Katharine Greene Amory (Nov. 22, 1731–April 22, 1777) was an 18th-century Bostonian known for the journal she kept during the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
. It is valued by historians for its record of daily life and for its window onto the viewpoint of a
Loyalist
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...
woman.
Early years
Katharine Greene was born in Boston in 1731, the oldest daughter of silversmith Rufus Greene and Katherine (Stanbridge) Greene.
Career
In 1756, she married John Amory (1728–1803), a Boston merchant. They had 10 children, 6 sons and 4 daughters. One of their daughters, Rebecca, married lawyer
John Lowell
John Lowell (June 17, 1743 – May 6, 1802) was a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, a Judge of the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture under the Articles of Confederation, a United States district judge of the United States Distri ...
, while another married philanthropist John McClean, after whom
McLean Hospital
McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. It is noted for its clinical staff expertise and neuroscience research and is also known for the large number of ...
is named.
Both Amory and her husband were Loyalists, so with the American Revolution under way in May 1775, they moved to London, leaving their children with members of his family. She died in London in 1777 and John returned to America, though he was prevented from going back to Boston by the
Massachusetts Banishment Act The Massachusetts Banishment Act, officially named the "Banishment Act of the State of Massachusetts", was passed in September 1778 "to prevent the return to this state of certain persons therein named and others who have left this state or either o ...
of 1778.
Amory kept a journal during the crucial revolutionary years of 1775–1777. It was privately published in Boston in 1923 as ''The Journal of Mrs. John Amory (Katharine Greene) 1775-1777: With Letters from Her Father, Rufus Greene, 1759-1777''.
Amory's portrait, painted by
John Singleton Copley
John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) was an Anglo-American painter, active in both colonial America and England. He was probably born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Anglo-Irish. Afte ...
around 1763, is in the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
(as is that of her husband). It is one of three portraits by Copley of almost identical composition, down to the style and color of the dress; the others are of Lucretia Chandler Murray (Mrs. John Murray) and Mary Greene Hubbard (Mrs. Daniel Hubbard); the fact that all three were cousins may have influenced this marked repetition. A Copley portrait of Amory's mother is in the collection of the
de Young museum
The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the Legion of Honor ...
