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SEYMOUR, Aaron Crossley Hobart. b. County Limerick, Ireland, 19 December 1789; d. Bristol, 22 October 1870. He was the son of a vicar of Caherelly in the diocese of Cashel, Co. Tipperary, and the brother of the anti-Catholic polemicist Michael Hobart Seymour (1800-74). He received most of his education at home, and was drawn in early life into the Calvinistic 'Connexion', founded by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon* (to whom 'When Thou, my righteous judge, shall come' has been...
Den Besten, Adriaan Cornelis ('Ad'). b. Utrecht, the Netherlands, 11 March 1923; d. Amstelveen, 31 March 2015. He went to primary and secondary school in Utrecht, and after graduating in 1941 he went to Utrecht University to study theology. Two years earlier, he had made his literary debut in Opwaartsche Wegen, a magazine for young protestant poets. In 1943 he was forced to abandon his studies as Utrecht University was closed by order of the German occupying forces. Den Besten and other...
LUFF, Alan Harold Frank. b. Bristol, 6 November 1928; d. Cardiff, 16 April 2020. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School. After University College, Oxford (1947-1952), where he read 'Greats' (Literae Humaniores, Greek and Latin/ Ancient Philosophy and History) and then Theology (1952), he trained for the Anglican priesthood at Westcott House, Cambridge (1954-56). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1956, priest 1957), and after curacies at Stretford and Swinton, diocese of Manchester (1956-62), he...
RONANDER, Albert Carl. b. Worcester, Massachusetts, 15 December 1914; d. Hyannis, Massachusetts, 16 March 2007. A United Church of Christ pastor and hymnologist, Ronander attended Occidental College, Los Angeles, California, and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (BA, 1938); he undertook further study at Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago Illinois (BD, 1941), Union Theological Seminary, New York City (STM, 1950), with post-graduate studies at Harvard University, Cambridge,...
TOZER, Albert Edmonds. b. Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, 13 January 1857; d. Steyning, near Brighton, Sussex, February 1910. He was educated at the City of London School, and the Royal Academy of Music. A brilliant young organist, he was elected FRCO at the age of 19. He was made an ARCM in 1885. He completed a BMus at Durham University and a DPhil at Oxford University.
As a young man Tozer was an organist at two Anglican parishes on the south coast, St Mary Magdalene at St Leonard's...
PEACE, Albert Lister. b. Huddersfield, Yorkshire, 26 January 1844; d. Blundellsands, near Liverpool, 14 March 1912. Peace was a child prodigy, largely self-taught. He was organist of Holmfirth Parish Church, near Huddersfield, at the age of nine, and thereafter organist of four other Yorkshire churches. On moving to Glasgow, he continued to work as a church organist, and he was appointed to Glasgow Cathedral in 1879. The Church of Scotland had lifted the ban on organs in 1865, and Peace was...
Alcuin of York. b. 730-740; d. 804. Alcuin entered the religious community associated with York Minster as a small boy and remained there, first as a pupil and then as a teacher and librarian, until 781. In 781, returning from Rome where he had been collecting the pallium for the new Archbishop of York, Alcuin met Charlemagne at Parma, and was invited to join the royal court as a teacher. From then on, he spent most of his time in Francia, his visits to Northumbria ceasing after the Viking sack...
CARMICHAEL, Alexander. b. Lismore, Argyll, 1 December 1832; d. Edinburgh, 6 June 1912. He worked for a time in the customs and excise division of the Scottish Civil Service, with periods in the Highlands and Islands. He married Mary Frances MacBean in 1868, and they lived on South Uist until 1882, when they moved to Edinburgh, where they became the centre of a Celtic revival. Alexander was the compiler of Carmina Gadelica* (first published in 1900), a two-volume collection of verses, including...
MacMILLAN, Alexander. b. Edinburgh, 19 October 1864; d. Toronto, 5 May 1961. Born and educated in Edinburgh, Alexander MacMillan moved to Canada following his graduation from the University of Edinburgh, licensed by the United Presbyterian Presbytery of Edinburgh in June, 1887. He described what happened when he was a student:
While a student in the faculty of Arts in Edinburgh University, and in the Divinity Hall, Edinburgh, I felt a gradual and growing desire to make Canada the sphere of my...
REINAGLE, Alexander Robert. b. Brighton, 21 August 1799; d. Kidlington, near Oxford, 6 April 1877. He was brought up in Oxford where his father, the cellist and composer Joseph Reinagle, had settled. After studying with his father he worked as a teacher of stringed instruments in Oxford and was organist of St Peter-in-the-East (1822-53). During the 1860s he was highly active in Oxford music-making and worked closely with John Stainer* who, between 1860 and 1872, was organist of Magdalen...
SCHREINER, Christian Alexander Ferdinand. b. Steinbühl, a suburb of Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Bavaria, Germany, 31 July 1901; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, 15 September 1987. Schreiner was associated with the Mormon Tabernacle as an organ recitalist for many years and was the Chief Organist from 1965 to 1987. As a member of the General Music Committee of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), he assisted in the preparation of the 1948 LDS hymnal, which includes 10 of his hymn...
HAAS, Alfred Burton. b. Shamokin, Pennsylvania, 21 July 1911; d. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 19 July 1987. Haas attended Bucknell University, Lycoming, Pennsylvania (BA, 1933), and Drew Theological School, Madison, New Jersey (BD, 1936; MA 1946 ). In 1938 he was ordained elder in the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist Church: he served parishes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York City. Haas taught hymnody and worship at Drew from 1941-1968, attaining the rank of Associate...
FEDAK, Alfred Victor. b. Elizabeth, New Jersey, 4 July 1953. Fedak was educated at the Pingry School and Hope College, Holland, Michigan. He graduated with degrees in organ performance and music history in 1975. An MA in organ performance was conferred in 1981 by Montclair State College (now Montclair State University, New Jersey). He undertook additional studies at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey, The Eastman School of Music, New York, The Institute for European Studies,...
PARKER, Alice. b. Boston, 16 December 1925; d. Hawley, Massachusetts, 24 December 2023. Distinguished, widely celebrated composer, conductor, author and teacher, Parker began composing at the age of eight, and completed her first orchestral score in high school. She studied at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, majoring in music performance and composition (BA 1947), and the Juilliard School of Music, New York City (MS 1949), where her teachers included Robert Shaw (1916-1999), Julius...
CARDEN, Allen Dickinson. b. Virginia or Tennessee, 13 October 1792; d. Franklin, Tennessee, 21 March 1859. Carden compiled Missouri Harmony, first published in 1820. According to a copy of the Carden family Bible in the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the family moved from Fincastle, Botetourt County, Virginia, to Williamsport, Maury County, Tennessee, situated about 50 miles southwest of Nashville. Although the year of the move is not given in the Bible, some accounts indicate that...
DAVISSON, Ananias. b. Shenandoah County, Virginia, 2 February 1780; d. Rockingham County Virginia, 21 October 1857. Davisson is best known as the compiler of the fasola tunebooks Kentucky Harmony (Harrisonburg, Virginia, five editions), and A Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony (Harrisonburg, Virginia, three editions).
Little is known about Davisson prior to 1816. His successes beginning that year as a printer of tunebooks suggest that he may have been apprenticed to a printer. Only slightly...
DONALDSON, Andrew James. b. Matheson, Ontario, Canada, July 22, 1951. Pastoral musician Andrew Donaldson is a composer, hymn-writer, and leader of congregational song, the third of seven children of missionaries in northern Ontario. He was educated in French and English studies at Glendon College, York University (BA, 1974), and studied classical guitar at the Royal Conservatory of Music (ARCT, Classical Guitar Performance, 1979).
