times but struggled, knowing that “I think I am doing what is contrary to my Father’s wishes and was he to know he would never forgive me.” Further, Esther acknowledged that she placed Joseph in a precarious position. As an honorable man, he would never pursue a romantic relationship against the wishes of her father without Esther’s encouragement. Determined to renew the courtship, Esther continued: “It must never be known that I gave you such encouragement by writing a single line.”

Over the course of the following months, Esther and Joseph met frequently in family and social settings but never alone. During that time, they secretly exchanged letters planning their future together. Their covert relationship thrilled Esther and delighted Joseph but was not without contention; they disagreed regarding where to make their future home.

Joseph had one more year of study in Great Britain but was expected to return to America at the conclusion of his studies and help support his family. Esther was adamant that she could not go to America with him. Not only would her parents forbid it, but Esther was accustomed to life in cosmopolitan London where there was a bustling social scene and the latest in fashion and entertainment flourished. In a letter to Joseph on December 8, 1764, Esther remarked that her “spirits flag insensibly when I think about going to America.” Joseph, in turn, raised concerns about his ability to find work in London. Eventually, Esther recognized that Joseph would need to return to America at least temporarily to prepare for their future.

The growing political and economic crisis in the American colonies and the effect those crises had on the Reed family’s finances derailed Joseph and Esther’s plans. Like all colonial trade firms, Reed & Pettit purchased goods on credit from English merchants like Dennys DeBerdt. When they sold those goods in America, they paid their debt and acquired more goods. Economic depression in the colonies caused by the French and Indian War had diminished sales. And, a scarcity of hard currency, British limits on how American trade was conducted, and rising taxes aimed at paying down war debt pushed the Reed family’s finances to the brink of destruction.

Esther’s husband Joseph Reed was born and raised in New Jersey. He served as an officer in the Continental Army, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania.
Capitol Preservation Committee / John Rudy Photography

Throughout the winter of 1764, Joseph received numerous pleas to return home to aid his family. Without finances to complete his final year of study just weeks after rekindling his relationship with Esther, Joseph informed her he would need to return to America much sooner than anticipated.

When Joseph departed for New Jersey in February 1765, Esther was distraught, and it did not go unnoticed. She recounted in a letter to Joseph at the end of February that her family had been troubled by her emotional distress. Her father, who understood Esther’s enduring affection for Joseph, decided before his departure that “a private meeting [between Esther and Joseph] would only make us both worse.”

Joseph Reed remained in America for the next five years where he struggled to keep Reed & Pettit solvent and support his extended family. Meanwhile in London, Esther secretly used her family’s connections to try and secure a position for Joseph that would improve the Reeds’ financial situation and bring Joseph back to Great Britain.

Esther suggested Joseph serve as a colonial agent, representing American interests in Great Britain, as her father did for Massachusetts. Hoping to pull Joseph out of the mercantile trade and into law, a career Esther deemed more respectable, she also passed Joseph’s name to several prominent lawyers in the colonies. Joseph, in turn, pledged to reunite with Esther in Great Britain by working to regain Dennys DeBerdt’s favor and joining the family business.

By 1769 Joseph had sufficiently recovered his family’s finances. Encouraged by reports from America of Joseph’s success, Dennys DeBerdt invited Joseph to return to London and work for him. Shortly after the death of his father, Joseph prepared to travel to Great Britain and begin a life with Esther. Slowed by a difficult journey that stranded him in Ireland waiting for a storm in the English Channel to pass, Joseph read in the London newspaper that Dennys DeBerdt had died after a prolonged illness. Joseph’s — and Esther’s — future was now in jeopardy.

When Joseph finally arrived in London, he found Esther’s family mired in grief and debt. Years of mismanagement by Dennys’ associates and the negative effects of the economic turmoil in America had rendered the DeBerdt firm insolvent.

To compound the family’s difficulties, Dennys’ support of British opposition to colonial policy while serving as agent for Massachusetts had dissolved many of the political connections on which Joseph had hoped to build a future in Great Britain. Were Joseph prudent, he would not risk his financial security and suffer the embarrassment of marrying now penniless Esther; however, love persevered and the two married in a small ceremony in 1770.

