Chair Belonging to the Quaker Heroine of the Revolution
American Spy and Patriot Lydia Darragh
A Philadelphia Quaker Chippendale armchair with a silver plaque on the rear rail stating the original owner of the chair was a Quaker immigrant from Ireland, Lydia Darragh.
Lydia Barrington Darragh defied British officers and braved a military checkpoint to dispatch critical information to the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
When the British occupied Philadelphia in September of 1777, General William Howe moved into the Cadwalder home located across the street from the Darragh family residence and soon expanded his headquarters into the Darragh house. Because the Darraghs were Quakers and pacifists, Lydia convinced Howe to permit the couple to remain in their home in exchange for allowing the British to use their parlor as a meeting place.
On December 2, 1777, British officials held a private meeting in the Darragh home, Lydia covertly listened in on the secret meeting, securing important information about the British plan to lead a surprise attack against General George Washington’s Continental forces at Whitemarsh in two days’ time.
The day after the meeting, Darragh received permission from General Howe to visit her youngest children, who were staying outside of the city. With her official pass, Darragh succeeded in moving past the British lines to the Rising Sun Tavern where Colonel Elias Boudinot received her information that Howe was planning the imminent attack on Whitemarsh. Boudinot’s account, as he described the event in his memoirs of the war, suggests that Darragh hid a note in an old cloth needle book, and passed the information to him that way.
Washington’s forces were prepared to repel the British at Whitemarsh, and after several days of skirmishing, Howe called off the attack. Suspecting that a member of the Darragh family had overheard their plans, the British questioned Lydia when they returned to Philadelphia. Remaining calm, Lydia claimed that she and the rest of her family had been asleep through the meeting, and the British officers let the matter rest.
Philadelphia, circa 1770
Mahogany
Height: 38”; width: 29”; depth: 20”
Provenance:
William Darragh (1719-1783) and Lydia Barrington Darragh (1729-1789) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to their son;
John Darragh (1763-1822) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to his son:
Alexander Porter Darragh (1789-1831) of Norfolk, Virginia to his daughter;
Margaret Porter Darragh Newton (1824-1894) of Norfolk, Virginia to her daughter;
Sally Newton Page (1857-1930) of Norfolk, Virginia. Sallie Page was very active in the Norfolk chapter of the Colonial Dames and a founding regent of the Great Bridge chapter of the DAR. It is likely the silver plaque on the chair was affixed during an exhibition for one of these societies.