From 1982 until 2010 he combined directing music at Beaches...
KIPPIS, Andrew. b. Nottingham, 28 March 1725; d. London, 8 October 1795. Kippis was educated (1741-46) at the dissenting academy at Northampton run by Philip Doddridge*. He became a minister, holding charges at Boston, Lincolnshire, and Dorking, Surrey, before becoming the minister of Princes Street Chapel, Westminster in 1753. He remained there until his death, and was regarded as 'the leading Presbyterian minister in the metropolis' (JJ, p. 625). He was a voluminous writer, contributing to...
LAW, Andrew. b. Milford, Connecticut, 21 March 1749; d. Cheshire, Connecticut, 13 July 1821. Law, a grandson of Jonathan Law (1674-1750), Governor of the Colony of Connecticut (1741-1750), was a tunebook compiler, clergyman, and composer. His Select Harmony: containing in a plain and concise manner, the rules of singing, together with a collection of psalm tunes, hymns and anthems (Cheshire, Connecticut, 1779) became a major influence among many subsequent collections used by singing masters...
PRATT, Andrew Edward. b. Paignton, Devon, 28 December 1948. He was educated at Barking Regional College of Technology, London, where he read Zoology, and the University College of North Wales, Bangor, where he obtained an M.Sc. in Marine Biology. He became a teacher, but then decided to train for the Methodist ministry, studying at Queen's College, Birmingham. (1979-82). He has served as a Methodist minister in circuits in Cheshire and Lancashire (Northwich; Nantwich; Leigh and Hindley; Orrell...
REED, Andrew. b. London, 27 November 1787; d. London, 25 February 1862. He was the son of a watchmaker, who was also a lay preacher. He became a watchmaker himself, but sold his tools and entered Hackney College in 1807 to train for the Congregational ministry. He was ordained in 1811 to a chapel at New Road, East London. He built a new chapel called Wycliffe in Commercial Road, Whitechapel, and became minister of the congregation there in 1831; he retired in November 1861, after thirty years...
WARNER, Anna Bartlett. b. New York, 31 August 1827; d. Constitution Island, 22 January 1915. Born at New York, she moved with her family in 1837 to a farmhouse on Constitution Island, on the Hudson River, after the failure of her father's real estate speculation. She and her sister, Susan Bogert Warner*, wrote many novels, Susan very successfully. Anna used the pseudonym 'Amy Lothrop'. She also wrote hymns for the Sunday school, and translated hymns from French and German. She edited Hymns of...
BUCHANAN, Annabel Morris. b. Groesbeck, Texas, 22 October 1888; d. Paducah, Kentucky, 6 January 1983. Raised in Texas and Tennessee as the daughter and grand-daughter of Cumberland Presbyterian ministers, she was from earliest childhood familiar with the idiom of southern folk hymnody; she learned to read music from oblong shape-note tunebooks. After formal training and graduation with highest honors from the Landon Conservatory in Dallas, she taught music at colleges in Oklahoma and Virginia...
MURRAY, Anthony Gregory (monastic name) OSB. b. Fulham, London, 27 February 1905; d. 19 January 1992. He was educated at Westminster Cathedral Choir School (1914-20) and St Benedict's Priory School, Ealing (1920-22). He entered Downside Abbey as a monk in 1922, and read History at Cambridge University (1926-29). He was organist and choirmaster at Downside from 1929 to 1941. He was parish priest at Ealing, (1941-46), Hindley, near Wigan, (1948-52), and Stratton on the Fosse (Downside)...
SHOWALTER, Anthony Johnson. b. Rockingham County, Virginia,1 May 1858; d. Chattanooga, Tennessee, 14 or 15 September 1924. Showalter was perhaps the most prominent sacred-music publisher and music teacher in the southern United States ca. 1890-1920. A publisher of songbooks in seven-shape and standard notation, his companies surpassed The Ruebush-Kieffer Company* in sales and influence and were, in turn, surpassed by the James D. Vaughan* and Stamps-Baxter* companies. He also was known as an...
PETTI, Anthony Gaetano Raphael. b. Islington, London, 12 February 1932; d. Calgary, Canada, 13 January 1985. He was educated at St Michael's College, Hitchin, Hertfordshire (1941-45) and St Ignatius' College, London (1945-50). After National Service he read English at University College, London (BA 1955, MA 1957), teaching at the College from 1960 to 1969. He was Professor of English, University of Calgary, Canada, from 1969 until his early and sudden death.
Petti was a specialist in medieval...
HAEUSSLER, Armin. b. Lewiston, Minnesota, 24 May 1891; d. Glenview, Indiana, 16 July 1967. Distinguished hymnologist and pastor, Haeussler is best known for The Story of Our Hymns, The Handbook to the Hymnal of the Evangelical and Reformed Church (St Louis, Missouri, 1952, Third Edition, 1954). He was first-born from the marriage of Rev Carl Herman (1862-1913), a German-born member of The German Evangelical Synod of North America, and Elizabeth Catherine (Scherer; 1871-1965). Armin attended...
MESSITER, Arthur Henry. b. Frome, Somerset, England, 1 April 1834; d. Manhattan, New York, 2 July 1916. Messiter is remembered for his career as organist and choirmaster of Trinity Church in New York City; for one of the music editions of the Episcopal Hymnal prior to the first authorized music edition; and for the hymn tune MARION.
Although the date of Messiter's birth is sometimes shown as 12 April 1834, an official record shows 1 April 1834 for his birth and 2 May 1834 for his baptism. ...
MANN, Arthur Henry. b. Norwich, 16 May 1850; d. Cambridge, 19 November 1929. He was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral and then an articled pupil of Zechariah Buck. He held the positions of organist at St Peter's Church, Wolverhampton (1870), Tettenhall Parish Church (1871) and Beverley Minster (1875) before he was appointed organist of King's College, Cambridge in 1876. He remained in this post for the rest of his life.
Mann did much for Cambridge music. He oversaw the change of regime in which...
JONES, Arthur Morris. b. 1899; d. 1980. He was a missionary and musicologist, educated at Keble College, Oxford, and Wells Theological College. He took Holy Orders (deacon 1922, priest 1923) and served curacies at Ashford, Kent (1922-24) and St Michael and All Angels, Maidstone, Kent (1924-28). In 1929 he became a missionary in what was then Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. He took up a post as Warden of St Mark's Teachers' Training College, under the auspices of the Universities' Mission to...
SULLIVAN, (Sir) Arthur Seymour. b. London, 13 May 1842; d. London, 22 November 1900. Born in Lambeth, he was the son of an Irish bandmaster. He became a chorister in the Chapel Royal in 1854 and entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1856 where he studied under William Sterndale Bennett*. Between 1858 and 1861 he was a student at the Leipzig Conservatory where he gained notable approbation for his incidental music to The Tempest. After returning to England he made his living as an organist in...
NETTLETON, Asahel. b. North Killingworth, Connecticut, 21 April 1783; d, East Windsor,Connecticut, 16 May 1844. Nettleton was an itinerant revivalist of the conservative (Calvinistic) wing of the Congregational Church, and compiler of Village Hymns for Social Worship* (Hartford, Connecticut, 1824). He was converted when a teenager. Following the death of his father, he managed the family's farm and finances, and taught school. A local Presbyterian minister prepared him for entering Yale College...
RILEY, John Athelstan Laurie. b. Paddington, London, 10 August 1858; d. Jersey, Channel Islands, 17 November 1945. He was the son of a successful barrister, of Yorkshire stock: educated at Eton and Pembroke College, Oxford, which he left without taking a degree. He spent much time travelling in Europe and the Near East, publishing Athos; or, the Mountain of the Monks, in 1887. He was an active Anglo-Catholic: he wrote a preface to a book by his friend William John Birkbeck*, Why I am an...
