{{short description|Scottish-American philanthropist and educator}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}} thumb|Isabella Graham '''Isabella Graham''' (née '''Marshall'''; July 29, 1742 - July 27, 1814) was a Scottish-American philanthropist and educator.
==Early life== Graham was born on July 29, 1742, in Lanarkshire, Scotland. She was the only daughter of Janet (née Hamilton) and John Marshall, a landowner. She grew up on an estate at Elderslie, near Paisley. With money from a legacy left by her grandfather she attended the boarding school of Betty Morehead for seven years. The Graham family was known for their piety and Isabella became a communicant of the Church of Scotland at the age of seventeen at the Laigh Kirk, Paisley where Dr. John Witherspoon, who was later a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence, was the minister.<ref>{{cite book| title= Marquis Who Was Who in America 1607-1984| url= http://www.credoreference.com/entry/marqwas/graham_isabella_marshall| accessdate= July 15, 2013| year= 2009 | publisher = Marquis Who's Who LLC| location= New Providence}}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1765, she married Dr. John Graham, an army surgeon in the Royal Americans regiment. Two years later, she went with him to Canada. They had three daughters and two sons, one of whom died in infancy in Scotland. The surviving children were Jessie, Joanna Bethune, Isabella and John. Her husband was ordered to Antigua and she traveled there with him, her children, and two indigenous girls. On November 17, 1774, John Graham became ill with fever and died on November 22, 1774. She would never remarry and would from then on wear the clothes of a widow. Pregnant with her fifth child at the time of her husband's death, she chose to return to Scotland with her children.<ref name=dab>{{Cite DAB|title=Graham, Isabella Marshall|year=1931|author=Harris Elwood Starr}}</ref> After the birth of her son, Graham struggled to provide for her children as well as her elderly father. As a way to care for her family, she opened a small school in Paisley and later a boarding school for young ladies in Edinburgh.<ref name=pau>{{Cite book|title= The Poor Among Us: A History of Family Poverty and Homelessness in New York City|url= http://www.icphusa.org/Bookstore/Featured/|accessdate= February 4, 2014|year= 2013|publisher= White Tiger Press|location= New York|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160814072334/http://icphusa.org/Bookstore/Featured/|archive-date = August 14, 2016|url-status = dead}}</ref>
While visiting Scotland from America in 1785, Dr. John Witherspoon spoke with Isabella regarding returning to the United States. After her children had completed their schooling, she departed for New York in July 1789 to help prepare the United States for its role as "the country where the Church of Christ would eventually flourish" and later that year established a school for young women.<ref name=pau/>
While living in America, Graham was a member of the New York Society Library along with many of the nation's founding fathers and other influential individuals of the time. She is the only woman who is listed under members with a political occupation within the site's database. Although her borrowing history at the library spans only four months, Graham checked out thirteen books during that period. The records of her borrowing history demonstrate her interests in historical and biographical works, as well as novels and travel diaries.<ref>[http://cityreaders.nysoclib.org/Detail/entities/432 City Readers: Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library]</ref>
==Philanthropy== Earlier in her life in Scotland, Graham founded the Penny Society, later known as the Society for the Relief of the Destitute Sick, a friendly society for poor members, who contributed a penny a week to create a fund for providing for them when sick.<ref name=dab/> This organization was the beginning of a life dedicated to philanthropy. Graham established the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows in 1797. The Society for Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children was one of the first women's societies to engage in active public benevolence and successfully petitioned for shares of public welfare funds.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Boylan|first1=Anne|title=Women in Groups: An Analysis of Women's Benevolent Organizations in New York and Boston, 1797-1840|journal=The Journal of American History|date=December 1984|volume=71|issue=3|pages=497–523|doi=10.2307/1887469|jstor=1887469}}</ref> She retired from teaching in 1798 to devote herself completely to philanthropic work.<ref name=dab/>
Throughout her life, Graham also founded, or helped organize, the Orphan Asylum Society (organized 1806<ref name=dab/>), the Society for Promoting Industry among the Poor, and the first Sunday School for Ignorant Adults in New York. She also aided in organizing the first missionary society and the first monthly missionary prayer meeting in the city; was the first president of the Magdalen Society of New-York (founded 1812<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://library.brown.edu/find/Search/Results?lookfor=%22%20Magdalen%20Society%20(New%20York%2C%20N.Y.)%22&type=Subject|title=Search: Magdalen Society (New York, N.Y.)|accessdate=May 6, 2013|publisher=Brown University Library}}</ref>); systematically visited the inmates of the hospital, and the sick female convicts in the state prison; and distributed Bibles to hundreds of families, as well as tracts prepared under her own direction. She believed that cultivating piety and Christian morality was the key to lifting widows out of poverty.<ref name=pau/>
==Legacy== Graham's memoir, ''The Power of Faith: Exemplified in the Life and Writings of Mrs. Isabella Graham'' published in 1822 is available in interactive [https://archive.org/details/poweroffaithexe00grah digital copy].
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== *{{AmCyc|wstitle=Graham, Isabella}}
•Severance, Diana Lynn. Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History. Pages 236–239. Scotland. Christian Focus Publishing. 2011.
==External links== * {{Gutenberg author | id=6593| name=Isabella Graham}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Isabella Graham}} * {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofmrsisabell00grah|title=The life of Mrs. Isabella Graham|year=1839|author=Joanna Bethune|publisher=J.S. Taylor|location=New York}} * {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/unpublishedlette00grah|title=The unpublished letters and correspondence of Mrs. Isabella Graham|year=1838|editor=Joanna Bethune|publisher=J.S. Taylor|location=New York}} * 30011889 * {{Cite web|url=http://povertyhistory.org/|title=PovertyHistory.org|access-date=February 4, 2014|archive-date=February 18, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218164104/http://povertyhistory.org/|url-status=dead}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Isabella}} Category:1742 births Category:1814 deaths Category:People from Lanarkshire Category:Scottish Presbyterian missionaries Category:Scottish emigrants to the United States Category:18th-century American philanthropists Category:Scottish philanthropists Category:American Presbyterian missionaries Category:Female Christian missionaries Category:18th-century American educators Category:18th-century Scottish educators Category:Presbyterian missionaries in the United States Category:19th-century American memoirists Category:British missionaries in the United States Category:18th-century women philanthropists Category:19th-century American philanthropists Category:19th-century American women philanthropists Category:19th-century American women writers Category:American women memoirists Category:18th-century American women educators Category:18th-century Scottish women educators Category:19th-century American women educators Category:19th-century American educators Category:Educators from New York City Category:Writers from New York City Category:Memoirists from New York (state) Category:Philanthropists from New York City Category:British women philanthropists Category:18th-century British philanthropists