AI Interview

An imagined interview with Anne Steele

Setting: We are in the year 1765, in the quiet village of Broughton, Hampshire. Miss Anne Steele, in her late forties, is seated in her chamber, a room she has long known due to chronic illness. Though her body is frail, her expression is serene and her eyes are full of a calm strength. The room is filled with books and a writing desk.

Interviewer: Miss Steele, thank you for inviting me. You are known to the wider world only by your pen name, "Theodosia." What led you to choose this classical name?

Anne Steele: It means "given by God". It is a reminder that any gift of poetry I possess is not my own, but a divine trust. Publishing one's works, even devotional ones, can stir up the human heart with pride. My father, a man of great faith, urged me to remain humble, and writing under a pseudonym helps remind me that the work is for the Lord, not for myself. It is a way of diverting praise from myself to the rightful Giver.

Interviewer: You endured significant trials in your life - the early loss of your mother, a childhood injury that left you a lifelong invalid, and the drowning of a very close friend. How did you maintain a cheerful and positive spirit amid such hardship?

Anne Steele: (A gentle, wistful smile.) Ah, I am often reminded of my own words: "When I survey life's varied scene, Amid the darkest hours, Sweet rays of comfort shine between, And thorns are mixed with flowers". The path of the Christian is not one without suffering, but our suffering does not define us. My afflictions forced me to seek a closer reliance on the Lord. It is in our weakness that His strength is made perfect. He became my "dear refuge" and my constant theme.

Interviewer: So your poetry and hymns flow directly from your walk with God?

Anne Steele: Indeed. The trials are but the seed from which the flower of praise grows. It is easy to sing of God's goodness when all is well, but the truest test of faith is in the night. My hymns were an attempt to capture and hold fast to the divine promises even when my human heart felt frail and ready to despair. My writing is a spiritual exercise, a way of holding a conversation with my God when words of common prose fail.

Interviewer: For a woman living a secluded life, you were surprisingly prolific. Two volumes of your poems were published in 1760. What was your purpose in sharing such private spiritual expressions with the public?

Anne Steele: The intention was simply to encourage my fellow believers. The hope was that my private musings might find resonance with other searching souls. As my father prayed when the first compositions went to print, I simply hoped that God would "make it useful, and keep her humble". I had no desire for renown, only that my hymns might be an instrument of grace in the hands of the Almighty.

Interviewer: Your hymns were embraced by Baptists and other denominations alike. The renowned Baptist minister, Dr. Caleb Evans, republished your work posthumously. Why do you think your hymns resonated so widely?

Anne Steele: I believe it is because they spoke to the universal human experience of struggling with doubt and pain while holding on to the certainty of God's love and sovereignty. I simply tried to be honest about my inner life. The hymns speak of a "bruised reed" and a "weary soul," but they also speak of the "transporting name" of Jesus and the "joys divine" found in His presence. Perhaps it is this honest portrayal of both the shadow and the light of faith that ministers to others.

Interviewer: Many of your hymns focus on the suffering of Christ. Why was this such a recurring theme for you?

Anne Steele: In my own suffering, I found profound comfort in contemplating His. The love of a Saviour who willingly bled and died for "vile, rebellious foes" is a wonder that exceeds all understanding. Gazing upon the cross, my own trials diminished, and I was reminded that God had already borne the greatest sorrow for me. It is a mystery, yes, but a source of profound strength and gratitude.

Interviewer: You often used profits from your works for charity. What motivated this generous act?

Anne Steele: As I mentioned, the gift is not my own. My family was blessed with a comfortable life, and so it was only fitting that the fruits of my writing should be used to support the work of the Lord, especially the training of young ministers. It was a small way of returning a portion of His blessings.

Interviewer: Miss Steele, your hymns have given voice to so many through the years. What is your hope for those who continue to sing them?

Anne Steele: I pray that they will find in them what I did: a reminder of God's unfailing grace in every season of life. Whether in moments of sorrow or joy, I pray they would be drawn into a deeper and more profound relationship with our Saviour. May they, too, find refuge in Him and know that they are "given by God" for His great and good purpose.

More on Anne Dutton's Bible

From here

Anne Dutton's Bible and Anne Steele of Broughton

An Analysis of Anne Dutton’s Bible at one time in the possession of Anne Steele of Broughton

The possibility that Anne Dutton (1692-1765) bequeathed her Bible to Anne Steele (1717-78) prior to her death in 1765 has circulated for some time, certainly since its inclusion in Hugh Martin's “The Baptist Contribution to Early English Hymnody,” which appeared in the Baptist Quarterly in 1961. If true, Dutton's act would offer rich connections between the two Baptist women writers. A closer examination of the volume, however, suggests otherwise.

The bible in question is the 1698 edition of the King James Bible by John Canne (Broughton Church Collection, 10/1, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford), which was popular for more than a century mainly due to his notes. This version of the Bible first appeared in 1647 and a portion of the original Preface has been copied in a very small but neat hand near the front of the volume. The hand is not that of Anne Dutton nor does it appear to be that of Benjamin Dutton, for if the entries in the Great Gransden Church Book between 1732 and 1743 are by him (and they normally would be by the pastor), then the two hands do not match. If neither wrote the passage, then the bible was owned by someone else at some point, possibly Benjamin Dutton’s father, who bequeathed his books to Benjamin after his death in 1719. After Anne Dutton’s death in 1765, her books, along with her husband’s library (more than 200 volumes) were bequeathed to the library of the Great Gransden Baptist Church, where they remained into the 20th century.

