Letters from England, 1846-1849

From the opening

Transcribed from the 1904 Smith, Elder and Co. edition by Jane Duff and proofed by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

[Picture: Elizabeth Davis Bancroft. Probably taken at Brady’s National Gallery, New York, sometime after her return from England; from a picture owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss]

SMITH, ELDER & CO. LONDON : : : : : : : 1904

Copyright, 1903, by Charles Scribner’s Sons, for Great Britain and the United States of America.

Printed by the Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company New York, U. S. A.

ELIZABETH DAVIS BANCROFT, the writer of these letters, was the youngest child and only daughter of William and Rebecca Morton Davis, and was born at Plymouth, Mass., in October, 1803. She often spoke in later times of what a good preparation for her life abroad were the years she spent at Miss Cushing’s school at Hingham, and of her visits to her uncles, Judge Davis and Mr. I. P. Davis of Boston. In 1825 she married Alexander Bliss, a brilliant young lawyer and a junior partner of Daniel Webster. On his death a few years later, her father having died, her mother and brother formed a household with her and her two sons in Winthrop Place, Boston. As a young girl in Plymouth she became a great friend of the future Mrs. Emerson and later of Mr. Emerson and of Mr. and Mrs. Ripley, and through them was much interested in Brook Farm.

In 1838 she married George Bancroft, the historian and statesman, who was then Collector of the Port of Boston and a widower with three children. They continued to live in Winthrop Place till 1845, when for one year Mr. Bancroft was Secretary of the Navy in Polk’s cabinet. While he was in that position the Naval Academy at Annapolis was established; and he played an important part in the earlier stages of the Mexican War. In the fall of 1846 he became Minister to England. It was then that the letters were written from which these extracts have been taken.

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