Mary Gould Almy

Mary Gould Almy (1735–1808) was a diarist during the American Revolution. She lived in Newport, Rhode Island, where she ran a boarding house. She kept a journal in 1778 documenting the events leading up to the Battle of Rhode Island. Though she had Loyalist views, her husband fought for the Continental Army.

The original copy of her journal is held by Newport's Redwood Library and Athenaeum. It was first published 100 years after she wrote it. Naval historian John B. Hattendorf published an annotated version of the journal in 2018.

Early life and family Mary Gould was born on December 16, 1735, in Newport, Rhode Island, the fourth of eight children of Mary (née Rathbone) and schoolteacher James Gould (d. 1768). Their family were Quakers and her father had inherited considerable wealth. His spending habits were said to be lavish, and upon his death debts attached to his estate left little for his children. and held disdain for the French for supposing they could "reign lords of the sea".

Around 1775, the Jahleel Brenton Townhouse, a mansion on Thames Street owned by Jahleel Brenton, was confiscated by American patriots.

In July 1778, Almy's husband joined the Continental Army. While women elsewhere in the colonies suffered indignities and were otherwise punished for siding with the Tories, Almy's position as the wife of a Continental soldier and her legal dependency on her husband under property laws of the era may have shielded her from harassment or punishment.

Almy's 1778 journal Almy started keeping a journal of the events in Newport on July 29, 1778, coinciding with the arrival of the French fleet of Charles Henri Hector d'Estaing. Entries in her journal are addressed to her husband and document her Loyalist sympathies, the hardships her family experienced during the siege on Newport, as well as her hopes for the health and success of her husband.

Later life Almy continued to run her boarding house out of the Jahleel Brenton Townhouse following the Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson was a guest at Almy's in June 1784. Her most famous guest was George Washington, who stayed a night there on August 17, 1790, during his trip to Rhode Island. Almy saved the silk bed covering from the bed where Washington slept.

Almy died on March 25, 1808, in Newport. She was buried in Newport's Common Burying Ground.

Publishing of her journal As a historical document, Almy's journal is important in providing the perspective of a Loyalist woman and context for Newport's involvement in the American Revolution.

The original manuscript is held by Newport's Redwood Library and Athenaeum.