LYNN, Mary Emma

1812 - 1903

Mary Emma Lynn was born on 9 July 1812 and baptised at All Saints' Church, Wickham Market, Suffolk on 12 July 1812, daughter of Thomas Lynn (c1774-2 May 1847), gentleman, and his wife Susan née Simpson; Emma, together with her two brothers James (8 August 1804-12 November 1878) and Edward (12 June 1808-23 September 1840) were all baptised a second time at the same church on 22 April 1813. Her mother Susan, was buried at St Olave Hart Street, Trinity Square, London on 24 September 1834, aged 56 and in 1841, as Emma Lynn, she was living at 1 Marine Terrace, Cliffe, Dover, Kent with her widowed father, 'mariner', and they retained one servant. Her father, Captain Thomas Lynn, late of the Hon. East India Company, died at Dover on 2 May 1847, aged 73, and in 1851 Mary Emma was a 38-year-old 'fund holder' living at Portland Terrace, Marylebone, London with her 15-year-old niece, Susanna Lynn. By 1861 she was back at Middle Street, Wickham Market living with her 56-year-old bachelor brother James, a Lieut. Col. in the Royal Engineers, and his 23-year-old niece Mary Emma (1837-1934) and they retained four servants, the nieces were the daughters of Emma's other brother Edward Lynn who had died in 1840. In 1871, Mary was a 58-year-old fund holder, on a visit to Dennington Rectory, Suffolk, the home of the Alston family. She is noted as a photographer in 'Photographic Album for the year 1855' (London 1855). When photographs were first shown at the Great Exhibition of Arts and Industry in 1851, photography was primarily a hobby for well-to-do amateurs, these early photographers were members of the intellectual and aristocratic elite, they had the means, the education, and the leisure to pursue this new art-science with ardent seriousness. Mary Emma also seems to have been a watercolour artist of scenes around her Suffolk homes in Wickham Market and Aldeburgh. By 1891 she had moved to Tiffany House, Back Street, Aldeburgh, 'living on own means' together with a cook and a domestic servant. Mary Ellen Lynn of Tiffany House, Aldeburgh, Suffolk died on 3 August 1903. aged 91. Her namesake niece, Mary Ellen Lynn, married Bulkeley Allen, who was one of the executors to Mary's will on 26 September 1903.

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Works by This Artist