When John Wesley and other Methodist preachers visited High Wycombe, in Bucks where she lived for most of her life, she was attracted by their teaching.
She was a mystic, and Wesley warns her that 'a clear revelation of several persons in the ever blessed Trinity was by no means a sure trial to Christian perfection.'
The germ of the modern Sunday school may be traced in the methods of instruction established by Luther, John Knox, and St. Charles Borromeo.
There was another at Little Lever, taught by 'Owd Jemmy o' th' Hey,' whose services were paid for by a wealthy piper-maker, Adam Crompton.
These and others preceded the experiment made at Gloucester in 1783 by Robert Raikes, who is often described as the founder of Sunday schools.