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Lucy Aikin

Warrington, 1781 - 1864, Hampstead

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LC Heading: Aikin, Lucy, 1781-1864
Biography:
Aikin, Lucy (1781–1864), historian, the fourth child and only daughter of John Aikin MD (1747–1822), and his wife, Martha Jennings (d. 1830), was born in Warrington on 6 November 1781. Her three brothers were Arthur Aikin, Charles Rochemont Aikin, and Edmund Aikin. Her father moved the family to Yarmouth in 1784 and then to London in 1792. Dr Aikin retired from medical practice in 1797; with his wife and daughter he settled in Stoke Newington, Middlesex, where they lived until his death in 1822. Lucy, who never married, then moved with her mother to Hampstead, where she lived as a householder until 1844. She briefly resided with a nephew in London before joining the household of her niece Anna LeBreton in Wimbledon; in 1852 they returned to Hampstead. Lucy Aikin died from influenza on 29 January 1864 at her home, Milford House, Hampstead; she was buried in Hampstead.

Except for brief attendance at a day school in Yarmouth, Aikin was educated entirely at home. Her father and her aunt Anna Letitia Aikin Barbauld were particularly important influences. She read widely in English, French, Italian, and Latin literature and history. She was encouraged to write; her first periodical contributions appeared when she was seventeen. Her early works were surely influenced by those of her father and aunt. She published two translations, The Life of Ulrich Zwingli (1812) and The Travels of Rolando (1823), as well as compilations of poetry and readings and English lessons for children. In 1810 Epistles on Women, Exemplifying their Character and Condition in Various Ages and Nations appeared. This work argued, in a series of poetical accounts, that women should be valued for themselves and not simply treated as inferior to men and thus unimportant. Her only work of fiction was Lorimer, a Tale (1814).

Aikin's most important publications were her histories and biographies. Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth (1818) is an account that concentrates on the art, literature, manners, and morals of Elizabeth's reign, with brief biographies of leading figures. It was followed by Memoirs of the Court of King James the First (1822) and Memoirs of the Court of King Charles the First (1833). Aikin used the available printed sources, quoting when relevant but always drawing her material together into a coherent narrative. In the preface to the work on Charles I she also acknowledged the use of various manuscript collections. These pioneering histories were well received; each was reprinted several times. The volumes were not uncritical. As a dissenting Liberal, Aikin condemned all religious persecution. She also clearly disapproved of both arbitrary royal actions and scheming and ambitious court favourites. She was not willing to continue her series to include either Cromwell or Charles II. She did project a work on the social history of women in the eighteenth century, but this was never completed.

Aikin's works emphasized the artistic, social, and literary aspects of the period rather than its religious, military, or parliamentary history. Her choice of social history, as it was understood in the early nineteenth century, was one made by most women historians, from her contemporaries Mary Berry and Elizabeth Benger through to such mid-century writers as Agnes and Elizabeth Strickland. Female education stressed the literary and cultural achievements of society; therefore, their writing on these subjects could be regarded as serious. Their subject matter and emphases were limited by what was regarded as important in their time. Courtly life and high culture fill their pages; little or nothing is said about how ordinary people lived and worked. But unlike the standard histories written by men, Aikin and her fellow female historians stressed that the lives and actions of women were also an important part of history.

Aikin's other major publications were edited volumes of the works of several authors, each of which also included a biography of the author by the editor. Memoir of John Aikin, MD (1823) and The Works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1825) are the primary contemporary sources for the lives of Aikin's father and aunt. Her biography of Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger, published with Benger's Memoirs of the Life of Anne Boleyn (1827), is the primary account of that secondary writer. Benger, a member of Anna Barbauld's circle, wrote biographies of several Tudor and Stuart women; her work was similar to Aikin's though never as successful. Aikin, like her aunt, encouraged and publicized women writers when possible. Aikin's The Life of Joseph Addison (1843) printed a number of Addison's letters not previously available, and was the first biography of the essayist and poet to be published. It was reviewed unfavourably by Thomas Babington Macaulay, who, unlike Aikin, did not approve of Addison.

Aikin's own letters are as important as her formal publications. Her correspondents included members of her family, dissenting leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, and both male and female writers. The letters reveal a witty and appreciative reader of older and current literature and a perceptive observer of current events. As a woman and a Unitarian, Aikin was critical of much of the existing political and educational establishment in Britain. Although in no sense a radical, she advocated better education and more civil rights for women as well as more complete religious freedom for all.

Barbara Brandon Schnorrenberg
(Barbara Brandon Schnorrenberg, ‘Aikin, Lucy (1781–1864)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2055/view/article/231, accessed 9 Oct 2015])

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Last Updated8/7/24

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