Harriet Frances Ryland

Harriet Frances Ryland (b. 1786) clashed with her mother (Harriet Ryland) to the point that Richard Ryland, her father, removed her from their home in Ramsgate, creating a saga for Harriet that lasted several years, during which she lived for a time as a boarder in the home of Maria and John Saffery in Salisbury. Richard Ryland paid for all her expenses, but the experience of being thrust upon others damaged her self-esteem and feelings of love for her parents. Her first experience, with a Mrs Reeves in Somerset (see previous letter), had proved untenable to Mr Ryland, and Harriet’s indiscretion regarding some personal items she had borrowed from Reeves and not returned proved highly embarrassing to both her father and brother.  Harriet would spend several years with the Safferys as well as considerable time at Bratton with Anne Whitaker) before her marriage in 1812 to George Gibbs (b. 1779), a coal merchant from Bradford, Wiltshire, in London on 15 December 1812. It appears they settled at Frome, though little is mentioned of her in the Saffery correspondence after her marriage.  Her sister, Lucy Ryland, also appeared often in the Saffery correspondence. The letters that passed between Richard and Harriet Ryland and Maria Grace Saffery can be found in Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6.