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Miss Lucy Ann Plympton, since 1879 principal of the Albany Female Academy, is of English descent, both her paternal and maternal ancestors coming to Medfield, Mass., in 1639. In each case the original estates in that town have never been owned outside the family. She was born in Shrewsbury, Mass., May 6, 1834, and spent her earlier years in her native village, attending the public and private schools and the academy and developing a natural talent for study. She finished a course at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary, taught for two years in grammar and private schools, took the degree of Mistress of Liberal Arts at the New Hampshire Female College, and became a teacher in the Newbury (Vt.) Seminary. When the Rebellion broke out she returned home, but soon took charge of the girls' department in the Troy Conference Academy for one year, when she became lady principal of Ripley College, which position she resigned in 1867. In 1869 she was elected principal of Wilson College at Chambersburg, Pa., where she spent six years, coming thence to Albany, where she has since resided. Here she started a private enterprise known as Miss Plympton's School for Young Ladies, which in 1879 was merged into the Albany Female Academy, over which she has since presided as principal. (A detailed sketch of this historic institution appears elsewhere in this volume.) Miss Plympton's long and faithful service in the academy has placed her among the foremost educators of the time. She represented as a delegate the Dana Natural History Society of Albany in the International Geological Congress at London in 1888, was an early officer and has continuously been chairman of the educational committee of the Young Woman's Christian Association, and is actively interested in all movements which tend to advance and educate not only her sex, but mankind.
