The Trowbridge connection

In his book on John Warburton, J R Broome notes that on Trowle Common in the 1700s a Baptist and his family had lived. This was Thomas Cator (1651-1733) whose daughter Anne married William Steele, the Baptist minister of Broughton in Hampshire, becoming stepmother to his son William and daughter, the hymn writer, Anne Steele. He also notes that Anne was at Trowbridge at school in 1729, at the age of twelve, and no doubt was often on Trowle Common herself at the home of her step-grandparents. Old Thomas Cator died in 1733 at the age of 82. Another Trowbridge connection is that Anne Steele's pastor at Broughton in her later life, 1771-1778, was Nathaniel Rawlings, who had been pastor at Back Street Chapel, Trowbridge, and whose 41 members later formed the nucleus of Warburton's congregation.

Others mention that there was an academy at Trowbridge. It is not known if the school and academy were linked.

Ivimey on Anne Steele

From A History of the English Baptists Vol 4 by Joseph Ivimey

CHURCHES AT BROUGHTON AND WALLOP

IT has been mentioned in a former notice of the Salisbury church, that this church was part of that which met, during the days of persecution, in a farm-house at Porton, a central village. When they agreed to separate, the members residing at Broughton and Wallop chose Mr. Read, one of the pastors, to preside over them. I have no account of him, nor of his successors, until Mr. Steele, father of the celebrated Miss Steele. Of him Dr. Caleb Evans says, “He was a man of primitive piety, the strictest integrity and benevolence, and the most amiable simplicity of manners. He was for many years the affectionate and faithful pastor of an affectionate and harmonious congregation at Broughton in Hampshire, where he lived all his days greatly beloved, and died universally lamented. 

On the occasion of his death, his highly accomplished and most affectionate daughter poured out the sorrows of her wounded heart in some most tender lines, printed, after her death, in the third volume of her poems, by Dr. C. Evans. A few lines will he sufficient to shew the high estimation in which Miss Anne Steele held her excellent father:— 

“Still bleeds the deep, deep wound! Where is the friend 

To pour with tender, kind, indulgent hand

The lenient balm of comfort on my heart?

Alas, that friend is gone ! Ye angels say,

(Who bore him raptnr’d to your blest abodes,)

Can aught on earth e‘er compensate my loss?

Ah, no! the world is poor, and what am I?

A helpless solitary worm, that creeps

Complaining on the earth! Yet e’en to worms

The care of heav’n extends; and can I doubt

If that indulgent care extends to me?

Father of mercies! humbling at thy feet,

Give me to vent the heart oppressing grief,

And ask for comfort! can I ask in vain

Of him whose name is Lord! But oh! the boon

My craving wishes ask is large indeed!

Yet less will leave me wretched: Gracious God!

Give me to say, without a rising doubt, ‘Thou art my Father:’

— How hard the lesson! (yet it must be learn’d,)

With full consent to say, ‘Thy will be done.’ ”

His eldest daughter, the amiable writer of the above lines, had been known to the world under the name of Theodosia, by two volumes she had published under the title of “Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional.” After her death a new edition, including a third volume, was published; to which last volume Dr. Caleb‘ Evans prefixed an Advertisement, dated May 12, 1780:

“Miss Anne Steele discovered in early life her love of the Muses, and often entertained her friends with the truly poetical and pious productions of her pen. But it was not without extreme reluctance she was prevailed on to submit any of them to the public eye. This new edition of her works, accompanied with the volume which is now first offered to the public, would have appeared long since, had the health of our Theodosia admitted of her paying that attention to it which was necessary. But it was her infelicity, as it has been of many of her kindred spirits, to have a capacious soaring mind inclosed in a very weak and languid body. Her health was never firm; but the death of her honoured father, to whom she was united by the strongest ties of affectionate duty and gratitude, gave such a shock to her tender frame, that she never recovered it, though she survived him for some years. Her life was a life of unaffected humility, warm benevolence, sincere friendship, and genuine devotion. A life, which it is not easy truly to describe, or faithfully to imitate.”

