Mary Jemima Balfour

Mary Jemima Balfour of Little England plantation in Elizabeth City County poses for a portrait in an elegant silk dress, a book on her lap open to page ninety-two. Her husband, James Balfour, was a partner in the Norfolk merchant firm of Balfour & Barraud. A vocal critic of the Stamp Act, his 1775 obituary described him as a friend of American liberty. While Mary Balfour’s political views are not as well documented as her husband’s, it is notable that she chose to wear a blue silk breast-knot in her portrait. Blue and silver breast-knots were a symbol of female political support for the Sons of Liberty. Her open book is likely a reference to "the glorious 92," the ninety-two delegates of the Massachusetts House who voted in favor of an organized protest of the Stamp Act in 1768.