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Grace Growden Galloway was the wife of a politician, Joseph Galloway. Galloway became a Loyalist during the American War of Independence. She lost much wealth and status in the adjustment to a Patriot society from 1777-1779, consequent of the seizure of her property in August of 1778. Some of her concerns are emblematic of a cultural moment in which new legal and social issues were raised by the indefinite definition of citizenship of loyalists under a Patriot rule, as well as of women as separate from their husbands.

Diary
Mrs. Galloway recorded in her diary during the period of June 1778 to September 1779, from the day her husband fled Philadelphia to New York, along with her daughter Elizabeth, in the british evacuation. It is widely accepted that Joseph left in order to increase the likelihood that their property not be seized and occupied. Grace was expected to settle the family business of their properties, and subsequently join her daughter and husband in England. Grace recounts a struggle with her descent from a high social standing, which causes many of her previous friends to snub her. She wrote for example, that these good friend wou'd let Me perish before they wou'd get Me to their houses." Another topic of interest she writes about are the specific events of the seizure attempts on August 10th and 20th of 1778. Ultimately, she continued to identify strongly with her role as wife and daughter of prominent figures, stating defiantly and pridefully that, “I was still ye same & must be Joseph Galloways Wife & Lawrence Growdons daughter & that it was Not in their power to humble Me for I shou'd be Grace Growdon Galloway to ye last”

Poetry
Grace Galloway also wrote verse which are telling about her personal regard for her marriage, as well as of the relation of husbands and wives in society generally. She wrote,

“Never get Tyed to a Man for when once you are yoked Tis all a Mere Joke of seeing your freedom again”

In another verse, she described the “wretched Wife / whose doom’d with him to spend her Life."

Scholars often speculate that Grace’s husband was more concerned in the financial prospects of marrying her than of affective reasons. Her poetry evidences a dissatisfaction with married life, to say the least.

Seizure of Property
Pennsylvania chief Justice Thomas McKean ordered the seizure of the Galloway estate in 1778. Grace Galloway refused to renounce her loyalty in order to save her estate, writing “they want me to descend to abject Treason for my estate which I will not do,” and, “I never Did or wou’d Acknowledge their Authority as I was An English Woman & could not be a Traytor." These values were steadfast, including her refusal to relegate her control of her property in order to receive a pension by petitioning following the confiscation of their estate, which Mrs. Galloway refused in favor of retaining control. Grace was concerned with the inheritance of her child Elizabeth, of which she wrote to explain her remaining in Philadelphia that she “"cannot bear My child shou'd loose her whole inheritance & have the whole distroy'd”

Later Life
Joseph was attainted for treason in the fall of 1778. Grace died in 1782 following intermittent bouts of sickness and being bedridden, in which Grace did not write in her diary. Prior to her death, she willed her confiscated estate to her daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth, still in England, sued for return of this land, though the court ruled that her father’s attainder resulted in a forfeiture of her claim, which, ordinarily upon the husbands death, would leave all property to the widow