Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gosse, Emily
GOSSE, EMILY (1806–1857), religious writer, was born on 9 Nov. 1806 in London. Her parents, William and Hannah Bowes of Boston, Mass., were on both sides of old New England families. In 1848 she became the first wife of Philip Henry Gosse [q. v.] Mrs. Gosse, besides publishing two small volumes of devotional verse and a prose work on education, entitled ‘Abraham and his Children,’ 1855, was the author of a series of extremely popular religious tracts. In conjunction with her husband, she published, without the name of either author, in 1853, a volume of sketches in North Devon entitled ‘Seaside Pleasures.’ She was a woman of somewhat unusual acquirements, a fair Greek and a good Hebrew scholar, and one of the earliest of the modern ‘workers in the East End.’ She died in London on 9 Feb. 1857, after a very painful illness. Two memoirs of Mrs. Gosse were published in book form, one by her husband, the other by Anna Shipton, entitled ‘Tell Jesus,’ 1858, a slightly sensational collection of ‘Recollections of Emily Gosse,’ which has passed through innumerable editions.
[The two memoirs above and personal knowledge.]