Nellie Talbot

TALBOT, Ellen Alice (‘Nellie’). b. Debenham, Suffolk, 3 November 1861; d. Portsmouth, Hampshire, 3 June 1950. Until recently little was known about Nellie Talbot, but new research has her date of birth and death as above. It comes from an article in The Hymn, 76/3 (Summer 2025) by Toni Thomas, Brett Nelson, and Brent Yorgason. This article convincingly disposes of earlier attempts to identify the author of Jesus wants me for a sunbeam*: that she was an American  from Missouri living in Chicago, or that she lived in Pennsylvania. The authors have established that she was the daughter of a British Congregational minister, the Revd Charles Talbot, and his second wife, Ellen (née Baldry). He...