Sarah Towne Smith Martyn
Sarah Towne Smith Martyn was an influential author and reformer born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, in the early 19th century. Raised in a scholarly environment by her father, Ethan Smith, a Congregational minister, she received a notably advanced education for a woman of her time, studying subjects such as Hebrew, Greek, and modern languages. Her educational background was complemented by training in music at a girls' school in New York City. Martyn was deeply involved in social reform movements, particularly temperance and abolition, influenced by her father's advocacy.
Despite declining an opportunity to lead women students at Oberlin College, she became active with the Female Moral Reform Society of New York, which sought to address the challenges faced by women, including the stigma of prostitution. As editor of the society's journal, the Advocate of Moral Reform, from 1836 to 1845, she contributed to the dialogue on women's rights and education. After marrying Job H. Martyn in 1841 and raising four children, she continued her advocacy through writing, editing a women's temperance journal, and publishing children’s literature that aimed to instill middle-class Protestant values. Martyn passed away in 1892 in New York City and was buried in Cheshire, Connecticut, leaving behind a legacy of reform and literature.
Subject Terms
Sarah Towne Smith Martyn
- Sarah Towne Smith Martyn
- Born: August 15, 1805
- Died: November 22, 1879
Author and reformer, was born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Her parents were Ethan Smith and Bathsheba (Sanford) Smith, both descendants of colonial New England settlers. Her father, a scholarly Congregational minister, had a great influence on her. She was educated largely by him, and her training, which included the study of Hebrew and Greek, was far more advanced than that of most other young women of her era. She was especially adept in modern languages. Her education was rounded off by a brief period of study at a New York City girls’ school, where she excelled in music, then a traditional area of study for young women.
From her father Sarah Smith developed an interest in the temperance and antislavery movements, both of which were becoming important during the early nineteenth century. She turned down an invitation to take charge of women students at Oberlin College, the most radical college in antebellum America. Instead she became involved with the Female Moral Reform Society of New York. This society, most of whose members were evangelical Protestants sympathetic to temperance and abolition, began with the objective of rehabilitating the city’s prostitutes. Like many of the other moral-reform societies of the time, it took the shape of a women’s-rights organization, condemning the role played by men in fostering prostitution; in fact, the group became an object of male ridicule. Soon the society was calling for basic changes in education and legal rights so as to open a greater sphere of activity and opportunity for women. Sarah Smith edited the society’s journal, the Advocate of Moral Reform, from 1836 until 1845, when she left the organization. In March 1841 Sarah Smith wed Job H. Martyn, a minister; they had three sons and a daughter. Most of the Martyns’ married life was spent in New York City. Sarah Martyn continued to participate in various religious and reform causes, briefly editing a women’s temperance journal and from 1846 until 1850 editing a literary magazine for women entitled Ladies’ Wreath. Martyn also wrote a number of books published by the American Tract Society, most of them designed for children. Didactic and sentimental, they were intended to inculcate middle-class Protestant values among young readers.
Widowed in 1868, Martyn died in New York at the age of seventy-four. She was buried in Cheshire, Connecticut.
Martyn’s writings included Daughters of the Cross (1868) and Women of the Bible (1868). Biographical sources include the Dictionary of American Biography (1933).