Waring, Anna Letitia (1823-1910)
Waring, Anna Letitia (1823–1910)
British hymnwriter . Name variations: Anna Laetitia Waring. Born on April 19, 1823, in Plas-y-Velin, Neath, Glamorganshire; died on May 10, 1910; daughter of Elijah Waring and Deborah Waring; never married.
Anna Letitia Waring was born in 1823 in Plas-y-Velin, Neath, Glamorganshire, the second daughter of Elijah and Deborah Waring , both active members of the Society of Friends. She began writing hymns at an early age and followed in the footsteps of her uncle, Samuel Miller Waring, a hymnwriter who left the Society of Friends to join the Church of England. Like her uncle, Waring also left the Society to join the Church of England. She learned to read Hebrew and studied the Psalms on a daily basis, as well as the Hebrew poetry of the Old Testament.
In 1846, at age 23, Waring wrote "Father, I know that all my life," one of her most popular works. Her hymns were widely embraced and her volume Hymns and Meditations, written in 1850 and containing 18 hymns, was reprinted through many editions in both the 19th and 20th centuries. As she continued to produce hymns, she added them to successive editions, until the 1863 publication contained 38 songs. Waring was a prolific religious writer, whose works included Additional Hymns (1858) and Days of Remembrance (1886). She never married and continued writing hymns until her death in 1910.
Judith C. Reveal , freelance writer, Greensboro, Maryland