Sarah Flower was born in Harlow, Essex, and married William Bridges Adams in 1834. Harold William Stephenson wrote a biography of this actress--Lady Macbeth, 1837--dramatic poet (Vivia Perpetua, 1841) and Unitarian hymn writer in The Author of Nearer my God to Thee in 1922. "Nearer my God to Thee" was one of thirteen hymns published by William Johnson Fox (1786-1864) in his Hymns and Anthems in 1841. They were originally sung in services at his South Place Chapel.

• Blain, Virginia H. "Adams, Sarah Flower (1805-1848)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.