Anne Allegra (Longfellow) Thorp (1855 - 1934)

Born 8 Nov 1855 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Joseph Gilbert Thorp Jr. — married 14 Oct 1885 (to 5 May 1931) in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States

Descendants

Died 28 Feb 1934 at age 78 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States

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Biography

Anne Allegra “Annie” Longfellow, daughter of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Fanny Appleton, was born in 1855 at Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. She died at Cambridge in 1934, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge. In 1885, Annie Allegra Longfellow married Joseph Gilbert Thorp, who had come from Oxford, New York, to Harvard, and was a prominent Boston lawyer. They had five daughters, and lived at 115 Brattle street, Cambridge.

“Raventhorp”, Greening Island, Maine, was the summer cottage of J. G. Thorp, built in 1895. The Thorp cottage remained in the family until 1981. Four years after the death of Anne Longfellow Thorp in 1977, daughter of Joseph Gilbert Thorpe and Anne Allegra Longfellow, it was sold.^[1]

Joseph Gilbert Thorp Jr. was an accomplished photographer who took numerous photographs (glass plate negatives) of his family. He captured his children acting in school plays, playing dress up, and at costume parties, along with other relatives.^[2]

Death

Longfellow’s Daughter Passes at Cambridge ^[3]

Longfellow’s Daughter Dies ^[4]

Poet’s Daughter, of Famous Child Poem, Passes Away at 78 ^[5]

“Laughing Allegra” Of Great Longfellow Poem Dies At 79 ^[6]

Obituary

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 28 February 1934

Mrs. Annie Longfellow Thorp, the "Laughing Allegra" of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's celebrated poem, "The Children's Hour," and the poet's youngest daughter, died today (28 February 1934) at the family home on Brattle street. She was 79 years old.

Because of the loss of her mother, Frances Appleton Longfellow, while she was in her early childhood, Mrs. Thorp's relationship with her father was unusually close and enduring, and was immortalized by the poet in the lines from, "The Children's Hour,"

"From my study I see in the lamplight
Descending the broad hall stair.
Grave Alice, and Laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair."

She was raised in the family estate on Brattle Street in Cambridge. She was six years old when her mother, Frances Appleton, died in 1861. Her father died in 1882.

Through her grandmother on her father's side, she was a descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Mullens of "The Courtship of Miles Standish."

In 1885, Annie Allegra Longfellow married Joseph Gilbert Thorp, who had come from Oxford, New York, to Harvard. The newlyweds commissioned her cousin, Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr. to design a home for them at 115 Brattle Street, two houses down from her childhood home.

The couple was actively concerned with the civic life of the community, being particularly active in the Family Welfare Society and the Cambridge Health Association. Mrs. Thorp was also extremely interested in negro education in the South.

An uncle of Mrs. Thorp was the Reverend Samuel Longfellow of Portland, Maine, a prominent Unitarian minister and hymn writer.

She is survived by five daughters ( Alice, Amelia, Erica, Anne and Priscilla ) and number of grandchildren. Her husband, Joseph Gilbert Thorp preceded her in 1931.

Sources

1. ↑ Maine An Encyclopedia : Southwest Harbor Raventhorpe, Greening Island
2. ↑ National Park Service Joseph Gilbert Thorp Jr.
3. ↑ The Times Dispatch Richmond, Virginia 01 Mar 1934, Thu • Page 8
4. ↑ The Republic Columbus, Indiana 01 Mar 1934, Thu • Page 6
5. ↑ Appeal-Democrat Marysville, California 01 Mar 1934, Thu • Page 5
6. ↑ Denton Record-Chronicle Denton, Texas 01 Mar 1934, Thu • Page 1

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 13 December 2020), memorial page for Anne Allegra “Annie” Longfellow Thorp (8 Nov 1855–28 Feb 1934), Find A Grave: Memorial #43210571, citing Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by Midnightdreary (contributor 46971513) .
• "New Jersey Deaths and Burials, 1720-1988," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FZQN-HM8 : accessed 02 Dec 2012), Mrs. Annie "Allegra" Longfellow Thorp, 1856; citing reference , FHL microfilm 1543565.
• Andrew Hilen, ed. The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1966-1972. Vol. III, p. 501, 513-514.

Acknowledgements

• Sara V Mosher, 2023
• This person was created through the import of Howland Mayflower-dude.ged on 12 September 2010.