Shortly afterward, and much to Esther’s displeasure, the two sailed with Esther’s mother for America, leaving her brother Dennis to collect debts owed to the family in Great Britain. When Esther arrived in America, she was pregnant, ill and discouraged at the prospect of remaining in America for any length of time. The young couple settled first in Burlington, New Jersey, a town that Esther described to her brother as “remarkable for nothing.” Sensing her discontent, Joseph relocated the couple to Philadelphia.

By colonial standards, Philadelphia was a bustling metropolis, but Esther remained unimpressed; the people were provincial, amenities were lacking compared to London, and the incessant gossip of Philadelphia’s elite women frustrated her.

The birth of the Reeds’ first child, Martha, in May 1771, deepened her discontent. In a letter to her brother, she wrote: “If she lives, it will make me more anxious than ever to return [to Great Britain] . . . as the education of girls is very indifferent indeed here.”

Joseph, hoping to raise enough funds to return to Great Britain, capitalized on his business connections to build a profitable legal practice and establish a successful mercantile trade with Esther’s brother in London.

By 1775 Joseph and Esther Reed acquired a fine home in Philadelphia, were raising three children, and owned lands throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. With Esther acting as his personal secretary and handling much of his business correspondence, Joseph enjoyed an enormously successful legal practice and transatlantic commercial enterprise. The Reeds amassed enough wealth to make a return to Great Britain possible, but the tension building between the American colonies and Great Britain erupted into violence at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 and forced the Reeds to choose which side of the Atlantic their support and their future would lie.

Joseph supported colonial resistance to heavy-handed British policies that hindered American trade. He joined with other Philadelphia businessmen in opposing the Tea Act of 1773. In 1774 he was elected to the committee tasked with enforcing the Congressional Non-Importation Agreement, and throughout 1774 and 1775, he spearheaded Philadelphia’s efforts to prepare for the possibility of war.

Esther aided Joseph’s political career by providing lodging for and entertaining delegates who arrived in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress. She joined in the all-male discussions regarding the colonial crisis in much the same way she had at her father’s Sunday business dinners years before.

Esther also wrote her brother in Great Britain, begging for political news and reports of how merchants there were responding to the actions of their American partners. Shortly after Lexington and Concord, at the invitation of George Washington, Joseph left his family in Philadelphia and joined the general’s camp in Massachusetts.

Recognizing that Joseph’s political and legal relationships were now firmly rooted in America, Esther acknowledged to her brother in a June 1775 letter that returning to Great Britain was “at present totally improper.” Though she longed to return to London, Esther sympathized with the American colonies’ plight. Having been raised a religious dissenter, she appreciated the colonists’ desire to conduct their affairs as they best saw fit, and she too bristled under the weight of Britain’s dominance over colonial affairs.

Joseph returned home to Philadelphia briefly over the winter of 1775, but for much of the next two and a half years, he and Esther were separated by war, punctuated only by short visits. Continental Army defeats at Brooklyn, Brandywine and Germantown, followed by the occupation of Philadelphia by the British over the winter of 1777–78, frightened Esther and forced her to uproot her family four times and flee to safety in rural New Jersey.

Joseph’s continued absences also frustrated Esther; her letters throughout this period are peppered with pleas for him to either return home or allow Esther to join him at camp, both of which Joseph consistently refused.

In May 1778, after a grueling journey to Burlington, New Jersey, Esther gave birth to a son, Dennis. The following day, her young daughter Theodosia, born at the height of the 1776 military campaign, died of smallpox. Theodosia’s death marked a turning point for Esther; previously her correspondence with both Joseph and her brother Dennis reflected her desire for the American colonies to reconcile with Great Britain. Transformed by the horrors of war and the loss of her child, Esther wrote Dennis in September 1779 of her wish for him to join them in America, where she believed “you will find yourself and your family extremely happy.” This reflected a sharp contrast from earlier letters in which Esther reiterated her preference to reunite with her brother in England.

