The Tory’s Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America

Jane Spurgin was a patriot who supported the Revolution. Her husband was a loyalist who fought for the king. When the war was over, William abandoned his family, leaving Jane to fight to keep the home she and her children were faced with losing because of his Toryism. That fight led her to demand “the common rights of other citizens”—a radical statement for a woman revolutionary America. Through the story of Jane Spurgin, historian Cynthia Kierner shows how the Revolution not only toppled long-established political hierarchies but also strained family ties and drew women into the public sphere to claim both citizenship and rights.