Anne Andrews Whitaker and her sister, Maria Grace Andrews Saffery (1772-1858) (see her entry in this site), were originally from Shaw, near Newbury, but spent most of their youth at Isleworth, Middlesex, on the outskirts of London, where their mother (and possibly their father) operated a school. By the early 1790s they were spending considerable periods of time in Salisbury with their grandparents, reading contemporary literature, writing about radical politics, and experimenting with dissenting religion. Though raised in the Anglican Church, during the first half of the 1790s they began attending the Particular Baptist congregation in Brown Street, spending much time as well in the home of the pastor, John Saffery. On 19 June 1798, Anne Andrews married Philip Whitaker (1766-1847) of Bratton, the nephew of Jane Attwater. They had nine children, including George Whitaker (1811-82), who attended Queen’s College, Cambridge, became an Anglican in 1832, and served as the first provost of Trinity College, University of Toronto, 1852-79. Another son, Joshua Whitaker (1801-64), married his cousin, Jane Saffery (1805-84). The two sisters lived near each other in the West Country for more than 60 years.

For the complete surviving correspondence between Anne Andrews Whitaker and her sister, Maria Grace Saffery, and other members of their family and various friends (more than 300 letters), as well as the surviving portions of Anne Whitaker's diary and poems, see Timothy Whelan, Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6 (for the correspondence), vol. 7 (pp. 247-50), and vol. 8 (pp. 493-515). For a selection of letters between Maria Grace and her sister, Anne Andrews, 1792-96, click here.