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Cornelia Adams Tomlinson

Other Name:
Cornelia Davis Adams; Laura Adams
Gender:
Female
Born:
February 16, 1786
Died:
April 1867
Home Town:
Litchfield, CT
Later Residences:
Rhinebeck, NY
Marriage(s):
David Tomlinson (1810)
Biographical Notes:
Cornelia Adams Tomlinson was the daugher of Andrew Adams, Jr. and Annis Canfield. Born in 1786, she attended the Litchfield Female Academy from 1802-1803. While Cornelia was at Litchfield she became involved with a student of the Law School whose last name was Rutledge. After setting a wedding date, problems emerged, and the engagement was broken. Cornelia left Litchfield, and moved to Rhinebeck-on-Hudson, New York, where she lived with her aunt, Lydia Adams Cowles. During her time there, she met and married a doctor, David Tomlinson of Derby, Connecticut. Throughout her life, Cornelia urged her female children and grandchildren to read frequently and to take their lessons seriously. She loved discussing current events, and it has been recorded that two historians, Lossing and Dr. Francis, ...
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Education
Years at LFA:
1802-1803
Immediate Family (Why only immediate family?)
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:
Cornelia is listed as a fellow student in Maryan Bacon's 1802 Journal (Litchfield Historical Society - Litchfield Female Academy Collection).

"Beach, Luch Sheldon (Mrs. Theron) 1803 Jan 28" Journal (Litchfield Historical Society - Litchfield Female Academy Collection).
Secondary Sources:
Fessenden, Laura Dayton. Genealogical Story (Dayton and Tomlinson). Crist, Scott, and Parshall, 1902.
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