Marianne Farningham
| Marianne Farningham | |
|---|---|
 by Thomas Williams Hunt | |
| Born |
Mary Anne Hearn 17 December 1834 Farningham |
| Died |
16 March 1909 Barmouth |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Eva Hope |
| Known for | writing |
| Children | no |
Marianne Farningham or Mary Anne Hearn (17 December 1834 – 16 March 1909) was a British religious writer of poetry, biographies, prose and hymns.
Life
Mary Anne Hearn was born in Farningham in Kent in 1834 to a religious Baptist family. She was home schooled as her family did not agree with the National School. Her further education was possible when the British and Foreign Bible Society opened a British School.[1]
She became a teacher at the British Schools in Bristol then Gravesend and finally Northampton. In 1866 she decided to become a full-time writer and the following year she joined the staff of "'Christian World". Hearn was to write for this publication for the rest of her life and her contributions were the basis for nearly forty other works of poems etc. These works were published under the nom de plume of Marianne Farningham which was a name derived from her birthplace and her forenames.[2] This name was suggested by the Rev Jonathan Whittemore who started "Christian World".[3] She also wrote some (poor) biographies of contemporary heroes Grace Darling, David Livingstone, General Gordon and Queen Victoria under the name, Eva Hope.[4]
In 1885 she became the editor of the Sunday School Times after contributing some work.[2]
She wrote a number of hymns of which "Just as I am, Thine Own to Be" is possibly the best remembered, although it is said to be a reworking of another hymn Just As I Am written by Charlotte Elliott in 1835.[5]
Farningham died in Barmouth in 1909.
Legacy
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Works
- Lays and Lyrics of the Blessed Life, 1861
- Poems,' 1865
- Morning and Evening Hymns for the Week, 1870
- Songs of Sunshine, 1878
- A Working Woman's Life, an autobiography, 1907
Hymns include
- ' 'Watching and waiting for me,[6]
Poems
Some of her poems were fashionable as recitations including The Last Hymn, A Goodbye at the Door, and ' 'A Blind Man's Story,'.[2]
About her
In 2009 a book was published to celebrate the centenary of her death.[1][
References
- 1 2 Marianne Farningham
- 1 2 3
Hearn, Mary Anne (DNB12). Wikisource. - ↑ Rosemary Mitchell, ‘Hearn, Mary Anne [Marianne Farningham] (1834–1909)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 1 Jan 2015
- ↑ Marianne Farningham, Linda Wilson, VictorianWeb
- ↑ Just as I am, Thine own to be, Hymnology.co.uk, retrieved 1 January 2014
- ↑ Sankey's 'Songs and Solos.'