March arrived like a lion in Newport this year—a fitting reminder that the voices of many women in Rhode Island’s history still roar today. This two-part “Voices” series highlights several remarkable, yet lesser-known, women of the American Revolution.
Alas, Not Every Lass was a Patriot
Mary Gould Almy (1735–1808) was born into a wealthy Newport Quaker family whose fortunes reportedly declined due to her father’s extravagant lifestyle. She was the great-granddaughter of one of the first governors of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and maintained Loyalist sympathies during the run-up to the American Revolution.
In 1762, she married Benjamin Almy at Trinity Church in Newport. (She is believed to have been his second wife.) The couple had at least eight children, and Benjamin sympathized with the Patriot cause…