Jane Roberts (first lady)

Jane Rose Waring Roberts (née Waring; c. 1819 – January 10, 1914) emigrated as a child with her free African-American family to the Colony of Liberia, where she was educated and grew up as a member of the Americo-Liberian community.

She married politician Joseph Jenkins Roberts, also an American immigrant, who was appointed as governor of the colony. When he was elected President after Liberia's independence, she served as the first First Lady of the Republic of Liberia from 1848 to 1856. After he was re-elected, she served again from 1872 to 1876. She accompanied him on numerous diplomatic trips to other nations. She also promoted women's education.

As a widow, Roberts traveled to the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth century to raise funds to build a hospital in Monrovia; she met with Queen Victoria for a second time. From 1906 to her death, she lived in London with a political black couple, former mayor John Archer and his wife. She was interred at Streatham Cemetery in the city.

Jane Rose Waring was born free in the American state of Virginia around 1819. She was one of several children in the Waring family, which was prominent in Virginia's sizeable free black community. Her father, Colston Waring, was a minister and a successful businessman. He sold his notable holdings in the United States in order to emigrate via the American Colonization Society to Liberia, a newly established colony in West Africa.

Jane's mother and her six children, including four-year-old Jane, followed Colston Waring and arrived in Liberia on February 13, 1824, having sailed on the Cyrus. Two of Jane's brothers, one older and one younger, died of "fever" in the first year. Another older brother and an older sister died in 1828.

The family settled in Monrovia, where her father established a profitable commercial firm. Colston Waring was appointed as vice colonial agent of Liberia and died in 1838.

Jane Waring was educated in Monrovia. She learned to read and write, and speak fluent French as well as English. She dedicated her life to Christian charities and the promotion of women's education.

In 1836, Waring at about the age of 17 married Joseph Jenkins Roberts. A widower, he was a free-born merchant from Virginia who had immigrated in 1829 to Liberia with his young family. His first wife and infant child died within the first year of their arriving at Monrovia.