Biography:

Because of her renowned beauty, wit and charm, Mary Vining was famous near and far as the "Belle of Delaware" during the Revolutionary era. When Thomas Jefferson visited French Queen Marie Antoinette, one of the first questions she asked him was whether Miss Vining of Delaware was really as lovely as she was said to be. As a child, Mary lived in a mansion facing Dover's Green, where the Supreme Court building now stands. Her father, Chief Justice Vining, died when Mary was 14, leaving her and her brother John (nicknamed "the Pet of Delaware" and later a member of Congress and the U.S. Senate) a very substantial fortune. Mary Vining was said to have been well educated, speaking both English and impeccable French, and her voice was "as sweet as music." During the Revolution she won the admiration not only of Lafayette and many on Washington's staff, but also of General Howe's British officers quartered in Philadelphia in the winter of 1777, where Mary spent much of her time. Ultimately it was "Mad Anthony Wayne," one of Washington's closest and most trusted advisers, who would win Mary's heart. After Wayne's invalid wife had died, and Mary Vining was nearly 40, she became engaged to the General, who presented her with a tea set--still preserved at the Ridgely House in Dover--to commemorate the occasion. The wedding date was set for January, when General Wayne would return from a mission to make peace with the Maumee Indians. Tragically, on New Year's Day, Mary received word that her fiancé had died of appendicitis at Presque Isle on Lake Erie. She immediately went into mourning, and until her death wore black dress and a widow’s cap. A friend in 1797 wrote of her romance with Wayne: "That he was brave is undoubted, but such a weather-beaten vulgar affected old soldier I should have thought would not have suited her refinement." Her brother having squandered her immense fortune, Mary Vining was obliged to sell her coach and horses, and to dismiss her staff of servants. In 1821 she died in a little cottage called "The Willows," where the DuPont Building now stands in Wilmington, and is buried in an unmarked grave at Old Swedes Church.