Maria Grace Saffery (née Andrews) (1773–1858) was a Baptist poetess and hymn-writer.
Early life
editMaria Grace Saffery was born 1773 and died 5 March 1858 in Westbury district Wiltshire, England. Saffery was the daughter of William Andrews of Stroud Green, Newbury, Berkshire. At the age of fifteen, she started writing her first big piece and showed great abilities in doing so. Saffery was originally brought under the personal influence of Thomas Scott, the commentator.[1]
Personal and family life
editMaria Saffery had a sister named Anne, who was also a writer. Maria married John Saffery pastor of the Baptist church at Salisbury, becoming his second wife, in 1799. They had six children, the eldest, Philip John Saffery, succeeded to the office of paster of the church at his father's death in 1825.[1] She also created a girl's school in Salisbury. The next year she retired to Bratton in Wiltshire, where the rest of her life was spent with her daughter and later died and was buried in the graveyard of the baptist chapel at the school. [2]
Major works
editHymns
edit- Cheyt Sing. A Poem. By a Young Lady of Fifteen (1790)[3]
- Tis the Great Father we adore (1828)
- Poems on Sacred Subjects (1834)
- God of the sunlight hours, how sad (1834)
- There is a little lonely fold (1834)
- Fain, O my child, I'd have thee know (1844)[2]
Novels
edit- The Noble Enthusiast (1792)[4]
Notes
edit- ^ a b Lowther, William Boswell (1897). "Saffery, Maria Grace (DNB00)". Wikisource. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900. p. 114.
- ^ a b "Maria Grace Saffery". Hymnary.org.
- ^ Whelan, Timothy. "Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840. Part 2".
- ^ Whelan, Timothy (Winter 2012). "West Country Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840". Wordsworth Circle. 43.
Further reading
edit- Mary Grace Saffery, Anne Andrews Whitaker, Timothy Whelan (2011). Correspondence of Maria Grace Saffery and Anne Andrews Whitaker. London: Pickering & Chatto. OCLC 755972239.
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Category:1773 births Category:1858 deaths Category:18th-century English writers Category:English women writers Category:English poets Category:British hymnwriters