TOPLADY, Augustus Montague. b. Farnham, Surrey, 4 November 1740; d. Kensington, London, 11 August 1778. He was the son of an army officer, Richard Toplady, who was killed at the siege of Carthagena in 1741. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Dublin. He was converted by a travelling Methodist preacher, James Morris, and was associated with the Methodists until he began to differ from John Wesley* because of his (Toplady's) strong adherence to Calvinist views. He took Holy...
NEWMAN, Augustus Sherman. b. Putnam County [?], New York, 21 July 1848; d. New York City, 11 December 1928. Augustus Sherman Newman was a businessman, avocational musician, collector of hymnals and hymnological materials, and a founder in 1922 of The Hymn Society (now the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*).
The eldest child of Allen G. and Sarah Church Tompkins Newman, Augustus completed his basic education in New York. He then toured Europe with his younger brother, Allen,...
WHITE, Benjamin Franklin. b. near Cross Keys, Union County, South Carolina, 20 September 1800; d. Atlanta, Georgia, 5 December 1879. White was the principal compiler, along with Elisha J. King*, of The Sacred Harp*.
Benjamin White was the twelfth child of Robert White (1743?-1843) and Mildred White (1745?-1807). As a result of Mildred's death, Benjamin lived for about 11 years in the household of his brother, Robert White, Jr. (1784-1880). Evidence of family involvement with music is the...
NOEL, The Hon. Baptist Wriothesley. b. Edinburgh, 10 July 1799; d. Stanmore, Middlesex, 19 January 1873. Born into a noble family (see Burke's Peerage, 1939, p. 1055; the name 'Baptist' was common in the family), he was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge (MA 1821). He studied law, and entered Lincoln's Inn, but against the wishes of his family he became an Anglican priest, curate of Cossington, Leicestershire, and then minister of a proprietary chapel in London (St...
GESIUS, Bartholomäus. b. Müncheberg, near Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, 1551/52; d. Frankfurt an der Oder, 1613. His name is spelt in several ways (see MGG entry below). He studied theology at Frankfurt-am-Main from 1575. He broke his studies by working as a cantor in Müncheberg (documentary evidence survives from 1582), and then returned to university, where his presence is recorded in 1585. He became a domestic tutor to a nobleman in Muskau and Sprottau before 1588. He moved to be cantor at the...
BRIDGE, Basil Ernest. b. Norwich, 5 August 1927; d. Norwich, 11 September 2021. He was educated at the City of Norwich School and Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge (BA, 1948). He trained for the Congregational ministry at Cheshunt College, and was ordained in 1951. He served in Congregational (after 1972 United Reformed Church) churches at Knowle, Warwickshire (1951-55), Leicester (1955-74), Stamford and Bourne, Lincolnshire (1976-89), and Harrold, Bedforshire (1989-94). He has written over 30 texts...
HARWOOD, Basil. b. Woodhouse, Olveston, Gloucestershire, 11 April 1859; d. Kensington, London, 3 April 1949. He was the eighth son and youngest of nine children of Edward Harwood, banker and JP, and his first wife, Mary Sturge (daughter of Young Sturge of Bristol, the famous Quaker). He entered Trinity College, Oxford in 1878 to study classics and history and also took the B.Mus. degree in 1880, studying theory with C. W. Corfe, choragus to the university. After leaving Oxford he travelled to...
MANLY, Basil [Junior]. b. Edgefield County, South Carolina, 19 December 1825; d. 31 January 1892. He was the son of Basil Manly, a Baptist minister, and Sarah Murray Rudolph Manly. His father became pastor of First Baptist Church, Charleston—the most prominent Baptist pulpit in the Deep South—and left that position to become the second president of the University of Alabama. The senior Manly promulgated a biblical defense of slavery, led in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, and...
WOODD, Basil. b. Richmond, Surrey, 5 August 1760; d. Paddington Green, London, 12 April 1831. Woodd was educated by a clergyman and then at Trinity College, Oxford (BA 1782, MA 1785). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1783, priest 1784), becoming 'lecturer' (preacher) at St Peter's, Cornhill, London (1784-1808). In 1785 he became preacher at Bentinck Chapel, Marylebone, London, a proprietary chapel that he purchased in 1793. He was also chaplain to the Marquis Townshend, and rector of Drayton...
KENNEDY, Benjamin Hall. b. Summer Hill, Tipton, near Birmingham, 6 November 1804; d. Torquay, Devon, 6 April 1889. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham (1814-18) and then at Shrewsbury School (1819-23), followed by St John's College, Cambridge (BA 1827). At Cambridge he was an outstanding figure, winning many of the University Prizes, becoming President of the Union, and being a member of the 'Apostles' (the intellectual society that included such figures as Arthur Hallam and...
INGHAM, Benjamin. b. Ossett, Yorkshire, 11 June 1712; d. Aberford Hall, near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, 2 December 1772. He was educated at Batley Grammar School and Queen's College, Oxford (1730-34), where he became acquainted with Charles Wesley* and was associated with the Oxford Methodists (his diary of these years was edited by Heitzenrater, 1985). He was persuaded by the Wesley brothers to accompany them to Georgia; his letter describing the voyage is printed in Heitzenrater (2003). In Georgia...
MASSEY, Bernard Stanford. b. Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, 22 June 1927; d. Redhill, Surrey, 28 October 2011. He was educated at Watford Boys' Grammar School and Queen Mary College, University of London. From 1952 to 1984 he was successively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Tutor in the Mechanical Engineering Department, University College, London; he was the author of three text-books.
Massey was the editor of the Bulletin of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland from 1975 to...
POLMAN, Bert Frederick. b. Rozenburg, the Netherlands, 28 August 1945; d. Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1 July 2013. Polman spent part of his childhood in Indonesia with his missionary parents. After the family immigrated to western Canada, Polman received his education at Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa (BA, 1968); University of Minnesota (MA, 1969; PhD in Musicology, 1981); and did postgraduate work at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He taught music at the Ontario...
HOWARD, Beverly Ann. b. New Kensington, Pennsylvania, 22 February 1951. A professor in church music, researcher in hymnology, journal editor, member of hymnal committees, church musician, and organist, Howard received degrees from University of Oklahoma in organ performance (BM, 1973, MM, 1974) and the University of North Texas in organ performance, music theory, and harpsichord (DMA, 1986). She served as organist for forty years in two congregations in Riverside, California, First Christian...
HEARN, Billy Ray. b. Honey Grove, Texas, 26 April 1929; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 15 April 2015. A visionary and innovator in the Christian music industry, Hearn was primarily known as the founder of Sparrow Records, currently a part of the Capitol Christian Music Group family of record labels and distributors owned by Universal Music Group, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Vivendi. He grew up in Beaumont, Texas, joined the US Navy after high school, and upon discharge in 1948 he studied...
WIANT, Bliss Mitchell. b. Dalton, Ohio, 1 February 1895; d. Delaware, Ohio, 1 October 1975. Wiant [Chinese name Fan Tian-xian] was a Methodist Episcopal Church [MEC] missionary from 1923 to 1951. He was an authority on Chinese music, a choral director, composer and arranger, hymnal editor, pastor, and teacher. His widely acclaimed settings of newly written indigenous Chinese Christian hymns to traditional Chinese melodies are an abiding contribution to 20th-century contextualized Chinese...
WREN, Brian Arthur. b. Romford, Essex, 3 June 1936. He was educated at the Royal Liberty (Grammar) School, Romford. After National Service (1955-57), he read Modern Languages at New College, Oxford (BA 1960) and Theology at Mansfield College, Oxford (BA 1962). He was awarded the Oxford DPhil in 1968 for a thesis on 'The Language of Prophetic Eschatology in the Old Testament'.
