Eliza Ridgely
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
heiress
Beneficiary
A beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example: The beneficiary of a life insurance policy, is the person who receives the payment of the amount of insurance after the death of the insured...
, travel
Travel
Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
er, arbiter of fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
, and mistress of Hampton
Hampton National Historic Site
Hampton National Historic Site, in the Hampton area north of Towson, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, preserves a remnant of a vast 18th-century estate, including a Georgian manor house, gardens, grounds, and the original stone slave quarters. The estate was owned by the Ridgely family...
, the Ridgely plantation north of Towson, Maryland
Towson, Maryland
Towson is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 at the 2010 census...
. She is the Lady with a Harp of Thomas Sully
Thomas Sully
Thomas Sully was an American painter, mostly of portraits.-Early life:Sully was born in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England, to the actors Matthew and Sarah Sully. In March 1792 the Sullys and their nine children immigrated to Richmond, Virginia, where Thomas’s uncle managed a theater...
's portrait, now in the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Background
Eliza Ridgely was the only child of Nicholas Greenbury Ridgely (1770–1829), a rich wine merchant of Baltimore, who married her mother, Elisabeth Eichelberger, on July 30, 1801. Elizabeth had been born on December 6, 1783, at Baltimore, the daughter of Johann Martin Eichelberger and his wife Elizabeth Welsh, and died on February 10, 1803, aged nineteen years and two months, a few hours after the birth of her only daughter. Nicholas Ridgely died in 1829 and is buried in the cemetery at Hampton.Life
Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette , often known as simply Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer born in Chavaniac, in the province of Auvergne in south central France...
during his United States tour of 1824–1825 and stayed in contact with him for the rest of his life. Some of his letters to her have survived, including an invitation to visit La Grange, his country estate in France—a visit which took place in 1834—and his congratulations on her marriage.
On January 8, 1828, Eliza Ridgely married John Carnan Ridgely (1790–1867). He was the son of Charles Carnan Ridgely
Charles Carnan Ridgely
Charles Carnan Ridgely was born Charles Ridgely Carnan. He is also known as Charles Ridgely of Hampton. He served as the 15th Governor of the state of Maryland in the United States from 1815 to 1818. He also served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1790 to 1795, and in the Maryland State...
of Hampton Mansion
Hampton National Historic Site
Hampton National Historic Site, in the Hampton area north of Towson, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, preserves a remnant of a vast 18th-century estate, including a Georgian manor house, gardens, grounds, and the original stone slave quarters. The estate was owned by the Ridgely family...
, and his father had served as Governor
Governor of Maryland
The Governor of Maryland heads the executive branch of the government of Maryland, and he is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The Governor is the highest-ranking official in the state, and he has a broad range of appointive powers in both the State and local governments,...
of the state of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
from 1815 to 1818.
John Carnan Ridgely was the grandson of John Carnan who married Achsah Ridgely. Achsah's brother, Charles Ridgely [1773 - 1790], the builder of Hampton Plantation being childless as his end neared, willed that his sister's progeny should take the Ridgely name to inherit his vast estates. Thus, John Carnan Ridgely was, in fact, a fifth cousin of Eliza Eichelberger Ridgely.
On the death of Charles Carnan Ridgely in July 1829, his estate of some 25000 acres (101.2 km²) was divided, John Carnan Ridgely inheriting the main house and 4500 acres (18.2 km²).
Eliza Ridgely thus became the third mistress of Hampton, a great house which when built in 1790 had been the largest private residence in the United States.
With John Carnan Ridgely, she had five children:
- Eliza Ridgely, b. October 28, 1828, who married firstly John Campbell White, becoming the mother of the diplomat Henry WhiteHenry White (diplomat)Henry White was a prominent U.S. diplomat during the 1890s and 1900s, and one of the signers of the Treaty of Versailles....
