Mary Macon Pendleton Gatewood Boulware Returns to King and Queen County (November 2003)

Mary Macon Pendleton Gatewood Boulware, who lived in King and Queen County from 1788 to 1852, has returned, in portrait form at least, to King and Queen County after a long absence. Her portrait, painted before 1829, has been donated to the King and Queen County Historical Society and has been hung in the parlor of its Courthouse Tavern Museum at King and Queen Courthouse. The donor is Arnold Ricks of Bennington, Vermont. The gift is “On behalf of the Ricks family in memory of their Mother and Grandmother, Anne Elizabeth Ryland (Mrs. James Hoge) Ricks (1887–1953), daughter of Alice Marion Garnett and Charles Hill Ryland.”

Mary Macon Pendleton Gatewood Boulware (pronounced “Bowler”) was born October 13, 1788, at Spring Farm near Newtown in upper King and Queen County. In 1804, when she was 16, she married Philip Gatewood, who at thirty was almost twice her age. He was “a member of a prominent family, a gentleman justice of the county, and the first postmaster of Newtown.” The year they were married they bought Traveller’s Rest, an historic farm of 710 acres, located near Newtown. Philip Gatewood died in 1829; they had no children. It is believed that the portrait was painted before Mr. Gatewood’s death in 1829.

In 1832 Mrs. Gatewood, then 44, married William Boulware, when he was only 22. He was the son of Lee Boulware of Newtown and a professor at Columbian College in Washington, D.C.. Later he was member of the Board of Visitors of the College of William and Mary and a Minister of the United States to King Ferdinand II at Naples before the formation of the Republic of Italy. It is believed he built the present house at Traveller’s Rest.

The painter of the portrait, Andrew Broaddus I, described as a “scholar, writer, poet, painter, preacher” is principally known as a minister who was prominent in Virginia Baptist activities. In Broaddus’ time ministers were not paid to preach; therefore, he earned extra money teaching, publishing and painting. He designed the seal of the Virginia Baptist Seminary, which later became the University of Richmond and still retains the same seal. He published Virginia Selection of Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs from the Most Approved Authors, and his sermons were published in The Sermons and Writings of Rev. Andrew Broaddus (1852). Andrew Broaddus I, his son, and his grandson successively served as pastors of Salem Baptist Church in Caroline County for more than a century (1820–1926).

The portrait is oil on board and, minus the frame, measures 20 inches wide by 26 inches high.

The public is invited to visit Mrs. Boulware in her new home in the parlor at the Courthouse Tavern Museum at King and Queen Courthouse.