Ordained in 1965, he served as minister of Hockley and Hawkwell Congregational Church in his native Essex (1965-70). He...
HOARE, Brian Richard. b. Upminster, Essex, 9 December 1935. Hoare was educated at Southwell Minster Grammar School, at Westminster College, London, and at Richmond College, University of London. After teaching Religious Education at Calverton, Nottinghamshire, he became Secretary of the Colleges of Education Christian Union (Inter-Varsity Fellowship) in London (1962-68). He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1971, and was chaplain at Hunmanby Hall School, Filey, Yorkshire. He then served...
NESWICK, Bruce. b. Kennewick, Washington State, 20 October 1956. Neswick received degrees in organ performance from Pacific Lutheran University (BM,1978), and Yale University (MM, 1980). He has won three prizes in organ improvisation, and is a Fellow and active member of the American Guild of Organists*. He has directed music in prominent Episcopal churches including the Christ Church Cathedral, Lexington, Kentucky: St Paul's Cathedral, Buffalo, New York; Cathedral Church of St John the Divine,...
HAWN, (Charles) Michael. b. Cape Girardeau, Missouri, 22 September 1948. An eminent multi-cultural/global hymnologist, singer, teacher, and author, his scholarly articles and books on global music and worship, cross-cultural worship, and enlivening congregational song are premier resources. Hawn is noted for his engaging, hands-on style of teaching, the mentorship of former students, many of whom are now an international group of scholars, church musicians, ministers, professors, teachers, song...
DOUGLAS, Charles Winfred. b. Oswego, New York, 15 Feb 1867; d. Santa Rosa, California, 18 Jan 1944. Douglas was raised as a Presbyterian. His first contact with the Episcopal Church came in 1888 as a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral, Syracuse, New York, while a student at Syracuse University (BM, 1901). He attended St. Andrew's Divinity School, Syracuse; and Matthews Hall, Denver, Colorado. He was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church 1893, priest 1899, serving as a minor Canon of St John's...
EVANS, Caleb. b. Bristol, 12 November 1737; d. 9 August 1791. Evans lived in Bristol for almost all of his life. His father, Hugh Evans, was pastor at Broadmead Baptist Church and President of the Bristol Baptist Academy run by the church. After training at the Mile End Academy in London, Caleb was baptised at Little Wild Street Baptist Church, and called to ministry in 1757, becoming associate minister with Josiah Thompson at Unicorn Yard Baptist church in London. In 1759 he was called to join...
LAUFER, Calvin Weiss. b. Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, 6 April 1874; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20 September 1938. Calvin Weiss Laufer was a minister, editor, writer of hymn texts and tunes, and a founder of The Hymn Society (now The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*). The eldest child of Nathan Laufer, a farmer and miller, and Angelina Weiss Laufer, he was baptized at Zion German Reformed Church in Brodheadsville. His parents settled in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood in...
ROBERTS, Caradog. b. Rhosllanerchrugog, Denbighshire, 30 October 1878; d. Wrexham, Denbighshire, 3 March 1935. He trained as a carpenter but became a full-time musician, studying with J.C. Bridge, organist of Chester Cathedral. He was organist of Mynydd Seion Congregational Church, Wrexham (1894-1903), and of Bethlehem Congregational Church, Rhosllanerchrugog (1904-35). He was director of Music at University College of North Wales, Bangor (1914-20). As a hymn tune composer he is known outside...
BONNER, Carey. b. Southwark, London, 1 May 1859; d. Muswell Hill, London, 16 June 1938. Born in London, the son of a Baptist minister, who gave him his Christian name in admiration of the great Baptist missionary, William Carey (1761-1834). After working in London for a publisher, Bonner trained for the Baptist ministry at Rawdon Baptist College, Leeds, and was ordained in 1884. He was minister at Oakfield Union Church, Sale, Cheshire (1884-95), and at Portland Chapel, Southampton (1895-1900)....
GARVE, Carl Bernhard. b. Jeinsen near Hannover, 24 January 1763; d. 21 June 1841. He was educated at a school of the Moravian Brotherhood, becoming a teacher in a secondary school at Niesky (1784) and a lecturer in the theological college of the Brotherhood (1789). There he was introduced to the idealist and romantic spirit, which saw the influence of the Enlightenment as pernicious. He was transferred to work in the archives of the Unitas Fratrum in 1797. He became a preacher in Amsterdam...
DØVING, Carl. b. Norddalen, Sunnmøre, Norway, 1 March 1867; d. Chicago, Illinois, 2 October 1937. Døving left Norway as a young man and lived in South Africa (1883-90), where he taught at a mission school, the Schreuder Mission in Natal, founded by the Norwegian missionary Hans Schreuder (1817-1882). Døving emigrated to the USA in 1890 and attended Luther College, Decorah, Iowa (AB, 1893) and Luther Seminary of the Norwegian Synod, St Paul, Minnesota (CT [Candidatus theologiae], 1896). He was a...
WACKERNAGEL, Carl Eduard Philipp. b. Berlin, 28 June 1800; d. Dresden, 20 June 1877. The son of a printer, he left school following the death of his father in 1816, but with help from his mentor Friedrich Ludwig Jahn ('Turnvater Jahn') he graduated from the University of Berlin in 1819. He then studied mineralogy at Breslau, with help from another mentor, Karl von Raumer. In 1820 he followed Raumer to Halle and in 1823 to Nürnberg, where Raumer and Wackernagel taught at a private school. In...
PRICE, Carl Fowler. b. New Brunswick, New Jersey, 16 May 1881; d. New York City, 12 April 1948. Pioneering hymnologist, historian, author, prominent layperson in The Methodist Episcopal Church, Price attended Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut (BA music, 1902; MA, 1932), and worked as a general insurance broker in New York City from 1902 to 1946. He served as secretary of The National Board of the Epworth League, and historian of the Methodist Historical Society.
Price was a founder...
DAW, Carl Pickens, Jr. b. Louisville, Kentucky, 18 March 1944. Carl Daw was born into a Baptist preacher's family. He received degrees in English from Rice University, Houston, Texas (BA 1966), and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (MA, PhD, 1970); he taught English at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia (1970-78). In 1981 he received a divinity degree from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. After ordination in the Protestant Episcopal Church, he...
SCHALK, Carl Flentge. b. Des Plaines, Illinois, 26 September 1929; d. River Forest, Illinois, 24 January 2021. Schalk attended Concordia Teachers' College (now Concordia University) in River Forest, Illinois (BS, 1952), the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York (MM, 1958) and Concordia Theological Seminary in St Louis, Missouri (MA, 1965).
After serving at Zion Lutheran Church in Wausau, Wisconsin (1952-1958), Schalk was a music director for the International Lutheran Hour (1958-1965),...
YOUNG, Carlton Raymond ('Sam'). b. Hamilton, Ohio, 25 April 1926; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 21 May 2023. He was the son of J. Otis Young , a pastor, and Mary Leibrook, an elementary school teacher. Following his mother's death he was raised by maternal grand parents, who started his piano lessons at age six. He attended Fairfield High School in Butler County, Ohio, where music was a requirement not an elective, and where he played brass instruments and string bass. He studied at Cincinnati...
MILLIGAN, Carman Hilliard. b. York, Ontario, 20 March 1909; d. Ottawa, 14 April 1999. He was educated at the University of Toronto (MusBac in composition, 1937), and the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York State (MA in musicology, 1956). In 1982 he was made an Honorary Fellow in the Canadian College of Organists. He served as organist and choirmaster at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Ottawa, from 1937 to 1984. Editor (1964-72) and chair of the Committee for the revision of The Book...
PARKER, Caroline Bird. b. West Rupert, Vermont, 21 February 1867; d. Washington, District of Columbia, 4 July 1959. Caroline Bird Parker was a hymnal editor and a founder of The Hymn Society (now Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*) that began in New York City in 1922. She was the daughter of Convis Parker and Almena Mary Bradley. The Daughters of the American Revolution authenticated the tracing of her lineage through her mother's family to Joseph Bradley and his son, Lemuel, both of...
MICKLEM, (Thomas) Caryl. b. Oxford, 1 August 1925; d. Pocklington, Yorkshire, 2 June 2003. Born into a distinguished Congregationalist family, he was educated at Mill Hill School and then read English at New College, Oxford. He began theological training at Mansfield College, Oxford, but owing to his father's ill health, moved to Oundle to assist his father in his Congregational ministry. He was ordained in 1951 and undertook ministries at Banstead, Surrey (1953-58), Allen Street, Kensington...
CONVERSE, Charles Crozat. b. Warren, Massachusetts, 7 October 1832; d. Highwood, New Jersey, 18 October 1918. He was educated at Elmira Free Academy, Chemung County, New York State, and showed early promise as a musician. He played the organ at the Broadway Tabernacle Church, and taught languages and music, earning enough to enable him to study music in Leipzig, Germany, from 1855 onwards. There he met Lizst and Spohr before returning to the USA to study law. He graduated from Albany Law...
GRANT, Charles, Lord Glenelg. b. India, 26 October 1778; d. Cannes, France, 23 April 1866. He was the eldest son of the Director of the East India Company, and the older brother of (Sir) Robert Grant*. He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and became a Fellow of the College in 1802. In 1807 he was called to the Bar, but became Member of Parliament for Inverness (where his father had been an MP) in the same year. He served in various government positions from 1813 onwards; he was...
SPURGEON, Charles Haddon. b. Kelvedon, Essex, 19 June 1834; d. Menton, France, 31 January 1892. He was the elder son of a clerk to a coal merchant who was also a Baptist lay preacher and who later became an independent minister. Charles went to school in Colchester and later spent a few months at an agricultural college. He joined the Baptist Church on 3 May 1850 and in spite of his extreme youth almost immediately began his preaching ministry. After short period in teaching, he became a...
LLOYD, Charles Harford. b.Thornbury, Gloucestershire, 16 October 1849; d. Eton, 16 October 1919. He was educated at the local grammar school, and at Rossall School, Lancashire. He showed early promise as a musician, and was playing the organ in a local church at the age of ten. He studied at Magdalen Hall (now Hertford College), Oxford (BA 1872), during which time he became friendly with C.H.H. Parry* and John Stainer*, and founded the Oxford Musical Club (Dibble, 1992, p. 50). He became a...
HUTCHINS, Charles Lewis. b. Concord, New Hampshire, 5 August 1838; d. Concord, Massachusetts, 17 August 1920. Hutchins, an Episcopal priest, was editor of several music editions of 19th-century Episcopal hymnals and related materials. He was a son of George Hutchins (1797-1868) and Sarah Rolfe Tucker (1801-1868). Both parents were born to well-established New England families. Of particular note is Sarah's grandfather, the Rev Dr John Tucker (1719-1792), described in Shipton's New England...
ROBERTSON, Charles. b. Springburn, Glasgow, 22 October 1940. He was educated at The Orphan Homes of Scotland Primary School (Quarrier's), Bridge of Weir; Camphill Senior Secondary School, Paisley; and New College, University of Edinburgh (MA). After studying divinity at New College, he was licensed to preach on 22 April 1964, and ordained and inducted to Kiltearn Parish Church, near Dingwall, Ross-shire, on 21 October 1965. He married Alison Robertson* in 1965. In June 1978 he was translated...
ROBINSON, Charles Seymour. b. Bennington, Vermont, 31 March 1829; d. New York, 1 February 1899. The son of General Henry Robinson (1778-1854) and Martha P. Haynes (1800-1857), Robinson studied theology at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, Union Seminary, New York City, and graduated from Princeton Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey. Following his ordination in 1855, he served as pastor of Park Presbyterian Church, Troy, New York. In 1858 he married Harriet Read Church (1835-1895),...
FENNER, Christopher Jon. b. Kalamazoo, Michigan, 28 February 1981. Chris Fenner is a hymnologist, archivist, and church musician. The son of Richard and Gerri (née Emmons) Fenner, he was reared in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He holds degrees from Western Michigan University (BA in Music Education, 2003), The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, School of Church Music* (MA in Worship, 2011), and the University of Kentucky (Master of Library and Information Science, 2017). He has been a K-12 music...
BUNSEN, Christian Carl Josias. b. Corbach in Waldeck, Germany, 25 August 1791; d. Bonn, 28 November 1860. He was educated at the Universities of Marburg and Göttingen, becoming an assistant master at the Gymnasium (High School) of Göttingen. He resigned his post to engage in philological and historical research, which he continued throughout his career. He married Frances Waddington, of an English landed family, in 1817. He entered the diplomatic service, becoming Prussian Minister at Rome...
BATEMAN, Christian Henry. b. Wyke, Yorkshire, England, 9 August 1813; d. Carlisle, Cumberland, 27 July 1889. Bateman was the son of John Frederick Bateman (1772–1851), a mostly unsuccessful inventor, and Mary Agnes Bateman (née La Trobe) (1772–1848), and the fourth of six siblings (his older brother, the eminent civil engineer John Frederick La Trobe Bateman (1810–1889), was - unlike his father - one of the most successful innovators of his era, supervising reservoirs and waterworks in Ireland...
RUNGE, Christoph. b. Berlin, 10 September 1610; d. Berlin, 1681. He was the son of a book publisher; he followed his father's profession. He printed the first of Paul Gerhardt*s hymns in Praxis Pietatis Melica (1648); he then edited D.M. Luthers und anderer vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Berlin, 1653), of which Johann Crüger* was the music editor. This is the book referred to in JJ as 'the Crüger-Runge G.B.'. The 'D.M.' stands for Doktor Martin.
It...
IDLE, Christopher Martin. b. Bromley, Kent, 11 September 1938. He was educated at Eltham College and St Peter's College, Oxford (BA, 1962), going on to study Theology at Clifton Theological College, Bristol. Between school and university he spent three years working in an office, shop, and hospital; he was actively involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He was ordained (deacon 1965, priest 1966), serving curacies at St Mark's, Barrow-in-Furness (1965-68) and Christ Church, Camberwell...
WILLCOCK, Christopher John. b. Sydney, 8 February 1947. He attended De La Salle College, Armidale (1960-63), then studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, becoming an Associate in Music in theory and piano. At the University of Sydney he completed a BMus with honours in composition (1974), and took a BD at the Melbourne College of Divinity, followed by a Master's degree in Sacramental Theology at the Catholic Institute, Paris (1982). He then completed doctoral studies in liturgical and...
CHRYSANTHOS of Madyta. b. Thrace, ca. 1770; d. 1846. Chrysanthos is said to have been a well-educated man of the church compared to the standards of his time; he knew Latin and French as well as European and Arabian music (he played the flute and the Persian ney). He studied Byzantine music with Petros Byzantios* among others.
Chrysanthos was appointed archimandrite (superior abbot), and as such was also responsible for musical education. He became aware that the complicated notational system...