Located in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, Laurel Hill Mansion was home to Joseph and Esther Reed during the Revolutionary War. The house had been confiscated from its loyalist owner, Samuel Shoemaker. Furious at the loss of her family home, Shoemaker’s stepdaughter, Anna Rawle, was a vocal critic of the work of the Ladies Association of Philadelphia.
The New York Public Library

By the spring of 1780, the future of the American Revolution appeared bleak: The army suffered yet another devastating defeat at Charleston, South Carolina; the Continental Congress struggled to reign in staggering inflation; and a scarcity of goods threatened General Washington’s ability to keep his army clothed and fed.

Much to Esther’s relief, Joseph returned to Philadelphia and won election to Pennsylvania’s Supreme Executive Council, the colony’s ruling body, and was chosen as president. Hindered by Indian raids on the frontier and uncooperative colonists who sided with the British, Joseph struggled to raise both men and supplies in support of the war effort.

Serving as the “Lady of His Excellency Joseph Reed,” Esther’s life was as much consumed by the politics of war as her husband’s, and she worked to support the revolutionary cause by her own means.

On May 26, 1780, Esther gave birth to the couple’s sixth child, whom they, in a demonstration of revolutionary solidarity, named George Washington Reed and invited the general himself to serve as the baby’s godfather. The guest list for the child’s public christening earmarked the occasion as a political event and included Martha Washington, the president of the Continental Congress, and the French minister to America.

The pinnacle of Esther’s achievement occurred a few weeks later with the publication of “The Sentiments of an American Woman” on June 10, 1780. Aimed at encouraging American women to provide financial support to the soldiers of the Continental Army, “Sentiments” exhorted women to follow in the footsteps of historic heroines like Queen Elizabeth I and Joan of Arc who donned the mantle of patriotism and defeated their enemies. Further, she reminded her readers that they owed the army their gratitude for the fact that “our barns, our orchards are safe at the present time from the hands of those incendiaries.” Such safety deserved sacrifice: “Who, amongst us, will not renounce with the highest pleasure, those vain ornaments, when she shall consider that the valiant defenders of America will be able to draw some advantage from the money which she may have laid out in these; that they [the soldiers] will be better defended from the rigours of the seasons” through their gifts.

“Sentiments” proposed an immediate donation campaign and provided an outline by which women throughout the colonies could organize themselves locally and remit their collection to General Washington. In Philadelphia, Esther and a group of elite Philadelphia women gathered to begin their fundraising campaign and established the Ladies Association of Philadelphia. Modeled after all-male civic associations that had existed in Philadelphia since the mid-1700s providing the city with such amenities as schools, hospitals, libraries and firefighting services, the Ladies Association was the first all-female organization of its kind. Though composed of mostly the wives of Philadelphia’s revolutionary elite, including Julia Stockton Rush (1759–1848) and Mary White Morris (1749–1827), as well as Benjamin Franklin’s daughter, Sarah Franklin Bache (1743–1808), the Ladies Association canvassed all neighborhoods of Philadelphia and accepted contributions from women of all ranks. When the women completed their drive three weeks later, they had gathered contributions of more than $300,000 from about 1,600 Philadelphians. Similar efforts in New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia also met with success.

Though the Ladies Association of Philadelphia garnered significant support from city residents, their campaign was not without detractors, some of whom felt it was improper for women to be engaged in such public efforts. Many of these critics were loyalists who disapproved wholeheartedly of the revolutionary cause. One vocal detractor was Anna Rawle (c. 1757–1828), a Philadelphia Quaker, who was horrified at the audacity of the Ladies Association. In a letter to her mother, Rebecca Shoemaker, Rawle remarked that “Of all absurdities the Ladies going about for money exceeded everything” and expressed her dismay at their willingness to enter even “the meanest ale house” in support of their campaign. Though Anna was certainly not the Ladies Association’s only detractor, her disdain was likely intensified by the fact that because of her stepfather’s loyalist sympathies, her family home, Laurel Hill, had been confiscated and sold by the Supreme Executive Council for use as the president’s residence — where Esther and Joseph Reed now lived.

