Waring was born in 1820 at Neath in Glamorganshire, South Wales, where it seems she spent her whole life. It has been said of her “Few authors are so sensitive or shy of publicity as Miss Waring. She has written her heart into her hymns, but particulars of her life and education are concealed from us”. She was the daughter of Elijah Waring and niece of Samuel Miller Waring. Her hymns were first introduced into America by a minister named F.D. Huntingdon in 1863.

Though her early upbringing was among the Quakers, she was impressed by the sacraments of the Anglican Church, and identified herself with that body in 1842. She wrote hymns in her teens and completed 39 of them by 1863. In order to read the Old Testament in the original, she learned Hebrew. She had a gentle but merry spirit and did helpful work for the “Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society”. Her ninety years of life were a blessing to all who knew her or read her poems and hymns.