CHURMUZIOS CHARTOPHYLAX (Churmuzios the Archivist). b. ca. 1770; d. 1840. Born on the island of Chalkis, Churmuzios studied Byzantine music with Georgios of Crete*, Petros Byzantios* and Iakobos Peloponnesios* (Protopsaltes), but was also acquainted with Arabian-Persian music. From 1792 onwards Churmuzios seems to have been working as a musician, although he did not have a musical post within the patriarchal church, instead being employed as a chartophylax (archivist). Churmuzios sang in...
KIMBERLING, Clark Hershall. b. Hinsdale, Illinois, 7 November 1942. He is the oldest son of Delmer Hershall Kimberling and Jocelyn Leigh (Babel) Kimberling. A professor of mathematics at the University of Evansville, Kimberling has published several choral and instrumental compositions and hymnological articles, including many for the present work.
Beginning at the age of six, Kimberling's took piano lessons, notably from Gertrude Luther in College Station, Texas. At Stephen F. Austin High...
GOUDIMEL, Claude. b. Besançon, ca. 1520 ; d. Lyon, 28-31 August 1572. Goudimel played a leading part in the creation of the French Psalter (1539; see French Protestant psalms*) with his harmonizations of melodies created by Loys Bourgeois*, Pierre Davantès*, Guillaume Franc* and other musicians from Strasbourg such as Matthäus Greiter*. The exact year of Goudimel's birth is not known (the Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary proposes 1505, certain American, English and German musicologists...
TANGEMAN, Elizabeth Clementine (née Miller). b. Columbus, Indiana, 17 February 1905; d. Columbus, Indiana, 17 January 1996. She was a philanthropist and trustee, associated with the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary*, Yale University Institute of Sacred Music, various other institutions of higher education, and the Girl Scouts of the United States of America. She was also co-editor of Christian Hymns, copyrighted in 1945.
Clementine, as she was commonly known, along with her...
Clichtoveus. b. Nieuwport, Flanders, 1572; d. Chartres, France, 22 September 1543.
During the Renaissance it was common for learned authors to Latinize their names (cf. Andreas Gryphius*, Paul Speratus*). Judocus Clichtoveus Neoportuensis, usually referred to as 'Clichtoveus' was the name for Josse van Clichtove, educated at Leuven (Louvain) and Paris. He became Librarian of the Sorbonne before moving back to Flanders in 1519 with Louis Guillard, Bishop of Tournai. He later moved with Guillard...
MATHER, Cotton. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 12 February 1663; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 February 1728. Mather, one of the leading Puritan ministers of the American colonies, was instrumental in introducing the hymns of Isaac Watts* to North America. He was born into one of the prominent Puritan families of Colonial America. His father, Increase Mather (1639-1723), was minister of the prestigious Old North Church in Boston, and president of Harvard College (now Harvard University) from 1692...
TAYLOR, Cyril Vincent. b. Wigan, Lancashire, 11 December 1907; d. Petersfield, Hampshire, 20 June 1991. He was the son and grandson of clergymen; educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford, and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1929, MA 1935). He then went to Westcott House, Cambridge, to train for the priersthood (deacon, 1931, priest, 1932). He was a curate at Hinckley, Leicestershire (1931-33), and at St Andrew's, Kingswood, Surrey (1933-36). He was successively Precentor and Sacristan of Bristol...
BAYLEY, Daniel. b. Rowley, Massachusetts, 27 June 1729; d. Newburyport, Massachusetts, 29 February 1792. Bayley was a compiler and publisher of tunebooks. While active, possibly as clerk and possibly as a chorister, in St. Paul's Anglican (Episcopal after the Revolution) Church in Newburyport, as well as a printer, potter, and shopkeeper, he became one of the most productive early publishers of American church music. His tunebooks are of particular interest for reasons of 'piracy' – prior to...
MANSFIELD, Daniel Hale. b. probably Bangor, Maine, 23 June 1810; d. probably Augusta, Maine, 25 February 1855. Mansfield is primarily known as the compiler of a popular oblong tunebook, The American Vocalist (Boston, 1848, Rev. 1849). His ancestors, arriving in the American colony of Massachusetts around 1638, reflected seven generations of English Puritan heritage. They prospered as farmers and were gentlemen and owners of enslaved people in the New World. During the second half of the 18th...
NIXON, Darryl. b. Vancouver, British Columbia, 1953. His musical training began in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with Donald Hadfield and Lawrence Ritchey. In Geneva he completed his formation at the Conservatoire de Genève with Lionel Rogg (organ) and Christianne Jaccottet (harpsichord), winning the Premier Prix de Virtuosité avec Distinction, and teaching at the Conservatoire as assistant to Rogg. While in Geneva, between 1975 and 1983, he served the Lutheran Church of Geneva as organist.
In 1983 he...
CREAMER, David. b. Baltimore, Maryland, 20 November 1812; d. Baltimore, 8 April 1887. David Creamer was one of eleven children born to Joshua Creamer (nda) and Margaret Smith (nda). Creamer was educated in private schools in Baltimore until the age of 17. He was a partner in his father's lumber business until 1858 and served in several small government positions after that time. He was a devout Methodist who developed a strong interest in the hymnody of the church, and who became the first...
DENICKE, David. b. Zittau, Oberlausitz, Saxony, 31 January 1603; d. Hannover, 1 April 1680. Denicke was educated at the Gymnasium at Zittau, and at the Universities of Wittenberg and Jena, where he studied philosophy and law. He taught law at Königsberg as a 'Privatdozent', before making several journeys between 1624 and 1628 to observe the laws and customs in Holland, England and France. He was then employed as tutor to the sons of the Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg at Herzberg. In 1639 he...
EICHER, David Eugene. b. Harrisonburg, Virginia; 11 June 1954. An organist, church musician, music educator, denominational administrator, and hymnal editor, David Eicher's ecclesial roots were in the Church of the Brethren. He was born to the Rev. William C. Eicher (1923–2008) and Elsie Williard Eicher (1927–2011), the second of two children. His father served churches in Southern Virginia until he was called to Springfield, Ohio when Eicher entered the tenth grade.
Showing a great interest...
WILSON, David Gordon. b. Greenwich, London, 26 January 1940. Educated at Colfe's Grammar School and the University of Manchester (botany); then at Clare College, Cambridge (theology) and Ridley Hall (deacon 1965, priest 1966). After curacies in Clapham (1965-69) and South Kensington (1965-73), he held incumbencies in Leicester (1973-84) and Osterley, West London (1984-2005), retiring in that year. He was made a Prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral in 2002. He was a contributor to Youth Praise 1...
McCORMICK, David Wilfred. b. Lehighton, Pennsylvania, 6 May 1928; d. Richmond, Virginia, 21 September 2019. The son of a printer and volunteer church organist, he received his bachelor's degree (1949) and his master's degree (1950) from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey. He began his church ministry at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas where he established a life-long friendship with composer Jane Manton Marshall*. His service at Highland Park was...
MUSIC, David Wayne. b. Ardmore, Oklahoma, 28 January 1949. Music was educated at California Baptist College (BA in music, 1970), and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MCM 1973, DMA 1977). From 1977 to 1980 he served as a full-time minister of music in Tennessee. At California Baptist College in Riverside (1980-1990) he directed the Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, and College Singers, and was a member of the faculty Baroque ensemble. He taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological...
TRAUTWEIN, Dieter. b. Holzhausen, Biedenkopf, near Marburg, 30 July 1928; d. Frankfurt/Main, 9 November 2002. He was educated at the Landgraf Ludwig Gymnasium at Giessen (1938-46) and the University of Marburg, with further study at Mainz and Heidelberg. He was awarded the Doctorate of Theology from the University of Tübingen in 1971 for his thesis on 'Lernprozeß Gottesdienst' ('developments in worship'). He trained for the ministry at Königstein in Taunus, and took up appointments at Bad...
