Sarah Bache, the daughter of a Bromsgrove pin manufacturer, moved to Birmingham in 1788 and worshipped at the New Meeting where she became a Sunday School teacher in 1793. She ran a girls' boarding and day school which started at 28 Great Charles Street, then moved to Broad Road (later Broad Street), and was known as Islington House. After retiring in 1838, she moved to 2 Somerset Place, Hunter's Lane (later Hunter's Road), Handsworth.Shortly after this she was presented with £200 subscribed by her pupils, as her savings had been unwisely invested. She died in 1844 and was buried at the Old Meeting yard. As a proportion of the £200 subscribed by former pupils remained intact, it was decided to spend a portion of this in engraving her portrait from Cruickshank's original miniature so that copies could be sent to her friends and former pupils.