Frances Miller Seward was the matriarch of her family. She was a quiet yet strong-minded woman who was extremely intelligent. She loved her father and sister and tried to run a tidy household. Her relationship with William Henry was perhaps not passionate, but it was loyal and full of respect. They had five children together, and Frances raised them in her Auburn home. Although Frances was unsure of the more radical ideas of the women’s rights movement, she did take some issues into her own hands. To secure her inheritance and money, Frances gathered signatures and support for the 1848 Married Women’s Property Rights Act. Luckily, it passed! This allowed her to own her own Auburn house and surrounding land even though she was married to a man. She managed a team of servants throughout the years, took pride in her place in the community, and kept thoughtful company. Her best friends included her sister, Lazette, and her neighbor Martha Coffin Wright.
Frances was more forward-thinking than her husband, and often encouraged him to be more radical in his politics. Since they wrote to each other nearly every day, Frances would offer advice and criticism to her husband. Sometimes, she would help with speech and paper editing. She was an abolitionist and took matters into her own hands in the 1850s. Although the risk was great, she established her home as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Frances developed a close relationship with Harriet Tubman because of this. She used her new property ownership rights to sell land to Tubman down the street from her own house. She and her sister also took care of Tubman’s niece, Margaret Stewart, for many years.
Even though Frances was incredibly capable and active in various ways, she suffered from mental setbacks. She was often sick from neuralgia and other illnesses that kept her within the walls of her own home. It is likely that she struggled with hypochondria and anxiety. She preferred to keep company that was at her level of intelligence, and she did not like to deal with large groups of visitors. Because of this, she refused to continue hosting dinner parties in Washington D.C. for Seward. Frances' daughter-in-law Anna stepped in, and she excelled in this role. Frances preferred quiet Auburn to hectic Washington and acted boldly behind her own walls. Everyone in the Seward family loved and respected her as a leader of the family. She passed away in 1865 after suffering a series of strokes or heart attacks. This occurred weeks after the traumatic assassination attempt on her husband and son.
Frances Seward c. 1862