Mary Lincoln Extra Credit Questions

[Donna McCreary]

(10-02-2023 03:32 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  In the years prior to her marriage to Abraham Lincoln Mary Todd was once courted by the grandson of one of the Founding Fathers. Which Founding Father was this?

James Winston was the grandson of Patrick Henry. The two met when Mary was visiting her uncle David Todd who lived in Missouri. James was deeply in love with Mary. She wrote to her friend, Mercy Levering, "one being here, who cannot brook the mention of my return, an agreeable lawyer & grandson of Patrick Henry - what an honor!"
James was Henry's grandson through his daughter Dorothea Spotswood Henry and her husband George Dabney Winston.

Mary, and others, had believed that James had a future as bright as his grandfathers. He did run for public office, but was defeated. James never married, and died in 1853 at the age of 38. Perhaps he truly could not "brook the mention" of Mary's return to Springfield.