[1] Elizabeth Murray was born in and spent the first twelve years of her life in Unthank, Scotland, until her older brother James, an up-and-coming merchant, brought her to his new North Carolina home to be his housekeeper.
[1] In this capacity, Murray learned the attendant responsibilities, such as "keeping accounts with local merchants and vendors, selecting and purchasing the items needed for household consumption, overseeing the work of any servants, and performing numerous chores associated with housecleaning and preparing food and clothing" [1] At seventeen, she moved with James and his new bride to London, where Murray saw the city bustling with shop-owning women who sold wide arrays of cloth and other popular goods from all over the world.
[1] Backed by her brother's mercantile connections in Great Britain, Elizabeth established credit in the commercial world and was able to sell the latest fashions from London in her Boston shop.
[1] After a trip to London to make more business connections, Elizabeth returned to Boston and sent for James' daughter Dolly, wanting to give her the chance to pursue the "superior educational opportunities" in the northern city.
[1] In 1755, Elizabeth married Thomas Campbell, a trader and ship's captain, thereby trading in her status as an independent single woman for the protection (and legal limitations) of couverture.
[1] Under their prenuptial agreement, James stipulated that she would not be rendered personally, legally, or financial dependent under couverture; instead, Elizabeth would be allowed to keep all of her own money that she had earned as a shopkeeper, and would be entitled to one-third of his considerable estate if he died before her.
[1] By 1763, Elizabeth's ventures in helping her female friends and family were stymied by the violence in the Boston streets, when colonists became enraged at the taxes imposed on them by the British government.
[3] When Elizabeth visited her brother John's family in Norwich, England, she decided to take his daughter Mary Murray (nicknamed Polly) under her wing, teaching her all that she herself had learned as a shopkeeper in Boston.
[1] Additionally, Elizabeth sent her young nephew Jack to voyage with his sister across the Atlantic to Boston, in hopes of his becoming an apprentice for a successful merchant cousin in Rhode Island.
[1] She decided to remarry for a third time to fellow shopkeeper Ralph Inman, who would help improve her finances, which she realized were not in good order upon her return to Boston.
[1] Boston's turmoil with the British began to flare up again, and she removed to Cambridge with her niece Dolly to oversee her and her husband's estate, despite the fact that most women were leaving the area altogether.