Archive for the ‘Fisher, Sally’ Category

“a situation that may be supported with great dignity”

Deborah Norris, daughter of a Quaker merchant in Philadelphia, wrote to her friend Sally Fisher in Duck Creek on May 6, 1780, about their prospects for marriage.

—indeed my dear it seems to me that we shall neither of us marry, but for reasons rather different, thee from not having any offer thee approves, I, from having no offers to disapprove, so I think we may as well be fore hand with our destiny and agree upon living Old Maids, by the way, I think it is a situation that may be supported with great dignity, And I always thought it a striking impropriety for any person, especially one of our own Sex, to speak in that Contemptuous way of Old Maids which is sometimes common, And which too many practice.

In fact both Deborah and her friend married: Deborah to Dr. George Logan, a prominent Philadelphia physician, in 1781, and Sally to William Corbit in 1784, in Delaware.

The excerpt can be found on page 184 of In the Words of Women.

posted January 9th, 2014 by Janet, Comments Off on “a situation that may be supported with great dignity”, CATEGORIES: Fisher, Sally,Marriage,Norris, Deborah

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