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Mary Peck Mansfield


Other Name:
Mary Wallace Peck
Gender:
Female
Born:
1800
Died:
Unknown
Home Town:
Litchfield, CT
Marriage(s):
Edward Deering Mansfield (April 25, 1827)
Biographical Notes:
Mary Peck Mansfield was the daughter of Virgil and Mary Wallace Peck of Litchfield, Connecticut. Born in the year 1800, Mary began her studies at the Litchfield Female Academy around the age of eleven in 1811. Mary, who attended the Female Academy for six years, was not the first of her parent's children to study in Litchfield. Her brother William would later attended the Litchfield Law School, and her sisters Helen also attended Ms. Pierce's school. In 1825 Mary continued her involvement with Sarah Pierce's Academy, and taught drawing at the school. She later married Edward Deering Mansfield, a former Litchfield Law School graduate, and the couple had two children.
Additional Notes:
Her paternal grandfather Timothy Peck was a subscriber to the Litchfield Female Academy in 1798.

Primary sources for Mary Peck Mansfield include an autograph album, located in the Litchfield Female Academy collection, Series 2: Student Papers, Records, and Documents, Folder 70.

On August 7, 1826, after visiting Mary, who was to be married in the fall, Ann Elizabeth Landon and Charlotte [Landon] Livingston wrote to Mary F. Beecher:

“Mansfield has been sick with a fever but is recovering fast.”

Helen D. Perkins Collection Stowe-Day

Education
Years at LFA:
1811-1816

Profession / Service
Profession:
Educator


Related Objects and Documents
In the Ledger:
help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
"M Peck" is listed as a cast member in a handwritten copy of the play "Two Cousins" by Sarah Pierce (Litchfield Historical Society - Litchfield Female Academy collection).

Mary Wallace Peck kept an Album while a teacher at the Litchfield Female Academy in 1825 (Litchfield Historical Society - Litchfield Female Academy collection).
Secondary Sources:
Woodruff, George C. A Genealogical Regsiter of the Inhabitants of the Town of Litchfield, Connecticut, 1845.

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