Signer #26, Hannah Plant, “Founding Mother”
Hannah Hunt Plant
Born: Circa 1794-6, Pelham, Westchester County, New York
Died: Circa 1874, Waterloo, Aged 78-80
Occupation: “Keeping House”
Local Residence: 100 William Street, Waterloo
The search for Hannah Hunt Plant, Signer #26, raised a question that, I have to admit, I never even considered. Did the signers of the Declaration of Sentiments have any personal contact with the Founding Fathers? Of course, by "Founding Fathers" I'm referring the generation of Caucasian men credited with the establishment of the United States.
The moniker "Founding Fathers" itself is comparatively new, attributed to future president Warren G. Harding. Then a senator from Ohio, Harding introduced the term in a speech at the 1916 Republican National Convention. He had evidently been toying with its exact phrasing for years before landing on the pleasant alliteration and two-syllable-per-word cadence of "Founding Fathers" ("Founding"). Of course, Harding's watchword has been criticized since because of its explicit and subtle exclusions. What part did women play in the creation of America? What about people of color, who are implicitly omitted from the category?
Nonetheless, exploring connections between the Revolutionary generation and the Seneca Falls generation is of vital importance. For starters, the Declaration of Sentiments was devised as a modified or corrected version of the Declaration of Independence, where the wording of the former borrows directly from that of the latter. Recovering linkages between the Founding Fathers and Seneca Falls might also help to reveal a philosophical inheritance, which connects the American Revolution to the latter-day civil rights movements that succeeded it.
Ironically or not, Hannah Hunt Plant cross paths with the founding father who had the worst reputation, Aaron Burr. Plant, a native of Westchester County, New York, probably became acquainted with Burr, who owned property and offered his services as an attorney locally in Westchester. Burr was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, but he is best known for murdering Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 duel while U.S. vice president. After Hamilton's murder, Burr was tried for treason, after being accused of organizing an army and conspiring to foment a rebellion against the United States. It is believed that Burr intended to create a new nation from territory seized in the South states, west of the Appalachian Mountains, and from parts of Mexico. Gordon Wood describes Burr as “the most romanticized and vilified historical character in American literature…the subject of countless poems, songs, sermons, and semi-fictional biographies, and the central character in nearly three dozen plays and more than four dozen novels and stories” (281). And Wood makes this observation before Burr first served as the heel in the musical Hamilton. Regarding Burr's reputation as a womanizer and schemer, Wood relates that “it was once said of Burr that the only virtue he ever had was not claiming any” (286)
Signer #26 would have encountered Burr long after his treason acquittal and his de facto exile in Europe. After repatriating to United States, Burr spent the closing decades of his life continuing work as an attorney in New York.
Hannah Hunt Plant is a member of the large contingent of signers from the Hunt family. The Hunts were a set of siblings who migrated to Waterloo in the years leading up to the Seneca Falls Convention. The family ties that guided the Hunts westward together is reminiscent of a similar phenomenon in the life of Joel Bunker (#94). Hannah Plant is the sister of Lydia Hunt Mount (#13) and Richard Pell Hunt (#69). Lydia’s daughter Mary E. Vail (#56) is Hannah’s niece.
From Waterloo, the Hunts can be traced back to the village of Pelham in Westchester County, located north of New York City. Based upon the age she gave in various censuses, Hannah Hunt was born here between 1794 and 1796. She was the eldest of Richard Hunt's and Mary Pell's seven children. Her mother's family, the Pells, were the founding settlers of Pelham, from whom the village took its name (Hunt 80, Wilson 18). The James E. Hazard Index, a database of Quaker records maintained by Swarthmore College, reveals that Richard, Mary, and Hannah were affiliated with the Purchase Monthly Meeting, based in the nearby hamlet of Purchase.
Hannah's mother, Mary Pell, is the first link between Signer #26 and Aaron Burr. During the Revolutionary War, members of the Pell family had remained loyal to the British Crown. At the close of the conflict, the American government stripped the Pells of their land as punishment. The Pells sued to recover the confiscated property and were represented in the case by Aaron Burr, attorney-at-law. Burr won the lawsuit, but the plaintiffs received only monetary compensation from the government. The land was not returned.
The Machiavellian Burr was not one to leave the matter there. As Polly Kreisman relates, Burr and his wife later puchased the “very same 146-acre tract at issue in the lawsuit” in 1790, which they intended as the spot for their summer home. It is said that Burr had the ulterior motive of constructing a thruway on the spot and charging toll. Burr eventually deeded the land to his stepson, perhaps as a means of distancing himself from the obvious conflict of interest he had in the shady act of land speculation ("Burr"). Hannah’s mother, Mary Pell Hunt, was a member of the aggrieved Pells of Pelham, victims of the legal wrangling and Burr’s subsequent self-dealing.
Another legal skirmish between Burr and Hannah's family arose in 1820. Hannah's father, Richard Hunt, was the recipient of an 1820 subpoena issued by Burr. “You are commanded and firmly enjoined, that, laying all other matters aside, and notwithstanding any excuse, you be and appear in your proper person,” the subpoena insists. It enjoins Richard Hunt to stand before the justices of “the Supreme Court of Judicature of the People of the State of New York” on November 30, at 10am. There is a steep $250 fine for failing to appear.
The subpoena discloses that it pertains to a legal dispute between two litigants: plaintiff, James Jackson, and defendant, Robert Chew. The case surrounded a “Plea of Trespass & Ejectment,” which is legalese indicating that it involved land inheritance rights. Without Burr, Jackson versus Chew was eventually argued before the United States Supreme Court and decided in 1827, cementing the language used in wills to designate the proper succession of inheritors. John Marshall was the ourt's chief justice of the Supreme Court in this decision; Marshall also happened to be the juror who presided over Burr’s trial for treason in 1807.
On Thursday, April 17, 1823, Hannah Hunt was married under less-than-ideal circumstances. She wed Henry Ustick Plant, and the couple's marriage notice was carried by New York’s Evening Post as well as The Spectator. Hannah’s sister Eliza Hunt also married one Benjamin Underhill in the same ceremony. The recent death of the “late Richard Hunt, Esq. of this city,” the brides' father, seems to have motivated the nuptials.
Hannah and Henry were married in the Methodist Church (“Hunt-Plant Marriage”). Swarthmore’s Hazard Project records that, because Hannah married a non-Quaker, she was officially disowned from the Society of Friends.
Henry Plant was a recent immigrant from Nova Scotia, Canada (“Henry U. Plant”). A passenger manifest for the schooner Abigale indicates that one H.U. Plant, a merchant from New Brunswick, arrived at the Port of New York in August 1821. Hannah and Henry had a daughter, Henrietta Mathilda, some time around 1826-27. The Plants settled in West Farms, a neighborhood currently located in the Bronx.
Henry was now in charge of Hannah's financial affairs because marriages then legally entailed the redistribution a woman's property to her husband. Under these circumstances, Aaron Burr inserted himself into their lives.
In 1828, Henry penned a letter composed “In Haste,” to Hannah’s brother Richard Pell Hunt, who had already relocated to Waterloo. Dated October 25, the letter is addressed from West Farms and details an encounter between Henry Plant and Aaron Burr. In a messy shorthand, Henry explains, “I had a conversation with Colonel Burr respect the amt due from Mr. Eaton’s estate to Your fathers. He requested me to wright to You for a power of attorney in my name in order that He might pay the money over to me. He Has funds in His Hands now and wants the thing brought to a close. You had better be on the alert for fear He may change His mind.”
The honorific “Colonel” reflects Burr's military service in the War of Independence, which included surviving the brutal winter of 1777-8 at Valley Forge. I could not ascertain the exact nature of the legal business at hand here—but it sounds like it has something to do with settling an estate. Or, it could involve money owed to Richard Hunt Sr. for his services as a lawyer. In any case, Burr seems impatient about seeing the matter to its conclusion.
Henry closes, “Hannah and Henrietta join me In Love to You all,” and he encourages Richard to initiate some process or give some permission to release the money retained by Burr.
Eight months later, Henry composed a second letter to Richard Pell Hunt pertaining to yet another encounter with Burr. On July 3, 1829—the eve of Independence Day— Henry writes, “Colonel Burr has been at our House this day and Stated that he had money plenty in his hands Belonging to the estate of Midcalf Eaton. And that as soon as I was duly authorized to reciev it [sic] he was ready to Sign date the debt in favour of father's estate. Therefor I think the sooner the thing is brought to a close the better while the old man is in the humour.” Henry's parting sentence closes with “Hannah Joins me in Love to You.” 
He adds a PS, “Please pay attention to the above as Burr is quite infirm.” 
It is hard to read about this visit Burr paid to the Plant household without considering his frequent characterization as a chronically insolvent ne’er-do-well. What was holding up the "money plenty" owed by Burr to Henry Plant from the mysterious estate of Midcalf Eaton? Was the matter so urgent that it required Burr to pay a personal visit to the Plants? As a Canadian transplant potentially unaware of Burr’s reputation, is Henry being naïve about the existence of this money and Burr’s willingness to hand it over? Is Burr just leading Henry on about the financial windfall, treating him as an easy mark to be duped and led on?
In the 1830s, the Plants left West Farms for Seneca County. An August 1836 news item reveals much about why they did so. An article entitled “Disgraceful” recounts a bar fight and shooting that took place at an establishment owned by Henry Plant. “A scene of riot and fighting took place at Henry U. Plant’s tavern, in West Farms, of a most disgraceful character.” A rowdy party of hooligans confronted a rival group and “made an attack on them and beat them severely; but not being able to subdue them, retired and armed themselves with a loaded gun and butcher knives and other deadly weapons.” Fully armed, the assailants returned to Plant’s Tavern just as a handful of bystanders happened by. The armed men fired on the uninvolved party and “shot one man blind, and injured three others in the face: they then fled, but the day after were apprehended and sent to jail. There is a good deal of excitement in the village in relation to the affair.” News of the violence was carried inThe Schenectady Cabinet, Albany’s Evening Journal, and New York CIty’s Spectator. The gunplay shows that Henry’s career as a bartender was occasionally very dangerous work.
Henry U. Plant’s household appears in the 1840 census for Seneca Falls. It is listed on the same page that contains Henry's brother-in-law Randolph Mount and Jacob P. Chamberlain (Signer #88), occupying the line below Henry's.
Henry resides with adolescent girl, Henrietta, and two adult women, Hannah and another individual.
Just like Hannah Hunt Plant and Lydia Hunt Mount, another Hunt sibling followed Richard P. Hunt’s lead to Waterloo. Sister Mary Hunt wed Elijah Quinby, and the Quinbys eventually landed in Seneca County, affiliating with the Junius Monthly Meeting. Elijah Quinby is said to have made his living by opening a general store for dry goods, an enterprise he undertook at the urging of Richard P. Hunt (Quinby 263-4).
Henry U. Plant died in Batavia, New York, on July 14, 1843, aged 49. He is buried at the Quaker cemetery on Nine Foot Road near Waterloo (“Henry U. Plant”). It is unclear if the Hannah and Henry Plant joined the Junius Monthly Meeting after Hannah’s expulsion at the time of their marriage. Henry’s burial at this location suggests that the Plants had reestablished some ties with the local Quaker community.
Henry died intestate, and Hannah is given “full power” over his property and debts in a probate letter filed that August in Waterloo. Later, a subsequent surrogate’s letter clarifies that Henry, a resident of Waterloo, “died a natural death…at the town of Batavia in the county of Genesee.” Reasons why Henry was in Batavia and the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear.
The timing of Henry’s death is remarkably close to that of Lydia Hunt Mount’s husband. Randolph Mount passed away just the year prior, in April 1842. This means that Hannah and Lydia should be counted among the widows in attendance at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. They join the best candidates for Phebe King (#35) and Betsy Tewksbury (#47).
Adding to this string of tragedies, Hannah’s niece Mary E. Vail also became a widow in the 1850s. Her spouse Gilbert Vail died in Keokuk, Iowa, in 1855. According to Judith Wellman, Richard P. Hunt provided his widowed sisters and other members of the extended family with financial support (98). After the deaths of so many male breadwinners, the cluster of Hunt siblings around Waterloo acted much like a financial safety net.
In an 1850 census record for Waterloo, Hannah and H.M. “Platt” live with Lydia Mount. Hannah is 55 and Henrietta is 23, and the mother-daughter pair is recorded as a second, separate family residing in the Mount household.
Hannah's living arrangements remain largely unchanged by the 1860 census. In this census, two of Lydia Mount’s daughters have moved out, and the recently widowed Mary E. Vail has moved in with her children, Caroline and Walter.
Hannah’s assets are valued at $250 dollars, and Lydia’s assets have dwindled considerably since 1850 to $6400. Hannah is 66, and Henrietta is 34.
Probably mistaking her first name for “Anna,” Hannah Plant is listed as residing at 100 William Street in Brigham’s 1862 directory (40). This spot corresponds to the residence identified as the “Mount House” in an 1852 map of Waterloo.
Hannah's sister Lydia Mount died in 1868. In the 1870 census, Hannah, 74, and Henrietta, 38, live together in Waterloo. Hannah is listed “Keeping house,” and her estate is valued at $2,700. 
I could find no direct source regarding Hannah Plant’s death or information about her place of burial. It seems Signer #26's death went largely unrecorded at the time of its occurrence. An obituary for Henrietta from 1883 remembers that her mother died nine years prior—so, around 1874.
Supporing this, Henrietta lives without her mother in an 1874 Seneca County directory. Her home is listed as Elisha Street near Church in Waterloo (Evans and Crofoot 182). In another 1879 local directory, Henrietta’s address remains at the same location (Lamey 335).
Henrietta passed away in 1883 at age 57. According to The Seneca County Courier, her funeral was held in the home of Enos Laney, Mary E. Vail’s second husband (“Waterloo News”). The Seneca County News reports that Henrietta died “Thursday, March 1st, at the residence of Mr. James Gillilan, about two miles from the West Fayette station.” Henrietta “had been living there for several months, and died of heart disease, after an illness of about four weeks.” She “was the daughter of the late Henry U. Plant of this village who died nearly forty years ago.” Regarding her mother, “Mrs. Hannah Plant died about 9 years ago….being among the early settlers of this village.” Henrietta was a parishioner of St. Paul Church’s (“Waterloo Local”). The Waterloo Observer relates that Henrietta died as a result of heart disease and “dropsy,” an antiquated term for edema or fluid retention in the limbs (“Town”). Like her mother, I could find no account of Henrietta’s burial location. It stands to reason that Hannah and Henrietta are interred near Henry’s headstone at the Quaker cemetery in Waterloo. Alternatively, they might be located at Maple Grove Cemetery in Waterloo with other Hunt family members.
It is a remarkable fact of American history that Aaron Burr dropped by the home of Signer #26, two decades prior to her participation in the Seneca Falls Convention. Hannah Plant was likely acquainted with an ailing, disgraced Aaron Burr. Notwithstanding a few tantalizing clues, the exact nature of Burr's legal interest with the Plant family is unclear. There was evidently some inheritance money that Burr was tasked with distributing to beneficiaries. That anyone would trust Aaron Burr as an estate lawyer defies common sense.
This chance meeting supplies a crucial connecting link between the Founding Fathers and the signers of the Declaration. It is grounds enough to search for additional ties between the individuals who took part in the American Revolution and the individuals who took part in the civil rights movements that followed, who sought to realize the true meaning of the nation's founding documents.
I can’t help but observe how Hannah Plant’s connection to a founding father happens to be to the most-blemished, scandal-proned, and reviled founding father. Burr was the founding father who brutally assassinated another founding father. By all appearances, Aaron Burr seems to have been every bit the scoundrel and a compulsive liar. His personal imperfections speak to the imperfections that existed legally and civilly after the creation of the United States. Knowing Aaron Burr on some personal level, the recently widowed Hannah Plant sought to right the record at the Seneca Falls Convention.
The son and grandson of Princeton University presidents, Aaron Burr is buried in New Jersey. Hannah Plant rest in an unmarked grave in some unknown place.
Works Cited
“A. Burr Subpoena to Richard Hunt,” Wikimedia Commons, Accessed 25 Apr. 2025. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A._Burr_subpoena_to_Richard_Hunt_(cf51bdd5c8b747c39288beb7ed24a770).pdf.
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“Disgraceful.” The Schenectady Cabinet, 24 Aug. 1836, p.1.
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“Henry U. Plant—Surrogate’s Letter.” New York, Wills and Probate Records, Ancestry.com. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025. “Jackson v. Chew, 25 U.S. 153 (1827).”
“Hunt-Plant Marriage.” United Methodist Church Records. Ancestry.com. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
Hunt, John G. The Descendants of Thomas Hunt, Sr. 1936.
“Jackson v. Chew, 25 U.S. 153 (1827).” Justia.com, Accessed 25 Apr. 2025. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/25/153/.
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Wood, Gordon S. “The Real Treason of Aaron Burr.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 143, no. 2, 1999, pp. 280–95.