Introduction

Biography

Elizabeth was the daugh­ter of Will­iam Rook­er (for near­ly half a cen­tu­ry the Con­gre­ga­tion­al min­is­ter at Ta­vis­tock), and wife of T. Edge­combe Par­son (mar­ried 1844).

She led a young men and wo­men’s class in the ves­try of her fa­ther’s cha­pel on Sun­day ev­en­ings; it was named the Will­ing Class be­cause the stu­dents came will­ing­ly.

Works

From 1840–44, she wrote se­ver­al hymns for this class, some of which came in­to use through va­ri­ous col­lect­ions, in­clud­ing the Bap­tist Psalms and Hymns in 1858.

Some years lat­er, 18 of these hymns were col­lect­ed and print­ed by one her old schol­ars as Will­ing Class Hymns.