Her father died before Fanny was born, and her uncle, Christopher Manwaring, was exceedingly fond of his talented niece, aiding her with his library, and for seven years, she lived with him.

Richard Blinman, minister in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, England, having been silenced for non-conformity to the established church, migrated to the United States, and is supposed to have arrived at Plymouth in autumn 1640.

He married Fanny Manwaring in 1792, by whom he had two children, and died of yellow fever at Port-au-Prince early in 1795, while on a trading voyage to the island of Saint-Domingue.

The elements of science which she acquired at this time were the foundation of all her future knowledge and attainments in literature; for, with occasional opportunities of instruction from the best teachers, she was yet in a great measure self-taught; and when once aided in the rudiments of a study or language would, herself, make all the progress she desired.

[11] A considerable portion of her time, from 1812 to 1819, while her mother resided in Norwich, was spent by her in the family of her uncle Christopher Manwaring at New London.

Caulkins had shown an unusual talent for versification as well as for prose writing, but she did not receive encouragement from the family to produce works for publication.

She was invited back to Norwich in 1832, and was principal of the academy there, with a large number of pupils, until the close of the year 1834, when she relinquished finally the duties of a teacher.

Among her pupils were the wives of Senators Jabez W. Huntington and William Alfred Buckingham and three daughters of Charles Lathrop, afterwards missionaries to India.

Levi Nelson, of Lisbon, Connecticut, in 1825, for the special purpose of advancing her knowledge of Latin, and took lessons in the French language, from M. Roux.

While living in New York City, she pursued the study of German, and under the instructions of Maroncelli, gained such a knowledge of Italian, that she was able to read Dante and Tasso in the originals.

The society, at a meeting of its publishing committee on April 23, 1849, by vote, invited her to prepare a suitable series of books for children and youth, to follow the Primer.

In compliance with this request, she furnished six volumes of Bible-Studies, forming an illustrative commentary on the whole Scriptures, and showing accurate scholarship and biblical research, interesting to the young, but full of valuable information for all who love the word of God.

She was five years (from 1854 to 1859) in preparing this series, and contributed to the society, in 1861, one more work, entitled Eve and her Daughters, being sketches of the distinguished women of the Bible in verse.

[13] Her contributions to the local papers of New London were numerous, and with any striking event in the history of the place, or with the decease of any aged or distinguished person, an interesting article was written, in which passing events were interwoven with previous history.Something from the mass of historical and genealogical information which she had accumulated, was first given to the public in the form of a history of the town of Norwich, in 1845.

In 1860, some of the volumes of this history being still in sheets, twenty pages were added and bound up with the original book, thus giving eight years additional records.

Her materials having greatly increased since the issue of the first history of Norwich, and the edition being out of print, she re-wrote the entire work, and a new volume of 700 pages was given to tho public in 1866.

James Savage, of Boston, fully appreciated her historical knowledge, and frequently availed themselves of her stores of information respecting the early colonists of New England.

[15][16] It is very evident from her early writings that she fully accepted and believed the main doctrines of the Scriptures as they were received and held by her Puritan ancestors.

For a time, she slowly regained a comfortable measure of health and strength, and was able to resume her literary labors, which were continued until the last week of her life.

A large mass of historical information and genealogical notes, and hundreds of pages of moral and religious prose, remain among her manuscripts.

A large collection of autographs —many of them not names alone, but letters of distinguished men and women- attest her interest in that department of antiquarian research; and a valuable assortment of ancient and modern coins had been assiduously gathered during her last fifty years.

Specimens of continental currency, with many curious and rare pamphlets and sermons of ancient date, were treasured up, and the peculiar issues of corporate, state and governmental paper, representing fractional parts of a dollar, which were so general in the early years of the American Civil War, were to a good extent preserved in a specimen book.