POTTER, Ethel Olive Doreen (née Cousins). b. Panama, 1925; d. Geneva, 24 June 1980. She was a Jamaican citizen, born in Panama, but growing up in Jamaica, where she studied piano and violin at school. She moved to England and trained as a teacher of music at St Katherine's College, Liverpool. In 1957, she gained her Licentiate of Music degree at Trinity College, London, and was violinist for a number of orchestras.
She married Philip Potter, the General Secretary of the World Council of...
GALBRAITH, David Douglas. b. Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, 22 June 1940. Douglas Galbraith was educated at the High School of Dundee: he was organist in his local church while still at school. He went on to the University of St Andrews (MA 1961, BD 1964). As a student he had the opportunity of being seasonal musician at Iona Abbey, which was a formative experience in terms both of liturgy and music. He became a member of the Iona Community* in 1964. Following ordination as a minister in...
MOODY, Dwight Lyman. b. Northfield, Massachusetts, 5 February 1837; d. Northfield, 22 December 1899. Moody, the pre-eminent evangelist of the late 19th century, grew up in rural Massachusetts but migrated to Boston and then Chicago as a young man. In Chicago he served as the first salaried president of the YMCA and increasingly established himself as a lay religious leader with no specific denominational ties. In 1873 he set out for Britain to launch a revival campaign, a highly successful...
MARLATT, Earl Bowman. b. Columbus, Indiana, 24 May 1892; d. Winchester, Indiana, 13 June 1976. His father was a Methodist Episcopal minister. He and his twin brother, Ernest F. Marlatt, were the youngest of eight brothers and sisters, all of whom graduated from DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana (a Methodist foundation, originally Indiana Asbury University). Earl Bowman graduated in 1912 and then studied at Harvard and Boston Universities, and at Oxford and Berlin. He taught school in...
HARPER, Earl Enyeart. b. Coffey, Missouri, 28 March 1895; d. St Petersburg, Florida, 1 March 1967. Pastor, hymnist, educator, author, director of hymn festivals, arts curator, Harper attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska (BA, 1918) and Boston University School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts (STB, 1921), with additional study at Harvard and the University of Chicago. Harper began his professional career as the pastor of Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, Auburndale,...
DAYMAN, Edward Arthur. b. Padstow, Cornwall, 11 July 1807; d. Shillingstone, Dorset, 30 October 1890. He was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton, Devon, and Exeter College, Oxford (BA 1830, MA 1831, BD 1841). An outstanding undergraduate with a First Class degree, he was appointed to a Fellowship of his College. He took Holy Orders, becoming rector of Shillingstone in 1842. He was a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral from 1862 onwards, and a noted historian of the Cathedral: with a fellow Canon,...
DARLING, Edward Flewett. b. Cork, Republic of Ireland, 24 July 1933. Edward Darling was educated at Cork Grammar School, Midleton College, Co. Cork, and St John's School, Leatherhead, Surrey. Following further study at Trinity College, Dublin (where he graduated and qualified for ordination in the Divinity School), he took Holy Orders (deacon, 1956, priest 1957), serving two curacies: at St Luke's, Belfast (1956-59) and St John's, Orangefield, Belfast (1959-62). He was appointed first...
DENNY, (Sir) Edward. b. Dublin, 2 Oct 1796; d. London, 13 June 1889. He was the son of an Irish baronet, succeeding to the title in 1831. He was the owner of Tralee Castle, and of much of the county of Kerry, where he was an absentee landlord (living in London for most of his life) but a charitable and sympathetic one. In old age he remembered that he was converted by reading a novel about a Jesuit priest, Father Clement, by Grace Kennedy (Edinburgh, 1823), but he became a member of the...
BOATNER, Edward Hammond. b. New Orleans, Louisiana, 13 November 1898; d. New York City, 16 June 1981. Edward Boatner was a multi-talented musician recognized as a composer, choral conductor, and singer as well as author of plays, stories, and music education materials. He was especially noted for essays in African American history and his concertized arrangements of African American spirituals*.
He was the son of an itinerant Methodist minister Dr. Daniel Webster Boatner (?1854— ). His surname...
MILLER, Edward. b. Norwich, 30 October 1735; d. Doncaster, 12 September 1807. He was apprenticed to his father's trade as a paviour, but left to study music under Charles Burney. By self-education he became a man of considerable learning. He was made organist of Doncaster parish church in 1756 and held the post until his death. He took much interest in local affairs, publishing a history of Doncaster in 1804, but also built up a national network of patronage which enabled him to gather an...
MOTE, Edward. b. London, 21 January 1797; d. Horsham, Sussex, 13 November 1874. He worked in London as a cabinet-maker. He was greatly influenced by the preaching of the Revd John Hyatt at George Whitefield*'s Tottenham Court Road chapel. Mote became a Baptist minister, serving as pastor of a Baptist Chapel at Horsham, Sussex (1852-74) until his death.
His hymn writing had begun long before his ordination: the hymn by which he is remembered, 'My hope is built on nothing less'*, was published in...
STEPHEN (Jones), Edward ('Tanymarian'). b. Maentwrog, Merioneth, 15 December 1822; d. 10 May 1885. Edward Jones took the name of Edward Stephen when a student. His father played the harp and his mother sang, and he himself studied music assiduously while working in the clothing trade, and then as a student of theology at the Congregational College, Bala. From 1847 he was minister of Horeb, Dwygyfylchi, near Conway, North Wales. He became known throughout Wales as a preacher, poet, lecturer,...
See 'Edward Stephen (Jones)'*
EXCELL, Edwin Othello. b. Uniontown, Stark County, Ohio, 13 December 1851; d. Chicago, Illinois, 10 June 1921. Publisher, singer, and gospel song composer best known for his Sunday-school songs, including the standard arrangement of the shape-note melody, AMAZING GRACE, and his tune, BLESSINGS (see following), Excell was born to Rev. Joshua James Excell (1825-1911), a singer and minister in the German Reformed Church, and Emily (née Hess, d. 1888). Before his musical career became successful,...
See 'Howell Elvet Lewis'*
BALL, Eli, b. Marlborough, Vermont, 2 November 1786; d. Richmond, Virginia, 21 July 1853. He was the son of Samuel H. Ball and Phebe Taylor Ball, the younger brother of Amos Ball, and the twin of Pheobe Ball. Following limited former education, he was tutored in Boston by Daniel Stafford in classics and by Caleb Blood in ministerial studies. He served congregations in Malden and Wilmington, Massachusetts; Lansingburg, New York; and Middletown, Connecticut, before moving to Virginia in...
MANN, Elias. b. Stoughton, Massachusetts, 8 May 1750; d. Northampton, Massachusetts, 12 May 1825. Mann was a carpenter, musician, singing teacher, and tunebook compiler, born in the northwest part of Stoughton, in a section of the city now called Canton. He was the seventh of twelve children born to Theodore Mann (nda) and Abigail Day Mann (nda). Although little is known about his childhood and musical training, it is speculated that he grew up in Dedham and Walpole, southwest of nearby...
ESLINGER, Elise Shoemaker (née Matheny). b. Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2 December 1942. Elise Matheny's musical education began in early childhood with her aunt and continued with piano lessons at age 5 and organ lessons at age 14. Following graduation from high school in Meridian, Mississippi (1960), she pursued her undergraduate education at Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi (BA in Organ, Minor in English, Magna cum laude, 1963). She continued graduate studies in music literature at the...
