Draft:Sarah Low Norton
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Sarah Low Norton (2 September 1790 – 25 July 1856) was an American Methodist writer and correspondent associated with Lexington, Kentucky. Her writings addressed religious life and women's education, and she was known for charitable activity.
Early life and family
[edit]Sarah Low was born on 2 September 1790 in York County, Pennsylvania. Her father died during her infancy, and her mother died when Norton was nine years old.[1] According to Samuel Davies Baldwin's 1858 biography of Norton, part of her early life was spent in the Lycoming region along the Susquehanna River.[2]
At the age of thirteen, Norton joined the Methodist Episcopal Church under the ministry of Robert Richford Roberts. She married John Norton in 1807, and the couple settled in Lexington in 1812.[1]
The Smithsonian Institution identifies her as "Mrs. John Norton (Sarah Low)" in its catalogue record for her portrait by Matthew Harris Jouett.[3]
John Norton was a businessman who moved from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Kentucky in 1812 and lived in Lexington.[4]
Religious life and views
[edit]Norton was active in Methodist religious life. Historian Lucius Wedge, drawing on Baldwin's biography, describes her religious practice as combining private devotion with writing, public worship and charitable activity.[5]
Norton argued for the education of women. Wedge writes that she believed women should be educated to become the intellectual equals of men, although she continued to support conventional nineteenth-century restrictions on women's social and religious roles.[5]
Writing and correspondence
[edit]Norton's religious writing included correspondence concerning faith and religious experience. Historian Lucius Wedge notes that Norton described the spiritual struggles of a woman with whom she corresponded, including recurring periods of religious doubt.[5] Baldwin's biography preserves and discusses Norton's correspondence as part of its account of her religious life.[6]
A surviving letter from Norton is held by the Filson Historical Society as part of the Corlis-Respess family papers. Dated 30 March 1846, the four-page letter was sent from Lexington to Susan Respess in Florence, Kentucky.[7]
Death and legacy
[edit]Norton died on 25 July 1856, after approximately fifty-three years as a member of the Methodist Church.[1]
In his 1870 history of Methodism in Kentucky, Albert Henry Redford wrote that Methodism in Lexington was greatly indebted to Norton's "piety, zeal, and influence" and devoted several pages to her life and religious activity.[1]
Two years after her death, Samuel Davies Baldwin published a book-length biography, Life of Mrs. Sarah Norton: An Illustration of Practical Piety (1858), through the publishing agent of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.[8]
References
[edit]
- 1 2 3 4 Redford, Albert Henry (1870). The History of Methodism in Kentucky. Vol. 3. Nashville: Southern Methodist Publishing House. pp. 538–540.
- ↑ Baldwin, Samuel Davies (1858). Life of Mrs. Sarah Norton: An Illustration of Practical Piety. Nashville: J. B. M'Ferrin, agent, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. p. 13.
- ↑ "Mrs. John Norton (Sarah Low) (1790–1856), (painting)". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
- ↑ "Portrait of John Norton Jr. (1783–1858)". Speed Art Museum. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
- 1 2 3 Wedge, Lucius (2013). Andrew Johnson and the Ministers of Nashville: A Study in the Relationship Between War, Politics, and Morality (PhD dissertation). University of Akron. pp. 189–193.
- ↑ Baldwin, Samuel Davies (1858). Life of Mrs. Sarah Norton: An Illustration of Practical Piety. Nashville: J. B. M'Ferrin, agent, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. pp. 94–99.
- ↑ "Corlis-Respess family papers: index to correspondence" (PDF). The Filson Historical Society. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
- ↑ Baldwin, Samuel Davies (1858). Life of Mrs. Sarah Norton: An Illustration of Practical Piety. Nashville: J. B. M'Ferrin, agent, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.