Page:Women Artists in All Ages and Countries original scans.djvu/311

 MARY SWINTON LEGARE. 803

married to a descendant of that John Hayne who fled from the persecution of the Puritans by Charles IT. and his bishops, and fixed his home in Carolina. Thus, on both sides, a heritage of honor and religious faith is derived from her ancestors by the lady who fills a place in our humble annals.

The name of Hugh Swinton Legaré is endeared to all South Carolinians, the more so as his genius and literary attainments commanded celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic. His sister’s talents are not infe- rior to his, though she has filled no place in the na- tional councils nor at foreign courts, but in a quiet and uneventful life has made her impression on the social and intellectual advancement of the day. The youngest of three children who survived the father, she was born in Charleston, South Carolina, where her childhood and youth were spent. Mrs. Legaré, left a widow before she had completed her twenty-eighth year, devoted her time and means entirely to the edu- cation of her little ones. She was a woman of extra- ordinary mental powers, and her mind had been sed- ulously cultivated. Her ideas of education were broad and comprehensive, and her efforts were directed to the training of her children in such a manner as to make their lives exemplary, useful, and happy, as well as to develop their intellects. How well she succeed- ed the honorable career of all her children testifies. The noble character and life of her eldest daughter, Mrs. Bryan, and the brilliant fame achieved by the son, add evidence to the fact that she was one of those mothers whose offspring rise up to call her blessed. Mrs. Legaré died on the 1st of January, 1843, in the seventy-second year of her age.

It was not strange that the children should grow