Little is known about the circumstances of Rebecca Rush's life, her authorship of Kelroy (1812), what she did after she published her novel, or even when she died. Thanks to the Rush family archives, which are devoted largely to the person and direct descendants of Dr. Benjamin Rush, Rebecca's uncle and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, something more is known about her parents. Her father, Jacob Rush (1747-1820), who became a noted Pennsylvania jurist, graduated from Princeton in 1765. On 17 November 1777 he married Mary Wrench, or Rench, two months after being admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar. He practiced as an attorney in Philadelphia, serving as Third Circuit Court judge in Reading, Pennsylvania (1791-1806), and then as presiding judge in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia from 1806 until his death in 1820. Like his well-known brother, Jacob Rush published essays on a range of topics.

Before she married Jacob...