A daughter of privileged early American families, Elizabeth Bordley Gibson was born on October 21, 1777 in Annapolis, Maryland. Her parents had retreated there for safety from their estate on Maryland's eastern shore due to the approach of British forces seeking to quash the American rebellion.

Elizabeth Bordley Gibson's father, John Beale Bordley (1727-1804, APS 1783), was a Maryland lawyer, judge, and planter who acted as clerk of Baltimore County and served on the colonial governor's council. The quintessential gentleman farmer, Bordley read extensively in the natural sciences and philosophy. He wrote and published several works, primarily on agricultural topics. Bordley owned a significant amount of land and inherited additional holdings via his first wife, Margaret Chew (1735-1773), including half of Wye Island, Maryland, where the Bordley family lived before moving to Philadelphia in 1791. At that time, Elizabeth's father was appointed by President George Washington as a commissioner to receive subscriptions to the Bank of the United States.

Through her mother, Sarah Fishbourne Mifflin Bordley (1733-1816), Elizabeth was related to the Shippen and Mifflin families. Sarah was the daughter of William Fishbourne (1677-1742), a merchant and mayor of Philadelphia from 1719-1722. Sarah was John Beale Bordley's second wife and a widow herself, having previously been married to John Mifflin (1715-1759), a wealthy Quaker merchant and provincial councilor.

The Bordleys were family friends of George Washington, visiting him at his place on Market Street in Philadelphia and later at Mount Vernon. Elizabeth developed a close and lasting friendship with Washington's step-granddaughter and adopted daughter, Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, with whom she shared tutors.

Elizabeth was highly educated and well read. During her youth, her parents provided for her education with the highest class of tutoring and schooling. She excelled in music, painting, foreign languages, and composition. As Elizabeth came of age and entered in to society, the country too was just coming of age. Congress was in session in Philadelphia.

By all accounts, Elizabeth possessed a physical beauty. This is evident in later portraits painted by Gilbert Stuart and Thomas Sully. In a biographical essay, her niece Elizabeth Mifflin described Elizabeth as "a distinguished belle; her tall fine figure, handsome poetical face, her highly refined manners and various accomplishments, placed her among the most prominent and most admired in the brilliant circle in which she moved" (from Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, Biographical Sketches of the Bordley Family of Maryland, 1865).

Yet, numerous admirers or high society were not what mattered to Elizabeth. Elizabeth was devoted to her parents. Her father's illness from 1799 until his death in 1804, and her mother's subsequent decline led to Elizabeth withdrawing from society. She attended to her ill mother for many years and served as caretaker. During this time, Elizabeth turned to the Bible for comfort and strength. While assisting her mother, Elizabeth endured a further tragedy; a half-brother to whom she was very close, John Fishbourne Mifflin (1759-1813, APS 1796), passed away in 1813. Elizabeth's mother died in 1816.

Shortly after the passing of her mother, Elizabeth did manage to find some level of happiness. On May 27, 1817, on Wye Island with the Episcopal Bishop William White presiding, Elizabeth married James Gibson (1769-1856, APS 1807), a dear friend of her late brother John Fishbourne Mifflin. The son of a former Philadelphia mayor, Gibson was a Princeton graduate and a practicing lawyer. He worked closely with the merchant Robert Morris (1734-1806, APS 1786) and was involved in real estate speculation, in particular with the Pennsylvania Population Company and the Asylum Company. He served as president of the former and secretary of the latter, and as legal counsel to both. With the risky nature of land speculation, Gibson was subject to litigations and debts. Such problems followed him in to marriage and beyond.

Upon the death of her father John Beale Bordley, Elizabeth and her half-sister Henrietta Maria Ross (1762-1829) each inherited a large annuity of $40,000. Elizabeth was appointed executrix of the estate. After she married, James became executor and took control of the funds. It appears he mismanaged the account and was alleged to have used the funds to cover his own debts, resulting in a partial loss of the inheritence of the Ross family. The Rosses attempted to recover their lost legacy through the courts. James died in the midst of a suit in 1856. Five years later, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court eventually settled the case, ruling in favor of Elizabeth; she was found not liable for the mismanagement of funds by her late husband.

Despite legally prevailing in the end, this period of Elizabeth's life was filled with anguish. Judging from her correspondence, she clearly missed her husband, faults and all, and struggled to manage her finances. Lacking liquid assets, she leaned on her cousin Edward Shippen (1823-1904) for financial support and her niece Elizabeth Mifflin (1797-1885) for emotional support.

Elizabeth died in Philadelphia on August 23, 1863. She was a faithful parishioner of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia to the end, and is buried there with her parents, husband, and half-brother John Fishbourne Mifflin and his family.

In 1826, Elizabeth penned a genealogical memoir of her father and several ancestors on his side of the family. The work, Biographical Sketches of the Bordley Family of Maryland, was published posthumously by her niece Elizabeth Mifflin in 1865.

