Jane Crewdson (1808–1863) was a Cornish poet, best known for her collections of poems. Born in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, part of the Fox family of Falmouth, Crewdson married a

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

cotton manufacturer.

Life

Jane Fox was born at Perran-arworthal, Cornwall, on 22 October 1808. She was the second daughter of George Fox, part of the Fox family of Falmouth, who was manager of the local iron foundry. She was also related to Charles Fox, the scientific writer. The family moved to

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

in 1825 and on 12 October 1836 Fox married Thomas Dillworth Crewdson, who was a cotton manufacturer from Manchester. Her religion is unclear, as one source identifies her as

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, while her marriage register was marked under the Quaker's

Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

Works

Crewdson's best known work is her hymns. She contributed several to Lovell Squire's ''Selection of Scriptural Poetry,'' 1848, and others to Nicholas Smith's ''Songs from the Hearts of Women: One Hundred Famous Hymns and Their Writers'', 1903. She also worked on poetry, and in 1851, published a small volume of poems, entitled ''Aunt Jane's Verses for Children,'' which was reprinted in 1855 and 1871. The book was primarily about heroes found in the Bible as well as some more secular pieces. Her second work was published in 1860 and was entitled ''Lays of the Reformation, and other Lyrics, scriptural and Miscellaneous.'' Crewdson died on 15 September 1863 after a period of illness at her home in Whalley Range, Manchester. A further selection of her poetry pieces were collected and published under the title of ''A Little While and other Poems'' (Manchester, 1864, 12mo).

Life

Works

References

Attribution

Further reading