Lydia Taft (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Chapin; February 2, 1712November 9, 1778) was the first woman known to legally vote in
colonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the ...
. This occurred at a
town meeting
Town meeting is a form of local government in which most or all of the members of a community are eligible to legislate policy and budgets for local government. It is a town- or city-level meeting in which decisions are made, in contrast with ...
in the
New England town
The town is the basic unit of Local government in the United States, local government and local division of state authority in the six New England states. Most other U.S. states lack a direct counterpart to the New England town. New England towns ...
of
Uxbridge
Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbrid ...
in
Massachusetts Colony
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the Thirteen Colonies, thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III of England, William III and Mary II ...
, on October 30, 1756.
Early life
Lydia Chapin was born in
Mendon,
Worcester County, Massachusetts
Worcester County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 862,111, making it the second-most populous county in Massachusetts while also b ...
on February 2, 1712.
She was the daughter of Seth Chapin and Bethia Thurston. Seth Chapin was a respected member of the community and a captain in the militia. Young Lydia grew up in Mendon, in a large family with nine siblings.
[Crane p.182] Her mother had 14 children.
[Crane p.181] Her father owned much property in what is today
Milford Milford may refer to:
Place names Canada
* Milford (Annapolis), Nova Scotia
* Milford (Halifax), Nova Scotia
* Milford, Ontario
England
* Milford, Derbyshire
* Milford, Devon, a place in Devon
* Milford on Sea, Hampshire
* Milford, Shro ...
, South
Hopedale and Posts Lane, Mendon. The family lived on near the Post's Lane bridge and Mill River.
[
In 1727, the western part of Mendon became the newly incorporated town of ]Uxbridge
Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbrid ...
. Mendon and Uxbridge were, at that time, rural communities in central Massachusetts. In 1731, these communities became part of the new county of Worcester County.
By their mutual ancestor, Captain Seth Chapin, she was a great-great-great grand-aunt of the 27th United States President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United State ...
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
, also his first cousin, four times removed, by marriage to Josiah Taft.
By their mutual ancestor, Samuel Chapin
Samuel Chapin (baptized October 8, 1598 – November 11, 1675) was a prominent early settler of Springfield, Massachusetts. He served the town as selectman, magistrate and deacon (in the Massachusetts Bay Colony there was little separation ...
, was a second cousin, seven times removed, to celebrated songwriters and musicians Harry Chapin
Harold Forster Chapin (; December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and hunger activist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s. Chapin, a Grammy ...
and Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
.
Marriage to Josiah Taft
Lydia Chapin was married to Josiah Taft
Josiah Taft (April 2, 1709 – September 30, 1756) was a wealthy landowner in Uxbridge, Massachusetts best known as the husband of Lydia Taft, the first woman to vote in America.
Early life
Josiah was born on April 2, 1709, at Mendon, Province ...
,[Crane p.222] on December 28, 1731 at the Congregational Church
Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...
in Mendon. He was born on April 2, 1709. Josiah's father, Daniel, had been a local "squire" and Justice of the Peace. Lydia and Josiah settled in Uxbridge. They had eight children between 1732 and 1753: Josiah (born May 10, 1733), Ebenezer (born somewhere between August 20, 1735 and October 16, 1735), Caleb (born between January 15, 1739 and September 19, 1756), Asahel (born April 23, 1740), Joel (born between August 15, 1742 and February 19, 1747), Joel (born between February 19, 1748 and August 30, 1749), Bazaleel (born November 3, 1750), and Chloe (born June 7, 1753).
Josiah became a prominent citizen in early Uxbridge as a wealthy farmer, local official, and Massachusetts legislator. He served several terms as a member of the Board of Selectmen, as town clerk, as town moderator, and in the Massachusetts General Court
The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...
(1753).
Place in early American history
Josiah Taft
Josiah Taft (April 2, 1709 – September 30, 1756) was a wealthy landowner in Uxbridge, Massachusetts best known as the husband of Lydia Taft, the first woman to vote in America.
