The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Cardinal News has embarked on a to tell the little-known stories of Virginia’s role in the march to independence. This project is supported, in part, by a grant from the Virginia American Revolution 250 Commission. Find all our stories from this project on the Cardinal 250 page. You can sign up for our monthly newsletter:
Customers entered the Carlyle & Ramsay store on the bank of the Potomac River prepared to spend their coin on spices and dry goods from the Far East, imported silk shoes and whalebone petticoats or tools and other hardware to build the developing port town of Alexandria.
Yet the merchandise lining the shelves wasn’t all that was being sold. As they checked out their purchases, the woman behind the counter made her pitch, entreating customers to donate a little extra to support her cousin’s cause.
Her cousin being George Washington. And his cause was independence.
Her name was Ann McCarty Ramsay, wife of William Ramsay, a Scotsman who found fortune as a trade merchant in northern Virginia, which positioned him to become one of the founders — and first honorary mayor — of the city of Alexandria.
It may be her husband whose name appears on schools and recreation centers in the modern-day city, but Ann Ramsay etched her own place in early American history as well.
By the final year of the Revolutionary War, Ann Ramsay managed to raise more than $75,000 for the Continental Army. Using her husband’s extensive business and political network as well as her own social connections and cunning, her efforts came out to a sum worth over $1.8 million in today’s currency.
This feat cemented Ann Ramsay as an important fundraiser and supporter for the American Revolution. Yet, by some reports, the mother of eight singlehandedly raised more money than any other individual female fundraiser in the Colonies.
“Ann McCarty Ramsay was one of those women of the day who by the laws of the land lost their property and identity with marriage. Yet, when this retiring, gentle person was called upon to raise funds in Alexandria and Fairfax County, no modern matron working for bond drive or Red Cross ever did a more successful work,” wrote 20th-century historic preservationist Gay Montague Moore in her 1949 book “Seaport in Virginia: George Washington’s Alexandria.”
In a letter to General Edward Stevens in August 1780, then-Governor of Virginia Thomas Jefferson attached a list of the “female contributions, in aid of the war.” Accordingly, “Mrs. Anne Ramsay (for Fairfax)” contributed: “one half joe, three guineas, three pistareens, one bit. Do. for do. paper money, bundle No. I, twenty thousand dollars, No. a, twenty-seven thousand dollars, No. 3, fifteen thousand dollars, No. 4, thirteen-thousand five hundred and eighteen dollars and one-third.”
Ann Ramsay’s contributions far outnumbered those of her fellow benefactors on the list. Mrs. Sarah Cary of Scotchtown gave a watch-chain worth seven sterling, Mrs. Rebecca Ambler donated three gold rings and ten half-joes — worth $80 at the time — came from Mrs. Griffin of Dover. Mrs. Blackburn of Prince William was the second highest donor on the Founding Father’s list with a gift of “seven thousand five hundred and six dollars, paper money.”
Purportedly, Jefferson also specifically praised Ann Ramsay’s fundraising endeavor, writing “the amount collected was large and greatly to her credit, and let us give her all due honor for that work.”
These donations were essential for Washington’s destitute troops. During the eight years of fighting against the British Empire, the Continental Congress and state governments struggled to secure adequate funds, food, adequate uniforms and other supplies for the troops. It’s unclear how exactly the $75,000 Ann Ramsay collected was spent, but other reports indicate Washington directed donations to clothe those under his command.
Another unconfirmed, yet widely cited, claim about Ann Ramsay was that she was appointed treasurer of Fairfax County and the city of Alexandria by local officials as an endorsement of her efforts.
Confirmation of this appointment would have been documented in the Fairfax County court minute books. However, any information from the span of the Revolutionary War is missing from this collection, according to Sammi Brice, archives technician at the county’s circuit court historic records center.
The prevailing theory is that the documents were either taken or destroyed when Confederate troops occupied the historic Fairfax courthouse during the Civil War.
