Sarah Flower Adams (Sarah Adams)

Sarah Flower Adams

Poet. Born in Old Harlow, Essex, in England. The youngest daughter of Benjamin Flower, a newspaper editor. During the years 1832 to 1835 Sarah became a contributor to the pages of the Monthly Repository, then edited by Mr. W. Johnson Fox, and contributed to by John Stuart Mill, Crabb Robinson, Robert Browning, R. H. Horne, Leigh Hunt, and other distinguished writers. In  September, 1834, she was married at St. John’s, Hackney, to Mr. John Brydges Adams, the “Junius Redivivus” of the Monthly Repository. After her marriage she entertained the idea that the life of an actress.  In 1837 she made her first attempt in public, appearing at the little Richmond theatre as Lady Macbeth with considerable success.  Her success resulted in a good engagement for the Bath Theatre, then considered the best training school for aspirants for the London Stage. Her health gave way, and instead of fulfilling her engagement she lay prostrate with illness at Bath. Sarah was physically incapable of sustaining the strain of public performances, she was now determined to devote her efforts entirely to literature, with the result that her dramatic poem, “Vivia Perpetua,” was published in 1841. Her hymns fourteen in all, were published in the collection of Hymns and Anthems made by Mr. W. Johnson Fox for the use of his congregation at South Place Chapel, Finsbury. Most of them were set to music by her sister, Eliza Flower, who took a large share in the direction of the music at South Place. Of these hymns, the most widely known are ‘Nearer, my God, to Thee’, and ‘He sendeth sun, He sendeth showers’. Sarah died from tuberculosis at the age of 43. (bio by: Shock)  Family links:  Parents:  Benjamin Flower (1755 – 1829)  Eliza Flower (____ – 1810)  Spouse:  William Bridges Adams*  Sibling:  Eliza Flower (1803 – 1846)*  Sarah Flower Adams (1805 – 1848) *Calculated relationship

Born

  • February, 22, 1805
  • England

Died

  • August, 08, 1848
  • England

Cemetery

  • Harlow Baptist Burial Ground
  • Essex
  • England

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