Sybilla Righton Masters (c. 1676 – 23 August 1720)Blashfield JF Women Inventors, Volume 4 Capstone, 1996

/ref> was an American inventor. Masters was the first person residing in Thirteen Colonies, the American colonies to be given an English

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

, and possibly the first known female machinery inventor in America of European ancestry. Masters was given a patent for a

corn mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

in 1715 in her husband's name, as women were not allowed to have their own patents.Samuel C. Inventors and Inventions in Colonial America. The Rosen Publishing Group, 200

/ref> She also patented a process for making hats.

Early life

Not much is known of Masters' early life. It is possible that she was born in

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

as her father had emigrated from there in 1687. It is believed that she was born around 1676, and in 1687 she and her six sisters emigrated from Bermuda to

Burlington Township, New Jersey Burlington Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Burlington County, New Jersey, Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a suburb of Philadelphia and is part of the South Jersey region of the state. As of the 2020 U ...

(along the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

) with her

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

parents Sarah and William Righton. Sybilla Righton first showed up in the colonial records in 1692 when she testified as a witness for her father in the New Jersey courts. Sometime between 1693 and 1696, Sybilla married Thomas Masters a prosperous Quaker merchant and landowner. They had four children: Mary, Sarah, Thomas, and William.

The Idea

As it was for many colonial women of her time, Sybilla was a mistress of her household and spent her days cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children. Sybilla, however, made time to tinker with ideas on improving colonists' lives, especially women. One everyday meal prepared during colonial times was hominy, made from ground-up Indian Corn. Colonial women would prepare this meal by grinding the corn between stones, which was draining and tedious . Sybilla began taking note of how native women would grind the corn by using wooden posts. From this, her invention of a corn mill was born.

Journey to London

On June 24, 1712, Masters left her family and headed to London to pursue patents for her invention ideas. In 1712, some American colonies were issuing patents, but Pennsylvania was not among them. The process of obtaining a patent took a few years, meaning Sybilla had to stay in London for an extended period. During this period, she opened a shop selling bonnets and chair covers out of straw and palmetto leaves using a method for which she later received a patent. On November 25, 1715, the patent was granted by

King George I of Great Britain King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by f ...

in her husband's name for the process of "Cleaning and Curing The Indian Corn Growing in the several Colonies of America," shown right. If not for her husband Thomas Masters, Sybilla Masters' name, as so many women inventors before and after her, would have been lost to history. Thomas Masters stated in the patent submission that it was her idea and when the patent was issued, King George I stated publicly that it was her idea. Masters received her second patent, again under her husband's name, for a method of weaving straw and palmetto leaves into hats and bonnets. She opened a shop in London that used this process and sold many popular hats and bonnets. Masters returned home to Pennsylvania on May 25, 1716.

Returning From London

After returning from London, Sybilla and her husband created the corn mill from the patent. They hoped the invention would sell well in England, but the creation was too ahead. In the colonies, however, it did well. The Southern Colonies were the largest purchasers, and hominy, now called grits, is still widely consumed in the South today. Sybillia eventually died in 1720 and will forever be remembered for the work she completed.

Invention details

Masters' first patent was awarded for a new method of the curing and preparation of cornmeal used a stamping process instead of grinding. The machine consisted of a long wooden cylinder with projections on each side which caused a series of heavy pestles to drop onto mortars filled with corn kernels. This invention was powered by horses or water wheels. It produced a product Masters named, "Tuscarora Rice" which was falsely advertised and sold as a cure for

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. While the product did not catch on in England, it became a staple of the southeastern diet and is today known as grits. The history of Masters and Tuscarora Rice was first described in 1844 by

John Fanning Watson John Fanning Watson (June 13, 1779 - December 23, 1860) was a Philadelphia antiquarian, a chronicler and a historian who became a professional writer. In 1830, he authored ''Annals of Philadelphia''. Biography A bookseller, then a bank cashier ...

. Medical authorities have dismissed Tuscarora Rice as

quackery Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or Ignorance, ignorant medicine, medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or public ...

. Nash, Jay Robert. (1976). ''Hustlers and Con Men: An Anecdotal History of the Confidence Man and His Games''. M. Evans and Company. p. 60. "In 1850 one of the most popular quack medicines was Tuscarora Rice, the maker of which positively promised to cure consumption. This remedy for tuberculosis was nothing more than ground corn." Masters' second patent was awarded for a new process of making hats and bonnets using straw and palmetto leaves. The process was used to create many other woven goods as well, such as baskets, matting and furniture coverings.

References

Bibliography

* Blashfield, Jean F. "Sybilla Masters America's First Patented Inventor." Women Inventors. Minneapolis: Capstone Press, 1996. 5-10. Print. * "M." Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Ed. Edward T. James. Vol. 2. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, 1971. 506–508. Print. * Samuel, Charlie. "Sybilla Masters: The First Woman Inventor." Inventors and Inventions of Colonial America. 29 East 21st Street, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2003. 13–14. Print. *Sarudy, Barbara Wells. "Quaker Inventor Sybilla Righton Masters (died in 1720) & Patents for Women." 18C American Women: 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 01 Oct. 2016. * Waldrup, Carole C. "Sybilla Righton Masters (1675–1720)." More Colonial Women: 25 Pioneers of Early America. Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & Company, 2004. 34–36. Print. {{DEFAULTSORT:Masters, Sybilla 1720 deaths 18th-century American businesspeople 18th-century American engineers 18th-century women engineers 18th-century American women scientists 18th-century American inventors Maize production People from colonial New Jersey People from Burlington Township, New Jersey 1760s births Bermudian engineers Bermudian emigrants Immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies 18th-century American businesswomen Inventors from New Jersey 18th-century women inventors Businesspeople from Burlington County, New Jersey