This portable desk descended in the Sarah "Sally" (Sayward) Barrell (1737-1805) and Nathaniel Barrell (1732-1831) family. According to family tradition, it belonged to their eldest daughter, Maine's first authoress, "Madam Wood," Sally Sayward (Barrell) Keating Wood (1759-1855).

She married Richard Keating (c. 1759-1783) in 1778. After Richard Keating's death, she married Abiel Wood. Madam Wood was published under the pseudonym "A Lady of Massachusetts," and later "A Lady of Maine." She wrote six novels, a children's hymnal, and a large number of unpublished poems.