Sally (Flucker) Jephson (b.1758)

She performed in General Burgoyne's "Maid of the Oaks" in private theatricals given by the British officers in Boston and was described as, 'a natural daughter' of Thomas Flucker which suggests she was illegitimate. Nonetheless, she was very much his recognized daughter and she accompanied her family to London after the fall of Boston where she married Robert Jephson, M.P. At that time, he was living in London as a playwright who mixed in the circle of Dr. Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith, Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, etc. Sally had her portrait (since lost) painted by John Singleton Copley in whose catalogue she is described: "Mrs Jephson was the daughter of Thomas Fluker, Secretary of the Province of Massachusetts... It is stated that she died early, and left no children. In a note from (her kinsman) William Knox, 1783, he says that, 'Miss Fluker is made the happy wife of a member of the Irish Parliament. Mr Jephson is an admirable man, has a handsome fortune, besides large expectations'". Sally is not mentioned by name in Jephson's entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography.