Background
Her father, Charles Willing, was the mayor of Philadelphia from 1748 to 1754, and her great-grandfather, Edward Shippen, was the second mayor of Philadelphia, from 1701 to 1703.
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Mary Byrd
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Career
In 2007 Byrd was posthumously honored by the Library of Virginia"s "Virginia Women in History" program After trying to recover property that had been seized by the British, she was charged in 1781 with trading with the enemy. What am I but an American? All my friends and connexions are in America.
My whole property is here—could I wish ill to everything I have an interest in?" Her trial was first postponed and ultimately never held.
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Byrd defended herself eloquently in a letter to Governor Thomas Jefferson: "I wish well to all mankind, to America in particular.
