After he had resigned that position in slave-owning Jamaica and requested other employment,[5] the couple returned to England with relief at the end of the 19th century.
[7] In 1803, Flowerdew published by subscription a volume entitled Poems on Moral and Religious Subjects,[8] which was sold through her friend Henry Delahoy Symonds[9] and through Martha Gurney.
[7] Some lines praised Lady Mary Wortley Montagu for her struggle to establish smallpox inoculation, and her subscribers included Edward Jenner, who had devised it.
In her preface dated 24 May 1803, she notes that they were "written at different periods of life — some indeed at a very early age, and others under the very severe Pressure of Misfortune, when my pen had frequently given that relief which could not be derived from other employments.
When in the bosom of the earth The sower hid the grain, Thy goodness marked its secret birth, And sent the early rain.
The spring's sweet influence was Thine, The plants in beauty grew; Thou gav'st refulgent suns to shine, And mild refreshing dew.
These various mercies from above Matured the swelling grain; A yellow harvest crowned Thy love, And plenty tills the plain.
Further poems and a preface on female education were added to a third edition,[6] where there appeared her well-known harvest hymn, "Fountain of mercy, God of love".