Subseries A. Papers of Anne Jean Robbins Lyman and Judge Joseph Lyman III, 1808-1908 (#1.7-7.2, FD.1, F+D.2)
Scope and Contents
Subseries A, Papers of Anne Jean Robbins Lyman (1789-1867) and Judge Joseph Lyman (1767-1847), 1808-1908 (#1.7-7.2, FD.1, F+D.2), includes correspondence, journals, wills, and writings. The subseries is primarily correspondence, which is described in detail at the folder level. Letters describe life in Northampton, Massachusetts, in the 1820s through 1840s. The Lyman daughters attended the Deerfield School and George Barrell Emerson's school for girls in Boston. Anne Jean Robbins Lyman wrote frequently to her daughter Susan about the books she read, music and theater productions she attended, and her opinions on national and local politics. Letters in response from Susan Inches Lyman Lesley describe her school life, her early married life with J. Peter Lesley, and her opinions on slavery, religion, and parenthood. Letters from son Edward Lyman describe European travel in the 1840s and 1850s, including an account of Napoleon's funeral. Letters from daughter Catherine Lyman Delano describe her trip to and life in Canton, China, in the 1840s. Anne Jean Robbins Lyman's correspondence also includes letters from Ralph Waldo Emerson (#5.19) and from his brother Charles Chauncey Emerson (#5.16-5.18); letters from Charles Emerson often describe the exploits, sermons, travels, etc. of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Letters from Anne Jean Robbins Lyman and Joseph Lyman to her mother Elizabeth Murray Robbins are in Series II. Photographs of paintings of the Lymans are in Series XVII.
Dates
- Creation: 1762-2006
Language of Materials
Materials in English.
Access Restrictions:
Access. Folders #200.1 - 201.9 in Series XIV are closed until January 1, 2050. The remainder of the collection is open for research.
Extent
101.08 linear feet ((237 file boxes, 2 half file boxes, 2 folio boxes) plus 6 folio folders, 10 folio+ folders, 6 oversize folders, 2 supersize folders, 171 photograph folders, 4 folio photograph folders, 14 glass negatives, 1 object, electronic records)Biographical / Historical
Anne Jean Robbins was born in July 1789 in Milton, Massachusetts, the third daughter of Elizabeth Murray Robbins and Edward Hutchinson Robbins. She attended the Ladies' Academy in Dorchester, Massachusetts, as a young teenager. In 1805 the Robbins family moved to Brush-Hill, a farmhouse and estate in Milton. Anne Jean Robbins lived there for the next several years, spending the winters of 1809 and 1810 in Boston, and the winter of 1811 in New York City with family and friends. In the spring of 1811 she met Judge Joseph Lyman, a widower with five children. Joseph Lyman III was born in 1767 in Northampton, Massachusetts to Mary Sheldon and Captain Joseph Lyman Jr., a farmer. Joseph Lyman III was educated at Yale and married Elizabeth Fowler in 1792. They had six children: Eliza Lyman Henshaw (1792-?), Edmund Dwight Lyman (1795-1834), Frances Fowler Lyman (1797-1809), Samuel Fowler Lyman (1799-1876), Mary Lyman Jones (1802-1894), and Jane Lyman Brewer (1804-1859). Elizabeth Fowler died in 1808. Anne Jean Robbins and Joseph Lyman were married in October 1811, and lived in Northampton, Massachusetts. They had five more children: Joseph Lyman IV (1812-1871), Anne Jean Lyman (1815-1837), Edward Hutchinson Robbins Lyman (1819-1899), Susan Inches Lyman Lesley (1823-1904), and Catharine Robbins Lyman Delano (1825-1896).
Joseph Lyman III became ill from paralysis in 1841, and died in December 1847. In the fall of 1848, the Lymans' last child to be married, Susan Inches Lyman, was engaged to J. Peter Lesley, and they were married in February 1849. Anne Jean Robbins Lyman subsequently spent several years traveling and visiting relatives, living for a short time in Milton, Massachusetts, before permanently settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1853 to be near her sister Sarah Robbins Howe. Anne Jean Robbins Lyman's health deteriorated, and she was cared for in Cambridge by Mary Walker, a fugitive slave who had been aided by Susan and Peter Lesley, as well as by her younger sister Catherine Robbins. Anne Jean Robbins Lyman may have suffered from dementia; her children placed her in McLean Asylum in Somerville in October 1861, and died there in 1867. Susan Inches Lyman Lesley published Recollections of My Mother, Mrs. Anne Jean Lyman, of Northampton , in 1899.
Physical Location
Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.
Repository Details
Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository
The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.