Dr. Evans has not mentioned an incident in the life of the “pious Theodosia,” which must have been most painful to her heart. She had consented to give her hand in marriage to a young gentleman, Mr. James Elcomb, who resided at Ringwood, and the day of marriage was fixed. The day preceding it he went to bathe in the river below the town, at a place called South Mead, and was drowned. A tradition which the writer, who is a native, recollects, was, that his shrieks were heard in the town; and the place is still called, on account of this painful circumstance, “Elcomb’s hole.”*

Dr. C. Evans thus describes the death of Miss Anne Steele:

“Having been confined to her chamber some years before her death, she had long waited with Christian dignity for the awful hour of her departure. She often spoke, not merely with tranquillity, but joy, of her decease. When the interesting hour came, she welcomed its arrival; and though her feeble body was excruciated with pain, her mind was perfectly serene. She uttered not a murmuring word, but was all resignation, peace, and holy joy. She took the most affectionate leave of her weeping friends around her, and at length the happy moment of her dismission arriving, she closed her eyes, and with these animating words upon her dying lips, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth,’ gently fell asleep in Jesus.”

Dr. Evans adds, “Her excellent writings, by which, though dead, she still speaketh, and which are the faithful counterpart of her amiable mind, exhibit to us the fairest picture of the original.”

The following lines are inserted on her tomb:

“Silent the lyre, and dumb the tuneful tongue

That sung on earth her great Redeemer’s praise;

But now in heaven she joins the angelic song,

In more harmonious, more exalted lays."

The profits of her works had been by her devoted to the purposes of benevolence; and those which arose from that published after her death, were appropriated to the use of The Bristol Education Society. Many of her excellent hymns may be read in Dr. Rippon’s Selection, and in the Bristol and other Collections.

I know nothing of the successors of Mr. Steele, excepting that Mr. (now Dr.) Stcadman was settled there for several years at the commencement of his ministry. The present pastor is Mr. Russell.

*The following inscription is taken from the head-stone in Ringwood Church-yard:— 

“ Here lieth the body of JAMES ELCOMB,

Who departed this life May 23, 1737,

Aged 21 years.

“Stand still and see how frail are we,

Who walk with life and vigour here,

He with one breath suck’t in his death,

Though danger seem’d not to be near."
(Ivimey is relying here on village gossip and he seems to have some facts wrong)

ET Biographical Article

Anne Steele - Sharon James

January 2004

Trusting God 'in trouble and in joy'

Since childhood, I have often sung hymns composed by Anne Steele - hymns such as 'Father of mercies, In thy Word' and 'Father what'er of earthly bliss'. I knew only that she was an eighteenth-century Baptist hymn-writer, who suffered a good deal of ill health. When I came across a bundle of her poems and letters in a library in Oxford, it was delightful to discover something more of her personality.

Anne had a sparkling sense of humour. She was a warm and loving family member, and a gifted poet who enjoyed a wide circle of witty and well-educated correspondents. She had a strong faith in the absolute sovereignty of God which empowered her to endure a great deal of painful illness with cheerfulness and grace.

Family

Anne was born in 1717 in Broughton, a small village in the South West of England, twelve miles east of Salisbury, and twelve miles west of Winchester. The Particular Baptist Chapel in Broughton had been founded in 1653, with 111 members, nine of whom were baptised at the first meeting - an act of courage, as believer's baptism was still illegal.

The work survived years of vicious persecution from 1660 to 1688. In 1699 Henry Steele, Anne's great-uncle, became pastor; he ministered for the next forty years until his death in 1739.

He had made a fortune in contracting timber for the British Navy, and thus did not need to take financial support from the chapel. His nephew William (Anne's father) assisted him in his business and in the preaching.

The Steele family was wealthy, and Anne was brought up in material comfort. In 1720 however, when she was just three and her elder brother five, their mother died. The following year their father remarried.

His second wife, like his first, came from a prosperous Particular Baptist family. In keeping with the Puritan tradition she kept a journal.

The entries show that Anne's stepmother was a deeply devout woman, who took her responsibility for her stepchildren very seriously, and tried to treat them equally to the child she bore William, a daughter named Mary.

Hymn-writing

Membership at the chapel stood at around fifty-one when Anne was fourteen. The next year, she and her brother William both gave their testimony to the church meeting, and were baptised along with nine others.

In 1739, when Anne was twenty-two, her great-uncle Henry died. Her father, William, had been assisting him and preaching regularly for many years, and he now took over the pastorate.

The chapel was enjoying a time of growth, and in 1745 the membership peaked at ninety-one. William continued to support himself through the timber trade, but he also became a devoted pastor.

His second wife threw herself into the life of the church, and his children were keen members. Anne soon began supporting her father's preaching ministry by writing hymns appropriate for his sermons, and to fit the varying needs of public worship.

