Martha Hubbard

Born in 1706, the daughter of ship-builder John Coit of New London CT and his wife Mehetabel Chandler. Raised in a Puritan/Congregationalist family, Martha converted to the Anglican Church after her marriage to Thomas Greene.

Born in New London, Martha was sent to Boston to polish her education. She married first Daniel Hubbard of New London CT, with whom she had 3 sons and two daughters. After his death, she married the widower of her cousin Elizabeth Gardiner, Thomas Greene of Boston. They had three sons and a daughter, two of whom died young.

Martha's life can be known from her letters, full of wit and charm. Some have been printed along with the diary of her mother. And more have been included in the book on her mother's diaries "One Colonial Woman's World" (see sources).

Thomas Greene engaged John Singleton Copley to paint portraits of himself, wife Martha Coit Hubbard Greene and several other family members. Copley was known as the first great portrait artist in America. In Boston and New York, where Copley painted briefly, the possession of works of art–especially English-style pictures–by an artist as accomplished as Copley was of immeasurable social value. Typically displayed in the halls, parlors, and dining rooms of homes decorated with Chippendale-style furniture, Rococo tea sets, and other fine things, Copley's portraits became centerpieces in the stagecraft of elite, eighteenth-century life. As a result, Copley's work saturated the market to a degree perhaps unprecedented in the history of art and contributed vitally to the forging of social identity for the American merchant class.

Martha Coit Hubbard Green died a wealthy woman with a personal estate of 8000 pounds, left equally to her six living children. She was buried in the Greene Family vault in the Trinity Church crypt. After it was destroyed by fire, the graves were transferred to a single plot in Cambridge's Mt Auburn Cemetery with a simple memorial stone.

Sources: The Diaries of Mehetabel Chandler Coit "One Colonial Woman's World, the Diaries of Mehetabel Chandler Coit" by Michelle Marchetti Coughlin. OneColonialWomansWorld.com Connecticut Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) Genealogies of Connecticut Families (Genealogical Publishing Company, 1983) Page 216 Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College (Holt, 1885) Page 354 Chandler, George. The Chandler Family: The Descendants of William and Annis Chandler who Settled in Roxbury, Mass., 1637 (Press of Charles Hamilton, Worcester, Mass., 1883) Page 55 Wikitree/ Marc Cohen Added by Janet Milburn