Women and the Catholic Church in Maryland, 1689-1776

Abstract

This article looks at the experiences of Catholic women in Maryland, 1689-1776, by focusing on two very different women: Jane Mathews Doyne, a gentlewoman in St. Mary's County who died in 1738, and Jenny, an enslaved woman on the Eastern Shore who died in the late 1700s. Both took their faith seriously and passed it on to their offspring, but race and class deeply affected their experience of religion.