, later marrying secondly Thomas H. Buckler. - Charles Ridgely, b. March 22, 1830
- Priscilla Ridgely, b. December 21, 1831
- Nicholas Greenbury Ridgely, b. June 17, 1834
- Julia Maria Ridgely, b. March 16, 1841
Eliza Ridgely ordered church services for her slaves in the attic of the Hampton carriage house. The services were taken by a white minister, Mr Galbraith, until he was dismissed for marrying a woman believed to have African blood. Ridgely herself oversaw funerals and weddings in the house's great hall. One of Ridgely's grandsons, the diplomat Henry White, recalled that she "...was very particular in having what she was pleased to describe (and which I then believed to be) 'marriages', performed by a clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
man, between the negro servants, when so inclined: not realizing – certainly I did not at the time – that slaves were unable to perform any civil act, being mere chattels". Ridgely's daughter Eliza recorded having taught a group of slave children the Lord's Prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
.
Eliza Ridgely was an avid gardener, and in the 1830s and 1840s she improved the gardens and enhanced the landscape at Hampton, planting exotic trees such as the Lebanon Cedar
Lebanon Cedar
Cedrus libani is a species of cedar native to the mountains of the Mediterranean region.There are two distinct types that are considered to be different subspecies or varieties. Lebanon cedar or Cedar of Lebanon Cedrus libani is a species of cedar native to the mountains of the Mediterranean...
which still stands on the house's south lawn. She is said to have brought this herself as a seedling from Europe, carrying it in a shoebox. She and her husband bought furniture for the house which reflected the classical influences already indulged there. In 1839, the landscape gardener
Landscape architecture
Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions...
Henry Winthrop Sargent
Henry Winthrop Sargent
Henry Winthrop Sargent , American horticulturist and landscape gardener.-Biography:He was born in Boston, the first child of Hannah Sargent and artist Henry Sargent...
found that Hampton's venerable appearance and foreign air "...quite disturb one's ideas of republican America".
Lady with a Harp
Thomas Sully's painting Lady with a Harp (pictured) is a portrait of Eliza Ridgely done in 1818, when she was only fifteen, showing her wearing an EmpireEmpire silhouette
An Empire silhouette is created by a woman wearing a high-waisted dress, gathered near or just under the bust with a long, loose skirt, which skims the body. The outline is especially flattering to pear shapes wishing to disguise the stomach area or emphasise the bust. The shape of the dress also...
satin gown with a draped shawl as she plucks the strings of a pedal harp
Pedal harp
The pedal harp is a large and technically modern harp, designed primarily for classical music and played either solo, as part of chamber ensembles, as soloist with or as a section or member in an orchestra...
. It was commissioned by her father, Nicholas Greenbury Ridgely, who at the same time was himself painted by Sully. Eliza really did play the harp, and her surviving bills and receipts include those for music lessons and for the repair of her harp in the years 1820 to 1826. Whether her arms were as long and her figure as slender as they were painted is uncertain. Sully later commented on all his work "From long experience, I know that resemblance in a portrait is essential; but no fault will be found with the artist (at least by the sitter) if he improve the appearance."
The painting was kept at Hampton from the 1820s until 1945, when it was sold to the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
. After David Finley, director of the gallery, had acquired Lady with a Harp he became an advocate for the preservation of Hampton. He helped to arrange a deal under which the Ridgelys sold the house to Ailsa Mellon Bruce's Avalon Foundation, which in 1948 gave it to the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
.
There is now a copy of the painting at Hampton.
Surviving papers of Eliza Ridgely
A number of financial records kept by Eliza Ridgely have been preserved:- Account book of expenses on trip to Europe (1833–1834)
- Servants Clothing Book, (1835–1854)
- Account Book (1838–1846)
- Accounts of Eliza E. R. Ridgely with her Trustees for her father's estate (1840s)
- House Accounts (1845)
- Accounts of Eliza E. R. Ridgely with her Trustees for Nicholas G. Ridgely's estate (1840s)
- Travel Account Book (1846–1847)
- Account Books (1849–1853)
- John & Eliza Ridgely, Farm Account Book (1850–1864)
- Account Book as Trustee to Nicholas G. Ridgely (1858–1867)
Other surviving manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
s include letters Eliza Ridgely wrote to her daughter Eliza (known as 'Didy') between May 8 and July 12, 1858, a commonplace book of poetry she kept before her marriage, and letters she received from her friend Lafayette, her son Charles at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and her daughter Eliza traveling in Europe.