Rebecca Warner Rawle Shoemaker (1730–1819) was an American woman whose journals provide insight into the issues of her day. She built the Randolph Mansion in Laurel Hill at a time when few women built mansions. The house continues to be occupied.

Early life

Rebecca Warner Rawle Shoemaker (1730–1819) Her family moved to Philadelphia to follow their

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 ...

religion, Philadelphia was then the center of Quaker life. Rebecca married Francis Rawle. They lived in what became known as the Randolph Mansion in east Fairmount Park. Rebecca and Rawle had three children, Anna, William, and Margaret, but Rawle died in a shooting accident in 1761. Rebecca then married Samuel Shoemaker. He was born and raised in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and would later become mayor of Philadelphia. He would also lead the Loyalist cause against the colonial revolutionaries. After Samuel fled to England to avoid arrest, the family home (called "Laurel Hill") was seized and sold at auction. The couple split up. Rebecca started to journal her daily life in 1778. Rebecca was able to reclaim her auctioned mansion by 1791. After Rebecca died in 1819, her son, William, inherited the home. The mansion is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Journals

Marrying Samuel Shoemaker made life hard for her and her family because of his loyalist beliefs. This caused Rebecca to lose her estate during the Revolutionary War. In her journals she documented the financial situation of a loyalist before and after the war. In 1804, she described a six-month stay at her daughter Anna's property. Her journals are historical evidence of life as a former Quaker woman during peace and war.

Legacy

Her children went on to impact society. William Jr. researched the

Gettysburg address The Gettysburg Address is a Public speaking, speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, U.S. president, following the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. The speech has come to be viewed as one ...

. Anna also kept journals, describing her experience as a loyalist.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shoemaker, Rebecca Warner Rawle 1730 births 1819 deaths Writers from Philadelphia 18th-century American diarists 18th-century American women writers American women diarists People from colonial Pennsylvania