Proposals declined

By the time Anne was twenty she had commenced a courtship with a young man called Mr Elcomb. When he drowned in a bathing accident, a friend sent a messenger to tell the Steeles of the tragedy.

He wanted them to know straight away, because he was unsure of 'how far he (Elcomb) may have prevailed in the affections of Miss Steele' (Anne).

The Baptist historian, Joseph Ivimey (1830), romantically wrote that this tragedy happened the day before the wedding of Anne and Elcomb. It became popular to think that Anne's nerves never recovered (and that the hymn 'Father whate'er of earthly bliss' was her response to the tragedy).

But there is no evidence of any engagement, and no evidence that she suffered from a perpetually broken heart. When Anne was twenty-five, she received a proposal of marriage from Benjamin Beddome, the minister of the Particular Baptist Chapel at Bourton-on-the-Water, but she declined it, and it seems that she declined a later proposal as well.

Anne deliberately chose to remain single - indeed some of her light-hearted poetry and prose pokes fun at the cares and tensions of married life.

In the following poem she teases 'Melinda' (a pseudonym for her step-sister) about her visit to London and the admirers she collected. In contrast, Anne refers to herself as a 'nun' and her rural room at home as a 'cell' - a light-hearted reference to her single state.

To Melinda

From driving rattling up and down

Amid the pleasures of the Town

Elate with Conquest (fate how glorious)

Melinda now returns Victorious 

Three hearts subdued too much by half

D'ye think such News can make me laugh

While I, poor solitary Nun

Moping at home can't rise to one

Three the News says and one before

'Tis some time since you counted four

You make such haste it must be more

Perhaps by this time half a score

Methinks T'would be but just and due

To spare your Sister one or two

But this is only spoke in jest

On second thoughts and those are best

Your Vict'ry since I cannot share

I want no slaves that you can spare

Lone quiet in a humble Cell

Will suit my temper full as well …

Many friends

So Anne remained at home with her father and stepmother after her brother and step-sister married. They regularly entertained visitors from their circle of Particular Baptist friends and relatives.

Friendships were maintained and cultivated by means of correspondence. Anne became the central figure in a small circle of dissenting Christians who exchanged lengthy letters and poems.

Their writing mingled classical allusion with elaborate descriptions of the beauties of nature, and was often playful and humorous in tone. Letters included spiritual matters, poetry, and discussions of a range of issues - and were sometimes written in a formal 'high style' that make them mini-works of literature.

Anne's gift of writing blossomed in a way that might not have been possible had she accepted Benjamin Beddome's proposal and become a busy pastor's wife. Moreover, her indifferent health would probably have collapsed altogether under the rigours of pregnancy and child-rearing.

She was in many ways privileged. She had a comfortable home, a warm family circle, and the freedom to visit friends. In her many sicknesses her stepmother proved to be a devoted nurse.

Calm contentment

Anne was rarely able to enjoy her quiet life in Broughton with full health. Recurring malaria and a string of other problems meant that she often endured acute pain.

Anne came to believe that this was a means to bring her closer to God. She was forced to rely on him in prayer, and she found that he granted her a calm, resigned contentment.

The Particular Baptists' convictions regarding God's control of all things thus had a very practical outworking in her life. Several of her best hymns, and those that have remained in use, take up the theme of providence:

What'er thy providence denies

I calmly would resign,

For thou art just and good and wise;

O bend my will to thine!

What'er thy sacred will ordains,

O give me strength to bear;

And let me know my Father reigns,

And trust his tender care.

If cares and sorrows me surround,

Their power why should I fear?

My inward peace they cannot wound,

If thou, my God, art near.

Dependence on grace

In 1760 when she was forty-three, a two-volume set of Anne's hymns and poems was published. As was common at the time, she used a pseudonym, and she chose the classical name Theodisia.

Thus when she died in 1778 she was as yet unknown to the wider Christian public. This anonymity was just what she had wanted during her lifetime. Two years after her death, her identity became public knowledge when Caleb Evans republished her poems and hymns.

Anne was genuinely humble. She knew that the material comforts she enjoyed, and her writing ability, were gifts from God. Her humility enabled her to be patient through suffering.

Cheerfulness was the keynote of her character. In extreme sickness, she was always concerned for the comfort of others. She was ready to join in light-hearted fun, and her letters are witty and humorous. But she always remembered that life is short, and that we must be ready to face God.

