about Mercy Scollay

[To Mrs. Dix of Worcester, Massachusetts] Boston December 10th [1776] Tell your good Mama Ive seen the people about the cake pans but as she did not tell me how many she wanted I did not chuse to take them till I hear from her – they have about a dozen and half – she […]

by Samuel A. Forman In my biography of Joseph Warren, I suggest that his fiancée Miss Mercy Scollay may have been the author of an intriguing and ingenious poem that appeared anonymously in June 1774. Articles Which Female Vanity has Comprised as Necessaries was featured in Isaiah Thomas’ Royal American Magazine just as the Solemn […]

by Samuel A. Forman I believe that the sitter portrayed in John Singleton Copley’s mysterious Lady in a Blue Dress is Miss Mercy Scollay of Boston at age 22. The striking, full size portrait resides at the Terra Foundation Museum in Chicago.[i] In an age of visuals, I decided that an image of Miss Scollay […]

Date: July 22, 1776 Author: Elizabeth (Betsey/Mrs. Charles) Miller “It is with pleasure I inform your your Niece Betsey is with me. She was inoculated for the small pox 14 days agone, & is like to have it very light, the other Children are at Mr. Scolley, it was with some difficulty I was favor’d […]

Date: September 27, 1774 Author: Hannah Fayerweather Winthrop “I have lately recieved great pleasure from an ingenious satire on that Female Foible Love of dress in the Royal American Magazine. I have heard the author guessd to be Miss Mercy Scollay and the Gentleman who requested it, Dr. Warren. I am not enough acquainted with […]