Lydia Taft

Lydia Taft (née Chapin; February 2, 1712 – November 9, 1778) was the first woman known to legally vote in colonial America. This occurred at a town meeting in the New England town of Uxbridge in Massachusetts Colony, on October 30, 1756.

Early life Lydia Chapin was born in Mendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on February 2, 1712. She was the daughter of Bethia (née Thurston) and Seth Chapin, who was a respected member of the community and a captain in the militia. Her mother gave birth to 14 children. Lydia grew up with nine siblings on near the Post's Lane bridge and Mill River in Mendon. Her father owned property in what is today Milford, South Hopedale, and Mendon.

In 1727, the western part of Mendon became the newly incorporated town of Uxbridge. at the Congregational Church.

The Tafts settled in Uxbridge Josiah became the largest taxpayer in the town of Uxbridge in 1756.

In the fall of 1756, Taft's and Josiah's 18-year-old son, Caleb, became ill while studying at Harvard and died on September 19. After traveling to Cambridge to bury Caleb, Josiah himself became ill and died on September 30, at age 47—leaving behind a significant estate. (The event was recorded by a book written by Henry Chapin and edited by Rushton Dashwood Burr, but it is not recorded in the town's records.) She was recognized as America's first woman vote when Route 146A was designated the Lydia Taft Highway by the Massachusetts legislature in 2004. Taft appeared at and may have voted at two other official Uxbridge Town meetings, in 1758 and 1765. Taft's historic vote preceded the constitutional amendment for women's suffrage by 164 years.

Death and legacy

Taft died at Uxbridge on November 9, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783).

Judge Henry Chapin proclaimed in an 1864 address to the Unitarian church, that, "Uxbridge may yet become famous as the pioneer in the cause of women's suffrage". Chapin's claim for Taft as the first woman voter has been disputed by recent historians. Taft's role in the history of women's suffrage has been recognized by the Massachusetts legislature since 2004, when it named Massachusetts Route 146A, from Uxbridge to the Rhode Island border, in her honor.