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Early Life
We do not know when or where Sybilla Righton was born. We do not know
anything about her family. She is first mentioned in the records of the
New Jersey colony in 1692. Not too long after that date she married a
Quaker merchant named Thomas Masters. Thomas Masters was from
Philadelphia, and that is where he and Sybilla lived.
Thomas Masters was quite an important man. He became
a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on June 20, 1701. He also
served two terms as the Mayor of Philadelphia, in 1707 and 1708.
Sybilla, like most colonial women, had to work hard
to care for her family and prepare their food. One of the common foods of
the time was hominy. Hominy meal was made from ground-up Indian corn. We
sometimes call this meal Hominy Grits. The usual method for grinding up
corn was to use two large stones called millstones. The corn was ground
between the two stones. This was hard work.
The Inventions
Sybilla watched some of the Native American women. She saw that they used
large wooden posts to pound the corn. Sybilla thought that this was a good
idea. She invented a mill that used hammers to pound the corn into meal.
Sybilla called her ground-up corn “Tuscarora Rice.”
This was not the end of her inventive ideas. Sybilla
also worked with straw and palmetto leaves that came from the West Indies.
She created a way to weave these leaves into hats and bonnets.
A Trip to England
Sybilla wanted to patent her two inventions. At that time, having a patent
was a very new idea. Some colonies granted patents, but Pennsylvania did
not. Also, a colonial patent was not as good as a patent from England,
because England ruled the colonies. Sybilla decided to travel to England
to get her patents. She left Philadelphia in 1712. It was a long sea
journey. When she reached London she learned that there was no regular
procedure for obtaining a patent. She finally applied to King George I.
It took three years for the first patent to be
granted. While Sybilla waited, she opened a store in London that made and
sold the bonnets and hats that were the subject of her second patent. She
also made chair covers of straw and palmetto, using the same process.
In 1715 King George granted a patent for the process
of “Cleaning and Curing the Indian Corn Growing in the severall Colonies
in America.” Even though the invention was Sybilla’s, the application had
to be made in her husband’s name. Women at that time were not allowed to
hold a patent. King George granted Patent #401 to Thomas Masters for “a
new invention found out by Sybilla, his wife.”
Sybilla was away from her husband and children for a
very long time. William Penn’s wife, Hannah, was in England at this time.
She was concerned about how long Sybilla had been away from home. In a
letter to James Logan in Philadelphia dated April 2, 1716, Hannah wrote:
“I hope Sybilla Masters
will also return to hers, [her home] all her friends, I believe, in these
parts wish it and I hope she is prevailed on to attempt it for the good of
herself and family.”
In 1716 the second patent, #403, was granted to
Thomas Masters for the creation of a process for weaving straw into hats.
Sybilla had both patents. Now she could return home.
James Logan wrote to Hannah Penn on April 21, 1716.
He said that he had heard that Sybilla Masters might be returning home on
a ship commanded by a Captain Richmond. We know that she went home in
1716. The patents were published in Philadelphia that same year. This
meant that that they would apply there as well.
The Result of the Patent
The mill for creating Tuscarora Rice was a success. Thomas Masters built a
mill using his wife’s methods. Sybilla had hoped that she could interest
people in England in her product. Unfortunately, people in England did not
much like the taste of Tuscarora Rice. The product did not sell in
England.
The Importance of Sybilla Masters
Sybilla Masters is remembered because she is the first American woman that
we know about who invented something. There were probably other women who
were inventors, but we know nothing about them. She also was the first
person from the American colonies to receive a patent from the King of
England.
Researched and written by Melissa
Yates |