Lucy Aikin

Family and education

Lucy Aikin was born at Warrington, England, into a distinguished literary family of prominent Unitarians. They were also a family of writers, the most well known of whom was her paternal aunt, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, a woman of letters who wrote poetry and essays as well as early children's literature. Lucy's father, Dr. John Aikin, was a medical doctor, historian, and author. Her grandfather, also called John Aikin (1713–1780), was a Unitarian scholar and theological tutor, closely associated with Warrington Academy. Lucy's brother was Arthur Aikin (1773–1854), chemist, mineralogist and scientific writer; their brother Charles Rochemont (1775–1847) was adopted by their famous aunt and brought up as their cousin; he became a doctor and chemist.

Lucy was educated by her father and her aunt, an early critic of the education system. She "read widely in English, French, Italian, and Latin literature and history", and began writing for magazines at the age of seventeen, and at an early age assisted her father as an editor in his writings as well.

Writing career

Aikin was interested in early education, and as such published several works to assist young readers: Poetry for Children: Consisting of Short Pieces to be Committed to Memory (1801), Juvenile Correspondence or Letters, Designed as Examples of the Epistolary Style, for Children of Both Sexes (1811), An English Lesson Book, for the Junior Classes (1828), and The Acts of Life: of Providing Food, of Providing Clothing, of Providing Shelter (1858).

Aikin also was responsible for translating the French texts: Louis Francois Jauffret’s The Travels of Rolando (publication appears to be around 1804), and Jean Gaspard Hess’s The Life of Ulrich Zwingli (1812), a life of the leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. She also was responsible for two creative works: Epistles on Women, Exemplifying their Character and Condition in Various Ages and Nations, with Miscellaneous Poems (1810), and her only work of fiction, Lorimer, a Tale (1814). She also was well-remembered for her biographical works: Memoir of John Aikin, MD (1823), The Works of Anna Laetita Barbauld (1825), The Life of Anne Boleyn (1827), and The Life of Joseph Addison (1843).

However, as memoirs and obituaries are quick to point out, she was probably most famous for her historical works: Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth (1818), Memoirs of the Court of James I (1822), and Memoirs of the Court of Charles I (1833).

Under the pseudonym Mary Godolphin, Lucy Aikin is also attributed for producing versions of Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, Aesop's Fables, Evenings at Home (by her father and aunt), and Sandford and Merton, "in Words of One Syllable".

She was remarkable for her conversational powers, and was also an admirable letter-writer. She died at Hampstead, then just north of London, where she had lived for forty years.

Her niece Anna Letitia Le Breton carried on her literary legacy after her death. Aikin's Memoirs, Miscellanies, and Letters were published in 1864, and an edited version of her correspondence with Dr William Ellery Channing, the American Unitarian theologian, followed ten years later.

Selected works

Works attributed to her as Mary Godolphin