Graydon, Rachel Marks

Biography

Rachel Marks was the eldest of four daughters born to a German father and Scottish mother on the island of Barbados. Rachel became the second wife of Alexander Graydon, subject of a portrait by Feke [1966.13.2]. Graydon was educated in Ireland to be an Anglican minister. He came to the American colonies in 1730, and settled in Philadelphia, where he became a successful merchant. With Rachel he had two sons, Alexander [1752-1818], who fought in the Revolutionary War and spent eight months as prisoner of the British on Long Island, and William [1759-1840]. An account of Mrs. Graydon's visit to her son Alexander during his imprisonment is given in Ellet 1818 [see references]. Alexander married firstly a Miss Wood of Berks County, in 1778, and secondly Theodosia Pettit, in 1799; he had no children. William and his wife Eleanor had at least seven children: Andrew [d. 1851], Alexander, Henry M. [d. 1900], William [d. 1899], Rachel, Eleanor, and Theodosa. About 1760, the elder Alexander Graydon built a house in Bristol, PA, where he died in March of the following year.[Compiled from sources and references recorded on CMS]

Bibliography

1818

Ellet, Elizabeth F. The Women of the American Revolution. New York, second edition, 1818:237+

1846

Graydon, Alexander, Jr. Memoirs of his Own Time. Philadelphia, 1846 [reprinted as Alexander Graydon's Memoirs of his Own Time, John Stockton Little, ed., New York Times and Arno Press, 1969]

1995

Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 102-104 [on Alexander Graydon's portrait]

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