Maria Grace Saffery (1773–1858) was a Baptist poet and hymn-writer from England.
Early life
Maria Grace Andrews was born in 1773 in the
Westbury district of
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...
, England. Saffery was possibly the daughter of William Andrews of Stroud Green, Newbury, Berkshire although other sources differ.
[ She was baptized on 30 November 1774. At the age of fifteen, she started writing her first big piece and showed great abilities in doing so. Her first poem was about ]Chait Singh
Rafa'at wa Awal-i-Martabat Maharaja Shri Chet Singh Sahib Bahadur (died 29 March 1810), commonly known as Raja Chet Singh, a Bhumihar king from the Narayan dynasty, was the 3rd ruler of Benares State, Kingdom of Benaras in northern India.
Chet S ...
, the Raja of Benares who was in dispute with Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first governor-gener ...
in India.[Rosemary Mitchell, ‘Saffery, Maria Grace (bap. 1772?, d. 1858)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200]
accessed 13 Nov 2014
/ref> Saffery was originally brought under the personal influence of Thomas Scott, the bible commentator.
Personal and family life
Maria had a sister named Anne, who was also a writer. Maria married John Saffery, pastor of the Baptist church at Brown Street in Salisbury
Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...
, becoming his second wife, in 1799. They had six children; the eldest, Philip John Saffery, succeeded to the office of pastor of the church at his father's death in 1825. Saffery also created a girls' school in Salisbury. In 1835 she retired to Bratton, also in Wiltshire, where the rest of her life was spent with her daughter. She died on 5 March 1858 and was buried in the graveyard of the baptist chapel there.
Major works
Poems
* ''Cheyt Sing. A Poem. By a Young Lady of Fifteen'' (1790)
Hymns
* ''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)
Novels
* ''The Noble Enthusiast'' (1792)
See also
;English women hymnwriters (18th to 19th-century)
* Eliza Sibbald Alderson
* Sarah Bache
Sarah Bache (1771? – 23 July 1844), was an English hymn writer. She was born at Bromsgrove, but brought up at Worcester by relatives named Laugher, members of the Rev. Thomas Belsham's congregation. Rev. Timothy Laugher, of Hackney (d. 1769 ...
* Charlotte Alington Barnard
Charlotte Alington Pye Barnard (23 December 1830 in Louth, Lincolnshire – 30 January 1869 in Dover) was an English poet and composer of ballads and hymns, who often wrote under the pseudonym Claribel. She wrote over 100 songs as well as two vol ...
* Sarah Doudney
* Charlotte Elliott
Charlotte Elliott (18 March 1789 – 22 September 1871) was an English evangelical Anglican poet, hymn writer, and editor. She is best known by two hymns, Just As I Am (hymn), "Just As I Am" and "Thy will be done".
Elliott edited ''Christian R ...
* Ada R. Habershon
* Katherine Hankey
Arabella Katherine Hankey (12 January 1834 – 9 May 1911) was an English missionary and nurse who is best known for being the author of the poem ''The Old, Old Story'', from which the hymns " Tell me the old, old story" and " I Love to Tell the ...
* Frances Ridley Havergal
Frances Ridley Havergal (14 December 1836 – 3 June 1879) was an English religious poet and hymnwriter. ''Take My Life and Let it Be'' and ''Thy Life for Me'' (also known as ''I Gave My Life for Thee'') are two of her best known hymns. She also ...
* Anne Steele
Anne Steele (pen name, Theodosia; 171711 November 1778) was an English Baptist hymnwriter and essayist. For a full century after her death, she filled a larger place in United States and British hymnals than any other woman.
At an early age, Ste ...
* Emily Taylor
Emily Taylor (7 April 1795 – 11 March 1872) was an English schoolmistress, poet, children's author, and hymnist. She wrote numerous tales for children, chiefly historical, along with books of instruction and some descriptive natural history.
...
* Emily H. Woodmansee
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saffery, Maria Grace
1773 births
1858 deaths
18th-century English writers
English women writers
English women poets
English hymnwriters
English women hymnwriters
18th-century English women writers
18th-century English people
18th-century hymnwriters