An alumna of 1838 wrote: There must have been a powerful personal influence about the Misses Lawrence, which raised their school to a position of considerable eminence for many years, and sent forth a large number of really superior women.
[3]Emma Willard, the American activist who dedicated her life to women's education, came to London in 1830 as part of her tour of Europe.
The encounter is documented both in an edition of Edgeworth's letters, and in the biography of William Rowan Hamilton, the Irish astronomer and mathematician, by Robert Perceval Graves.
[5][6] The circumstances of the sisters' journey to France are mentioned in the memoirs of the Liverpool merchant Thomas Fletcher (died 1850), business partner of Joseph Brooks Yates.
In London on business with Kean Osborn, he noted that the "Misses Lawrence" were travelling by coach to the Channel, and then onwards to Paris, with his nephew John Fletcher who was bound for Switzerland.
Arabella's initial contact with the Byron family was by letter, and she recommended a Miss Lamont, who was Irish, to care for Ada.
[12] In 1828, Lady Byron finished a long European tour, with Ada and a friend, Louise Chaloner, during which she had visited the Swiss school of Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg at Hofwil.
[15] Lady Byron was impressed by Arabella's use of linked square boxes, divided up to define the scope of topics.
Arabella wrote to William Rowan Hamilton in spring 1830 from Hanger Hill (at Ealing), at that time the Byron residence.
Ada in 1829 had lost her governess Miss Stamp, whom she liked, had contracted measles and then for two years suffered from a debilitating post-viral condition which confined her mostly to bed.
[20] Ethel Colburn Mayne's biography of Lady Byron comments on Arabella's teaching of historical dates "successfully and agreeably".
She quotes Arabella as thinking it "curious to observe how the squares were gradually filled up, as the knowledge enlarged.
[18] The period of tuition came to an end in 1832, when Ada was walking again, and the household moved to Fordhook House, on Ealing Common.