Letters of Loss and Love: Judith Sargent Murray Papers, Letter Book 3
The second volume of Bonnie Hurd Smith's multi-year project to publish Judith Sargent Murray's letter books contains letters written during the years 1785 to 1789, transcribed in their entirety, indexed, and introduced by Smith. The letters in this volume document the end of Judith Sargent's marriage to the ship captain John Stevens Jr., his escape from Gloucester for the West Indies, and death. The letters also chronicle her brief poverty and widowhood, and her happy marriage to the Universalist preacher John Murray who was facing threats to his ministry, and their honeymoon visit with John and Abigail Adams. During these years, Judith also traveled to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, York, Maine, and parts of Rhode Island and Connecticut, all of which she described in her letters.

Mingling Souls Upon Paper: An Eighteenth-Century Love Story
The love story of the eighteenth-century essayist Judith Sargent and the Universalist preacher John Murray.
Gloucester, Massachusetts native Judith Sargent Stevens was a twenty-three-year-old married woman when she first met John Murray, who was ten years her senior. They enjoyed a fourteen-year friendship together, including as pastor and congregant, before Judith's first husband, John Stevens Jr., died. Judith and John Murray's happy marriage lasted for twenty-seven years and produced a son, who died in childbirth, and a daughter, Julia Maria, who survived. Judith's letters chronicle her poignant, sometimes dramatic love story with John Murray. His letters do not survive.

The Letters I Left Behind: Judith Sargent Murray Papers, Letter Book 10
The first volume of Bonnie Hurd Smith's multi-year Letter Books Project contains letters written by Judith Sargent Murray from 1796 to 1799, while Judith was living in Boston, married to the Universalist preacher John Murray (who was serving Boston's Universalist congregation), and raising her daughter, Julia Maria. At the time, Judith was enjoying notoriety as a leading female essayist in America, particularly on the subjects of women's rights and female education. These letters document the process of publishing her landmark book, The Gleaner, including soliciting support from George Washington and John Adams, attracting subscribers from among the country's leading citizens, working with her publisher, and distributing the finished product.

From Gloucester to Philadephia in 1790:
Observations, thoughts, and anecdotes from the letters of Judith Sargent Murray
On May 7, 1790, Judith Sargent Murray and her husband, the Universalist preacher John Murray, boarded a horse-drawn carriage for the beginning of a six-month journey from their home in Gloucester, Massachusetts to Philadelphia for the first national Universalist convention. Along the way, Judith met President George Washington and Martha Washington, visited with her friends John and Abigail Adams, sat through a session of Congress to observe the signing of the first treaty with the Creek Nation, and celebrated Independence Day on July 4 in Philadelphia. Throughout her journey, she wrote lengthy, descriptive letters home to family and friends. Excerpts from these letters have been used by Cokie Roberts, Susan Branson, and other historians.

Forming a New Era in Female History: Three Essays by Judith Sargent Murray
These essays launched Judith Sargent Murray's literary and political career, and secured her place in the continuum of the struggle for women's rights. "Desultory Thoughts upon the Utility of Encouraging a Degree of Self-Complacency, especially in Female Bosoms" appeared in 1784 in the Gentleman and Lady's Town and Country Magazine. "On the Equality of the Sexes" and "On the Domestic Education of Children" appeared in 1790 in the Massachusetts Magazine.

The Repository
Judith Sargent Murray published this series in the Massachusetts Magazine between 1792 and 1794 using the pen name "Constantia." The series contains some of her very best writing. The essays are philosophical, theological, and lyrical. They remind us that she was, in the beginning of her literary career — and in her heart — a poet. Of particular interest is "The Repository, No. XVII," an essay that defended Loyalists and decried mob rule. Judith wrote the essay in 1775, when her loyalist Uncle Epes Sargent and Aunt Catherine Osborne Sargent were forced to leave Gloucester for their safety.


 

The Reaper
In 1794, shortly after her arrival in Boston, Thomas (Robert Treat) Paine, the editor of the Federal Orrery, one of Boston's newspapers, asked Judith to create a column series for his publication. Already an established essayist through her work for the Massachusetts Magazine, Judith obliged. Unfortunately, "Mr. Paine" edited her work far too extensively and Judith refused to submit more work after her fifth column.



 

Judith Sargent Murray's Universalist Catechism
Written when Judith was married to her first husband, John Stevens Jr., and deeply involved in the religious education of the two girls they had adopted and with the children of the Gloucester Universalist congregation, Judith's catechism is considered the earliest published work by an American Universalist woman and one of the earliest religious texts by a woman in America.