Lucy Aikin

English historian Lucy Aikin (6 November 1781 - 29 January 1864) also wrote biographies and served as a reporter. She also published works using aliases like Mary Godolphin. Her aunt Anna Laetitia Barbauld, a poetess, essayist, and children's author, belonged to a family of writers. In 1781, Aikin was born in Warrington, then a part of Lancashire. Her parents were Dr. John Aikin (1747-1822) and his wife, Martha Jennings (d. 1830). She was their fourth child. They came from a distinguished...See more

English historian Lucy Aikin (6 November 1781 - 29 January 1864) also wrote biographies and served as a reporter. She also published works using aliases like Mary Godolphin. Her aunt Anna Laetitia Barbauld, a poetess, essayist, and children's author, belonged to a family of writers. In 1781, Aikin was born in Warrington, then a part of Lancashire. Her parents were Dr. John Aikin (1747-1822) and his wife, Martha Jennings (d. 1830). She was their fourth child. They came from a distinguished Unitarian family of writers. Her grandfather, John Aikin (1713-1780), a Unitarian scholar and theological educator who was closely connected to Warrington Academy, was also named John Aikin, and Lucy's father was also a historian. Until her father passed away in 1822, Lucy Aikin lived with her parents in Great Yarmouth and Stoke Newington. After his passing, she then relocated to Hampstead. Her first significant work, Epistles on Women, exemplifying their Character and Condition in Various Ages and Nations, with Miscellaneous Poems, was published in 1810; Lorimer, a Tale, her sole piece of fiction, was published in 1814. Those were merely her first attempts; her reputation, however, was entirely built on historical writings that were released between 1818 and 1843, including Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth (1818). See less