Elizabeth Dawbarn
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Elizabeth Dawbarn (died 1839), was an English nurse and pamphleteer from
Wisbech Wisbech ( ) is a market town, inland Port of Wisbech, port and civil parish in the Fenland District, Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bord ...
,
Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
. She wrote about the nature of Christ, the influence that women can exert on men, and the rights and needs of young children. Her works were distributed through the English
Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
movement.


Life

Born as Elizabeth Saltonstall, she had come from
Alford, Lincolnshire Alford (pronounced ) is a town in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, at the foot of the Lincolnshire Wolds, which form an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The population was recorded as 3,459 in the 2011 Census and estimat ...
and was described as "a lady of substance". She is said to have been the only surviving member of a family descended from Samuel Saltonstall, the elder brother of Richard Saltonstall,
Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...
from 1597 to 1598. Little is known of her before she married Richard Bunbury Dawbarn of
Wisbech Wisbech ( ) is a market town, inland Port of Wisbech, port and civil parish in the Fenland District, Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bord ...
,
Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
on 30 April 1782. She then encouraged her husband to leave the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
and join the Particular Baptist congregation in Wisbech. He later became a Baptist preacher. Their eight children were Mary (1783–1828), Thomas (1785–1863), Richard (1786–1826), John (1789–1849), Elizabeth (born 1790), Ann (1795–1863), Robert (1799–1888) and Frances (died 1801). Her husband predeceased her in 1829 at the age of 72. A later pamphlet of hers on child care is addressed to her daughter Elizabeth. Little more is known of her private life.''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'', ed. Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 272.


Works

Dawbarn's religious writings, addressed to children and to adults, are centred on the Old Testament, and are intended to demonstrate "the historical and symbolic connection between the Old and the New Testaments". ''The Eternal Existence of the Son of God'' (1800) shows parallel literal and symbolic readings of the Old Testament in its treatment of ''Proverbs'' 8. In the ''Young Person's Assistant in Reading the Old Testament'' (published in 1806, second edition 1816) Dawbarn writes in the person of a mother to her children. She underlines the importance of instilling Christianity into them and pauses to define difficult terms and passages. Her work on the nature of Christ probably dates from 1800, and that on ''The Rights of Infants; or, a Letter from a mother to a daughter, relative to the nursing of infants'' from 1805.''Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters'', ed. Marion N. Taylor and Agnes Choi (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic
Retrieved 8 July 2016.
/ref> The latter presses for the importance of infant care and of kindly commonsense in applying it. Dawbarn's earlier anonymous, ''Dialogue between Clara Neville and Louisa Mills, on Loyalty'' (1794) is strongly conservative in its preference for monarchy over liberty. It underlines the importance to God of comforting the poor and the influence that women can exert over men in this respect. In 1805 she published an anthology of writings against the theatre: ''Sentiments selected from Writers of Ancient and Modern Celebrity concerning Theatrical Amusements. Presented to Mrs. T. Robertson, author of "An Answer to the Effusions of Gratitude, &c." Dawbarn's writings were published locally in Wisbech, but they were disseminated more widely through the Baptist movement.See, for example, the ''Index of Notable Baptists... before 1850'
Retrieved 8 July 2016


Note

Elizabeth Yelverton of Liverpool married Elizabeth Dawbarn's grandson William Dawbarn in 1843, becoming another Elizabeth Dawbarn.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawbarn, Elizabeth 1839 deaths English religious writers English pamphleteers English Baptists 18th-century British women writers 19th-century British women writers Child care People from Alford, Lincolnshire People from Wisbech