Margaret Bowen’s younger daughter Phillis was born on June 2, 1765. She was not quite seven years old when her mother was sold to Vermont. On July 15, 1772, three months after Peg moved north, Elizabeth records that Phillis was present when “A flash of Lightening came Down our Ketching Chimney almost filled the room with the Flame.” While Elizabeth was not present, the ordeal clearly haunted her, and it likely left a lasting impact on seven-year-old Phillis.

There are no other records of Phillis’ life until 1775, when Elizabeth begins to record concerns about Phillis’s health: “January 1, 1775. Wednesday I went down to the Doct. with Phillis our Negro Girl—she poorly.” A few weeks later, Elizabeth missed church to care for her. The Porters arranged a large wooden chest by the kitchen fire as a makeshift sickbed for Phillis. Surely, it was Rose, now quite pregnant and still responsible for many other household labors, who would have carried most of her sister’s care. 

On April 16, 1775, the Phelpses asked for prayers for Phillis at Sunday’s church service. Tragically, she died the following Friday, April 21, at just ten years old. In her memory, Rose named her newborn daughter, born on April 18, Phillis.