Susan Anne Ridley Sedgwick Explained

Susan Anne Ridley Sedgwick
Birth Date:1788 5, df=yes
Birth Place:Stockbridge, MA
Death Place:Stockbridge, MA
Resting Place:The Sedgwick Pie
Nationality:American
Known For:Children's novels
Occupation:Author

Susan Anne Ridley Sedgwick (1788–1867) was a 19th-century American writer specializing in children's novels. She also painted a watercolor-on-ivory portrait of an ex-slave who came to work for her family.

Sedgwick was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, daughter of Matthew Ridley (1746–1789) and Catherine Livingston (1751–1813), his second wife.[1] Sedgwick's mother, Catherine Livingston, was the daughter of William Livingston, governor of New Jersey. She married Theodore Sedgwick Jr., (1780–1839).[2] Her husband's father, Theodore Sedgwick (1746–1813), was a delegate to Continental Congress, a United States Representative, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a United States Senator from Massachusetts, and a state supreme court judge.[3] As a lawyer, Sedgwick, Sr. represented Elizabeth ("Mumbet") Freeman, who had been a slave for forty years,[4] and won her freedom. Mumbet came to live as a servant in the Sedgwick household, and Susan Sedgwick painted her portrait (watercolor on ivory).[5]

Sedgwick's sister-in-law was Catharine Sedgwick (1789–1867), also a novelist. Before she married Catharine's brother, Susan was Catharine's schoolmate.[6]

Sedgwick was one of the 139 people buried in the large circular family burial plot in Stockbridge, Massachusetts known as the Sedgwick Pie.

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Notes and References

  1. Web site: Matthew Ridley Papers 1717–1812 . Library Collection Guides . The Massachusetts Historical Society . 10 January 2011 .
  2. Book: Brown . John Howard . Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States . Federal Book Company of Boston . 1903 . Boston .
  3. Book: Baynes . Thomas Spencer . Supplement to Encyclopædia Britannica 9th Edition A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature . J. M. Stottar . 1889 . New York . 463 .
  4. Web site: Elizabeth Freeman ("Mumbet") . African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts . The Massachusetts Historical Society . 10 January 2011.
  5. Web site: (Portrait of) Elizabeth Freeman ("Mumbet"). African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts . The Massachusetts Historical Society . 10 January 2011.
  6. Book: Lucinda L. Damon-Bach . Victoria Clements . Catharine Maria Sedgwick: critical perspectives . . 2003 . xxvi . 1-55553-548-8.

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