The 1880 census states she lost the use of her limbs in an accident.
Some of Ann's letters are archived at the Connecticut Historical Society Museum & Library. They have posted a few excerpts. From their post (https://manuscripts.wordpress.com/tag/shoes/)
As I combed the shelves yesterday I found a slim manilla (very acidic and therefore harmful to collections) envelope bearing the name of Ann Frances Darling Ibbotson, and stating that it contained letters to her parents. It did indeed contain those letters, and a few other items as well. My initial reaction, though, was to be perplexed about the relation of the items to Connecticut. Why do we have a collection of letters being sent from England to New York? However, it is this sort of mystery that makes this job exciting.
Following an afternoon of research, I figured out the Connecticut connections. Ann Frances Darling Ibbotson is a descendent of the Ely family, who first settled in Lyme, Connecticut in the 1600s. Her father, Thomas Darling, is said to have been of New Haven and New York. Ann Frances and Henry Ibbotson were married out of her father’s New Haven house. Later, the Ibbotsons’ son, Henry William, married Lucy Matilda Cary and settled in her hometown, Portland, Connecticut.
Of the early letters (1832, 1833 and 1840), three describe life for Ann Frances, a bride in her husband’s native England. She obviously misses her family, and in October 1833 wrote to her mother,
Wherever we are, under every variety of circumstances in which we may be placed, ones thoughts naturally turn to home,_ the abode of our earliest friends with feelings of the liveliest affection: is it not so? I know my mother can, from her own experience, appreciate my feelings, for doubtless after she was left in a strange country, altho among very dear friends, yet often, like me, did she long for the presence of her Parents, and in a thousand trivial matters to as a mother’s advice, and many a time the knowledge of what she approved determined her conduct.
She continues to share information about their travels and activities in England. In the same letter Ann Frances describes the reaction her black servant, Eliza, has been receiving.
She attracts great notice, and crowds gathered round her when she first went to chapel to look at the novel sight of a black woman, and many shook hands with her…Perhaps Eliza is more looked at on account of her appearing better dressed than the servants here, whose apparel is subject to the direction of their mistress.
I have not had time yet to completely read Ann Frances’ letters, but am certainly curious what other observations she has.
After 1833, the letters skip to 1840 when Ann Frances and her children have arrived in Brooklyn. Her next letter is written in 1882, from her home in Binghamton, New York, to her granddaughter Anne.
Notes on the wedding shoes:
http://emuseum.chs.org/emuseum/objects/240/womans-wedding-shoes
Anne Frances Darling, wife of Henry, was the second daugh-
ter and third child of Thomas and Frances Frith Darling. She was
born on February 12, 1811. "She early evinced piety and an apti-
tude for learning and also showed such rectitude and sweetness
of disposition that at the school of Miss Peters in New Haven,
Conn., she was very much beloved. As a young lady she was
admired and being accomplished, fair and good was much sought
after in society in New York."
The children of Henry and Anne Frances Ibbotson were six in
number, namely: 1, Thomas Darling; 2, Mary Keturah; 3, Henry
William; 4, John McLean; 5, Joseph Darling; 6, James Frith.
The first and fourth died in infancy and the others grew to
maturity.
(https://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/arthur-carroll-forbes/the-descendants-of-william-forbes--a-genealogical-and-biographical-history-of-t-bro/page-14-the-descendants-of-william-forbes--a-genealogical-and-biographical-history-of-t-bro.shtml)