Royall, Anne Newport

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ROYALL, Anne Newport

Born 11 June 1769, near Baltimore, Maryland; died 1 October 1854, Washington, D.C.

Daughter of William and Mary Newport; married William Royall, 1797 (died 1812)

Anne Newport Royall began her long and colorful life in Maryland, but moved with her family to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, when she was three. The family lived in a rude cabin where William Newport taught his daughter to read and write. Newport, a Tory in those prerevolutionary days, died a few years later, and his wife Mary remarried. After the death of her second husband, Mary and Anne moved to Sweet Springs, now in West Virginia. A planter, Major William Royall, took them in and gave her mother domestic work. Anne, then eighteen years old, had access to the gentleman's ample library and to his tutelage. Ten years later, Anne married her benefactor and mentor, who was then in his mid-fifties. When he died in 1812, he left Anne wealthy, and she began to travel.

If a nephew had not broken Major Royall's will, charging Anne with forgery and "barbarous treatment" of her husband, the world probably would not have heard of this strong-minded woman. Because she was without income, Royall turned to writing as a livelihood. Sketches of History: Life and Manners in the United States by a Traveller (1826) is the product of Royall's trip from Alabama to New England in 1823, containing sketches of well-known and unknown people, descriptions of landscape and cities, and personal reflections. Royall's blend of documentary material with gossipy tidbits fulfills the promise of the book's subtitle. Although Royall's books have limited literary value, they contribute to our knowledge of the social history of America.

In spring 1824, Royall arrived in the District of Columbia, a sprawling community that would eventually become her home. Her first activity there was to lobby Congress for a commutation-of-pay resolution giving her an income from her husband's military service in the Revolutionary War. Royall, in near-rags, solicited political, literary, and financial support from whomever she could interview, including Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. During the next seven years, Royall continued to crusade, travel, write, and interview influential people.

When age forced Royall to stop traveling in 1831, she settled in Washington, where she founded and printed, in her kitchen, a weekly newspaper, Paul Pry. Royall served not only as editor and printer but also as reporter, writer, and solicitor of subscriptions. For years she had been attacking anti-Masons and fundamentalists, and she continued her propaganda against them in Paul Pry. One of her best-known conflicts with the "Holy Willies," as she called evangelicals, resulted in her conviction as a "common scold." Royall was fined $10.

Deciding that Paul Pry sounded too much like a gossip sheet, Royall changed the name to the Huntress in 1836. In the prospectus for the new paper, she vowed to "expose corruption, hypocrisy and usurpation, without favor or affection." Among the causes Royall championed were states' rights on the issue of slavery, justice for the Native Americans, separation of church and state, tolerance for foreigners and Roman Catholics, and abolition of the U.S. bank monopoly. She interspersed editorials and diatribes against Congress with gossip and with stories and poems written by others. Royall's crusading journalism continued in the Huntress for 18 years.

Other Works:

The Tennessean: A Novel Founded on Facts (1827). The Black Book: A Continuation of Travels in the United States (3 vols., 1828-1829). Mrs. Royall's Pennsylvania (2 vols., 1829). Mrs. Royall's Southern Tour (3 vols., 1830-1831). Letters from Alabama (1830).

Bibliography:

Griffith, L., Introduction to Letters from Alabama, 1817-22 (1969). Jackson, G. S., Uncommon Scold: The Story of Anne Royall (1937). James, B. R., Anne Royall's U.S.A. (1972). Porter, S. H., The Life and Times of Anne Royall (1909).