Maria Abdy

Maria Abdy, née Smith (25 February 1797 – 19 July 1867) was an English poet.

Maria Abdy was born in London, the daughter and first-born child of Richard Smith, a solicitor, and Maria Smith, sister to James and Horace Smith, authors of the book of parodies Rejected Addresses (1812).

Although her mother was from a dissenting family, in 1821 she married John Channing Abdy, a clergyman who succeeded his father as rector of St John's, Southwark. John Channing Abdy and Maria Abdy had at least one boy, Albert Channing Abdy (born 1829), who attended Oxford and became a clergyman. Maria Abdy was widowed in 1845. She died on 19 July 1867 in Margate, and was buried at St Peter's, Kent.

Abdy's husband appears to have encouraged her to publish poetry. One poem in her first collection was written to celebrate the centenary of his church, and several of her religious poems were intended to be sung as hymns. Yet she also published poetry in periodicals, such as (under the signature M.A.) the New Monthly Magazine and The Metropolitan Magazine, and annuals such as The Keepsake, Forget-Me-Not, Friendship's Offering and the Book of Beauty. Her poems occasionally offered serious social comment, and sometimes addressed social themes with a lighter satirical touch.

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