There are no markings in the bible that can be definitively identified with either Anne or Benjamin Dutton. This bible was not used as a study or devotional bible by Dutton or anyone else, for the binding is as tight as it was when it was initially purchased and the pages pristine and devoid of any signs of use. Some pencilled scribblings in shorthand can be found on the inside of the front and back covers, but they appear to have been added later in an unknown hand. The handwriting of the notations on the inside page at the front of the bible that identify Dutton and Anne Steele and their death dates are also not in the hand of Anne Dutton. Furthermore, the note uses the spelling “Ann” instead of “Anne” (which is how Dutton signed her letters and her name in the Great Gransden Church Book) and also records Dutton’s death date, which for obvious reasons Dutton could not have known. The only identifiable hand anywhere in the bible is that of Anne Steele, whose signature graces that same page.

One of the most telling features of the bible is the bookplate on the inside cover: “John Collins, Devizes.” This bookplate makes clear that at some point after Dutton’s death, this bible was not bequeathed to the church but was either purchased or given to Collins (c. 1740s-1816) by someone connected with the church. Collins became a member of the Broughton church where Anne Steele worshipped in 1765, the year Dutton died. Most likely he is the son of John Collins, also of Devizes, who preached for several years in the 1770s to a congregation of Baptists there and who was known to the Steeles through their relations, the Attwaters, who themselves had relations through marriage with the Collinses (see reference to John Collins the minister in Jane Attwater's diary for 1775) It is possible that both father and son were antiquarians, but the portrait now held among the collections at Yale would seem to suggest by its date (c. 1799) that he is the John Collins who was a member at Broughton and died in 1816, possibly maintaining his business in Devizes during those years.

As a book collector and antiquarian of some note in Wiltshire at that time, and a Baptist, Collins would have been keen on acquiring something of the celebrated Anne Dutton and may have acquired the bible for the purpose of giving it to Steele as a gift. It is also possible that Steele may have asked Collins to get something of Dutton’s for her own library as a keepsake of the prolific writer.

In either case, Anne Steele's acceptance of the bible and her signature on its inside page suggest a recognition on her part of Dutton’s place in a developing tradition of Baptist women writers, an important feature of this story, regardless of any "bequeathing" on the part of Dutton. By acquiring this volume, Collins found a way to tie the two women together. It seems likely that the origin of the bible as belonging to Anne Dutton is not in error, since Collins, as an antiquarian collector, would have been reluctant for the story to spread if it was not true. A claim of that nature would have been easily proved or disproved at that time. Thus, we should accept this part of the story as fact, that the bible was indeed once in the possession of Anne Dutton.

The corresponding claim that Anne Dutton bequeathed the bible to Anne Steele is easily disproved, though many would prefer the claim to be true. The bookplate alone is sufficient evidence that Anne Steele did not receive the book from Dutton but from Collins, who would never have affixed his bookplate to something he did not initially acquire himself. Anne Steele’s signature would have been added after that acquisition, not prior to it. Even without the bookplate, no evidence exists in the volume that suggests any connection between Dutton and Steele. Furthermore, the very idea of bequeathing one's personal bible to someone outside the family would have been extremely uncommon and viewed as immodest and arrogant, since one's devotional time with the bible was as "private" as any time spent during the life of a devout Dissenter

What actually happened is that Collins either purchased or acquired the book in some manner from the estate of Dutton or the Great Gransden Church and then gave the bible as a gift to Anne Steele, who kept the bible among her possessions, some of which were later, like the books of John Collins, bequeathed to the Broughton Church. During the time the volume resided in the church's library the story of the bible being "bequeathed" to Steele most likely originated. In the twentieth century the church’s library was given on loan to the Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford; the books were returned to the church in 1976 and then subsequently sold.

Images on the link website are from the Dutton bible - the bookplate of John Collins, the signature of Anne Steele and the notations added later in an unknown hand, Anne Dutton's signature from a letter to Philip Doddridge c. 1749, the bookplate of the Broughton church library, and the recording of the admission of John Collins as a member of the Broughton Baptist Church.

Images from Dutton's bible by the kind permission of the Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.

The claim that Dutton bequeathed her bible to Anne Steele creates a powerful linking of the two women writers and, if true, would be a striking example of how women writers at that time maintained some sense of community among themselves. Various coteries of women writers operated in that manner, such as the Steele Circle, but in the case of Dutton’s bible, that linkage is incorrect. That does not mean that the two women did not know of each other’s work. It probably goes without saying that they did, since both were very aware of what dissenting writers were doing at that time.

The idea that Dutton was not aware of Steele’s 1760 publication of Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional, which appeared just prior to her time as an editor for the Spiritual Magazine (1761-64), also seems highly improbable. The same could be said for Steele, whose religious views would have been very much in step with those of the Calvinist Anne Dutton. Thus, the thought that Anne Steele might have solicited a favour from a member of her church to acquire something that once belonged to Anne Dutton is not improbable at all, nor is the suggestion that that same member of her church would have acquired and then given such a treasure as a gift to Anne Steele. If the latter is correct, then Collins' gift, an artifact that has survived since the 1760s, speaks to the importance of both women as major voices in prose and poetry among the Particular Baptists of the eighteenth century.