Elizabeth Murray by Patricia Cleary
© Michelle Troutman
Elizabeth Murray: A Woman's Pursuit of Independence in Eighteenth-Century America
University of Massachusetts Press
November 2000
ISBN #: 1-55849-263-1
$23.96, hardcover
279 pages, illustrations
Elizabeth Murray was an unusual woman for her time, not necessarily because she was a shopkeeper -- she moved within the expected roles of women then and used her gender to further her goals, according to author Patricia Cleary, who has written a well-rounded biography, capturing the social, political, and historical aspects of Murray's life.
The orphaned Murray, one of five living children in her family, arrived in America from Scotland when she was 12 in 1739; her oldest brother, James, accompanied her and another brother, William, to North Carolina and served as their guardian.
After returning to England a few years later, at 22 she settled in Boston to become a milliner. Trade possibly appealed to her because it would have been less expensive compared to learning through a London apprenticeship, and in her native Europe, businesswomen were not uncommon. Cleary describes that in Scotland women sold goods from small wooden stalls called Luckenbooths from the 15th through 19th centuries. The sudden changes in fashion in London might have made millinery difficult there; America offered opportunities. Cleary cites it was also an easy field for women to try because it required math and literacy and credit was fairly easy to obtain.
According to Cleary, about 90 women in Boston from the 1740s through the Revolutionary War were businesswomen. In Philadelphia, 42% of the shopkeepers were women. They were not often respected members of their towns and were subjects of satire in newspapers. Benjamin Franklin was among those poking fun at them, possibly believing since women generally tended to be poorer, some had resorted to deception to sell their goods.
Cleary's research indicates most shopkeepers didn't advertise as often as Murray did. Cleary includes copies of Murray's early advertisements, flyers or broadsides distributed locally, and newspaper ads, most of which were probably successful because she mentioned offering the latest London fashions and advertised a buying trip she took to London.
Though Cleary's book highlights Elizabeth's accomplishments, her brother James played a prominent role in her life. Murray learned about commerce through helping her brother James with his business correspondence. Compared to Elizabeth, his attempts at trade upon relocation to America weren't immediately successful. Cleary finds it surprising Elizabeth chose the same field he did. Still, she didn't start the business
