15 Facts About Sally Wister

Sarah Wister was a girl living in Pennsylvania during the American Revolution.

Sally Wister is principally known as the author of Sally Wister's Journal, written when she was sixteen; it is a firsthand account of life in the nearby countryside during the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777 and 1778.

Sally Wister's grandfather was John Wister, son of Hans Caspar Wuster and younger brother of Caspar Wistar the elder, who had emigrated from Baden to join his brother in Philadelphia in 1727.

John Sally Wister adopted the Quaker faith and became a successful wine merchant and landowner; he built the house now known as Grumblethorpe in Germantown as a summer home in 1744.

Sally Wister attended a girls' school run by the Quaker philanthropist Anthony Benezet.

Sally Wister's writings show some knowledge of French and Latin, and she was clearly familiar with the literature of her time, particularly poetry, and especially Alexander Pope.

Sally Wister was friends with Polly Fishbourne, Sally Jones, Anna Rawle, Peggy Rawle, and Sally Burge.

Sally Wister kept up correspondence with at least Debby Norris and a few others.

Sally Wister sometimes wears womanly clothes, awkwardly preferring "the girlish dress"; other times, she revels in her budding womanhood.

Sally Wister appears to be falling in love with Major William Truman Stoddert, "about nineteen" and a nephew of Gen.

However, he does not stay long, and when he leaves, Sally Wister observes "we shall not, I fancy, see him again for months, perhaps years".

Sally Wister returned to Maryland, married a woman named Sally, and died "from the lingering effects of the hardships of camp life" in 1793.

At that time, her brother Charles Sally Wister loaned them to Debby Norris, who was by then Mrs George Logan of Stenton.

Sally Wister died in Germantown, Pennsylvania on April 21,1804.

Sally Wister was more withdrawn in later life and "much occupied with religious matters".