Elizabeth Jaquelin Ambler Brent Carrington

Elizabeth Jaquelin Ambler Brent Carrington also known as Betsy Ambler Carrington (March 11, 1765 – February 15, 1842) founded the Female Humane Association (now known as the Memorial Foundation for Children) in Richmond, Virginia. Believed to be the first of its kind in Virginia, the organization provided safety and shelter to destitute girls and kept them from a life of poverty and the possibility of becoming prostitutes to survive.

She corresponded with friends and family over the course of her life and her letters and papers are held at the Library of Congress, Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and the University of Virginia. In them, she describes her life as a child, her short-lived marriage to William Brent, who died suddenly months after their marriage, and her second husband Edward Carrington. She corresponded with and wrote about Chief Justice John Marshall, George and Martha Washington, her sisters, and other friends and relatives.

Early life Elizabeth Jaquelin "Betsy" Ambler, the daughter of Rebecca Burwell Ambler and Jaquelin Ambler, was born in Yorktown, Virginia, on March 11, 1765. Her father, uncles and grandfather were prosperous merchants, though all but her father had died by 1769. During the American Revolutionary War, her family moved away from their homes, warehouses and plantations in what became strategic port areas to avoid the conflict. Nonetheless her father returned to serve on the state's Naval Board and later on the Council of State in Richmond. He moved his family there and in 1782 he became state treasurer. She turned him down to marry Jaquelin Ambler.

The Amblers had eight children. Four daughters survived childhood, Elizabeth (Betsy), Mary (Polly), Ann (Nancy), and Lucy. Her father educated her and her sisters at home. Carrington believed in the importance of education for women and she read books on a wide-range of subjects.

Two of her sisters married John Marshall and Daniel Call, both of whom were prominent attorneys in Richmond.

Marriage

Betsey Ambler first married William Brent of Stafford County, Virginia, on March 31, 1785. However, Brent died suddenly about three months later on June 15, 1785.

The young widow next married a good friend of her and her first husband,

American Revolutionary War In a letter to her sister Nancy in 1807, she shared her recollections of the time of "great confusion" of the American Revolutionary War when almost all of the men were away at war and churches were boarded up. The town had become a garrison and their father was away most of the time in Williamsburg. Her sense of security came from living next door to Colonel Marshall, the commanding officer, and father of John Marshall, who was a captain during the war.

During the war, women had to step outside of their traditional roles of homemakers and care-givers to assume male roles.

Female Humane Association About 1805, she co-founded the Female Humane Association of Richmond to aid female orphans. That year, Jean Moncure Wood, wife of former governor James Wood, and Mary Spear Nicholas, wife of the state's attorney general, Philip Norbone Nicholas, and Carrington drew up a constitution and bylaws for the organization.

Death Carrington died on February 15, 1842, in Richmond. She was likely buried in the Saint John's Episcopal Church of Richmond, next to her second husband. An obituary in the Richmond Enquirer stated that "Her intelligent and cultivated mind; her generous heart; her active and diffusive charity, of which the Female Humane Association of Richmond furnishes one enduring memorial"; and her "practical piety" made her one of Virginia's most "distinguished women."

Her papers are held among several collections: Negative photocopies of her papers—including correspondence with John Marshall, George Washington, and her husbands—are held at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Her correspondence with John Marshall is held in the Albert Jeremiah Beveridge collection of John Marshall papers at the Library of Congress. Additional correspondence is held at the Mount Vernon estate library. It includes letters written by Carrington from 1780, when she was unmarried and signed her letters Betsy Ambler, until 1823. It includes letters to her sister Nancy and her friend Mildred Smith. One of the letters is written from Mount Vernon in November 1799, a month before the death of George Washington. Another set of correspondence is held by the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia. They are Carrington's personal copies of letters that she sent to others. It includes letters to her sister Ann Amber Fisher and her friends Francis Caines of Bristol, England and Mildred Smith Dudley of Yorktown, Virginia. The letters describe the difficulties during the American Revolutionary War during the flight from the British and the post-war effects. There are also letters about the unfortunate life of a friend and the death of her first husband. There are also letters about John A.B. Fisher, as he considers entering the ministry, and brother-in-law Chief Justice John Marshall. Letters of Betsy Ambler Carrington are held at the Alderman Library of the University of Virginia.