Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Merritt, Anna Massey (née Lea)

13 Sept 1844 – 7 April 1930

Anna Massey Lea was born in Philadelphia in 1844 to an affluent Quaker couple, Joseph Lea and Susanna Massey.  She was the oldest of their six daughters.  She took lessons in art from an early age and also studied anatomy at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.  From 1865, when the family moved to Europe, she studied art in Italy.

By 1870 the family was living in London, where she met Henry Merritt (1822–1877), a noted art critic and picture conservator.  Twenty-two years her senior, he would become her tutor and subsequently her husband, but their marriage was short-lived.  They wed in April 1877 and he died in July of the same year.

Anna Lea Merritt did not marry again.  She spent the rest of her life in England, although with frequent trips to the States and with exhibitions and awards in both countries, and became a celebrated artist who did much to support women’s issues.  She made her home in Hurstbourne Tarrant in 1890 and published A Hamlet in Old Hampshire in 1902.

Sources

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

She lived in Hurstbourne Tarrant and wrote about poverty and life in general there.  

Relevant published works

• A Hamlet in Old Hampshire (1902) describing life in Hurstbourne Tarrant in late Victorian times.

Critical Comments

Her book was more a memoir than historical research.

Other Comments

Contributor

Dave Allen, October 2021

Key Words

Hurstbourne Tarrant

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