Ann Thompson Gerry

Ann Thompson Gerry, the daughter of James Thompson, was born on August 12, 763. She was educated in Dublin, Ireland, while her two brothers were attending Edinburgh University in Scotland. Her brothers joined the British army but did not serve in America.

Ann was a young woman from a highly honored family in New York when she met Elbridge Gerry, the young delegate from Massachusetts at the Continental Congress. They married during the time he was a member in said Congress where he served almost continuously from 1776 until 1785. The couple was blessed with three sons and six daughters.

When Gerry returned to private life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and introduced his young wife, she became an instant social favorite. She did not have much time to enjoy the companionship of her husband because President John Adams sent Gerry to France to smooth relations between the two countries. Upon his return he was constantly in some office serving either his state or the nation. As he served in Congress, as governor of Massachusetts, or as Vice President of the United States, Mrs. Gerry gave cheerful and graceful support to him. A biographer for her husband wrote: “She possessed considerable force of character and a dignified and gentle manner and, although an invalid, she personally superintended the education and religious training of her children and inspired them with a strong affection and reverence for herself which was evidenced by their devotion to her in her later years in New Haven” (Wives of the Signers – The women behind the Declaration of Independence, p 84).

Elbridge Gerry died suddenly on November 23, 1814, while serving in the office of Vice President and was buried in the Congressional Cemetery. Elbridge had inherited a large fortune from his father but apparently sacrificed most of it in serving the cause of liberty. Ann disposed of the beautiful family home in Cambridge after the death of her husband. She settled in New Haven where she died on March 17, 1849 and was buried in the Old Cemetery. The inscription on her tombstone reads: “Born August 23, 1783; died March 17, 1849, Ann, the widow of Elbridge Gerry, Vice-President of the U.S. His name is immortalized on the Declaration of his country’s Independence, hers in the transcendent virtues of domestic life. Both are embalmed in the veneration of their children” (Wives, 86).

The Gerry’s youngest daughter, Emily Louise, died in New Haven on December 28, 1894, as the last surviving daughter of a signer of the Declaration of Independence.