Jane Bowen (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Spencer; – 18 October 1781) was an English woman who became known for assisting overseas officers working in support of the American cause during the Revolutionary War. She also supervised the burial of Polish general

Casimir Pulaski Kazimierz Michał Władysław Wiktor Pułaski (; March 4 or 6, 1745 October 11, 1779), anglicised as Casimir Pulaski ( ), was a Polish nobleman, soldier, and military commander who has been called "The Father of American cavalry" or "The So ...

, who was killed in the 1779

siege of Savannah The siege of Savannah or the second battle of Savannah was an encounter of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) in 1779. The year before, the city of Savannah, Georgia, had been captured by a British expeditionary corps under Lieutena ...

Early life

Jane "Jeanie" Spencer was born 1737, probably in London, to William Spencer (died 1776), a customs collector in

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

Province of Georgia The Province of Georgia (also Georgia Colony) was one of the Southern Colonies in colonial-era British America. In 1775 it was the last of the Thirteen Colonies to support the American Revolution. The original land grant of the Province of G ...

, and Elizabeth Spencer.''The American Genealogist'', p. 197 Her parents divorced; his father remarried, around January 1745, to a daughter of Joseph Avery.

Siege of Savannah

Two years after the death of her husband, Bowen hosted two officers from the fleet of

Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, Count of Estaing (24 November 1729 – 28 April 1794) was a French military officer and writer. He began his service as a soldier in the War of the Austrian Succession, briefly spending time as a prisoner of wa ...

, at Greenwich Plantation in

Thunderbolt A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the 'Sky Father'; this association is also found in later Hel ...

, Province of Georgia, during the 1779

. She also supervised the burial of Polish general

, who was killed during the battle, "between her mansion and the

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

", although Pulaski's resting place is disputed (some claim he was

buried at sea Burial at sea is the disposal of human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship, boat or aircraft. It is regularly performed by navies, and is done by private citizens in many countries. Burial-at-sea services are conducted at many different ...

or in Charleston,

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

).Szczygielski 1986, p. 393.

Personal life

On 30 March 1765, Spencer married English farmer and entrepreneur Samuel Bowen, who established Greenwich Plantation in 1765.Greenwich Cemetery
- Forest City of the South After Bowen's death in 1777, she assumed control of the plantation. The couple had four children. Daughter Elizabeth Ann (1766–1816) married British army surgeon Samuel Beecroft, to whom Jane sold the plantation in 1797. Elizabeth placed flowers at Pulaski's grave until her death in 1816.

Death

Upon her death in 1781, Bowen bequeathed her four children 26 slaves, 15 cows, and two oxen, along with a variety of machines for the processing of

sago Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is c ...

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen, Jane 1737 births 1781 deaths People from Savannah, Georgia Women in the American Revolution 18th-century English women