Providing a glimpse in to the private life of a genteel lady in the early republic, the Elizabeth Bordley Gibson Papers consist of over 200 letters and notes written during the years 1795 to 1863. The bulk of the letters cover the period 1848-1863, and involve Gibson's correspondence with members of her extended family. Elizabeth was related to the influential Bordley, Mifflin, and Shippen families, three of the more prominent families in colonial and early republic Pennsylvania and Maryland. Most of the correspondence in the collection comprises letters between Elizabeth Bordley Gibson and her cousin Edward Shippen and her nieces Elizabeth Mifflin, Anne C. Ross, and Elizabeth Stump. Complementing other early American history collections at APS, the Gibson Papers offers important insights in to women's history and the history of influential mid-Atlantic families in nineteenth-century America.

Perhaps the most revealing correspondence in the collection is Elizabeth Bordley Gibson's letters to her cousin Edward Shippen from the years 1845-1862. Shippen (1823-1904) was Gibson's cousin on her mother's side (her mother's sister was married to Joseph Shippen). After the death of her husband James Gibson in 1856, Elizabeth began facing financial problems. She increasingly turned to her cousin Edward for help. While the letters demonstrate just one half of the relationship (with the exception of one letter, all the letters in the collection are written from Elizabeth to Edward), it is clear there was a great intimacy between the cousins, and her letters transition smoothly from familial discussion to financial requests. Elizabeth's appeals for financial assistance are numerous, and her letters reveal her cousin to be the only one to whom she could turn. They also reveal the difficulties and vulnerabilities a widowed woman, even one who belonged to an established family, faced in nineteenth-century America. Despite her cousin's help, Elizabeth was forced to sell properties in Philadelphia and Cape May, New Jersey. At times, her correspondence with Edward belays Elizabeth's sense of frustration and melancholy.

Further insight in to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson's personal life can be gleaned from her correspondence with her nieces Elizabeth Mifflin (1797-1885), Anne C. Ross, and Elizabeth Stump (1816-1899). Written from 1847-1863, the letters contain a litany of family news: ailments, deaths, births, marriages, travels and visitations. They also reveal the emotional perspective on affairs identified in the Edward Shippen correspondence—sentimental memories of her Cape May and Union Street houses, recently sold. These, along with personal notes in Series II, reflect Elizabeth's faith in the midst of adversity.

The collection does contain some materials relating to Elizabeth's husband James Gibson (1769-1856, APS 1807), including: an early letter from James Gibson to his mother; two letters between future husband and wife, James and Elizabeth; a letter by Elizabeth's cousin Edward Burd (1749-1833) approving the couple's future marriage; several documents sent to and received from the Department of Treasury by James; several documents concerning James' death.

Cousin Edward Burd, who was Prothonotary of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and was related to Elizabeth via the Shippen family, also supplies Elizabeth with legal and financial advice from 1814-1816, prior to her marriage.

In addition to correspondence, the collection has a smaller second series of Notes and Essays by Elizabeth Bordley Gibson. The notes are both original creations and copied excerpts from sources Elizabeth found thought-provoking. Nearly a hundred pages of material, the notes concern Elizabeth's thoughts on literature, religion, and philosophy, with occasional notes concerning family genealogy. The majority of the notes and essays are undated, but dated ones range from 1828 to 1858.

Provenance

Accession M2012-05. Purchased by the Friends of the APS Library from William Reese bookseller, April 2012.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Elizabeth Bordley Gibson Papers, American Philosophical Society

Processing information

Processed by Michael Miller, December 2016.

Related material

APS has a copy of: Elizabeth Bordley Gibson's work Biographical Sketches of the Bordley Family of Maryland (Philadelphia: Henry Ashmead, 1865). Call number: B B6452g.

Last Will and Testament of Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, Deceased (Philadelphia: Crissy and Markley, 1863).

APS also has several manuscript collections of materials created by members Elizabeth Bordley GIbson's extended family, including: the Burd-Shippen Papers (Mss.B.B892); Edward Shippen Letters and Papers (Mss.B.Sh62); the Shippen Family Papers (Mss.B.Sh61f)

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania possesses the papers of Elizabeth Bordley Gibson's husband, James Gibson (1769-1856).

Early American History Note

This collection contains materials which may be of interest to students of Early American History.

• Bordley Family
• Gibson family
• Mifflin family.
• Shippen family

• Correspondence.
• Family Correspondence

• New Jersey -- History -- 1775-1865.
• Pennsylvania -- History -- 1775-1865.
• Philadelphia (Pa.) -- History.
• United States -- History -- 1783-1865.

• Burd, Edward, 1749-1833
• Gibson, Elizabeth Bordley, 1777-1863
• Gibson, James, 1769-1856
• Mifflin, Elizabeth, 1797-1885
• Ross, Anne C.
• Shippen, Edward, 1823-1904
• Stump, Elizabeth G., 1816-1899

• Marriage and Family Life
• Social Life and Custom
• Women's History