Credit: Courtesy of the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection
The rector of Philadelphia's prestigious Christ Church, Rev. Jacob Duché gave the opening prayer for the 1st Continental Congress in 1774. Fearful that independence could not be won, he joined the Tories, then fled to England when the British evacuated Philadelphia in 1778. Although their estate was confiscated after he was convicted of high treason, the Duché's returned to Philadelphia in 1792. This portrait by their son Thomas shows Duché and his wife Elizabeth, a sister of Declaration of Independence signer Francis Hopkinson.
