To all there is given this encouragement: that if they cultivate, with care and self-denial, the talents God has given them, they will have the approbation of their own consciences and the approval of those whose good opinion is worth having. — Lucy Brightwell, Annals of Industry and Genius, vii.
(Cecilia) Lucy Brightwell was born at Thorpe St Andrew on the outskirts of Norwich on 27 February 1811, the eldest child of Thomas Brightwell by his first wife, Mary Snell. Thomas was an important figure in Norwich at a time when it was a hub of intellectual life. A lawyer, he was an ardent nonconformist who compiled a weighty volume of Notes on the Pentateuch (1840), and served as a deacon at the Old Meeting House, Norwich, and treasurer of the Norwich and Norfolk branch of the Missionary Society (Brightwell 7). He became Mayor of Norwich in 1837. He was also a man of science, a Fellow of the Royal Society at a time when there was scope for the committed amateur. He contributed to scientific journals and identified a species of microscopic wheel animalcules (or rotifers), which was named after him. Michael Chandler notes that Lucy's maternal uncle was Simon Wilkin, who produced an edition of the works of Sir Thomas Browne.
A beautifully bound presentation copy of Brightwell's Annals of Industry and Genius, with the motto, "In all labour there is profit."
Not surprisingly in view of such a family background, Lucy herself took up scholarly pursuits, studying Italian to a high level, writing a biography of the family's good friend, author and abolitionist Amelia Opie in 1854, and following that up with a whole spate of biographies and collections of bioraphies, producing twenty books in all. These included accounts of Linnaeus and her own father, after his death in 1868. Some of her work was, like the memoir of Opie itself, for the Religious Tract Society, and among her "improving" books for the young was Memorials of the Early Lives and Doings of Great Lawyers (1866), intended as a school prize book.
But Lucy had another talent beside writing, one that has better stood the test of time. In illustrating the tiny subjects of her father's interest, she developed a very fine eye for detail. Norma Watt explains: "in 1848, when he produced for private distribution 100 copies of Sketch of a Fauna infusoria for East Norfolk, she spent long periods studying specimens under a powerful microscope to make drawings for the illustrations. These she transferred to lithographs, and later she hand coloured many of the plates in the individual books." Having studied under John Sell Cotman, she became an extremely proficient etcher, so much so that experts have found it next to impossible to distinguish her copies of the Old Masters from the originals. The British Museum has a grand total of 79 of her prints, both copyist works and originals.
Village Scene, one of Brightwell's etchings acquired by the British Museum in 1847.
As long as her father lived, Lucy devoted herself to him. Later in life, however, she received a proposal from the widowed George Borrow. Borrow had known her for many years, even before his adventures as a distributer of Bibles overseas: "Old Mrs. Borrow mentions her in her letters as ‘the child’ and ‘Lucy,’ and the latter in her correspondence calls Mrs. Borrow ‘mother'.... It was in the garden of Miss Brightwell’s house in Surrey Street, Norwich, that the only photograph existing of Mr. Borrow was taken by her brother ‘Tom’ in 1848" (qtd. in Hooper 46). Unfortunately, her brother disapproved of the proposed later-life match, and Lucy declined. The last years of her life were sad. Like her father, she developed cataracts, to the extent that she lost her sight entirely. She also contracted some kind of brain disease.
After months of considerable suffering, she died on 17 April 1875, and was buried with her father and aunt at the non-denominational Rosary Road Cemetery in Norwich.
The last resting place of Thomas Brightwell, his second wife Ann, Lucy Brightwell, and her aunt Martha Hawkins. Photo © Evelyn Simak, kindly made available on the Creative Commons licence on the Geograph website.
Related Material
Bibliography
Brightwell, C. L. Annals of Industry and Genius. London: Nelson, 1863. Internet Archive. Web. 14 June 2020. [The image of the front cover has been lightened to bring out the colour.]
_____. So Great Love: Sketches of Missionary Life and Labour. London: John Snow, 1874. Internet Archive. Web. 14 June 2020.
Chandler, Michael. Historical Women of Norfolk. Stroud. Glos.: Amberley, 2016.
Fraser, Angus. "Borrow, George Henry (1803–1881), writer and traveller."
_____. "George Borrow and Lucy Brightwell." Notes & Queries. 220/3 (1975): 109–11.
Hooper, James. Souvenir of the George Borrow Celebration, Norwich July 5th, 1913. London and Norwich: Jarrold & Sons, 1913. Internet Archive. Contributed by University of California Libraries. Web. 14 June 2020.
Lucy Brightwell, in the British Museum Collections. Web. 14 June 2020.
Watt, Norma. "Brightwell, (Cecilia) Lucy (1811–1875), etcher and author." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. 14 June 2020.
Created 13 June 2020