Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Smith, Sarah
SMITH, SARAH, writing under the pseudonym of ‘Hesba Stretton’ (1832–1911), author, born on 27 July 1832, in New Street, Wellington, Shropshire, was third daughter and fourth child (in a family of eight) of Benjamin Smith, a bookseller and publisher, by his wife Ann Bakewell, a woman of strong evangelical views, who died when Sarah was eight years old. Sarah attended a large girls' day school at the Old Hall, Watling Street, Wellington, conducted by Mrs. Cranage. The school was continued by her son, Dr. Cranage, as a boys' school, and became well known. But Sarah's education was chiefly gained by reading the books in her father's shop. She early began to write little tales without thought of publication. In 1859, however, her sister Elizabeth (1830–1911), her lifelong companion, sent, unknown to Sarah, one of these stories, ‘The Lucky Leg,’ to Charles Dickens, then editor of ‘Household Words.’ He accepted it, sending a cheque for 5l., and published it on 19 March 1859, intimating he would be glad of further contributions. A friendship sprang up between Dickens and the young author, who contributed to nearly every Christmas number of ‘All the Year Round’ until 1866. Her most notable tale in that connection was ‘The Travelling Post Office’ in ‘Mugby Junction,’ Dec. 1866. Feeling that her name lacked distinction, she adopted in 1858 the pseudonym ‘Hesba Stretton.’ Hesba represented the initial letters of the names of her brothers and sisters then living in order of age, and ‘Stretton’ was taken from All Stretton (near Church Stretton, Shropshire), where by the bequest of an uncle her younger sister Ann (b. 1837) had property. Hesba, who adopted her new name in all relations of life, visited the place annually till near her death.
At the end of 1863 Hesba Stretton and her sister left Shropshire, and lived for some years in Manchester, and after a short sojourn abroad settled in 1870 in Bayswater, London. Her work attracted little notice until the appearance in the ‘Sunday at Home’ in 1866 of ‘Jessica's First Prayer,’ a touching story, simply written, of a girl waif's awakening to the meaning of religion. Issued in book form in 1867, it won an immediate and lasting popularity. Over a million and a half copies have been sold, and it has been translated into every European language and into most Asiatic and African tongues. The tale shows accurate knowledge of the life of destitute children in large cities, and embodies personal investigations of slum conditions. The story was commended by the earl of Shaftesbury [q. v.]. The Tsar Alexander II ordered it to be placed in all Russian schools, but the decree was revoked by his successor, who had all the copies burnt. Similar stories followed, of which the most popular were ‘Little Meg's Children’ (1868) and ‘Alone in London’ (1869), which reached a combined circulation of three-quarters of a million copies. Between 1866 and 1906 Hesba Stretton published in all fifty volumes, mostly short religious and moral tales issued by the Religious Tract Society; a few, however, like ‘The Clives of Burcot’ (1866), ‘David Lloyd's Last Will’ (1869), and ‘The Doctor's Dilemma’ (1872) are long novels.
A woman of wide and varied sympathies, Hesba Stretton did not confine her energies to writing. She became acquainted with the Baroness Burdett-Coutts and assisted her in her works of charity. Hesba Stretton took a prominent part in the founding of the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She had for some years been associated with Benjamin Waugh in the ‘Sunday Magazine,’ and in consultation with him she published a letter in ‘The Times’ in Jan. 1884, directing attention to the need for such a society. She attended a meeting of twenty persons, including the Baroness Burdett-Coutts and the earl of Shaftesbury, at the Mansion House on 11 July 1884, when the foundations of the society were laid. A report which she drew up for an organising sub-committee was printed and circulated. Hesba Stretton continued an active member of the executive committee until 15 Dec. 1894, when she resigned. The Baroness Burdett-Coutts had resigned just before because she disapproved on financial grounds of the development of the London society into a national society.
During the Russian famine of 1892 Hesba Stretton collected 1000l. for the relief of the peasants, and took much trouble to ensure its proper distribution.
About 1890 Miss Stretton settled at Ivy Croft, Ham, near Richmond, where she died on 8 Oct. 1911, after having been confined to her room for four years. She was buried in the churchyard, Ham Common, Surrey.
Hesba Stretton, who led a retired, simple and hardworking life, and avoided publicity, wholly depended for her livelihood on her pen. She never went to a theatre, cared nothing for dress, and owned no jewellery. She found recreation in foreign travel and in the society of children and of friends, who included foreigners of distinction like J. H. Merle D'Aubigné, the French protestant historian, and Franz Delitzsch, the German theologian. The latter translated many of her stories into German.
[The Times, 10 Oct. 1911; Seed Time and Harvest, Dec. 1911; Sunday at Home, Dec. 1911; Brit. Mus. Cat.; private information.]