His eldest son was one of the secretaries of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1874-84; and another son, Sir Charles Reed, M.P., Chairman of the London School Board, 1870-81.
Dr. Reed published a Supplement to Watts in 1817, with a few original hymns, and in 1842 issued a hymn-book prepared from Watts and other writers. He wrote in all twenty-one hymns. He died in 1862.
Hymn 255. Father of mercies, in Thy word.
Anne Steele (1716-88).
In her Poems, 1760. The original has twelve stanzas. One of those omitted is—
O may these heavenly pages be
My ever dear delight;
And still new beauties may I see,
And still increasing light.
Miss Steele was the daughter of William Steele, a timber merchant, and for sixty years unpaid pastor of the Baptist Church, Broughton, Hants, where his uncle, Henry Steele, previously ministered. The clergyman complained to his diocesan, Bishop Burnet, that the Baptist's preaching had sadly thinned his ministry. 'Go home,' said the bishop, 'and preach better than Henry Steele, and the people will return soon.' Miss Steele was publicly baptized at the age of fourteen. In 1760 she published Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional, by Theodosia, in two vols. Her father's diary for November 29, 1757, says, 'This day Nanny sent a part of her compositions to London to be printed. I entreat a gracious God, who enabled and stirred her up to such a work, to direct her in it, and to bless it for the good and comfort of many. I pray God to make it useful, and to keep her humble.' A little later he is reading the printed book, and praying that a blessing may go forth with it. Sixty-two of her hymns were published in the Bristol Baptist Collection in 1769. On the day she was to be married her lover, Mr. Elscourt, was found drowned in the river where he had been bathing. That shock told on her constitution, and she was always delicate. She was buried in Broughton churchyard. On her tomb are the lines—
