A Possible Voter in Essex County, New Jersey Mrs. Annis Boudinot Stockton, widow of a New Jersey politician, frequently entertained members of the Continental Congress. General George Washington became a close friend and long-term correspondent starting in 1781. The politically connected Mrs. Stockton would have been eligible to vote in state elections under New Jersey’s unique enfranchisement of property-holding women. She died in 1801, before suffrage was redefined to be the exclusive right of males.

Princeton University Art Museum/Art Resource, NY.