| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.2

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Patricia Cleary. Elizabeth Murray: A Woman's Pursuit of Independence in Eighteenth-Century America. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. 2000. Pp. xii, 279. $29.95.

The subject of this biography, Elizabeth Murray, was born in Scotland in 1726, migrated to live with her older brother in North Carolina in 1739, and settled in Boston as a single woman in 1749. In Massachusetts, she was a shopkeeper for a decade, married three times, experienced the American Revolution firsthand, and died in 1785. Patricia Cleary has used Murray's own letters, as well as those written by family and friends, as the foundation for a description of the life of this "extraordinary ordinary woman." 1

Three major themes surface repeatedly in Cleary's narration of Murray's story. First, geographic migration played an essential role in allowing Murray and her relatives to maximize their opportunities and move up the socioeconomic ladder. Her oldest brother, James, led the way by moving to the American colonies in 1735 to seek wealth from land and trade, and over the years many other family members made transatlantic journeys in pursuit of various social and economic opportunities. Elizabeth Murray's own choice to live in Boston allowed her to achieve a level of success and economic security that she probably would not have enjoyed in Scotland, England, or North Carolina. Second, Cleary shows how family connections, as well as a sense of shared responsibility for younger relatives, played an important role for the Murrays. Elizabeth herself took in several of her nieces in order to provide them with mentorship, parental guidance, and a useful education, and she supplied other family members with money, homes, contacts, and training. . . .

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