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REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF NEW ENGLAND


years Senator from Warwick in the Rhode Island General Assembly; John Watennan Abom* Greene, who died young, but had already held many offices in the giift of the town of Warwick. Miss Greene is his only living child. She is also descended from Colonel Christopher Greene and from his only brother. Judge William* Greene, through her mother, Mary Frances Low, and her mother's mother, Mary Ann' Greene (Jeremiah,® William,*^ Philip,^ Job,' John,' John*), who was born in the ancestral home, "Occupasuatuxet," Warwick, R.I. This Mary Ann Greene, the grandmother, for whom Miss Greene was named, contributed stories and poems to the Providence Journal at the age of fourteen. She was of double Greene descent, her mother being Colonel Christopher's grand-daughter. She married Joseph Holden Low, of the Warwick branch of the Low family, and died at twenty-one, leaving an infant daughter, Mary Frances, who became Mrs. John W. A. Greene, a woman of fine mind. Miss Greene's mother.

Miss Greene is descended from Roger Williams through the marriage of his grand-daughter, Phebe Sayles, with Major Job' Greene, and also through her paternal grandmother, Caroline Cornelia Aborm Indeed, she is descended from nearly every one of the founders of the colonies of Providence and of Warwick and from most of them in several lines, owing to constant intermarriages.

Mrs. Julia Ward Howe is descended from Deborah* (married Simon Ray), sister of Chief Justice Philip* Greene and daughter of Job' and Phebe (Sayles) Greene.

It is a notable fact that in every generation in Miss Greene's line of the Greenes there has been either a Senator or a Representative from the town of Warwick in the General Assembly, her cousin, Francis Whittier Greene, serv- ing at the present time as Senator from War- wick.

Miss Greene was the first American woman invited to a<ldress the World's Congress of Juris- prudence and Law Reform, an honor extended to but two American and two foreign women lawyers, their names appearing upon the same programme with eminent American and p]uro- pean male jurists. Miss Greene assisted in preparing the fifth edition of Schouler on the Domestic Relations, the standard authority in the courts upon that branch of law. She is the only lawyer who makes a specialty of the delivery of lectures upon practical business law before women's clubs and girls' schools, and she finds great interest in the subject among all classes of women, from shop-girls and work- ing-women to the wives of millionaires. Miss Greene was commissioned by the Gov- ernor of Rhode Island chairman of the Rhode Island Committee on a Colonial Exhibit at the Atlanta Exposition; and the Legislature, upon her sole petition as chairman, appropri- ated one thousand dollars for the colonial ex- hibit. This is said to be the first time in his- tory that State funds have been placed in the control of a commission composed exclusively of women, by a direct grant to them from the Legislature itself.

In 1902 Miss Greene published "The Wom- an's Manual of Law," a clear, simple, and non- technical book of reference for women who de- sire to inform themselves as to the laws of busi- ness and of the domestic relations. It is said to be the most satisfactory work of the kind yet published. The Chicago Legal News of November 8, 1902, says of it: —

"This book is the result of years of experi- ence of Miss Greene, a member of the Boston bar, as lecturer upon the subject of which it treats. . . . The entire cycle of a woman's life, from her marriage to the grave, is passed in review in successive chapters. First, the laws affecting the domestic relations are considered. Then follow those dealing with buying and selling and the care of all kinds of property. In every case the particular legal restrictions upon the powers of the woman who is married are considered. Lastly, the proper disposi- tion of property by will and by the laws of inheritance is treated, including the rights of the widow or the widower in the property of either.

"Miss Greene has shown good judgment, not only in the selection of her subjects treated, but in her manner of treating them. Her style is pleasing and easily understood. Every w^oman who can read the English language, and wishes to know her legal rights, should