Writing to her young niece Polly one New Year, she characteristically exhorted her not only to think of the New Year, but to prepare for eternity - Polly should never begin a day without asking God for grace and help.

Anne lived out this advice. She relied moment by moment on God for grace, and in her writing tried to encourage others to do the same. She demonstrated that a Christian can indeed praise God 'in trouble and in joy'.

Benjamin Beddome

This is the letter sent (some time in the early 1740s) by Benjamin Beddome still a young man to his contemporary Anne Steele, as found in Michael Haykin's book The Christian Lover

Dear Miss

Pardon the Boldness which prompts me to lay these few lines at your feet. If continued thoughts of you and a disrelish to everything besides may be considered as arguments of love, surely I experience the passion. If the greatness of a person's love will make up for the want of wit, wealth and beauty, then may I humbly lay claim to your favour. Since I had the happiness of seeing you how often have I thought of Milton's full description of Eve, book 8, line 471:

. . . so lovely fair!

That what seemed fair in all the world, seemed now

Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained,

And in her looks, which from that time infused

Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before. . .

Madam, give me leave to tell you that these words speak the very experience of my soul, nor do I find it possible to forbear loving you. Would you but suffer me to come and lay before you those dictates of a confused mind which cannot be represented by a trembling hand and pen? Would you but permit me to cast myself at your feet and tell you how much I love you, what an easement might you thereby afford to a burdened spirit and at the same time give me an opportunity of declaring more fully that l am in sincerity, Your devoted servant,

— Benjamin Beddome
Dec 23 1742

(Steele Papers STE 3/13 Angus Library)
See original here.

Review of Priscilla Wong's Book

A review by Christopher Crocker can be found here.

Nancy Cho on Anne Steele

In 2007 Korean academic Nancy Jiwon Cho produced a thesis for Durham University `The Ministry of Song': Unmarried British Women's Hymn Writing, 1760-1936. It includes a big section on Anne Steele. It can be accessed here.

Timothy Whelan on the Steele literary circle

Mary Steele

An academic 2014 article from the Huntington Library Quarterly entitled Mary Scott, Sarah Froud, and the Steele Literary Circle:A Revealing Annotation to The Female Advocate can be found here in pdf form. Whelan is the author of a whole book on this subject Other British Voices Women, Poetry, and Religion, 1766-1840. See here.

Josh Carmichael on Anne Steele

You can find three Mp3s here of American Presbyterian Josh Carmichael on Anne Steele. These Andrew Fuller Center Conference lectures are as follows

2009: “The Hymns of Anne Steele: Baptist Spirituality in Verse” (MP3)

2010: Josh Carmichael, “Anne Steele on the Atonement” (MP3)

2011: “National Judgements and Mercies, A Call to Repentance, Prayer and Fasting: The War Hymns of Anne Steele”(MP3)

He has written a thesis on Anne Steele

“The Hymns of Anne Steele in John Rippon’s Selection of Hymns: A Theological Analysis in the Context of the English Particular Baptist Revival.”

Broughton House

The Steele family house was Broughton House, a farmhouse. Anne lived here from 1769 to the end of her life.  Notes on the house can be found here.

J R Broome Biography

You can read the first few pages of Broome's biography here.

Called A bruised reed it first appeared in 2007.

Anne Steele's health

You can find an interesting article on this here.

Particular Baptists Volume 3

In volume 3 of the three works on Particular Baptist biography the first chapter is on Anne Steele and is  by Sharon James. These are the contents

Volume 3 contains:

Anne Steele (1717-1778) by Sharon James
John Sutcliff (1752-1814) by Michael Haykin
John Saffery (1763-1825) by Brian Talbot
Joseph Kinghorn (1766-1832) by Dean Olive
Joseph Ivimey (1773-1834) by J. C. Doggett
William Gadsby (1773-1844) by B. A. Ramsbottom
Alexander Carson (1776-1844) by Robert Briggs
Christopher Anderson (1782-1852) by Derek B. Murray
John Kershaw (1792-1870) by B. A. Ramsbottom
Joseph Charles Philpot (1802-1869) by B. A. Ramsbottom
William Knibb (1803-1845) by Gary W. Long
Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910) by Don Goertz
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) by Heinz Dschankilic
Susannah Spurgeon (1832-1903) by Don Theobald

New Book from Michael Haykin

Baptist historian Michael Haykin has a new book out on eight women, one of whom is Anne Steele. See more here.

