Margaret Gage: A Colonial Daughter, a General’s Wife, an Impossible Choice

Margaret Gage is the quiet storm at the center of Broadside, a woman living inside two loyalties at once. In public, she is Lady Gage, the composed wife of General Thomas Gage, moving through British command with practiced grace. But she was born in the colonies, and that identity never leaves her, no matter how carefully she’s learned to live inside the Crown’s world.

Margaret Gage, a general's wife, colonial daughter, an impossible choice

What she wants is almost painfully simple: a family, a home, a life that isn’t all strategy and consequence. She sees that “normal life” reflected in Paul Revere, an artisan with ink-stained hands, rooted in work and community, building something real each day. In Margaret’s eyes, Paul and the Patriot cause aren’t just rebellion; they’re the possibility of a future that feels like home.

A life in the spot light, or one of family simplicity?

And yet she does love her husband and aristocratic life. Thomas Gage isn’t a villain in her heart, he’s her partner, complicated and human, carrying his own burdens. Their marriage in Broadside holds real tenderness alongside the tension: two people trying to stay connected while history yanks them toward opposite sides of the room.

Margaret and Thomas settled with their family in London

That’s why her turning point lands: when she learns the British plans for Concord, she can’t pretend it’s only politics, it’s lives. She gets word to Joseph Warren, and she does it in the most Margaret way possible: quietly, bravely, hidden in her corset and passed through Paul Revere. It’s not a loud betrayal, it’s a small, devastating act of conscience from someone who loves deeply, and still chooses to warn the people she can’t stop belonging to.