Background
Tyson was born in 1795 to George Ellicott and Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott, a well respected family of Maryland Quakers, the Ellicotts.
Tyson was born in 1795 to George Ellicott and Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott, a well respected family of Maryland Quakers, the Ellicotts.
She was the great-great grandmother of state senator James A. Clark, Junior. (1918-2006). She accounted in her books visiting with chief "Little Turtle" in 1807 at the age of twelve. Although she never completed formal schooling past primary education, she was well educated at home and fluent in French.
At the age of 35, Tyson was chosen as an Elder of the Baltimore Quaker Meeting.
This meeting propelled the movement to start the second coeducation college in the United States. Martha Tyson is also well known for her biographical accounts of the scientist, surveyor, and author Benjamin Banneker.
As a free African-American, Banneker was a frequent visitor at Tyson"s childhood home. Tyson wrote two biographies of Banneker, Sketch in the Life of Benjamin Banneker, published in 1854, and the more complete biography, Benjamin Banneker: The African-American Astronomer, published in 1884.