Want to Laugh? Read how Martha McFarlane Bell Mused Lord Cornwallis

Did you ever wonder what living among the Tories during the brutal Revolutionary War was like? What if the British occupied your home? What would you do?

The stories of Martha McFarlane Bell spell violence and risks, yet although British soldiers frequently confronted her, it is amusing how she single-handedly took matters into her own hands.

Mrs. Bell was born and reared in southern Orange County near the boundaries of Alamance County. She was born McFarlane, of Scottish or Scots-Irish ancestry. Although she was not a natural beauty, she possessed fine features and was considered “a good-looking woman.’’ She was gifted with a strong mind, an ardent temperament, and great firmness. She could love devotedly and hate with equal intensity, which made her a valuable friend but an undesirable enemy.

Some eight or ten years before the Revolutionary War, Martha McFarlane married a young widower, Colonel John McGee, with two children and an ample fortune. Their home was on Sandy Creek in the northern portion of Randolph County. Colonel McGee owned a vast landed estate, a mill, a country store, etc., and carried on a larger business than any other man in Randolph. But McGee died at the beginning of the war, leaving his wife with five little children, three boys, and two girls, to struggle…