Hannah (Lane) Blackwell (1792 - 1870)

Born 1792 in Bristol, England

Wife of Samuel Blackwell — married 27 Sep 1815 in Bristol, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 22 Aug 1870 at about age 78 in Rockaway Peninsula, Queens, New York, United States

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Biography

Hannah Lane was born about 1792, probably in Bristol, England, United Kingdom, where she lived as a child and young woman.^[1] Her parents were [unknown] Lane and possibly Hannah Browne. She was the mother of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., the first woman awarded a medical degree in the United States.^[2]

A biography of Hannah's daughter-in-law, the suffragist and abolitionist Lucy Stone, says Hannah's mother "was a Borne, daughter of a prosperous and genteel merchant, who disappointed her family by marrying a ne’er-do-well jeweler by the name of Lane. Lane, unfaithful to his wife, was later convicted of forgery and banished to Australia as an alternative to the gallows. Hannah remembered having been fitted as a child for a black dress to wear to her father’s hanging."^[3]

Marriage

Hannah Lane married Samuel Blackwell, a prosperous young partner of Counterslip Sugar Refinery of Bristol,^[4] on 27 Sep 1815 in St. James Parish, Bristol, England.^[5] Hannah is said to have met Samuel while they were both teaching Sunday school.^[6]

Samuel Blackwell, a sugar refiner and abolitionist, was born on 6 Feb 1790 in Worcester, Worcestershire, England, and baptized there on 15 Feb 1790 at the Angel Street Congregational Church.^{[7] [8]} He was the son of Samuel Blackwell, a Bristol cabinetmaker,^[9] and his wife Elizabeth Stokes,^[10] who moved their family from Worcester to Bristol about 1811.^[4]

Hannah and Samuel were Congregationalists, "protestant Dissenters from the established Church of England, advocates of education, temperance, hard work and self-improvement, staunch Whig reformers and early antislavery activists."^[9]

Children

With the proceeds of Samuel's business creating a comfortable middle class life for their family, Samuel and Hannah went on to have nine children who lived to adulthood. At least three more did not survive childhood.^[1]

1. Anna Blackwell (1816-1900), never married
2. Marian Blackwell (1818-1897), never married
3. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D. (1821-1910), never married^[11]
4. Samuel Charles Blackwell (1823-1901), married Antoinette Louisa Brown^[12]
5. Henry Browne Blackwell (1825-1909), married Lucy Stone
6. Dr. Emily Blackwell, M.D. (1826-1910), never married
7. Sarah "Ellen" Blackwell (1828-1901, never married
8. John Howard Blackwell (1831-1866)
9. George Washington Blackwell (1833-1912), married Emma Stone Lawrence

In Bristol, the growing family lived in a terraced house at Wilson Street and Lemon Lane. ^[9]

Immigration

Samuel's business faced a downturn, with the failure of his Dublin office and the bankruptcy of the Bristol shipping firm, Bevan and Yates, which owed Blackwell almost £7,000. The Blackwell family, including a governess, two maids, and two maiden aunts, packed up and immigrated to the United States on the ship Cosmo, arriving in New York City on 5 Oct 1832.^[1]

They first lived In New York, where Samuel used his remaining capital to set up a New York sugar refinery. He also joined the recently formed Anti-Slavery Society of New York. As a sugar refiner and abolitionist, Samuel was greatly interested in pursuing beet sugar as an alternative to cane sugar to eliminate the sugar industry's dependence on slavery.

To pursue the sugar beets venture, the family in 1838 moved 640 miles west to Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, where Samuel J. Brown, his wife's relative and a leading citizen, convinced him that it was a favorable location for beet sugar production.^[4] Samuel Blackwell had sold his New York refining operation and invested his money into producing a quality sugar beet product.

Within two months of their arrival in Cincinnati, Samuel, aged 38, died there of malaria on 7 Aug 1838^[13] and was buried in the family cemetery of Samuel J. Browne, Hannah's relative. His dream to be an innovator in the beet sugar industry was thwarted by the recession of 1837 and sickness.^[4][14]

Hannah, widowed in 1838 only six years after arriving in the United States, raised her children to be independent and free thinkers. Of her five daughters, who never married, Elizabeth became the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, persevering through physical disability and societal obstacles. Her daughter Emily was the third woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, and the founder and dean of the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary. Another daughter, Anna, was a free spirit, a writer and translator, who spent much of her life in France.

The center of the family circle, Hannah passed on her strong moral beliefs to her children in many letters and writings, including a family bible inscribed, “Oh! That this book may be to my dear George as a lamp to his path, and a guide to his feet, and an anchor to his soul.” Her signature on a petition in support of equal property rights for women conveys her commitment to social reform and rights for women.

Death

Hannah, aged 78, died on 22 August 1870 in Rockaway, Queens, New York City,^[15] her decline accelerated by gangrene in her foot.^[9] She was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings, New York.^[16][17] Hannah had been living with her daughter Marian in Hempstead, Queens, according to the 1870 census. ^[18]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2M1-QH64 : 2 August 2022), Manifest of Passengers, ship name Cosmo, from Bristol, England, arrived in New York City on 5 Oct 1832, Sam’l Blackwell, 42, merchant, Hannah, 39, Anna, 16, Mary Anne, 14, Elizabeth, 12, Samuel, 9, Henry, 7, Emily, 5, Ellen, 4, Mary, 39, Lucy, 32, Elisa Major, 24, governess, all from Great Britain, intending to live in the United States. [missing infant John Howard, less than a year old, and George, yet to be born]
2. ↑ Wikipedia: Elizabeth Blackwell
3. ↑ Kerr, Andrea Moore, Lucy Stone, Speaking Out for Equality. Rutgers University Press. 1992
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Million, Joelle. "Samuel Blackwell: Sugar Refiner and Abolitionist." New York History Review. 14 June 2017 (http://newyorkhistoryreviewarticles.blogspot.com/2017/06/samuel-blackwell-sugar-refiner-and.html)
5. ↑ England Marriages, 1538–1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NFRK-HVC : 12 March 2020), Hannah Lane married Samuel Blackwell on 27 Sep 1815 in St. James Parish, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England
6. ↑ Wilson, Tracy V. and Holley Frey. "Elizabeth Blackwell, America's First Female M.D." Stuff You Missed in History Class (Podcast). 24 March 2014. HowStuffWorks.com (web). Retrieved 17 Oct 2017.
7. ↑ England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1936. Ancestry.com. Register of the Angel Street Congregational Church, Worcester, England. Samuel Blackwell, son of Samuel Blackwell and his wife Elizabeth, born 6 Feb 1790 and baptized 15 Feb 1790
8. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J39H-CNL : 5 February 2023), Samuel Blackwell baptized 15 Feb 1790 at Angel Street Congregational, Worcester, Worcestershire, England
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3} Nimura, Janice P. The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Woman and Women to Medicine. W.W. Norton & Co. 1921
10. ↑ "England, Warwickshire, Parish Registers, 1535-1963," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGTD-NLMS : 13 September 2022), Samuel Blackwell and Elizabeth Stokes married 29 Sep 1781 in Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom
11. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JMJB-BN1 : accessed 08 Feb 2014), Hannah in entry for Elizabeth Blackwell, 03 Feb 1821.
12. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NYT8-876 : accessed 24 Aug 2014), Hannah in entry for Samuel Charles Blackwell, 23 Oct 1825; citing , reference ; FHL microfilm 0593816 (RG4 338).
13. ↑ Ohio, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998. Ancestry.com. Index to will. Samuel Blackwell died in Hamilton County, Ohio.
14. ↑ Samuel J Browne to “aged Mother” [Mrs. Farmer, his mother-in-law in England], 25 Aug 1838, John W. Browne Coll.; Blackwell Family Papers, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America (BSL), Elizabeth Blackwell’s diary, 31 Jul- 8 Aug 1839.
15. ↑ U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930. Ancestry.com. Image. New York Evening Post, issue Thurs 25 Aug 1870. Rockaway 22nd Hannah, 78 y wid Samuel Blackwell formerly Cincinnati lately Roseville, N.J.
16. ↑ "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WQ5-KFX : 2 June 2020), New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,323,683. Hannah Blackwell, aged 77, died 22 Aug 1870 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States, Note on document: “Far Rockaway”, buried Greenwood
17. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/257655002/hannah-blackwell: accessed 10 August 2023), memorial page for Hannah Lane Blackwell (1792–22 Aug 1870), Find a Grave Memorial ID 257655002, citing Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, USA; Maintained by Joan Stewart Smith (contributor 48837098).
18. ↑ "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8VY-75R : 29 May 2021), Hempstead, Queens, New York, United States, Hannah Blackwell in household of daughter Marian Blackwell.