The History of the Lady Betty Stair

Molly Elliot Seawell

Molly Elliot Seawell, an early American historian and writer, was a descendant of the Seawells of Virginia and a grand niece of President John Tyler. Raised on a large plantation, her education included being "turned loose in a library of good books", her father's home containing the best literature of the 18th century. She read English classics, and was especially fond of poetry. She did not read a novel until after she was 17, and the first was Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. Her three amusements were reading, riding and piano-playing. Her father, a prominent lawyer, died just as Seawell reached adulthood.