Catharine Flood McCall

Catharine Flood McCall (1766–March 9, 1828) was an early 19th-century American businesswoman. Before and during the American Revolutionary War, she was educated in Scotland and London. She inherited Cedar Grove and Clydeside plantations following the death of her maternal grandfather, Nicholas Flood in 1776. Parliament passed a law that prevented people from traveling to the Thirteen British Colonies during the war. McCall and her father were unable to return to Virginia until 1782. She was among the owners of the most slaves in Essex County, Virginia, and received an inheritance from her maternal grandfather of the Cedar Grove and Clydeside plantations.

Beginning in 1798, she owned blacksmith shops and nail factories in Alexandria and Richmond, Virginia, during a period of growth in Virginia when there was a demand for nails to build wooden houses and buildings. Her business competed against Thomas Jefferson's and the Virginia State Penitentiary's blacksmith and nailery businesses. After the penitentiary had understood McCall's nailery, she sold the business in 1815 to William Stewart, Jr. who died with outstanding debts. McCall was sued for his debts, claiming that McCall had not properly sold the business to Stewart. McCall lived in Georgetown in the District of Columbia in her later years.

Early life

Catharine (Kate, Kattey, Kitty) She had an older sister Elizabeth (Betsy).

In 1773, Catharine age 6 and Elizabeth age 8, were sent by their father to Glasgow to be educated. who died by May 6, 1776, when an inventory was taken of his estate. Flood was a successful planter and a physician. When she was 16, her father chartered the first ship that left London for America after the end of the war. In the winter of 1785–1786, a relative, Robert Hunter, and his friend Joseph Hadwell stayed with the McCalls. Both men sought to court McCall, but she rejected both of them.

Career McCall was well-educated and an intelligent conversationalist. She was a wealthy single woman and the largest female slaveholder and the ninth-largest slaveholder in Essex County between 1800 and 1820. She owned 29 enslaved workers As Virginia's cities grew during the early 19th century, nails were needed to build wooden buildings. McCall's nail factory produced nail rod, bar iron, wrought nails, cut nails, and brads.