Amabel Kerr

Lady Amabel Kerr (, Cowper; 1846 – 15 October 1906) was a British aristocrat and writer of religious literature, biographies, children's literature, and novels. She was also a translator from German to English, and a magazine editor. She was described in the University of Ottawa Review as "a rare example of strenuous devotion to the service of God and His Church, rendered all the more forcible by reason of the obscurity in which she endeavored to shroud her work". Kerr was the author of a number of books, among them: Unravelled Convictions, being the reasons for her conversion; Before Our Lord Came, an Old Testament history for little children; A Mixed Marriage, a novel; Life of Joan of Arc, and Life of Blessed Sebastian Valfre. She died in October 1906. Early life Lady Amabel Frederica Henrietta Cowper was born in St George Hanover Square, London, England, 1846. Her father was George Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper, and her mother was Lady Anne Florence de Grey (who after her husband's death succeeded as sixth Baroness Lucas of Crudwell), daughter of Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey. Her siblings were: Lady Henrietta Emily Mary Cowper (d. 1853) Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper (1834–1905) The Honourable Henry Frederick Cowper (1836–1887) Lady Florence Amabel Cowper (1837–1886), married the Honourable Auberon Herbert in 1871. Lady Adine Eliza Anne Cowper (1840–1868), married the Honourable Julian Fane in 1866. Career While still a girl, and before her conversion, she started her literary career with a journal, afterward published with the title Unravelled Convictions, in which she recorded the various mental stages through which she was led through many doubts and bewilderments to find peace and rest in the Catholic Church. It was an instructive history of her feelings and convictions up to November 1868. Thirty years afterward, it was republished in a second edition by the Catholic Truth Society. She was received into the Catholic Church in 1872, and the following year married Lord Walter Kerr, later Admiral of the Fleet. After her conversion, Lady Amabel was constantly publishing what might serve for instruction or edification. In particular, she was a most strenuous and efficient member of the Catholic Truth Society, a regular attendant at its committee meetings, and one of the most prolific contributors to its literature, most of her work being done for it.