Sarah Judson

Judson, Sarah, née Hull, daughter of Ralph Hull, was born at Alstead, New Haven, Nov. 4, 1803, and married first to the Rev. George D. Boardman, and afterwards to Dr. Judson. She died at St. Helena, Sept. 1, 1845. Her fine missionary hymn, “Proclaim the lofty praise," is in W. Urwick's Dublin Collection, 1829, No. 142, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines. Its appearance in America prior to this has not been traced. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Judson, Sarah Hall. (Alstead, New Hampshire, November 4, 1803--September 1, 1845, St. Helena Island). Baptist. Daughter of Ralph and Abiah Hall. First married to George Dana Boardman, missionary to Burma. Three children were born to this marriage. After her husband's death, she became the second wife of Dr. Adoniram Judson (1834). En route to Burma and shortly before he death, Mrs. Judson penned nine stanzas of a parting hymn, the last of which voices the pleas:

Then gird thine armor on, love;
Nor faint thou by the way,
Till Buddh shall fall, and Burma's sons
Shall own Messiah's sway.

Her most noted hymn "Proclaim thy lofty praise," first appeared in Urwick's Dublin Collection (1829), and was later printed in The Psalmist (1843). A fuller biography is to be found in (1) Wyeth, Walter N., Sarah B. Judson, A Memorial (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Author, 1889), and (2) Wayland, Francis, Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Adoniram Judson (Boston: Phillips Sampson Co., 1854).

--Paul R. Powell, DNAH Archives