Mary Lindley Murray | |
|---|---|
 Murray entertaining General Howe | |
| Born | Mary Lindley 1720 Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | December 25, 1782 (O.S.) January 5, 1783 (N.S.)[1][2] |
| Spouse | Robert Murray |
| Children | Of twelve children, five survived to adulthood, including Lindley Murray |
Mary Lindley Murray (1720 – December 25, 1782) is known in the American Revolution as the Quaker woman who in 1776 held up British General William Howe after the British victory against American forces at Kips Bay. Murray treated Howe and his generals to cake, tea, and wine and delayed them several hours as the American rebels led by General Israel Putnam got away safely and undetected.
The year before, she wrote a letter to prevent her husband, Robert Murray, from being banned from New York. She was a patriot and her husband was a loyalist, who illegally unloaded British goods from his ship, against Article 10 of the Continental Association.
Murray had twelve children, the eldest, Lindley Murray, was the leading author of the first four decades of the eighteenth century.