A personal recollection

We are fortunate to have a personal recollection of Anne Pratt from her nephew, Sidney Young (1843-1914) who went to stay with his Aunt Anne as a boy.  Anne's sister Catherine married Joseph Young, Sidney's father.  Sidney later became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) and late in life wrote A History of the Families of Young and Goodall, Isle of Wight (Privately Printed 1913).  The following comes from this account (pp.23-29).

"The second daughter of Robert and Sarah Pratt was Anne Pratt, a lady of exceptional attainments, botany being her special subject, though she wrote much on other topics.  She frequently resided at Dover, and I well remember when about six years of age going there with her in the stage coach from Chatham, and remaining under her loving care for some months.  On fine days she would sit on the parade with her tablet and notes writing a book, whilst I played on the beach in front, her watchful eye on me and a gentle reproof now and again escaping her lips when I happened to be what she called "my naughty little boy."  In the afternoons she was the centre and life of a circle of friends who gathered round to enjoy what I afterwards learned, was her brilliant and attractive conversation.  Her elder sister, my dear mother, was an equally ardent student of botany and greatly assisted Aunt Anne, collecting specimens for her with an expert's knowledge of discrimination.

My sisters, Jane Kettle and Emily Wells, both of whom inherited the brightness and intelligence of the mother and Aunt Anne, in 1889 wrote for a weekly paper a short article on 'Anne Pratt,' which is so prettily and appreciatively composed that I must preserve it in these pages."
[To read this article click here]

"When sixty years of age Anne Pratt married Mr. John Pearless of East Grinstead.  Anne died on the 27th July, 1893, in the 87th year of her age, and her husband died in December of the same year."