Ann Simmons

Abstract

The year 1792 was a crucial one for the Lamb family. Samuel Salt and Mary Field were both desperately ill. It seems likely¹ that soon after he left the South Sea House on 8 February Charles was sent as emissary and consoler to old Mrs Field, dying at Blakesware of breast cancer, while Elizabeth and John, with what help Mary could spare from dressmaking, coped with the illness of the kindly Salt. Charles would not be with his grandmother every moment, though the bond was close: she was often in pain and the Plumer family would have provided her with an attendant. He would have time for pretty, yellow-haired Ann Simmons, by others called Nancy, but to Lamb always Ann, Anna, or (for disguise in the essays) Alice W—n.

I loved a love once, fairest among women.—‘The Old Familiar Faces’