“We suspect the Revolutionary period records specifically are missing because they are the ones with the most frequent references to George Washington. He was a Justice in our court along with being a citizen of Fairfax County,” said Brice in an email. “Beyond this reasoning, though, most counties in Virginia are missing their pre-Civil War records just due to the widespread destruction of the war. In general, we still have most of our records, but that missing chunk of Minute Books is noticeable because the information in them would be really valuable for historic research.”
Additionally, it’s also difficult to discern Ann Ramsay’s exact motivations for fundraising on behalf of the ragtag rebels. No letters or personal diaries upon which she may have penned her interests and incentives have survived, leaving historians and journalists to come to their own conclusions.
One possible reason could be her familial ties to the revolution. Ann Ramsay’s mother, Sarah Ball, was a cousin of Mary Ball, who wed Augustine Washington in 1731 and bore him five children, the oldest of whom was named George.
The two distant cousins remained in touch throughout their lives. William Ramsay frequently corresponded with Washington as well, though their letters primarily consisted of business negotiations and the goings-on in Alexandria.
Washington himself attended both Ann and William Ramsay’s funerals, which occurred within three months of each other. The soon-to-be president noted in a diary entry on April 4, 1785: “Went to Alexandria to attend the Funeral of Mrs. Ramsay who died (after a lingering illness) on Friday last.” Ramsay’s son, Colonel Dennis Ramsay, returned the favor when he served as a pallbearer at Washington’s own funeral in December 1799.
Women in the 1700s had very little personal or political autonomy, even white, wealthy women, as Gay Montague Moore noted in her writings.
Nevertheless, Ann Ramsay’s financial activity and involvement in her husband’s business was not unheard of for women of the time. In fact, it was fairly commonplace for wives to assist or stand in for their husbands in conducting affairs, according to Cynthia Kierner, a history professor at George Mason University.
“Even though the common law doctrine of coverture prevents wives from controlling property or conducting business, wives are doing that stuff anyway,” said Kierner. “They’re not doing it out of rebellion, they’re doing it because they envision their marriage or farm or business as a family enterprise.”
Women articulated that view themselves at the time. Esther de Berdt Reed — wife of Joseph Reed, one of Washington’s aide-de-camps and governor of Pennsylvania — was a central figure in the Ladies Association of Philadelphia, which was the “first collective documented organizational effort of women in American history,” according to Kierner.
Reed wrote and published “The Sentiments of an American Woman” in 1780, detailing American women’s patriotic duty to support the war for independence.
“Our ambition is kindled by the same of those heroines of antiquity, who have rendered their sex illustrious, and have proved to the universe, that, if the weakness of our Constitution, if opinion and manners did not forbid us to march to glory by the same paths as the Men, we should at least equal, and sometimes surpass them in our love for the public good,” Reed wrote.
Under her leadership, the Ladies Association went door-to-door across the city, soliciting donations on behalf of the Continental Army. In less than a month, the women raised more than $300,000 in 18th-century dollars from roughly 1,500 city residents. The money was used to make over 2,000 shirts for soldiers in Washington’s army. Members of the association embroidered their names into the clothing to remind the wearers of the “offering of the Ladies,” as Reed put it.
There’s no evidence that Ann Ramsay was in contact with her fellow female Patriots in Philadelphia. However, it’s possible she exchanged correspondence with the wife of Thomas Jefferson, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, who began her own fundraising letter campaign inspired by Reed’s own words, as well as Martha Washington, who often wrote to Ann Ramsay’s daughter, Elizabeth.
Sadly, Ann Ramsay did not get to enjoy the hard-won independence for long. After an extended bout of illness, she died on April 2, 1785, just a few years after the Battle of Yorktown, at the age of 55.
A local newspaper ran her obituary a couple days before her funeral service:
“The amiable character of this lady, exemplified in her conduct as a wife, a mother, and a neighbour, as it procured her through life the general esteem and affection of all who knew her, will render her loss long regretted not only by her nearer relations, but by the inhabitants of this town, and neighbourhood of every rank and description, to whom her benevolence and humanity displayed in numberless good offices, and her agreeable deportment have heretofore been a social blessing and comfort.”
