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Jean Wood (née Moncure; May 22, 1753 – March 4, 1823) was the first lady of Virginia from 1796 to 1799 as the wife of James Wood, the 11th governor of Virginia. She was also a notable early female poet in Virginia and influential in charitable circles.

Early life and family

Wood was born on May 22, 1753, the third daughter of Reverend John Moncure and Frances Brown, Scottish immigrants. She grew up in Stafford County, Virginia. In 1775, she married James Wood, and they had one daughter who died in childhood.

Governor's wife

During the late 1770s, Wood suffered a bout of severe illness from which she recovered.

Wood served as one of the early first ladies of Virginia upon her husbands election as Virginia's governor. As the governor's wife, she was a prominent figure in Virginia society and charitable circles. The Executive Mansion was not yet built during this period, so during her husband's term as governor they lived at Chelsea Hill and also resided at their Glen Burnie estate.

In 1807, she established the Female Humane Association to aid women and children in need, of which she served as president. The organization is considered as one of the first examples of a women's charity in Virginia, and was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1811.

Poet

Wood was a noted poet and writer, and several of her works were posthumously published in an 1859 volume entitled Flowers and Weeds of the Old Dominion. After her death, her unpublished volume of poems in manuscript was favorably reviewed by the Southern Literary Messenger.

Death

Wood died on March 4, 1823, aged 69. She is interred in the Shields-Robinson Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. Upon her death, the Richmond Enquirer wrote that "none had greater compassion for the afflicted".

Legacy

After her death, a charitable relief association at Hampden–Sydney College was named as the "Jean Wood Society" in her honor. The charitable organization Wood established is still in operation today and is now known as the Memorial Foundation for Children. Wood is referenced on multiple occasions in the Papers of George Washington.

References

1. ^ "Death Notice". Virginia Evangelical and Literary Magazine. 1823.
2. Ryan, Edward L. (1940). "Poplar Vale". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 48 (3): 202–206. ISSN 0042-6636. JSTOR 4245021.
3. Lewises, Meriwethers and Their Kin. Genealogical Publishing Com. 1984. ISBN 978-0-8063-1072-5.
4. ^ Southern Literary Messenger. 1850.
5. Lyne, Cassandra (1933). "Reminiscences of Mrs. William Lyne of Orange". The William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine. 13 (3): 184–186. doi:10.2307/1921596. ISSN 1936-9530. JSTOR 1921596.
6. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner (1908). Men of Mark in Virginia: Ideals of American Life; a Collection of Biographies of the Leading Men in the State. Men of Mark Publishing Company.
7. ^ "Founders Online: To George Washington from Colonel James Wood, 12 November 1778". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
8. ^ "Founders Online: To George Washington from Colonel James Wood, 17 January 1779". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
9. Adams, Oscar Fay (1898). A Dictionary of American Authors. Houghton, Mifflin.
10. Confederate Veteran. S.A. Cunningham. 1928.
11. Greene, Katherine Glass; Glass, William Wood (1946). Brig. General and Governor James Wood, Junior, and the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia. Pifer Print. Company.
12. Scott, Mary Wingfield (c. 1940). "Female Humane Society, Richmond, Virginia". The Valentine. The Valentine. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
13. "A Guide to the Memorial Foundation for Children Records, 1811-2006 (bulk 1926-1999) Memorial Foundation for Children Records, 1811-2006 (bulk 1926-1999) 42432". ead.lib.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
14. Murray, Gail S. (1995). "Charity within the Bounds of Race and Class: Female Benevolence in the Old South". The South Carolina Historical Magazine. 96 (1): 54–70. ISSN 0038-3082. JSTOR 27570050.
15. Varon, Elizabeth R. (2000-11-09). We Mean to Be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia. Univ of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-6608-5.
16. Kerrison, Catherine (2015-05-05). Claiming the Pen: Women and Intellectual Life in the Early American South. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-5432-5.
17. Bryson, William Hamilton (2000). Virginia Law Books: Essays and Bibliographies. American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0-87169-239-9.
18. Newman, Carol Montgomery (1903). Virginia Literature. University of Virginia.
19. Kierner, Cynthia A.; Treadway, Sandra Gioia (2015). Virginia Women: Their Lives and Times--Volume 1. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-4263-4.
20. "Wood, Jean Moncure, 1753-1823 | The Online Books Page". onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
21. Lewis, John; Lewis, John Moncure; Scott, Huldah Lewis; Wood, Jean Moncure (1859). Flowers and weeds of the Old Dominion: poems. Frankfort, Ky.: A.G. Hodges, printer.
22. Flowers and Weeds of the Old Dominion: Poems. A.G. Hodges, printer. 1859.
23. Alderman, Edwin Anderson; Harris, Joel Chandler; Smith, Charles Alphonso; Kent, Charles W.; Knight, Lucian Lamar; Metcalf, John Calvin (1910). Library of Southern Literature: Compiled Under the Direct Supervision of Southern Men of Letters. Martin and Hoyt Company.
24. Bruce, Philip Alexander; Stanard, William Glover (1977). The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Virginia Historical Society.
25. Herringshaw, Thomas William (1914). Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States; Illustrated with Three Thousand Vignette Portraits ... American Publishers' Association.
26. Greene, Katherine Glass (1926). Winchester, Virginia, and Its Beginnings, 1743-1814. Shenandoah Publishing house. ISBN 978-1-933607-48-1.
27. "About the Foundation". Mfcrichmond. Retrieved 2024-10-20.

• 1753 births
• 1823 deaths
• 18th-century American people
• 19th-century American people
• 18th-century American women
• 19th-century American women
• First ladies and gentlemen of Virginia
• People from Stafford County, Virginia
• People from Richmond, Virginia
• Poets from Virginia
• American women poets
• American women writers