A brief biography

Sharon James has a brief biography of Anne Steele in

In Trouble and in Joy: Four Women Who Lived for God

To express the ineffable

You can see something about the book by Cynthia Aalders here

Anne Steele and her spiritual vision by Priscilla Wong

The opening pages of Priscilla Wong's work are available here.

A Short Thesis by Jacob Porter

Here is a short thesis on Anne Steele by Jacob Porter.
Also see this article

A romantic biography link

Here is another biographical link

Baptist Quarterly Article

A BQ Article by Ronald Thomson can be found here

The Works of Anne Steele

The Works of Anne Steele can be found here.

Kevin Twit on Anne Steele

An essay called Christian Experience In The Hymns Of Anne Steele (1716-1778) can be found here.

Cyberhymnal entry

See here for this

Another link

This one at Doxology and Theology

Notes from Julian's hymnology

Miss Anne Steele, 1716-1778
Notes from Dr. Julian's Hymnology:

Miss Steele was the daughter of Mr. William Steele, a timber merchant, and pastor without salary of the Baptist Church at Broughton in Hampshire. At an early age she showed a taste for literature and would often entertain her friends by her poetical compositions. But it was not until 1760 that she could be prevailed upon to publish ... Among Baptist hymn-writers, Miss Steele stands at the head, if we regard either the number of her hymns which have found a place in the hymnals of the last 120 years or the frequency with which they have been sung. Although few of them can be placed in the first rank of literary compositions, they are almost uniformly simple in language, natural and pleasing in imagery and full of genuine Christian feeling. Miss Steele may not inappropriately be compared with Miss F.R. Havergal, our 'Theodosia' of the 19th century. In both there is the same evangelic fervour, in both the same intense personal devotion to the Lord Jesus. But while Miss Steele seems to think of Him more frequently as her 'bleeding, dying Lord' — dwelling on His sufferings in their physical aspect, Miss Havergal oftener refers to His living help and sympathy, recognises with gladness His present claims as Master and King, and anticipates almost with ecstasy His second coming. Looking at the whole of Miss Steele's hymns, we find in them a wider range of thought than in Miss Havergal's compositions. She treats of a greater variety of subjects. On the other hand, Miss Havergal, living in this age of missions and general philanthropy, has much more to say concerning Christian work and personal service for Christ and for humanity. Miss Steele suffered from delicacy of health and from a great sorrow which befell her in the death of her betrothed under peculiarly painful circumstances. In other respects her life was uneventful and occupied chiefly in the discharge of such domestic and social duties as usually fell to the lot of the eldest daughter of a village pastor. She was buried in Broughton Churchyard. Miss Steele's hymn in 'Spiritual Songs' is no. 432, "And did the Holy and the Just". An excellent Gospel message is contained in this hymn, and the assurance of salvation through the work of the Lord Jesus on Calvary's Cross.

This piece is found here

More on Anne Steele

More on Anne Steele can be found here

Hymns

A list of Anne Steele's hymns can be fond here

Wikipedia Entry

Life

Steele was born at Broughton, Hampshire. It has often been written that the drowning of her betrothed, a Mr Elscourt, a few hours before the time fixed for her marriage deeply affected an otherwise quiet life. However, modern research refutes the details of this story. One man did ask for the hand of Anne Steele, in 1742. This was Benjamin Beddome but she turned him down, and remained unmarried.

Works

Steele's hymns, which were much used by Baptists, emphasise the less optimistic phases of Christian experience. In 1760 she published Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional under the name Theodosia. This book had a second edition (3 vols. Bristol, 1780), for which Caleb Evans wrote a preface. Her complete works were published in one volume by Daniel Sedgwick (London, 1863), as Hymns, Psalms, and Poems by Anne Steele, with a memoir by John Sheppard. It comprised 144 hymns, 34 metrical psalms and 40 moral poems. Some of them, eg "Father of mercies, in Thy word," have found their way into the collections of other churches. She has been called the Frances Ridley Havergal of the eighteent century. Several of her hymns appear in the Sacred Harp. A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship, a hymn book compiled by William Gadsby and first published in 1814, includes 27 of the hymns by Anne Steele. This book is used mainly by some of the Calvinistic Strict Baptist churches in England.

See also

English women hymn-writers (18th to 19th-century) Eliza Sibbald Alderson, Augusta Amherst Austen, etc

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911) Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.