You won’t find her name enshrined among the great saints in the church, but Maria Mills certainly belongs in the spiritual hall of fame. She was housekeeper for the 6th Earl of Shaftesbury and his wife, Lady Spener. Anthony Ashley Cooper (1801-1885) was their eldest son, born into wealth and privilege–yet it was a loveless home. His dad was a tyrant, and Ashley wrote about his mother’s “dereliction of duty and harshness.”
Enter Maria Mills who supplied what Ashley’s parents lacked. She introduced Ashley to prayer and taught him the stories of Jesus. One of Ashley’s biographers wrote that Maria, “spoke of the Lord Jesus as the risen Redeemer who could be a friend.”
Her influence was long-lasting. Ashley became the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, a member of British parliament, and a tireless social reformer. As he witnessed the plight of the poor, he wrote, “I must persist…but it is a formidable step. God alone can strengthen me.” He pressed for more humane laws to regulate young children working in factories and coal mines. He advocated better housing for the poor and reform of lunatic asylums, (the name tells you something about the typical nineteenth-century approach to mental illness).
Anthony’s achievements in Parliament were nothing short of stunning. He wrote, “My religious views are not very popular, but they are views that have sustained and comforted me all through my life. If a man’s religion is worth anything, it should enter into every sphere of life and rule his conduct in every relation.”
A prayer from the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury: