Harriette was the daughter of James Sykes, Esquire and Maria Henrietta Adby (eldest daughter of the Reverend Thomas Adby of Theydon Gernon, Essex and Mary Hayes).
On 05 June 1834 in Clifton, Gloucester, England she married John Addington Symonds, M.D.
BIRTH: London Courier and Evening Gazette 13 March 1809, Page 4
At Bloomsbury Place, the Lady of Mr. James Sykes, of a daughter.
MARRIAGE: Oxford University and City Herald 07 June 1834, Page 3
On Thursday last was married, at Clifton Church, by the Rev. Henry Middleton, John Addington Symonds, M.D. of Bristol, to Harriet (sp.), eldest daughter of the late James Sykes, jun. Esq. of Bloomsbury-place, London.
DEATH: The Court and Lady's Magazine, Vol. 25
Symonds, Harriette, the beloved wife of Dr. Symonds, after a short illness; in Berkley-square, Bristol, June 6.
From the memoirs of her son, John Addington Symonds:
"It is certain that the medical school of theorists would claim me as the subject of neurotic disease. My mother's family on the paternal side (Sykes) was tainted with pulmonary phthisis, and on the maternal side (Abdy) with extreme nervous excitability, eccentricity, even madness. Of four male children conceived by my mother, two (twins) were still-born into the world, the third died of acute hydrocephalus and I the last, and the survivor, suffered from night terrors, extreme shyness, nervous affections, somnambulism"
"This is all I recollect about my mother. I have been told that my name was the last upon her lips when she was dying. But my father never spoke to me much about her, and only gave me a piece of her hair.
He sometimes took me with him to her grave. This was in the Arnos Vale Cemetery, high up upon a grassy hill-side, where harebells and thyme blossomed in the short turf of a down. A plane tree spread its branches over the tomb; and the flat stone which marked her resting place was enclosed by iron railings. My father took jealous care that these railings should be over-rioted with ivy, roses, and clematis, growing in unpruned luxuriance. He wished to withdraw the sacred spot from vulgar eyes. I could not see inside it. It was our custom to pluck leaves from the plane tree and the creepers, and to return in silence to the carriage which stood waiting by the gate. These leaves, gathered from my mother's grave, were almost all I knew about her, all I had of her. I used to put them into a little book of texts called Daily Food which had belonged to her, and which I read every night, and still read at all hours of the day in the year 1889. (It was Auntie who gave me this little amulet in the year 1854.)
I cannot pretend that I greatly desired to have a clearer notion of my mother, or that I exactly felt the loss of her. It was all dreamy and misty to my mind. I did not even imagine what she might have been to me. Sometimes I thought that I was heartless and sinful because I could not want her more. But this was foolish, because I had never really felt the touch of her. My father showed no outward sign of grief, and said nothing. He was only more than usually reserved on these occasions, and inspired me with a vague awe. Death was a mystery, into which the mother I had never really known was now forever drawn away from me."
On 05 June 1834 in Clifton, Gloucester, England she married John Addington Symonds, M.D.
BIRTH: London Courier and Evening Gazette 13 March 1809, Page 4
At Bloomsbury Place, the Lady of Mr. James Sykes, of a daughter.
MARRIAGE: Oxford University and City Herald 07 June 1834, Page 3
On Thursday last was married, at Clifton Church, by the Rev. Henry Middleton, John Addington Symonds, M.D. of Bristol, to Harriet (sp.), eldest daughter of the late James Sykes, jun. Esq. of Bloomsbury-place, London.
DEATH: The Court and Lady's Magazine, Vol. 25
Symonds, Harriette, the beloved wife of Dr. Symonds, after a short illness; in Berkley-square, Bristol, June 6.
From the memoirs of her son, John Addington Symonds:
"It is certain that the medical school of theorists would claim me as the subject of neurotic disease. My mother's family on the paternal side (Sykes) was tainted with pulmonary phthisis, and on the maternal side (Abdy) with extreme nervous excitability, eccentricity, even madness. Of four male children conceived by my mother, two (twins) were still-born into the world, the third died of acute hydrocephalus and I the last, and the survivor, suffered from night terrors, extreme shyness, nervous affections, somnambulism"
"This is all I recollect about my mother. I have been told that my name was the last upon her lips when she was dying. But my father never spoke to me much about her, and only gave me a piece of her hair.
He sometimes took me with him to her grave. This was in the Arnos Vale Cemetery, high up upon a grassy hill-side, where harebells and thyme blossomed in the short turf of a down. A plane tree spread its branches over the tomb; and the flat stone which marked her resting place was enclosed by iron railings. My father took jealous care that these railings should be over-rioted with ivy, roses, and clematis, growing in unpruned luxuriance. He wished to withdraw the sacred spot from vulgar eyes. I could not see inside it. It was our custom to pluck leaves from the plane tree and the creepers, and to return in silence to the carriage which stood waiting by the gate. These leaves, gathered from my mother's grave, were almost all I knew about her, all I had of her. I used to put them into a little book of texts called Daily Food which had belonged to her, and which I read every night, and still read at all hours of the day in the year 1889. (It was Auntie who gave me this little amulet in the year 1854.)
I cannot pretend that I greatly desired to have a clearer notion of my mother, or that I exactly felt the loss of her. It was all dreamy and misty to my mind. I did not even imagine what she might have been to me. Sometimes I thought that I was heartless and sinful because I could not want her more. But this was foolish, because I had never really felt the touch of her. My father showed no outward sign of grief, and said nothing. He was only more than usually reserved on these occasions, and inspired me with a vague awe. Death was a mystery, into which the mother I had never really known was now forever drawn away from me."
Harriette was the daughter of James Sykes, Esquire and Maria Henrietta Adby (eldest daughter of the Reverend Thomas Adby of Theydon Gernon, Essex and Mary Hayes).
