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BARTON, Bernard. b. Carlisle, 31 January 1784; d. Woodbridge, Suffolk, 19 February 1849. Born into a Quaker family, he was the son of a manufacturer. His mother died a few days after he was born, and his father married again, moving to London and then Hertford. Bernard was sent to a Quaker school at Ipswich, where he learned the principles of business and trade. In 1806 he moved to Woodbridge, Suffolk, where he was a partner in a coal and coke business. He married in 1807, but his wife died in...
TAYLOR, Cecily. b. Coulsdon, Surrey, 25 March 1930. She was evacuated during the war, and enjoyed what she calls a 'considerably varied' primary school career, attending six schools by the age of twelve. She worshipped in the local Anglican Church, but returned after the war to her home, where she was introduced to a Congregational youth group by a friend. At the age of 17 she joined the church and remained in membership for 40 years. There also she met her husband, and was involved in church...
TRUEBLOOD, David Elton. b. Pleasantville, Marion County, Iowa, 12 December 1900; d. Meadowood Retirement Community, near Lansdale, Pennsylvania, 20 December 1994. Some records indicate that Elton was born 'near Indianola', but he writes that 'On rare occasions we drove sixteen miles to either Indianola or Knoxville…' (While It Is Day, p. 10). Other records state that he was born at the family farm (near Waveland, in Warren County); he himself, however, states that he was born at Pleasantville...
DODGSHUN, Ernest James. b. Leeds, 8 March 1876; d. St Briavels, Gloucestershire, 24 August 1944. He was educated at Silcoates School, Wakefield, founded for the children of nonconformist clergy; and then at St John's College, Cambridge. Although brought up in a Congregationalist family, he joined the Society of Friends in 1908. He gave up work as a businessman and became closely associated with the National Adult School Union (cf. George Currie Martin*), of which he became Secretary (1924-44)....
God, who art the Lord of Harvest (Prayer for a Labor Force). D. Elton Trueblood* (1900-1994).
This hymn is also known by its title, 'Prayer for a Labor Force'. For more than eleven years, Trueblood wrote a monthly column entitled 'Plain Speech' for Quaker Life. In the column 'Hymns for Today', (April 1968, vol/series 8, issue 4, p. 118), he notes that 'The period when Quakers refused to sing ended a hundred years ago… It must have been hard for our ancestors to neglect “And when they had...
FRY, Henrietta Joan. b. Bristol, 6 December 1799; d. Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, 1860. She was the daughter of Joseph Storrs Fry, a wealthy chocolate maker, and a Quaker, part of the celebrated 'Fry's Chocolate' dynasty.
She was a fine linguist. She published translations from the hymns of Johann Kaspar Lavater* with the title The Pastors' Legacy; or Devotional Fragments from the German of Lavater (Bristol and London, 1842). She noted that they were taken from Hundert Sentenzen von Seligen...
CREWDSON, Jane (née Fox). b. Perran-ar-worthal, Cornwall, 22 October 1809; d. Whalley Range, Manchester, 14 September 1863. As a young woman she moved with her family to Exeter in 1825. There she met Thomas D. Crewdson, a Manchester manufacturer, whom she married in 1836. The marriage is recorded in the Register of Marriages of the Devon Quarterly Meeting of the Society of Friends: the Crewdsons were a notable Quaker family, originally from Kendal. She was a strong supporter of the Reformation....
ADAMS, Jessie. b. Ipswich, Suffolk, 9 September 1863; d. York, 15 July 1954. She was educated at Ipswich and at York (her family moved to York in 1878). She continued to live with her parents in various parts of London (Tottenham, Twickenham, Forest Gate) from 1889 until 1900, when they moved back to East Anglia. She returned to York in her final years.
Adams was a member of the Society of Friends; she was very interested in the Adult School Movement (the National Adult School Organisation...
HOUSMAN, Laurence. b. Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, 18 July 1865; d. Glastonbury, Somerset, 20 February 1959. He was the son of a solicitor, and the younger brother of the poet and scholar A.E. Housman (1859-1936). He was educated at home and at Bromsgrove School, before training in London as a graphic artist. He worked as a book illustrator, and was art critic of The Manchester Guardian for 16 years from 1895. He wrote poems, novels, and plays, and journal articles on topics such as feminism,...
O that mine eyes would closed be. Thomas Ellwood* (1639-1713).
This hymn is taken from The History of the Life of Thomas Ellwood. Or, an Account of his Birth, Education, &c… Written by his own hand. To which is added a Supplement by J. W. (1714). Published after Ellwood's death, his autobiography was supplemented by Joseph Wyeth (J.W.) in which this poem is quoted on page 462:
O that mine Eye might closed be To what becomes me not to see! The Deafness might possess mine Ear, To what...
The fact that the meetings for worship of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain are held on the basis of silence does not mean that there were no hymns in Quaker worship in the past, nor that hymns are not sung by Quakers in other parts of the world. From the beginning of their movement in 17th-century England Quakers sang psalms, but their attitude to them differed from that of other Christian groups. Robert Barclay, the early Quaker theologian, wrote in An Apology for the...
ELLWOOD, Thomas. b. Crowell, near Chinnor, Oxfordshire, 1639 (baptized 15 October); d. Amersham, Buckinghamshire, 1 May 1713. He was born into a Puritan family which moved to London during the Civil War to support the Parliamentary cause. In 1659 Ellwood heard two Quakers preach at Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, and was so impressed that he became one of the early Friends. Thereafter his life was dominated by the joys of being a Quaker (friendships, such as that with the Pennington family,...
Thou, whose purpose is to kindle. D. Elton Trueblood* (1900-1994).
This hymn is also known by its title, 'Baptism by Fire'. In the Preface to The Incendiary Fellowship, dated Labor Day, 1966, Trueblood comments that it was written 'because of the conviction that the message of this book may be expressed more succinctly in poetry than in prose.' He writes of his admiration for the hymn 'God of grace and God of glory'* by Harry Emerson Fosdick*, and of 'the Biblical basis for his own hymn: ...
'Tis the gift to be simple. Shaker spiritual, 19th century, probably by Joseph Brackett, Jr. (1797-1882).
This is a Shaker song, described by them as a 'Gift Song from Mother's work' (referring to Ann Lee, known as 'Mother Ann'. See 'Shaker hymnody'*). David Holbrook*, who printed it in the Cambridge Hymnal* (1967), dated it from between 1837 and 1847. The Hymnal 1982 Companion agreed, noting that this was 'a period of renewed spiritual dedication' among the Shakers. Various theories are given...
What service shall we render thee. Ernest James Dodgshun* (1876-1944)
Written shortly before the outbreak of World War I for inclusion on a 'Peace Hymn Sheet', and printed in a Supplement (1920) to the 1909 Fellowship Hymn Book. It was then included in RCH and MHB . It is a fine expression of Dodgshun's Quaker pacifism, turning the normal demands of the love of one's own country ('O Fatherland we love') into peaceful channels:
The service of the commonwealth Is not in arms alone; A nobler...