Charlotte Elliott

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Standard Name: Elliott, Charlotte
Birth Name: Charlotte Elliott
CE was a prolific author in the mid nineteenth century of religious lyrics, many of them hymns, which circulated in periodicals, annuals, and collections. Her enduring reputation rests on the hymn Just as I am—without one plea (although My God and Father while I stray and Christian, seek not yet repose also remain well-known). Erik Routley calls her [p]erhaps . . the most importantwoman hymn-writer . . . born in the eighteenth century.
Routley, Erik. Hymns and Human Life. John Murray.
207
Her hymns and poems depict the inevitability of human suffering, and embrace hardship and loss as roads to heaven. From around 1850 her works appeared in Anglican hymnals, and Just as I am—without one plea remains in the Lutheran Book of Worship.
Routley, Erik. Hymns and Human Life. John Murray.
207-8
Julian, John, editor. A Dictionary of Hymnology. Dover Publications.
328
Jones, Francis Arthur. Famous Hymns and Their Authors. Singing Tree Press.
217-8
Stulken, Marilyn Kay. Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship. Fortress Press.
360
Black and white photograph of Charlotte Elliott. She sits at a slight angle to the camera, looking right. She wears a dark dress with white lace detail at the collar, and a white cap which covers most of her hair, with a few tight curls framing her face.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Fictionalization Frances Ridley Havergal
The twentieth-century novelist Barbara Pym was planning at the time of her death to construct a novel around a Victorian hymn-writing woman like FRH or Charlotte Elliott —but it remained unwritten.
Pym, Barbara. A Very Private Eye. Editors Holt, Hazel and Hilary Pym, Macmillan.
329
Education Frances Ridley Havergal
FRH was an avid reader within limits: her selection of material was mostly dictated by her religious interests. After receiving a copy of a book about literary women she commented, The sad sketch of L. E. L.

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

Babington, Eleanor et al. “Biographical Sketch”. Selections from the Poems of Charlotte Elliott, Religious Tract Society, 1873, pp. 13-58.
Elliott, Charlotte. Hours of Sorrow. James Nisbet, 1836.
Elliott, Charlotte. Leaves from the Unpublished Journals, Letters, and Poems of Charlotte Elliott. Religious Tract Society, 1874.
Elliott, Charlotte. Morning and Evening Hymns for a Week. R. Sickelmore, 1836.
Elliott, Charlotte. Morning and Evening Hymns for a Week. Chas. J. Thynne, 1906.
Elliott, Charlotte, and Eleanor Babington. Selections from the Poems of Charlotte Elliott. Religious Tract Society, 1873.
Kiernan, Harriet. The Invalid’s Hymn Book. Editor Elliott, Charlotte, John Robertson, 1834.
Kiernan, Harriet. The Invalid’s Hymn Book. Editor Elliott, Charlotte, John Robertson, 1835.
Elliott, Charlotte. Thoughts in Verse on Sacred Subjects. William Macintosh, 1869.
Elliott, Charlotte. Thoughts in Verse on Sacred Subjects. William Hunt, 1871.