Early life
Josiah was born on April 2, 1709, at Mendon, Province ...
was originally known as Ensign Josiah Taft in the Uxbridge Militia, later as Lieutenant, and then Captain in the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
. He presided over the proceedings of the New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
style open town meeting
Town meeting is a form of local government in which most or all of the members of a community are eligible to legislate policy and budgets for local government. It is a town- or city-level meeting in which decisions are made, in contrast with ...
and became the largest taxpayer
A taxpayer is a person or organization (such as a company) subject to pay a tax. Modern taxpayers may have an Taxpayer Identification Number, identification number, a reference number issued by a government to Citizenship, citizens or Company, f ...
in the town of Uxbridge in 1756. In the fall of 1756, Josiah and Lydia's 18-year-old son, Caleb, became ill while studying at Harvard and died on September 19. After traveling to Cambridge to bury Caleb, Josiah himself became ill and died on September 30, at age 47—leaving behind a significant estate. His death was immediately prior to an important vote on the town's support for the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
. Josiah's untimely death opened the door for Lydia's step into America's history of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
.
In Colonial America, women were not allowed to vote. Margaret Brent
Margaret Brent (c. 1601 – c. 1671), was an English immigrant to the Colony of Maryland, settled in its new capitol, St. Mary's City, Maryland. She was the first woman in the English North American colonies to appear before a court of the ...
of Maryland Colony tried to assert property rights and to vote in 1647 on behalf of herself and Lord Calvert's estate, but this was denied by the Governor. Over a hundred years would pass before a woman succeeded in voting in an official capacity.
The Uxbridge townspeople allowed Lydia, "the widow Josiah Taft", to vote, because of the landowner and taxpayer status of Josiah's estate and the fact that Bazaleel, Caleb's younger brother, was still a minor. Receiving his proxy
Proxy may refer to:
* Proxy or agent (law), a substitute authorized to act for another entity or a document which authorizes the agent so to act
* Proxy (climate), a measured variable used to infer the value of a variable of interest in climate ...
, she thus became the first recorded legal woman voter in colonial America when she cast a vote on October 30, 1756 in an official New England Open Town Meeting
Town meeting is a form of local government in which most or all of the members of a community are eligible to legislate policy and budgets for local government. It is a town- or city-level meeting in which decisions are made, in contrast with ...
, at Uxbridge, Massachusetts—as was noted in the records of the Uxbridge Town Meeting. Her vote was in favor of appropriating funds for the regiments engaged in the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
. Taft's historic vote preceded the constitutional amendment for women's suffrage by 164 years. She appeared at and may have voted at two other official Uxbridge Town meetings, in 1758 and 1765.
Taft died at Uxbridge on November 9, 1778, at the age of 66, 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 ...
.
Many years later, Judge Henry Chapin
Henry Chapin (May 13, 1811 – October 13, 1878) was a judge, a state legislator, and a three-term mayor of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Early life and career
Chapin, a native of Upton, Massachusetts, graduated from Brown University in 1835. He se ...
proclaimed in an 1864 address to the Unitarian church, that, "Uxbridge may yet become famous as the pioneer in the cause of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
". According to Chapin, the decision to allow Taft to vote was following the tradition of "no taxation without representation
"No taxation without representation" is a political slogan that originated in the American Revolution, and which expressed one of the primary grievances of the American colonists for Great Britain. In short, many colonists believed that as they ...
". Chapin's claim for Taft as the first woman voter has been disputed by recent historians. They contend that historical documents do not support Chapin's story of his family's history, which was from a speech delivered over one hundred years after the event.
Nonetheless, Taft's role in the history of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
has been recognized by the Massachusetts legislature
The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, w ...
since 2004, when it named Massachusetts Route 146A, from Uxbridge to the Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
border, in her honor.[ ]
See also
*Taft family
The Taft family of the United States has historic origins in Massachusetts; its members have served Ohio, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Utah, and the United States in various positions such as U.S. Representative (two), Governor of Ohio, G ...
* Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
*Women's suffrage in the United States
In the 1700's to early 1800's New Jersey did allow Women the right to vote before the passing of the 19th Amendment, but in 1807 the state restricted the right to vote to "...tax-paying, white male citizens..."
Women's legal right to vote w ...
*Feminism in the United States
Feminism in the United States refers to the collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending a state of equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women in the United States. Feminism has ha ...
*Timeline of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant ...
References
External links
The Chapin Genealogy, p. 226-227
Photo of Painting: Lydia Chapin Taft Source:Find a grave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taft, Lydia
French and Indian War
1712 births
1778 deaths
People from Mendon, Massachusetts
People from Uxbridge, Massachusetts
People of colonial Massachusetts
Taft family
Women's suffrage in the United States