Procter was the daugh­ter of Bry­an Wal­ler Proc­ter, bet­ter known as po­et and play­wright Barry Corn­wall. Ad­e­laide be­gan writ­ing hymns af­ter join­ing the Ro­man Cath­o­lic church in 1851. She be­came a friend of writ­er Charles Dickens through her con­tri­bu­tions to House­hold Words:

Dickens speaks of the en­thu­si­asm for do­ing good that filled his young friend’s heart: ‘Now it the vi­sit­a­tion of the sick that had pos­sess­ion of her; now it was the shel­ter­ing of the home­less; now it was the el­e­ment­a­ry teach­ing of the dense­ly ig­nor­ant; now it was the rais­ing up of those who had wan­dered and got trod­den un­der­foot; now it was the wid­er em­ploy­ment of her own sex in the gen­er­al bu­si­ness of life; now it was all these things at once. Per­fect­ly un­self­ish, swift to sym­pa­thize, and ea­ger to re­lieve, she wrought at such designs with a flushed ear­nest­ness that dis­re­gard­ed sea­son, wea­ther, time of day or night, food, rest.’ Un­der such a strain her health gave way, and after fif­teen months of suf­fer­ing she found her rest.

Procter’s works in­clude:

• The Lost Chord
• Legends and Lyr­ics, a Book of Verse, 1862

Sources

Hymns

1. I Do Not Ask, O Lord
2. Lost Chord, The
3. My God, I Thank Thee
4. One by One the Sands Are Going
5. Rise, for the Day Is Passing
6. Shadows of the Evening Hours, The
7. Strive, Yet I Do Not Promise
8. Way Is Long and Dreary, The
9. We Ask for Peace, O Lord