A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Motte, Rebecca
MOTTE, REBECCA,
Daughter of Robert Brewton, an English gentleman, who had emigrated to South Carolina, was born in 1738, in Charleston. When about twenty, she married Mr. Jacob Motte, who died soon after the commencement of the revolutionary war. Captain McPherson, of the British army, who was in command of the garrison at Fort Motte, had taken possession of the large new house of Mrs. Motte, and fortified it, so that it was almost impregnable. Mrs. Motte herself had been obliged to remove to an old farm-house In the vicinity. In order to dislodge the garrison before succours should arrive, Generals Marion and Lee, who were commanding the American forces there, could devise no means but burning the mansion. This they were very reluctant to do, but Mrs. Motte willingly assented to the proposal, and presented, herself, a bow and its apparatus, which had been imported from India, and was prepared to carry combustible matter.
Mrs. Ellet, in her "Women of the American Revolution," gives a good account of this heroine; the following extract refers to another portion of her history, and is important, as illustrating her high sense of honour, her energy, and patient, self-denying perseverance. Her husband, in consequence of the difficulties and distresses growing out of the American war for independence, became embarrassed in his business; and after his death, and termination of the war, it was found impossible to satisfy these claims:—
"The widow, however, considered the honour of her deceased husband involved in the responsibilities he had assumed. She determined to devote the remainder of her life to the honourable task of paying the debts. Her friends and connexions, whose acquaintance with her affairs gave weight to their judgment, warned her of the apparent hopelessness of such an effort. But, steadfast in the principles that governed all her conduct, she persevered. Living in an humble dwelling, and relinquishing many of her habitual comforts, she devoted herself with such zeal, untiring industry, and indomitable resolution, to the attainment of her object, that her success triumphed over every difficulty, and exceeded the expectations of all who had discouraged her. She not only paid her husband's debts to the full, but secured for her children and descendants a handsome and unencumbered estate. Such an example of perseverance under adverse circumstances, for the accomplishment of a high and noble purpose, exhibits in yet brighter colours the heroism that shone in her country's days of peril!"
Mrs. Motte died in 1815, at her plantation on the Santee.