[In the following encomium from a nineteenth-century popular magazine, the anonymous critic praises Rowe's writing and her person.]

Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, not more admired for her fine writings by the ingenious who did not know her, than esteemed and loved by all her acquaintance, for the many amiable qualities of her heart, was born at Ilchester, in Somersetshire, September 11, 1674; being the eldest of three daughters of Walter Singer, Esq. a gentleman of good family, and Mrs. Elizabeth Portnell; both of them persons of very great worth and piety.

Those who were acquainted with Mrs. Rowe in her childish years, could not but have observed abilities not common at that early period of life; abilities which promised what afterwards ensued, the early dawnings of a great and good mind. She loved the pencil when she had hardly strength and steadiness of hand to guide it; and even at that early period would squeeze out the juice of herbs and flowers to form her colors. Her father perceiving her inclination and talent for the art, employed a master to instruct her in drawing, which never ceased to be her amusement till death; as it afforded her the pleasure of obliging her friends, by presenting them with the best of her drawings, some of which are still preserved, and held in high estimation. Mrs. Rowe was also very much delighted with music, but chiefly the grave and solemn; which best suited the grandeur of her sentiments, and the sublimity of her devotion: but poetry and writing was her favorite employment, and in youth her most distinguished excellence. So prevalent was her genius in this way, that her very prose had all the charms of verse. In the year 1696, and in the twenty-second year of her age, she published a collection of poems subscribed Philomela: her modesty not consenting that her own name should appear, this was substituted in place of it.

Prior, the poet, is said to have paid his addresses to her, which she declined receiving; and married Mr. Thomas Rowe, an ingenious young gentleman, who, to the possession of a considerable stock of useful learning, joined the talent of a most lively and engaging conversation; but being of a delicate constitution, his intense application to study brought on a consumption, which terminated his life in the 23th year of his age; leaving Mrs. Rowe a widow, in which state she continued the remainder of her life. As soon after his decease as her affairs would permit, she retired to Froome, in her native county, where the greatest part of her property lay, and there indulged her unconquerable inclination to solitude and retirement. She was held in great esteem by the Countess of Hertford, and other great personages, through whose persuasions, she, at different times, spent some few months in London, &c. Yet even on these occasions she never quitted her home without very sincere regret, and always returned to it again as soon as she could, with decency, disengage herself from the importunity of her noble friends. In this retreat she composed the most celebrated of her works; Friendship in Death, and several parts of Letters Moral and Entertaining, and Letters from the Dead, &c. In 1736, the year before her decease, at the importunity of some friends, she published her History of Joseph. After her death, Dr. Watts published a volume of her Religious Thoughts.

As an author, Mrs. Rowe was elegant, chaste, and innocent; evidently designing, by representing Virtue in all her genuine beauty, to recommend her to the choice and admiration of the rising generation.

On the 19th of February, 1737, this amiable woman was seized with a distemper, which in a few hours proved mortal. She had immediate medical assistance; but all means were used without success; and, after having given one groan, she expired a few minutes before two o'clock on Sunday morning, February the 20th. Her disease was judged to be an apoplexy. A loose book was found lying open by her, on which she had wrote, shortly before her dissolution, the following unconnected sentences, by which it appears she made the last and best use of the powers of reason below the skies.

O guide, and counsel, and protect my soul from sin!
O speak, and let me know thy heavenly will.
Speak evidently to my listening soul!
O fill my soul with love, with light, and peace,
And whisper heavenly comforts to my soul!
O speak, celestial Spirit, in the strain
Of love and heavenly pleasure to my soul.