Anne Steele

My grandfather named his farm “Blaenant,” which my dad said was a Welsh word meaning “house at the head of the stream.” My son and family live in an 1814 New England house called “Journey’s End.” Before houses had street numbers, they were customarily identified by name. Tradespeople named their homes after their occupation (“The Mill House”). Houses were also named for their surrounding landscape (“Treetop House”) or their appearance (“Crooked Cottage”). Houses were designated for animals (“The Barking Lot”) or their location by the sea (“Shore Thing” or “Sea Ya Later”) or christened with a touch of humor (“Wit’s End Residence” or “The Nut House”). William Steele and his family lived in a 17th-century house called “Grandfathers” in Broughton, England. The house was appropriately named since it was built by several generations of the Steele family. William ran a lucrative timber business selling lumber to the British Navy while pastoring the Broughton Baptist Church. Daughter Anne exhibited a deep faith in Christ at an early age and was baptized at 14 in her father’s church. Anne Steele (1717-1778) wrote poems to aid her private devotions, and her father asked if she would consent to accompany them with music for use in Sunday worship. Anne reluctantly agreed, adopting the pseudonym “Theodosia,” meaning “The Gift of God.” She became the foremost hymn-writer in Baptist circles in the 18th century. Two things stand out in her hymn writing. First, her candor about pain and suffering, as she endured chronic illness and the premature deaths of several people close to her. Second, her frequent references to thanksgiving. Her hymns swell with gratitude. Her hymns are being reintroduced in our time. Someone ought to put a new tune to her old lyrics “My Heartfelt Thanks Outpour” for us to sing as a prayer in worship: