Frances James Ballew Piggott Collard was a survivor. Born to a wealthy ironmonger and investor in Maryland, she was disowned by her father after she married against his wishes to Bennet Ballew, a reputed neer-do-well and adventurer. By the time Ballew abandoned her, at Kaskaskia in western Illinois in 1780, she was the mother of four small children: Timothy, Agnes, Frances and Marguerite. She was left destitute and dependent on the charity of the French settlers in the area. In time, the widowed local leader, Captain James Piggott, took her and the children under his protection. Together they had four more children, and eventually married. Their daughter Assenath was born following the marriage, as was their last child, son Isaac Newton Piggott. Frances survived James by 35 years, marrying for a third time to Jacob Collard 11 June 1802 in St. Clair County, Illinois (with no children), but continuing in command of her own business affairs and acting as the head of her extensive family until she grew old and infirm. In 1805, not long after her third marriage, Frances moved to the newly American Missouri side of the Mississippi with her younger children, but retained property and business interests on the Illinois side for many years afterward. Her descendants number in the thousands.
Part of the lore about Frances is that she was a skilled frontier doctor who once nursed a man back to health after he had been scalped by Indians and left for dead. [Information for this biography largely drawn from the book Captains of the Wilderness by Carl R. Baldwin, Tiger Rose Publishing Company, 1986.]
ASSENATH AND HER MOTHER
Sena, when she bore you
Frances was forty, old for frontier folk,
Honed by weather and by work
To craggy angles, leather skin.
Mother of ten, to three men wife,
She was anything but frail
(And would live to eighty-two).
But she had been a lady once,
Banished from a gentle world
For marrying a handsome wretch
Who ran off and abandoned her
In Illinois.
Thrown upon the mercy
Of Mississippi River French,
She and her children lived from door to door,
Barn to barn,
Until the Captain took her in,
Seeing perhaps a mother
For his own orphans at the fort.
I think he truly loved her, by and by;
Certain it is they lived together,
Bearing another four without a priest;
Certain it is he raised them all the same.
They wed before your birth,
Giving you a shame-free home.
I wonder what you thought
About your mother,
About the stories neighbors told
When they believed you couldn't hear.
From what I've read about her
I think Frances set your mind at rest,
Letting you know she built her life on love,
Foolish at first, defiant then,
But finally serene,
And always true.
©2011 John I. Blair
Part of the lore about Frances is that she was a skilled frontier doctor who once nursed a man back to health after he had been scalped by Indians and left for dead. [Information for this biography largely drawn from the book Captains of the Wilderness by Carl R. Baldwin, Tiger Rose Publishing Company, 1986.]
ASSENATH AND HER MOTHER
Sena, when she bore you
Frances was forty, old for frontier folk,
Honed by weather and by work
To craggy angles, leather skin.
Mother of ten, to three men wife,
She was anything but frail
(And would live to eighty-two).
But she had been a lady once,
Banished from a gentle world
For marrying a handsome wretch
Who ran off and abandoned her
In Illinois.
Thrown upon the mercy
Of Mississippi River French,
She and her children lived from door to door,
Barn to barn,
Until the Captain took her in,
Seeing perhaps a mother
For his own orphans at the fort.
I think he truly loved her, by and by;
Certain it is they lived together,
Bearing another four without a priest;
Certain it is he raised them all the same.
They wed before your birth,
Giving you a shame-free home.
I wonder what you thought
About your mother,
About the stories neighbors told
When they believed you couldn't hear.
From what I've read about her
I think Frances set your mind at rest,
Letting you know she built her life on love,
Foolish at first, defiant then,
But finally serene,
And always true.
©2011 John I. Blair
Frances James Ballew Piggott Collard was a survivor. Born to a wealthy ironmonger and investor in Maryland, she was disowned by her father after she married against his wishes to Bennet Ballew, a reputed neer-do-well and adventurer. By the time Ballew abandoned her, at Kaskaskia in western Illinois in 1780, she was the mother of four small children: Timothy, Agnes, Frances and Marguerite. She was left destitute and dependent on the charity of the French settlers in the area. In time, the widowed local leader, Captain James Piggott, took her and the children under his protection. Together they had four more children, and eventually married. Their daughter Assenath was born following the marriage, as was their last child, son Isaac Newton Piggott. Frances survived James by 35 years, marrying for a third time to Jacob Collard 11 June 1802 in St. Clair County, Illinois (with no children), but continuing in command of her own business affairs and acting as the head of her extensive family until she grew old and infirm. In 1805, not long after her third marriage, Frances moved to the newly American Missouri side of the Mississippi with her younger children, but retained property and business interests on the Illinois side for many years afterward. Her descendants number in the thousands.
Part of the lore about Frances is that she was a skilled frontier doctor who once nursed a man back to health after he had been scalped by Indians and left for dead. [Information for this biography largely drawn from the book Captains of the Wilderness by Carl R. Baldwin, Tiger Rose Publishing Company, 1986.]
ASSENATH AND HER MOTHER
Sena, when she bore you
Frances was forty, old for frontier folk,
Honed by weather and by work
To craggy angles, leather skin.
Mother of ten, to three men wife,
She was anything but frail
(And would live to eighty-two).
But she had been a lady once,
Banished from a gentle world
For marrying a handsome wretch
Who ran off and abandoned her
In Illinois.
Thrown upon the mercy
Of Mississippi River French,
She and her children lived from door to door,
Barn to barn,
Until the Captain took her in,
Seeing perhaps a mother
For his own orphans at the fort.
I think he truly loved her, by and by;
Certain it is they lived together,
Bearing another four without a priest;
Certain it is he raised them all the same.
They wed before your birth,
Giving you a shame-free home.
I wonder what you thought
About your mother,
About the stories neighbors told
When they believed you couldn't hear.
From what I've read about her
I think Frances set your mind at rest,
Letting you know she built her life on love,
Foolish at first, defiant then,
But finally serene,
And always true.
©2011 John I. Blair
Part of the lore about Frances is that she was a skilled frontier doctor who once nursed a man back to health after he had been scalped by Indians and left for dead. [Information for this biography largely drawn from the book Captains of the Wilderness by Carl R. Baldwin, Tiger Rose Publishing Company, 1986.]
ASSENATH AND HER MOTHER
Sena, when she bore you
Frances was forty, old for frontier folk,
Honed by weather and by work
To craggy angles, leather skin.
Mother of ten, to three men wife,
She was anything but frail
(And would live to eighty-two).
But she had been a lady once,
Banished from a gentle world
For marrying a handsome wretch
Who ran off and abandoned her
In Illinois.
Thrown upon the mercy
Of Mississippi River French,
She and her children lived from door to door,
Barn to barn,
Until the Captain took her in,
Seeing perhaps a mother
For his own orphans at the fort.
I think he truly loved her, by and by;
Certain it is they lived together,
Bearing another four without a priest;
Certain it is he raised them all the same.
They wed before your birth,
Giving you a shame-free home.
I wonder what you thought
About your mother,
About the stories neighbors told
When they believed you couldn't hear.
From what I've read about her
I think Frances set your mind at rest,
Letting you know she built her life on love,
Foolish at first, defiant then,
But finally serene,
And always true.
©2011 John I. Blair
Family Members
See more Collard or Ballew Piggott memorials in:
- Find a Grave Collard or Ballew Piggott
