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)