Elizabeth Coates Paschall (c. 1680s – 1768)
Elizabeth Coates Paschall, a widowed Quaker merchant in Philadelphia, became a respected community healer whose medical manuscript records dozens of remedies, observations, and experiments. She grew herbs, blended medicines, and often succeeded where male physicians failed. Living at the height of the Enlightenment, Paschall embraced trial, observation, and reasoned care — all while balancing commerce, family, and faith. Her work stands as a rare, surviving example of a colonial woman’s voice in scientific medicine.
