A. R. St. John

Abby Richardson St. John (1805.) Mrs. A. R. St. John was born in Boston, Mass., Feb. 24, 1805. Left an orphan at a very early age, she passed under the care and into the family of her brother, the late Colonel Isaac Monroe, of Baltimore, Md. He was at that time living in Boston, where he had established and was editing the 'Boston Patriot.' In a few years thereafter, he removed to Baltimore, and there, carrying with him his professional predilections, established and edited the 'Baltimore Patriot.' This paper early became one of the leading political and literary journals of the day, marked by great ability in its editorial conduct, and by the soundness of its views upon the great topics which agitated the country previous to, during, and immediately following the War of 1812; while it continued, through the long period of its founder's personal care, and by the talent and culture he was able to command, to sustain its high reputation throughout the Union.

"Colonel Monroe, faithful to the guardianship he had from the first assumed, did not forget to provide the best education for his sister which the city of his adoption afforded; whilst his prominent editorial and social position brought her into frequent and close association with many of the best and most cultivated intellects and distinguished statesmen of the country, to whom his house was a familiar resort. Thus she early imbibed a decided and earnest love, not only of modern, but of ancient and classic literature. Her pen, meanwhile, was not suffered to lie idle, though in general confined to local subjects of interest, or some special object or occasion. Hence, to the public, and beyond her own private or social circle, is she so little known as an author. The scant notice of her in Griswold's 'Female Poets of America' is due to her aversion to any claim of literary rank.

"In 1825 she was married to Mr. I. R. St. John,— then partner in an eminent banking-house in New York and Augusta, Ga., to which latter city she immediately accompanied him. There they remained till 1836, when her husband was called to the New York office of his firm; and, after its dissolution, they removed to Brooklyn, in 1842, where they are still living. The tastes and the convictions of Mrs. St. John go together in her devotion to the Unitarian faith,— from her childhood at once consistent and zealous. In the earlier and later ministry of the lamented Rev. William Ware in New York, and from the very start of the Church of the Saviour in Brooklyn, she has laid upon its altars the offering of her fine and cultured mind, her ardent and sincere affection, her long life of active benevolence and unostentatious piety."

--Alfred P. Putnam, Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1875), p. 190. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/103020200

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