welcomed to its solitude a child destined to be one of
America's most famous women. This was a fitting birthplace for
Lucretia Mott; as the religion and commerce of the island (named for a
woman) had been guided by a woman's brain. In 1708 Mary Starbuck,
known as "The Great Merchant," a woman of remarkable breadth of
intellect, as well as great executive ability, converted the colony to
Quakerism, and vindicated woman's right to interest herself in the
commerce of the world. Perhaps she, like the good genii of old,
brought her gifts to that cradle and breathed into the new life the
lofty inspiration that made this woman the prophet and seer she was.
Here were the descendants of John Wolman, William Rotch, George Fox,
the Macys, the Franklins, the Folgers; and in this pure atmosphere,
and from these distinguished ancestors, Lucretia Mott received her
inheritance. Her father was an honest, sea-faring Quaker. Her mother
belonged to the Folger family, whose culture, genius, common-sense,
and thrift culminated in Benjamin Franklin, and later, in Lucretia
Mott. The resemblance between her head and that of the philosopher and
statesman, was apparent to the most casual observer.

Mrs. Mott says in her diary: "I always loved the good in childhood,
and desired to do the right. In those early years I was actively
useful to my mother, who, in the absence of my father on his long
voyages, was engaged in mercantile business, often going to Boston to
purchase goods in exchange for oil and candles, the staple of the
island. The exercise of women's talents in this line, as well as the
general care which devolved upon them, in the absence of their
husbands, tended to develop and strengthen them mentally and
physically.

"In 1804 my father's family removed to Boston, and in the public and
private schools of that city I mingled with all classes without
distinction. It was the custom then to send the children of such
families to select schools; but my parents feared that would minister
to a feeling of class pride, which they felt was sinful to cultivate
in their children. And this I am glad to remember, because it gave me
a feeling of sympathy for the patient and struggling poor, which but
for this experience I might never have known." Under such humane
influences, with such ancestors and associations, in the public
schools, in the Friends' meeting, on the adventurous island, and in
the suburbs of Boston, the child passed into girlhood,