Hannah Ludwell Lee Corbin (February 6, 1728 October 7, 1782) was an American

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

advocate and member of the

Lee family The Lee family of the United States is a historically significant Virginia and Maryland political family, whose many prominent members are known for their accomplishments in politics and the military. The family became prominent in colonial Bri ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. A controversial widow in her own time in part for her refusal to marry her paramour (with whom she had children) or conversion from the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

to the

Baptists Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

, she may today be best known for asking that women be given the right to vote.

Personal life

A member of the politically influential

, Hannah Ludwell Lee was born on February 6, 1728, on her parents' Stratford Hall plantation in

Westmoreland County, Virginia Westmoreland County is a County (United States), county located in the Northern Neck of the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, the population sits at 18,477. Its county seat is Montross, Virginia, Montross ...

. Her father was prominent civil servant Thomas Lee and her mother was colonial heiress Hannah Ludwell. The fourth of eleven children, her siblings included Philip Ludwell; Francis Lightfoot and Richard Henry, both of whom signed the

United States Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continen ...

;

Thomas Ludwell Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

; diplomat

Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...

;

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

;

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

; and Alice. In 1747, Hannah Lee married her cousin Gawin Corbin, who had succeeded his father as burgess but died in 1760 from injuries sustained in a horse-riding mishap; they had one daughter, Martha. Following her husband's death, Corbin inherited vast swathes of property, including in Lancaster County and in Caroline County, as well as slaves. She subsequently cohabited with physician Richard Lingan Hall (died 1774), although they never married and she gave their children the Corbin surname, so as to not violate her husband's will, which stipulated that her inheritance would be forfeited if she remarried; Corbin and Hall had a son, Elisha, and a daughter, also named Martha. Formerly an attendee of the

, Corbin became a member of the

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

church around 1764, to the disapproval of her siblings.

Career

In March 1778, Corbin wrote to her brother Richard Henry, complaining about the "male domination in law and politics", while arguing for women's

suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

: "Why should widows pay taxes when they have no voice in making the laws or in choosing the men who made them?" In response, he asserted that women were "already possessed of that right". According to ''The Virginia Baptist Register'', Corbin was the "first Virginia woman to take a stand for women's rights".

Death and legacy

She died around October 7, 1782.

Personal life

Career

Death and legacy

References

Citations

See also