Martha Devotion Huntington
Wife of Samuel Huntington, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
1739 – 1794 A.D.

Martha Devotion, eldest daughter of Rev. Ebenezer Devotion and Martha Lathrop, was married, in 1761, to Samuel Huntington of Connecticut, who became signer of the Declaration of Independence, Governor of Connecticut, and in 1779, President of the Continental Congress. She was twenty-two years old at the time of her marriage, and her husband thirty, and but recently established int he practice of law. They lived in Norwich where Mr. Huntington built up an extended practice and began at an early day to take an active part in political affairs of the Province. Politics was no novelty to his wife, for the Rev. Ebenezer Devotion, her father, was ardently interested in the politics of Connecticut and represented Windham in the General Assembly, from 1760 until 1771, the year of his death.

No children were born to Martha Huntington and her husband but they adopted two children of his brother, Rev. Joseph Huntington, who were carefully reared and educated. One of those children, Samuel Huntington, became Governor of Ohio, in 1810 and 1811. The other child, Frances, became the wife of Rev. Edward Door Griffin, at one time President of Williams College.

Martha Huntington died in 1794, in her fifty-sixth year and her distinguished husband, two years later, aged sixty-five. Their remains rest side by side in the old burying ground at Norwich.

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Reference: The Pioneer Mothers of America: A Record of the More Notable Women of the Early Days of the Country, and Particularly of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods by Harry Clinton Green and Mary Wolcott Green, A.B. Third Volume, Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons.