Merry, Elizabeth, -1824

Elizabeth Death Leathes Merry was a wealthy widow who married career diplomat, Anthony Merry, on January 21, 1803. When her husband was assigned as the British Minister to the United States, she accompanied him. When they arrived in Washington D. C., they were invited to dine with then President Thomas Jefferson, who greeted them in casual dress and did not follow the British protocols of decorum and etiquette that the Merrys were accustomed to, including having invited the French Charge d’Affairs, Louis Andrew Pichon and his wife, while France and England were at war. This so insulted the Merrys that even though Jefferson attempted to smooth things over with them, they never dined at his residence again. Differing reports of what Jefferson thought of Mrs. Merry are recorded: where he both thought she was a “virago,” but also that she was a skilled botanist with a large collection of specimens and library on the subject. However, he must have known of her interest and skill with plants, because of a letter that he wrote to her, dated December 26, 1803, in which he enclosed seeds from the “Dionaea muscipula, or Flytrap” for her cultivation. Elizabeth Merry died in 1824 in England.