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 Esther De Bredt was born in the city of London, on the 22nd of October, 1746, and died on the 18th of September, 1780, in the city of Philadelphia. Her thirty-four years of life were adorned by no adventurous heroism, but her self-sacrifice, her brave endurance, and her practical aid during the short years she was permitted to dedicate to the young country in the throes of a great and devastating war, earned for her a place among the women who have helped to form the nation.

Her father, Dennis De Bredt, was a British merchant, and his house, owing to his large business relations with the Colonies, was the home of many young Americans who at that time were attracted by pleasure or business interests to the imperial metropolis. Among these visitors, in or about the year 1763, was Joseph Reed, of New Jersey, who had come to London to finish his professional studies among British barristers (such being the fashion of the times). There the young English girl met the American stranger, and the intimacy, thus accidentally begun, soon produced its natural fruits. The young couple came to America in November, 1770, and from the first, as in all the years of turmoil that came with the war, the English girl, who had been reared in luxury, threw her heart and her fortunes into the conflict in which her husband's country was involved. Under her urging, her husband joined Washington's army, and, inexperienced as he was, he earned military fame of no slight eminence. Washington peculiarly honored him, and the correspondence between Mrs. Reed and