Sarah (Flower) Adams 1805 to 1848

Sarah (Flower) Adams was born February 22, 1805 in Old Harlow,Essex to the second daughter Benjamin Flower and Eliza Gould.

Her father held radical views on the politics and religious beliefs of his day, and published his beliefs in the Cambridge Intelligencer landing himself a six-month jail sentence in 1793.  His literary and radical ideals meant that Sarah grew up in a home visited by radical thinkers and famous literary people most notably Robert Browning and Harriet Martineau.  Surrounded as she was by literature, poetry and independent thought it is no surprise that she aspired to write works of poetry and politically based literature.  

Sarah’s mother had died when she was 5 years old thus when her father died in 1829 Sara and her sister became wards of William Johnson Fox.  Fox was an outspoken journalist and Unitarian, like Sarah’s father, Fox’s home was visited often by radical and progressive thinking people.  Fox encourage Sarah to write hymns for his congregation the South Place Unitarian Chapel, London.

At the age of 27 Sarah started to write for the Monthly Repository and in 1834 married William Bridges Adams.  William shared Sarah passion for literature and innovative thought thus is was with his blessing she entered into a period of acting where she experienced success and it became too physical strenuous for her having inherited her mother’s fragile constitution and  she retired from the stage.

No longer able to express herself on stage once again she turned to writing poetry, lyrics for hymns and followed through with writing a dramatic poem  Vivia Perpetua, A Dramatic Poem (1841) following in the footsteps Robert Browning whom she knew well.   In her writing she expressed her views on the church, and needs for equality for the working class and women.  While Vivia Perpetua failed to meet the standards of Robert Browning is does reflect Sarah's personality and her beliefs as no other piece of her writing.

During the same period she wrote what she has become famous for the hymns “Nearer, my God! To Thee” and “He sendeth sun, he sendeth shower” which was sung at Sarah's graveside.

Sarah died on August 14, 1848 from tuberculosis and was described by Richard (Garrnett, n.d.) “a woman of singular beauty and attractiveness, delicate and truly feminine, high-minded, and in her days of health playful and high-spirited.”

Sarah Flower Adams is a woman of history and it is right that we remember her today and the power found in writing to change and influence history.

Grandma Snyder

©twosnydergirls

 References

Garrnett, R. (n.d.). Critical and Biographical Essay by Richard Garnett Sarah Flower Adams (1805-1848). Retrieved from https://www.bartleby.com/293/72.html

Graves, D. (2010, April 28). Sarah Flowers Adams. Retrieved from Christianity.com: https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/sarah-flower-adams-11630348.html

Miles, A. H. (n.d.). Critical and Biographical Essay by Alfred H. Miles Sarah Flower Adams (1805-1848). Retrieved from  :  http://www.bartleby.com/294/124.html

Sarah Fuller Flower Adams. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Fuller_Flower_Adams