Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Molly Brandt

No pen picture has been left of Molly Brandt, and yet her influence had much to do with the colonists' success in subduing the most savage of the Indian tribes.

She was the sister of Joseph Brandt, that mysterious character who was supposed to have been born an Indian chief among the Mohawk tribe, and who was the young Nation's intermediary with the Indians. It was through her shrewdness and the influential position which Molly Brandt came to occupy in the family of Sir William Johnson that her brother came to the attention of those in authority and received his education. She arranged to have him sent to the Moor Charity School at Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1761. Through this training of his mind, and the cultivation of sympathy with the colonists, he became as valuable an assistant as many trained diplomatists have been in later years.

We find, moreover, that in 1770, Sir William, after the decease of Lady Johnson, "took to his home as his wife, Mary Brandt, or Miss Molly." And this may be the first historic instance of an American girl marrying a title!

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.