On 05 June 1834 in Clifton, Gloucester, England she married John Addington Symonds, M.D.
BIRTH: London Courier and Evening Gazette 13 March 1809, Page 4
At Bloomsbury Place, the Lady of Mr. James Sykes, of a daughter.
MARRIAGE: Oxford University and City Herald 07 June 1834, Page 3
On Thursday last was married, at Clifton Church, by the Rev. Henry Middleton, John Addington Symonds, M.D. of Bristol, to Harriet (sp.), eldest daughter of the late James Sykes, jun. Esq. of Bloomsbury-place, London.
DEATH: The Court and Lady's Magazine, Vol. 25
Symonds, Harriette, the beloved wife of Dr. Symonds, after a short illness; in Berkley-square, Bristol, June 6.
From the memoirs of her son, John Addington Symonds:
"It is certain that the medical school of theorists would claim me as the subject of neurotic disease. My mother's family on the paternal side (Sykes) was tainted with pulmonary phthisis, and on the maternal side (Abdy) with extreme nervous excitability, eccentricity, even madness. Of four male children conceived by my mother, two (twins) were still-born into the world, the third died of acute hydrocephalus and I the last, and the survivor, suffered from night terrors, extreme shyness, nervous affections, somnambulism"
"This is all I recollect about my mother. I have been told that my name was the last upon her lips when she was dying. But my father never spoke to me much about her, and only gave me a piece of her hair.
He sometimes took me with him to her grave. This was in the Arnos Vale Cemetery, high up upon a grassy hill-side, where harebells and thyme blossomed in the short turf of a down. A plane tree spread its branches over the tomb; and the flat stone which marked her resting place was enclosed by iron railings. My father took jealous care that these railings should be over-rioted with ivy, roses, and clematis, growing in unpruned luxuriance. He wished to withdraw the sacred spot from vulgar eyes. I could not see inside it. It was our custom to pluck leaves from the plane tree and the creepers, and to return in silence to the carriage which stood waiting by the gate. These leaves, gathered from my mother's grave, were almost all I knew about her, all I had of her. I used to put them into a little book of texts called Daily Food which had belonged to her, and which I read every night, and still read at all hours of the day in the year 1889. (It was Auntie who gave me this little amulet in the year 1854.)
I cannot pretend that I greatly desired to have a clearer notion of my mother, or that I exactly felt the loss of her. It was all dreamy and misty to my mind. I did not even imagine what she might have been to me. Sometimes I thought that I was heartless and sinful because I could not want her more. But this was foolish, because I had never really felt the touch of her. My father showed no outward sign of grief, and said nothing. He was only more than usually reserved on these occasions, and inspired me with a vague awe. Death was a mystery, into which the mother I had never really known was now forever drawn away from me."
On 05 June 1834 in Clifton, Gloucester, England she married John Addington Symonds, M.D.
BIRTH: London Courier and Evening Gazette 13 March 1809, Page 4
At Bloomsbury Place, the Lady of Mr. James Sykes, of a daughter.
MARRIAGE: Oxford University and City Herald 07 June 1834, Page 3
On Thursday last was married, at Clifton Church, by the Rev. Henry Middleton, John Addington Symonds, M.D. of Bristol, to Harriet (sp.), eldest daughter of the late James Sykes, jun. Esq. of Bloomsbury-place, London.
DEATH: The Court and Lady's Magazine, Vol. 25
Symonds, Harriette, the beloved wife of Dr. Symonds, after a short illness; in Berkley-square, Bristol, June 6.
From the memoirs of her son, John Addington Symonds:
"It is certain that the medical school of theorists would claim me as the subject of neurotic disease. My mother's family on the paternal side (Sykes) was tainted with pulmonary phthisis, and on the maternal side (Abdy) with extreme nervous excitability, eccentricity, even madness. Of four male children conceived by my mother, two (twins) were still-born into the world, the third died of acute hydrocephalus and I the last, and the survivor, suffered from night terrors, extreme shyness, nervous affections, somnambulism"
"This is all I recollect about my mother. I have been told that my name was the last upon her lips when she was dying. But my father never spoke to me much about her, and only gave me a piece of her hair.
He sometimes took me with him to her grave. This was in the Arnos Vale Cemetery, high up upon a grassy hill-side, where harebells and thyme blossomed in the short turf of a down. A plane tree spread its branches over the tomb; and the flat stone which marked her resting place was enclosed by iron railings. My father took jealous care that these railings should be over-rioted with ivy, roses, and clematis, growing in unpruned luxuriance. He wished to withdraw the sacred spot from vulgar eyes. I could not see inside it. It was our custom to pluck leaves from the plane tree and the creepers, and to return in silence to the carriage which stood waiting by the gate. These leaves, gathered from my mother's grave, were almost all I knew about her, all I had of her. I used to put them into a little book of texts called Daily Food which had belonged to her, and which I read every night, and still read at all hours of the day in the year 1889. (It was Auntie who gave me this little amulet in the year 1854.)
I cannot pretend that I greatly desired to have a clearer notion of my mother, or that I exactly felt the loss of her. It was all dreamy and misty to my mind. I did not even imagine what she might have been to me. Sometimes I thought that I was heartless and sinful because I could not want her more. But this was foolish, because I had never really felt the touch of her. My father showed no outward sign of grief, and said nothing. He was only more than usually reserved on these occasions, and inspired me with a vague awe. Death was a mystery, into which the mother I had never really known was now forever drawn away from me."
Inscription
In the vault beneath rests the mortal part of HARRIETTE
The loved and lovely wife of JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS M.D.
Born March 3rd 1809. Married June 5th 1834.
Died June 6th 1844.
"THERE ARE MANY MANSIONS."
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