The Lincoln Historical Society “Did You Know … ?” That in 18th century Lincoln, only men with property could vote in town meeting — with one exception?
On December 27, 1773, eleven days after the dumping of the tea in Boston harbor, Lincoln’s town meeting voted “not to purchase nor use any tea nor suffer it to be purchased or used in our families.” Following the vote, fifty-two residents at the meeting signed a document, pledging their support. Among the fifty-two signers was one woman—Ruth Underwood Gage. How is it that a woman was allowed to vote in Lincoln’s town meeting? The qualifications for voting in town meeting were set under Massachusetts colonial law in 1692. All inhabitants of a town over the age of sixteen who held taxable property valued at £20 or more were allowed to vote on all local issues. The property qualification for voting for colony-wide officers was higher, at £50. The law did not explicitly state that only men could vote. But it was implied. The law linked the property qualification to the poll tax, which at the time was levied on every male in a household over age sixteen—but not on women. It was also an era when all women were presumed to be in a “proper” household, that is, in a household headed by an adult male. A property qualification for voting was imposed on the belief that citizens would take civic affairs seriously only if they had property at risk. But this also implied that property was entitled to political representation. Well, if a man of property was entitled to a political voice, why not also a woman of property? Under the English law of coverture, a female had no legal identity and therefore had no legal property. Her possessions were controlled by the male head of her family when she was single, then by her husband after she married, and finally by her husband’s will and executors when he died. Logically, if women had no legal property, they could not meet the property qualification for voting. Ruth Underwood Gage occupied a gap in this logic. She had married Jonathan Gage in 1752, when both were in their twenties. Jonathan died in 1759, without having made a will to provide for Ruth and their four-year-old son. The Gage’s farm was on Tower Road, just south of today’s Route 117, and was valued at £29. So Jonathan had met the property qualification for voting. By law, the property was now under Ruth’s control until their son came of age, or until Ruth re-married. And she never did. Each year, Ruth Gage paid the poll tax and property tax. And on December 27, 1773, she attended town meeting and signed the pledge not to purchase or consume tea. Two other widows in Lincoln paid the poll tax and met the property qualification for voting in town meeting at the time. The tax records identify one as Rebeccah Brown and the other as Rebeccah Brown Junior. Neither signed the tea pledge, possibly because they opposed it, but more likely because they did not attend the town meeting. Women were stripped of the right to vote in 1780, under the new Massachusetts state constitution. Lincoln’s women would not regain full voting rights until ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Life did not go well for widow Gage after that. (That’s a story for another time.) But in December 1773, Ruth Underwood Gage was a patriot and Lincoln’s first suffragette. For more “Did You Know ...?” on Lincoln’s history, visit the new Lincoln Historical Society website at: www.lincolnhistoricalsociety.org Donald L. Hafner The Lincoln Historical Society January 2025 ---------------- Donald L. Hafner, Board Member The Lincoln Historical Society [email protected]
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