Deborah Norris Logan

Deborah Norris Logan (October 19, 1761 — February 2, 1839) was an American Quaker historian and memoirist, and wife of politician George Logan. Early life and education Deborah (Debby) Norris was born on October 19, 1761, to Charles Norris, a Quaker merchant of Philadelphia, and Mary (Parker) Norris. She was their second child and the oldest daughter in the family. As a granddaughter of Isaac Norris, she was a member of one of Philadelphia's most prominent and influential families. Her father died when she was only five years old. Although she attended Philadelphia's Friends Girls School—the first public girls' school on the American continent, founded by the philanthropist and educator Anthony Benezet—she was largely self-educated, devising for herself an intensive course of reading after she left the school. At the Friends Girls School, she met and became friends with the future diarist Sally Wister. When they were separated by families dispersing as a result of the British occupation of Philadelphia of 1777–78, Wister began keeping a diary in the form of unsent letters to "Debby" Norris. Wister died in 1804, and sometime around 1830 her brother loaned the letters to Norris. Wister's epistolary diary was later published as Sally Wister's Journal. The Norris family lived near Independence Hall (home of the colonial legislature), and in later life Deborah recalled standing in her yard behind a fence and listening to the first-ever reading of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. Just 14 at the time, she took note of the fact that the crowd was a small one and that (in the sardonic phrasing of her mature self): "those among them who joined in the acclamation were not the most sober or reflecting." On September 6, 1781, she married the physician George Logan (1753–1821), grandson of William Penn's secretary James Logan. Two years later they moved into Stenton, a mansion built in the Germantown area of Philadelphia by James Logan that is now open to the public. They had three sons, Albanus (1783-1854), Gustavus George (1786-1800), and Algernon Sydney (1791-1835). George gave up medicine and became a gentleman farmer and politician. At Stenton, the couple entertained a wide circle of politicians, artists, writers, and businesspeople. Deborah served as hostess for these gatherings but also developed a separate career as a writer and historian.