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Cecil Frances Alexander
(1818-1895)
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Biography of Cecil Frances Alexander
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[née Cecil Frances Humphreys ] 3rd child of the former Elizabeth Reed and Major John Humphreys of Norfolk, land-agent to 4th Earl of Wicklow and later to the second Marquess of Abercorn;
She began writing verse at early age; influenced in religion by Dr Hook, Dean of Chichester, and subsequently by John Keble, who edited her Songs for Little Children;
She contributed. lyric and narrative poems and French translations to Dublin University Magazine under pseuds. [as supra]; her "Burial of Moses" appeared anon. in Dublin University Magazine (1856) causing Tennyson to profess it one of the few poems of a living author he wished he had written;
She had a friendship with Lady [Harriet] Howard while living at Ballykean, Co. Wicklow, collaborated on tracts, published separately and then brought together; Lady Harriet died of consumption;
Issued Verses for Holy Seasons (1846) The Lord of the Forest and his Vassals (1847), allegory for children; Hymns for Little Children (1848); influenced in religion by the Oxford movement; She met Miss Hook and her brother Dr. Hook, who edited her volume Verses for Holy Seasons, while visiting her sister Anne Humphreys Maguire, in Leamington;
She married Rev. William Alexander Oct. 1850, Strabane Church, then recorder of Termonamongan, diocese of Derry; six years older than he, causing great family concern.
They lived at Strabane, 1860-67, with trips to France; William appt. bishop of Derry and Raphoe in 1867. She was much involved with Derry Home for Fallen Women and with the development of a district nurses service; indefatigable visitor to poor and sick; seven of her hymns included in Church of Ireland Hymnal (1873), the first to be authorised after Disestablishment, eighteen contained in A Supplement to Hymns Ancient and Modern (1889), nine appearing in Church of Ireland Hymnal (1960, 1987 edns.); wrote elegies for Mrs. Hemans, Robert Southey and Kaiser Wilhelm; d. 12 Oct., Derry; her poems posthumously collected and edited by William Alexander in Poems of the late Mrs Alexander (1896).
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