Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first American woman canonized by the Catholic Church. Born in New York City in 1774 and raised as an Episcopalian, she was the daughter of Dr. Richard Bayley, a prominent New York physician and the first Health Officer of the Port of New York, and Catherine Charlton, the daughter of an Anglican minister. After her mother's premature death, she spent much of her youth with her uncle William Bayley in a house built by Joshua Pell that still stands on Shore Road at the New Rochelle-Pelham Manor border. In New Rochelle she became acquainted with her French Huguenot ancestry; she was related to 11 of the Huguenot Founding Fathers, and the Coutant Cemetery was named for her relatives buried there. In 1794 she married William Seton, son of a wealthy shipping merchant, and had five children. Prominent in New York society, she helped organize New York's first private charity, the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows and Small Children at Trinity Church. After William Seton went bankrupt and lost his health, the family sailed for Italy, where he died soon after their arrival. She stayed with the Filicchi family, William's business partners, whose Catholic faith deeply impressed her, and after returning to New York she converted to Catholicism. On March 25, 1809, she pronounced vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and thereafter became known as Mother Seton. In 1809 in Emmitsburg, Maryland, she established the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph and also founded St. Joseph's Academy, the first Catholic parochial school in the United States. She died at age 47 in 1821, and in September 1975 she was canonized; numerous Catholic parishes, schools, colleges, and hospitals bear her name.