Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Lucretia Maria Davidson 1808 ~ 1825

Lucretia Maria Davidson

Lucretia Maria Davidson was born in Plattsburg, New York, September 27, 1808, and was the daughter of Dr. Oliver Davidson, a lover of science. Her mother, Margaret Davidson, whose maiden name was Miller, came of a good family and had received the best education that times afforded at the school of the celebrated Scotch lady, Isabella Graham, in New York City.

The family of Miss Davidson lived in seclusion. Their pleasures were intellectual. Her mother suffered for years from ill health. Miss Davidson was delicate from infancy. When eighteen months old, she suffered from typhus fever which threatened her life. Her first literary acquisition indicated her after course.

Her application to her studies at school was intense. Her early poems were of great merit While devoting her time and attention to her invalid mother, she wrote many beautiful poems, the best known of which is her "Amir Khan" and a tale of some length called "The Recluse of Saranac" "Amir Khan" has long been before the public Its versification is graceful and the story of orientalism beautifully developed and well sustained; as a production of a girl of fifteen it is considered prodigious. Many of her poems are addressed to her mother. "The Fear of Madness" was written by her while confined to her bed and was the last piece she ever wrote. The records of the last scenes of Lucretia Davidson's life are scanty. Her poetical writings which have been collected amount in all to 278 pieces of various length. The following tribute paid her by Mr. Southey is from the London Quarterly Review, whose scant praise of American productions is well known. "In these poems ("Amir Khan," etc.) there is enough of originality, enough of aspiration, enough of conscientious energy, enough of growing power to warrant any expectations, however sanguine, which the patron and the friends and parents of the deceased could have formed." Her death occurred August 27, 1825, in Plattsburg, New York.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.