ABSTRACT
While reading adoption narratives at the American Antiquarian Society, I discovered the papers of Ann Sargent Gage (1794–1876), whose family story intersects with that of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ann was the illegitimate daughter of a prominent Boston businessman, Daniel Sargent. Fearful of scandal associated with her illegitimacy, he consulted “his spiritual advisor,” Rev. William Emerson, father of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Wheeler 2). They arranged for Ann's name to be changed to Ann Brewer and for her to be removed to the remote town of Waterford, Maine, where she was adopted by William Emerson's sister and Ralph Waldo's aunt, Phebe Emerson Ripley, and Phebe's husband, Rev. Lincoln Ripley. Ann was well cared for by her adoptive family, but her identity was erased, and she never returned to her family of origin. She struggled to makes ends meet financially, first by tutoring and teaching, and later, with children of her own, by attempting to regain her patrimony through a sympathetic paternal uncle, Lucius Manlius Sargent. In 1814, one of Ann's pupils was Robert Bulkeley Emerson, the younger brother of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
