Author: Smith, Mary Ann
Biography:
SMITH, Mary Ann, formerly AIKMAN (1782-1844: ancestry.com)
Mary Ann Smith dedicated her hefty Miscellanies (1822) to her husband and children, but identified herself on the title-page by reference to two other male relatives as “Daughter of Alexander Aikman, Esq., of Kingston, Jamaica, and Niece of the late Dr. W. C. Wells, of London.” Alexander Aikman (1755-1838) was a Scot who had emigrated to South Carolina, US, in 1771. He apprenticed himself to a Scottish printer there and in 1777 moved to Kingston, Jamaica, where he established a business and founded a weekly newspaper that became the Royal Gazette. In the course of time he became an influential politician and a wealthy man, owner of three plantations and over 350 slaves. On 14 Jan. 1782 he married the daughter of his former master (and sister of William Charles Wells), Louisa Susannah Wells (1755-1831), at Kingston. They had ten children of whom four—one son and three daughters—grew to maturity. Mary Ann was the eldest, born in 1782. She married another planter, James Smith of St. Andrews, Jamaica—probably in 1808 but no record has been found. His dates of birth and death are not certain; he was listed as a landowner until at least 1832. Their two children, Louisa and James, were born and baptised in Jamaica in 1809 and 1810. The women and children in these families often spent long periods in Britain. Mary Ann’s mother Louisa and one of her sisters died on the Isle of Wight and the other sister in London. She is reported to have died in 1844 but documentary confirmation of the precise date and place are lacking. (The woman of her name living alone by independent means in Lambeth at the time of the 1841 census gives Surrey as her place of birth and cannot be the same person.) Her Miscellanies were not received kindly: MR commented only that she “seems to mean well, and feel well, if she does not write well.” She had earlier been a contributor to a magazine, The Monthly Visitor. (ancestry.com 7 Nov. 2024; findmypast.com 7 Nov. 2024; LBS 7 Nov. 2024; “Alexander Aikman,” Wikipedia 7 Nov. 2024; MR 99 [1822], 221-3)
Other Names:
- M. Smith