Ruth Bryan (continued)

 

This sketch of Ruth Bryan (1805–60), 'Ruth the Gleaner', was drawn from memory by Margaret Lacey. This is taken from the frontispiece of the book whose title-page is shown below, and I am once more grateful to Rowena Edlin-White for sending it me, along with almost all of the additional information that I include here.

The Field of Boaz: Gleanings by Ruth Bryan (London: The Society of SS. Peter & Paul, 1927) is a version of the diary of Ruth Bryan (a Calvinist) which was heavily edited by Frederic Spurr (a Baptist). The Lacey family was well known to Bryan, and Anglo-Catholic Thomas Alexander Lacey (1853–1931) wrote the Preface to this book which was published nearly seventy years after her death. Lacey had been appointed canon residentiary of Worcester Cathedral in 1918, and caused quite an uproar by denying that the Bible is the word of God.

General Cemetery records state that Ruth's father (who died in 1823) and her mother (who died in 1846) were buried with her.

Ruth Bryan died at 18 High Pavement, Nottingham, probably on the site of the old police station next to the Galleries of Justice.

Below is a link to an earlier post I made about Ruth Bryan after discovering her grave.

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Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

'IN

LOVING MEMORY OF

RUTH BRYAN,

WRITER OF

"DIARY" AND "LETTERS",

WHO FELL ASLEEP IN JESUS

JULY 27th 1860,

AGED 55 YEARS.

 

"THE MEMORY OF

THE JUST IS BLESSED" PROV. 10:7.'

 

While I was on my way to find Sarah Ann Agnes Turk's grave in Nottingham General Cemetery I came across the grave of Ruth Bryan (1805–1860), and would have passed it by if it hadn't mentioned that she was a writer. There's still a lot a mud on it but there was a great deal more before I used tissues and wipes to make it at least legible. I knew nothing of Ruth Bryan and didn't honestly expect to find much information, but I was in for quite a surprise.

 

I suspect that very few people in Nottingham, in the UK even, have heard of this writer, although her works are in the British Library. But the Library of Congress gives no mention of her, and yet virtually all of the information about her seems to come from 'Grace Gems', a puritan website based in Wenatchee, Washington state. 'Grace Gems' was founded and is edited by Matt Blair, who includes a number of religious writers' works on the site, from the internationally known John Bunyan to the much more obscure Ruth Bryan, whom he calls the sites's 'Best Female Author'. Bryan's letters are there, excerpts from her diary, and several audio recordings have been made of her 'meditations'.

 

There's also a little biographical information about Bryan: she was born in London, her father was in business but the family left when her father became a minister in Nottingham. And the diary – begun when she was seventeen and maintained until the year of her death – charts her spiritual progress and struggles, the journeys she made in England, her relationship with God, and her long struggle with illness.

 

There is a link to 'Grace Gems' below, and also a link to a later post I made.

 

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The Works of Ruth Bryan
Ruth Bryan (continued)

Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery:

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Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927)
Annie Matheson (1853–1924)
Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892)
Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)
Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)
James Prior's Parents
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
Robert Millhouse (1788-1839)
Henry Hogg (1831-74)