Margaret Kemble Gage

Margaret Kemble Gage (1734–1824) was the wife of General Thomas Gage, who led the British Army in Massachusetts in the American Revolutionary War. It is alleged that she played an important role in the outcome of the American Revolution. She was suspected of having divided loyalties and informing the American Revolutionaries of British troop movements. Family life and descendants Margaret Kemble was born in New Brunswick, Province of New Jersey, and lived in East Brunswick Township. She was the daughter of Peter Kemble, a wealthy New Jersey businessman and politician, and Gertrude Bayard; the granddaughter of Judge Samuel Bayard (b. 1669) and Margaretta Van Cortlandt (b. 1674); and the great-granddaughter of Mayor of New York City Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Gertrude Schuyler. Through her mother, she was a first cousin to the Van Cortlandts, de Lanceys, and the Van Rensselaers. She married Thomas Gage on December 8, 1758, at her father's 1200-acre Mount Kemble Plantation in New Jersey. Following the outbreak of the American Revolution, Kemble Gage sailed from Boston to England in the summer of 1776 on a ship carrying military widows, orphans, and 170 soldiers who had been badly wounded in the Battle of Bunker Hill. She was joined by her husband a few months later, who was recalled after his failure to resolve divisions with the colonists. Together with their children, the couple settled in a Portland Place address in London. There are accounts that cite how Kemble Gage’s relationship with her husband was never the same again. Margaret outlived Thomas Gage by 36 years. The couple had eleven children, and their first son, the future 3rd Viscount Gage, was born in 1761. Gage's daughter, Charlotte Margaret Gage, married Admiral Sir Charles Ogle.