Esther and the Ladies Association, however, now faced a new dilemma: Though the association’s plan stated General Washington had the final say regarding the disposition of funds, Esther felt the money should not be used to purchase goods owed to the army by the government. Washington had suggested that the women purchase linen to make shirts that the soldiers desperately needed. Esther recognized that the plight of the soldiers, many of whom came from the poorest segments of society, extended beyond a lack of supplies. She wanted to provide the soldiers with a gift that was extraordinary and beyond what they were due — “some public mark of the esteem they [the Ladies Association] entertained.”

In a letter to Washington on July 31, 1780, Esther proposed that the funds “be changed into hard dollars, and giving each soldier two, to be entirely at his own disposal.” Ultimately, Washington prevailed, indicating that issuing hard currency to discontented soldiers was likely to do more harm than good, as many of them would spend the money unwisely on alcohol or other means of diversion. Esther therefore agreed to use the funds to produce linen shirts.

Daughter of Benjamin Franklin, Sarah Franklin Bache assumed leadership of the Philadelphia Ladies Association following Esther Reed’s death. Under her guidance, the association produced more than 2,200 shirts for the Continental Army.
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1901)

Tragically, however, Esther did not live to see the fruits of the Ladies Association’s labor realized. She contracted dysentery shortly after she returned to Philadelphia from her summer home outside the city. She died September 18, one month short of her 34th birthday. Sarah Franklin Bache assumed leadership of the Ladies Association and, together with the members of the group, produced 2,000 linen shirts for the army. Seeking to ensure the Continental Army knew where the shirts had come from, the ladies embroidered each shirt with their initials. Writing to thank the women for their efforts, Washington remarked that “the value of the donation will be greatly enhanced by a consideration of the hands by which it was made and presented.”

Esther DeBerdt Reed’s legacy far outlived her short life. “The Sentiments of an American Woman” successfully motivated the women of Philadelphia and beyond to act publicly in support of the Revolution, giving them a unique opportunity to express their patriotism and offer their own heroic sacrifices in support of the soldiery that enabled them in peacetime to care for their children and their households. “Sentiments” also outlined a framework within which women could organize under the banner of a common cause, creating a powerful network of fundraising and mobilization that enabled them to garner widespread support for political movements throughout the 19th century such as suffrage, temperance and workers’ rights. Modeling the highly successful Ladies Association of Philadelphia after traditionally all-male voluntary organizations demonstrated Esther Reed’s business and political acumen; she recognized the virtue and efficacy of such organizations and used the format to achieve her goal of raising funds in support of the Continental Army. In so doing, she provided an avenue through which women could exercise civic responsibility and participate in efforts to advance the common good, paving the way for women in later years to assert their place in the public sphere.

Further Reading

Arendt, Emily J. “‘Ladies Going about for Money’: Female Voluntary Associations and Civic Consciousness in the American Revolution.” Journal of the Early Republic 34, no. 2 (Summer 2014): 157–186. / Erkkila, Betsy. “Revolutionary Women.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 6, no. 2 (Autumn 1987): 189–223. / Ireland, Owen S. Sentiments of a British-American Woman: Esther DeBerdt Reed and the American Revolution. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017. / Kerber, Linda K. “From the Declaration of Independence to the Declaration of Sentiments: The Legal Status of Women in the Early Republic, 1776–1848.” Human Rights 6, no. 2 (Winter 1977): 115–124. / Nisbet, Robert. “The Social Impact of the Revolution.” The Wilson Quarterly 1, no. 1 (Autumn 1976): 93–107. / Pencak, William. Pennsylvania’s Revolution. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010. / Roney, Jessica Choppin. “‘Ready to Act in Defiance of Government’: Colonial Philadelphia Voluntary Culture and the Defense Association of 1747–1748.” Early American Studies 8, no. 2 (Spring 2010): 358–385.

Jennifer Eaton is the curator at the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg. She has written about other Revolutionary War–era women for Pennsylvania Heritage in “Elizabeth Drinker and the Quaker Exile” (Spring 2023) and “Two Faces of Molly Pitcher” (Spring 2022).