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Laura Wolcott Gibbs

Other Name:
Laura Wolcott
Gender:
Female
Born:
April 10, 1794
Died:
December 10, 1870
Home Town:
Litchfield, CT
Later Residences:
Newport, RI
Sunswick, NY
Marriage(s):
George Gibbs III (December 27, 1810)
Biographical Notes:
Laura Wolcott Gibbs was the granddaughter of Oliver Wolcott, signer of the Declaration of Independence. She was born in 1794 in Litchfield, Connecticut to Oliver Wolcott, Jr. and Elizabeth Stoughton Wolcott. Around the year 1809 it is believed that Laura may have attended Sarah Pierce's Female Academy. The following year she married George Gibbs.
Quotes:
In February 1811, Wolcott's sister Elizabeth wrote the following letter to their uncle Frederick Wolcott. She asked him to bring a legal case against Litchfield Law School students; William Channing Gibbs, Thomas Sowers Aspinwall, and James Gore King for eating pieces of her wedding cake reserved for Sarah Pierce, Sally Burr Reeve, and her aunt Betsey Huntington Wolcott. This letter is considered an excellent parody of legal procedures being studied at Litchfield Law School and shows the familiarity of young women with legal terminology.

Elizabeth S. Wolcott, NYC
to
[Uncle] Frederick Wolcott, Litchfield
24 Feb 1811

Dear Uncle,
I sent by Mr. W. Gibbs a small trunk containing pieces of Laura's wedding Cake, directed to Aunt Wolcott Mrs. Reeve & ...
[more]
Education
Years at LFA:
1809
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:
[We are currently working to update and confirm citations of attendance.]
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