Peggy Shippen - After The Revolution

After The Revolution

With hostilities in North America apparently winding down after Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown in October 1781, the Arnolds left for London on December 15, 1781, arriving January 22, 1782.

Peggy was initially welcomed warmly in England, as was her husband; she was presented at court to the Queen on 10 February 1782 by Lady Amherst. A girl (Margaret) and a boy (George) born in 1783 and 1784 respectively, died in infancy in 1784 while the Arnolds lived in London.

Arnold left for a business opportunity in 1784, taking his eldest surviving son Richard (by his first wife) to Saint John, New Brunswick. During Arnold's stay in New Brunswick, Shippen Arnold gave birth to their third child, Sophia Matilda Arnold, while her husband may have fathered an illegitimate child (John Sage) in New Brunswick. Shippen Arnold sailed to Saint John to join Arnold in 1787, leaving her two older sons with a private family in London; in New Brunswick, Peggy gave birth to son George in 1787; their last child, William Fitch, was born in 1794 after their return to London.

In 1789 she returned briefly to the United States, accompanied by her daughter and a maid, to visit with her parents and family; she was treated coldly by Philadelphians in spite of her father's considerable influence. She returned to New Brunswick with her daughter Sophia in the spring of 1790, and from there returned to England with Arnold, departing on 1 January 1792. Their departure was unhappy, with mobs gathering on their property to protest against them and call them "traitors."

After Arnold died in 1801, she used his estate to pay off his debts. She died in London in 1804, reportedly of cancer, and was buried with her husband at St. Mary's Church in Battersea on 25 August 1804.