Meet Abigail Erving Scott
Abigail was John and Abigail Erving's fourth daughter, and the second given her mother's name. She was born 17 September 1733.(1) The first Abigail, born in 1729, died young. I haven't found a record of her death.
The Joseph Blackburn portrait of Abigail, painted about 1760, is my favorite of the paintings I have found for the Erving family. It gives the impression of a woman in motion and I have to believe that implies a vibrant personality. She is on the move and can't be bothered to sit still.
(2)We haven't found many details about Abigail's life. Women can be defined in part by their children, but she did not have any that are known. We look at records that are available around the men in her life. She grew up in Boston as her father's career transitioned from being a sea captain to an influential merchant. Many of the young men of her "class" made their careers in the military and were occupied with the French and Indian war as she came of age.
Abigail married at twenty-six on 22 November 1759.(3) Her mother had died in June of that year. Her husband was George Scott, who had a successful military career in the British army during the war in Canada. Only two months before their marriage he was actively clearing villages on the St. Lawrence north of Quebec.(4) They would have had an introduction at some point prior and perhaps correspondence. If any letters survived, they are still hidden. He could have encountered Abigail's brother William, who was also a soldier during the war, or John who was providing arms. Abigail's brother-in-law James Bowdoin will later be named in his will, so there are many possibilities. Details of his early life, or even his age, have not been confirmed. A gap in his military record may indicate some time together in Boston or elsewhere after their marriage.
His days of fighting did not end with their marriage. Scott participated in a successful expedition against Martinique in late 1761, and then in Grenada. He was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Grenada in 1762. Abigail likely had remained in Boston. It is not known if she relocated soon after. The description of 'wretched huts' below is not inviting.
George was appointed the Lieutenant Governor of the island of Dominica in September 1763.(5) His actual departure took place at the end of 1764, when he was saluted by the "principal planters, merchants, and inhabitants" of Grenada, as shown in the article copied in part below. There is no mention of his wife in the discussion of his hospitality.
(6)George wrote an extensive will in1764 in Grenada, that was witnessed by his brother-in-law George Erving, who may have been traveling to secure trade for his store in Boston. This will deserves a post of its own and will follow.
George's will left his property in Dominica, known as the Boulogne estate, to his brother Michael, with an annuity to Abigail of 365 guineas during her widowhood. If she married again it reverted to his brother. That amount was increased to 500 in a codicil written three years later. He either forgot to restrict it to her widowhood, or changed his mind. She was to have a "purse" of two to three hundred guineas to transport her back to New England. All of his household property "in this part of the world and at Boston" was to go to Abigail, along with "all of the jewels and wearing apparel" he had presented to her at different times. Abigail was also to have her pick of four slaves, who would revert to his brother upon her death. In an island economy that was supported on the backs of enslaved Africans, this should not be surprising. But in the codicil, he gave freedom to "his black boy" Leonard, with 5 pounds for a mourning suit, and sent him to his father in Martinique.(6)
Abigail died just a few months after George, still in Dominica. They had been married 18 years. A death notice on 18 March 1768 described her as "the amiable and virtuous consort of the Honorable George Scott, Esq."(7)
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Notes:(3) The portrait, by Joseph Blackburn, itself has an interesting history, passed down through her brother John's descendants and displayed at the Hudson-Fulton celebration in New York City in 1909. It is now owned by the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, Texas. See more information here
(4) See information on his military history here.
(5) From The Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News Letter, 10 November 1763, online at AmericanAncestors.org,
(7) The Boston Gazette and Country Journal, 20 May 1765, on line at AmericanAncestors.org.
(7) Will at the National Archives of the UK, file PROB11/943/79
(8) New Hampshire Gazette, Portsmouth, NH, 18 March 1768, on line at American Ancestors.org.
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