Charlotte Elliott

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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.

Milestones

18 March 1789

Charlotte Elliott was born at Grove House, Clapham, in South London, the third daughter among eight children born to a leading family of the Clapham Sect .
Babington, Eleanor et al. “Biographical Sketch”. Selections from the Poems of Charlotte Elliott, Religious Tract Society, pp. 13-58.
13
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Before 9 May 1822

CE composed occasional poems, social and some of them humorous, which were appended years later to the 1871 edition of Thoughts in Verse on Sacred Subjects.
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Babington, Eleanor et al. “Biographical Sketch”. Selections from the Poems of Charlotte Elliott, Religious Tract Society, pp. 13-58.
16-17, 24

22 September 1871

CE died at Brighton in Sussex in her early eighties, after several years as a complete invalid.
Babington, Eleanor et al. “Biographical Sketch”. Selections from the Poems of Charlotte Elliott, Religious Tract Society, pp. 13-58.
58
Miles, Alfred H. The Victorian Poets: The Bio-Critical Introductions to the Victorian Poets from A. H. Miles’s The Poets and the Poetry of the Nineteenth Century. Editor Fredeman, William E., Garland.
88

Biography

Birth and Family

18 March 1789

Charlotte Elliott was born at Grove House, Clapham, in South London, the third daughter among eight children born to a leading family of the Clapham Sect .
Babington, Eleanor et al. “Biographical Sketch”. Selections from the Poems of Charlotte Elliott, Religious Tract Society, pp. 13-58.
13
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

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