Brown was or­phaned at the age of two. At age nine, she began liv­ing with a rel­ative who ran a coun­ty jail. There, says her son,

…were years of in­tense and cru­el suf­fer­ing. The tale of her ear­ly life, which she has left her child­ren, is a nar­ra­tive of such dep­ri­va­tions, cru­el treat­ment, and toil, as it breaks my heart to read.

At age 18, kind people sent her to school at Clav­er­ack, New York, where she learned to write, and con­vert­ed to Christ. In 1805, she mar­ried Timothy H. Brown, a paint­er, and sub­se­quent­ly lived at East Wind­sor and Ell­ing­ton, Con­nec­ti­cut; Mon­son, Mass­a­chus­etts; and Mar­shall, Il­l­inois.

Most of her hymns were writ­ten at Mon­son, Mass­a­chus­etts. Through a life of pov­er­ty and tri­al she was a “most de­vot­ed mo­ther, wife, and Christ­ian.” Her son, Samuel R. Brown, be­came the first Amer­i­can mis­sion­ary to Ja­pan, and two of her grand­child­ren fol­lowed in his foot­steps.

Sources

Hymns

1. As Once the Savior Took His Seat
2. Go, Messenger of Love, and Bear
3. How Sweet the Melting Lay
4. I Love to Steal Awhile Away
5. O Lord, Thy Work Revive
6. Welcome, Ye Hopeful Heirs of Heaven
7. Yes, When This Toilsome Day is Gone