Lucy Flucker was born in Boston on August 2, 1756, the daughter of Thomas Flucker and Hannah Waldo Flucker. Her father was a prosperous merchant who became secretary of the Province of Massachusetts, while her mother came from another wealthy and well-connected family. Lucy grew up amid the comforts of Boston’s provincial elite, with servants, fashionable clothing, social visits, and access to the education considered suitable for a gentleman’s daughter. The family’s position was tied closely to royal government. She received instruction in reading, writing, religion, music, needlework, dancing, and household management. Her surviving letters show intelligence, emotional directness, and a strong command of written expression. Boston in her childhood was also a city of intensifying political conflict. The Stamp Act protests, occupation by British troops, Boston Massacre, and disputes over parliamentary authority divided neighbors and families. Thomas and Hannah Flucker remained Loyalists, and their home represented the official society increasingly challenged by Patriot resistance. As a teenager Lucy met Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller of modest family background. Knox was self-educated, interested in military science, and sympathetic to the Patriot cause. The match displeased Lucy’s parents, who considered him socially inferior and politically dangerous. Lucy nevertheless maintained the courtship. She visited his shop, exchanged letters with him, and chose personal attachment over the expectations of her family. Lucy married Knox in June 1774, shortly before open war. The decision created a lasting rupture. When her parents fled Boston with the British in 1775, she remained with her husband and never saw them again. She also lost access to much of the property and security associated with her upbringing. Before she became the wife of a Continental general, Lucy had already demonstrated independence by crossing boundaries of class, politics, and parental authority.