Submitted by kamonk18 on Sun, 05/05/2019 - 17:58

Georgiana Bruce Kirby (1818-1887) was born in Bristol, England. At 20 years old, she migrated to North America.[1] She was the daughter of Francis and Mrs. Stradwick Bruce.[2] From the beginning of her life, Kirby experienced a challenging childhood due to her seaman father's death before she was born.[3] In her memoir, she recalls at a young age she was a rebel and displayed this through a reflection of her relationship with her sister. She states,

It was not surprising that my sister disliked me . . . She was a well-behaved little girl who always said and did the proper thing. I desired forbidden knowledge, and purposely let the sawdust out of my doll’s body.”[4]

After her turbulent childhood, Kirby began working as a governess for an English family at the age of fourteen. She traveled with the family to France and Melbourne, Canada where she began teaching and developed skills to survive on the frontier.[5] In 1837, she moved back to London and began working for the Reverend E. S. Gannet family, who took her to Boston.[6]

Georgiana was intrigued by the Brook Farm Association in West Roxbury, Massachusetts and joined in 1841 with her brother.[7] She joined in order to develop teaching skills and improve her mathematical ability. She became the head of the infant school. While spending her time at the Brook Farm, she developed strong liberal religious and extreme social views while also finding herself interested in mesmerism, hydropathy, and phrenology.[8] Kirby’s thoughts were influenced by Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and other Transcendental ideals. In February 1844, she left the Brook Farm.[9]

Her departure from the Brook Farm lead her to becoming the assistant of Eliza Farnham, the matron of the female division of Sing Sing Prison in New York.[10] Kirby's close friend, Margaret Fuller, brought together Georgiana and Eliza Farnham. In her memoir, Georgiana reflects on how Mrs. Farnham and she were brought into the Prison. Sing-Sing prison was in search of someone to fill the position, and Judge Edmunds had heard of Mrs. Farnham and after one meeting, he decided she fit the role perfectly. Kirby recalls that after Mrs. Farnham was named the matron she was able to choose four assistants and she was one of them.[11]

She left after a year. In 1850, Georgiana and Eliza moved to Santa Cruz in California where they bought a farm.[12] At this time, she immersed herself into the women's suffrage movement, temperance movement and abolitionists efforts. After living with Eliza for a while, she married Richard Kirby and had five children.[13] She wrote her memoir, Years of Experience: An Autobiographical Narrative and it was published in 1887. She died at 68 years old in 1887.[14] 

Georgiana Bruce Kirby story connects with Honora Sheppard. Georgiana employed Honora and Hopper writes in depth about their relationship in his Diary. 

 

Sources:

"Georgiana Bruce Kirby 1818-1887" New Brook Farm. Accessed May 5, 2019. http://newbrookfarm.org/programs/the-women-of-brook-farm/georgiana-bruce-kirby/

Kirby, Georgiana Bruce. Years of experience: an autobiographical narrative. New

     York: G. P. B. Putnam's Sons, 1887. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/

Encyclopedia Editors, ed. "Kirby, Georgiana Bruce." Encyclopedia.com. Accessed

     May 5, 2019. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/

     news-wires-white-papers-and-books/kirby-georgiana-bruce.

 

[1] "Georgiana Bruce Kirby," New Brook Farm, accessed May 5, 2019, http://newbrookfarm.org/programs/the-women-of-brook-farm/georgiana-bruc….

[2] "Kirby, Georgiana Bruce," Encyclopedia.com, accessed May 5, 2019, https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/kirby-georgiana-bruce.

[3] "Kirby, Georgiana," Encyclopedia.com.

[4] Georgiana Bruce Kirby, Years of experience: an autobiographical narrative (New York: G. P. B. Putnam's Sons, 1887),5, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/ien.35556032592602.

[5] "Kirby, Georgiana," Encyclopedia.com.

[6]  "Kirby, Georgiana," Encyclopedia.com.

[7]  "Georgiana Bruce," New Brook Farm.

[8]  "Kirby, Georgiana," Encyclopedia.com.

[9] "Georgiana Bruce," New Brook Farm.

[10] "Georgiana Bruce," New Brook Farm.

[11] Kirby, Years of experience, 191.

[12] "Georgiana Bruce," New Brook Farm.

[13]  "Georgiana Bruce," New Brook Farm.

[14] "Georgiana Bruce," New Brook Farm.

Image
Georgiana Bruce Kirby

An image of Georgiana Bruce Kirby 

Diary References