New Acquisitions
Samuel Johnson. Letter to Lucy Porter. Jan. 13, 1761. Manuscript. *2007M-3 |
Of Elizabeth Porter's three children, her daughter Lucy (1715-1786) was the most accepting of, or perhaps the least resistant to, her marriage to Johnson. Just six years younger than her new stepfather, Lucy maintained a civil relationship with Johnson that grew increasingly warm as the years passed, becoming one of his most frequent correspondents. She remained in Lichfield after her mother moved to London, living with Johnson's mother Sarah, and helping her to run the bookshop. In 2007, a collection of four letters from Johnson to Lucy Porter came on the market for the first time. Lucy had willed the letters to the Rev. John Batteridge Pearson, at one time curate of St. Michael's Church in Lichfield, and they remained with his descendants for some 220 years. |