ROUTLEY, Erik Reginald. b. Brighton, Sussex, 31 October 1917; d. Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 8 October 1982. He was the only child of John, a businessman and town councillor who was Mayor of Brighton in 1936-37, and Eleanor, a homemaker and musician. He attended Fonthill Preparatory School, 1925-31 and Lancing College, 1931-36. He read Literae Humaniores (nicknamed 'Mods' and 'Greats': classics/ ancient history and philosophy) at Magdalen College, Oxford (BA 1940, MA 1943). He became an...
RYDEN, Ernest Edwin. b. Kansas City, Missouri, 12 September 1886; d. Providence, Rhode Island, 1 January 1981. Born into a Swedish family, Ryden attended the Manual Training School in Kansas City, worked for a newspaper published by the Kansas City Railway, and was a telegraph editor for a newspaper in Moline, Illinois. He attended Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, in 1910 (BA, honorary DD, 1930; he was later President of the Board); and Augustana Theological Seminary, Rock Island (BD,...
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)....
EMURIAN, Ernest K. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20 February 1912; d. Alexandria, Virginia, 23 January 2004. A hymn writer, author, hymn enthusiast, and a fourth-generation preacher, Emurian was the son of a composer, hymn writer, and publisher. He earned a BA (1931) from Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina, a BD from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, and a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree...
GEBHARDT, Ernst Heinrich. b. Ludwigsburg, Württemberg, 12 July 1832; d. Ludwigsburg, 9 June 1899. He was educated at Ludwigsburg, where he was inspired by some of his teachers with the ideals of the 1848 revolutions in Europe, with their separation of church and state. On leaving school he became an apprentice chemist, but gave it up to study land management and forestry at Hohenheim, near Stuttgart. In pursuit of this career he worked in Chile (1848-52), returning to Germany where he found his...
BERSIER, Eugène. b. Morges, Switzerland, 5 February 1831; d. Paris, 18 November 1889. He was a French Evangelical Reformed Pastor, liturgist, preacher, historian and hymnwriter. His Swiss parents, Jacques Bersier and Louise Coindet (she was born in England), were of French Huguenot descent. So Eugène was naturalised French in 1855. His grandmother, on his mother's side, taught him English. He lived in Geneva with his widowed mother from 1838 to 1848. She prayed the 'Prayer-Book' services with...
HAMILTON, Fayette Montgomery ('F.M.'). b. Washington, Arkansas, 3 September 1858; d. Sparta, Georgia, 10 November 1912. The life of this hymnodist, composer, arranger, and editor is most accurately told within the context of the early history of the Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church (in 1954 the name was changed to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church). It was first organized on 16 December 1870 as The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, an ecclesial body of mostly African...
PAGURA, Federico José. b. Arroyo Secco, Santa Fe, Argentina, 9 February, 1923; d. Rosario, Santa Fe, 6 June 2016.
Life and Ministry
In the second half of the 20th century Federico Pagura was among the most notable leaders of the church in South America and one of the leading authors and translators of congregational hymnody from this continent. Not only was he a pillar of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Argentina; he was also a resilient and compelling voice for human rights (derechos...
FILOTHEI the Hieromonk. b. Wallachia, ca. 1640; d. ca. 1720. A Romanian interpreter, translator and author of Byzantine hymns and liturgical texts, Filothei studied Byzantine music with priest Teodosie from the Metropolitan Church of Wallachia. He spent a few years in the monasteries on Mount Athos, improving his knowledge of Byzantine music and the Greek and Medieval Slavonic languages. He returned to Wallachia before 1700 and is known as a hieromonk (a monk who has also been ordained as a...
CAREY BROCK, Frances Elizabeth Georgina (née Baynes). b. St Martin's, Guernsey, Channel Islands, 7 September 1827; d. St Martin's, 30 December 1905. She was a writer of a number of religious books, some for children. She married Carey Brock (1824–1892), rector of St Pierre du Bois Church, Guernsey; he became Dean of Guernsey in 1869, holding office until 1891. At her marriage, she took his Christian name as well as surname. Among her publications were 'Almost Persuaded': a tale of village life,...
WESTBROOK, Francis Brotherton. b. Thornton Heath, Norbury, Surrey, 16 June 1903; d. Harpenden, Hertfordshire, 19 September 1975. He was educated at Whitgift Middle School, Croydon, and Didsbury (Wesleyan) Theological College, Manchester. He was ordained at the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, 1930, and served as a Methodist minister, before 1932 as a Wesleyan. His first church was at Tipton, near Birmingham, and he took the opportunity ot study with Granville Bantock, Professor of Music at the...
GEALY, Frederick Daniel. b. Oil City, Pennsylvania, 13 May 1894; d. University Park, Texas, 15 December 1976. Distinguished New Testament scholar, teacher, hymnist, and church musician, Gealy attended Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, (BA, 1916); Boston University (STB 1919; PhD 1929), with additional study at Universität Basel, Switzerland; Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Berlin, Germany; Union Theological Seminary New York City (Dodge Mission Fellow, MTh, 1929); and the University...
GREEN, Fred(erick) Pratt. b. Roby, near Liverpool, 2 September 1903; d. Norwich, 22 October 2000. He was educated at Huyton High School, Wallasey Grammar School and Rydal School, before training for the Methodist ministry at Didsbury College, Manchester. It was here that he wrote Farley Goes Out, a missionary play performed widely, and the forerunner of twelve further plays both secular and religious. Ordained in 1928, Pratt Green wrote his first hymn, 'God lit a flame in Bethlehem' and a...
HEDGE, Frederic Henry. b. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 12 December 1805; d. 21 August 1890. He was the son of Levi Hedge, Professor of German at Harvard, and his wife Mary Kneeland. Frederic, their only child, was sent to Germany at the age of thirteen to be educated, in the company of George Bancroft (1800-1891, later to become a distinguished statesman and diplomat). He was a pupil at the Gymnasium of Ilfeld (Hannover) and of Schulpforta (Saxony). Returning to the USA in 1823 he entered Harvard,...
WISEMAN, (Frederick) Luke. b. York, 29 January 1858; d. Wandsworth, London, 16 January 1944. The son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister, Luke Hoult Wiseman (1822-1875, President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, 1872), he trained for the ministry at Didsbury College, Manchester, after working in a bank. He was tutor in Hebrew at Didsbury College (1881-87), Superintendent Minister of the Birmingham Mission (1887-1913), and President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, 1912-13. He became...
FILITZ, Friedrich. b. Arnstadt, Thuringia, 16 March 1804; d. Bonn, 8 December 1876. Filitz graduated in philosophy and worked as a music critic and historian in Berlin (1843-47) before moving to Munich where he wrote Über einige Interessen der älteren Kirchenmusik (1853).
The hymn tunes associated with Filitz were originally published in two books. Together with Ludwig Erk, he published Vierstimmige Choralsätze der vornehmsten Meister des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Essen, 1845). He also compiled...
ZOLLIKOFER, Georg Joachim. b. St Gallen, Switzerland, 5 August 1730; d. Leipzig, 22 January 1788. Zollikofer was educated at St Gallen and at Bremen and Utrecht. After a short period as a private tutor at Frankfurt-am-Main, he returned to Switzerland as pastor of the Reformed church at Murten (in the canton of Freiburg today), followed by pastorates at Monsheim (Pfalz), 1754-58, and briefly at the Huguenot town of Neu-Isenburg, near Frankfurt/Main (a few months in 1758). In 1758 he accepted a...
RHAU (RHAW), Georg. b. Franconia, 1488, d. 1548. He was born in Franconia in the town of Eisfeld on the Werra River. He attended the University of Erfurt for a brief time, and the University at Wittenberg (BA, 1514). For four years he was employed in the Wittenberg printing establishment of Rhau-Grunenberg, presumably owned by his uncle. From 1518 to 1520 Rhau was cantor at the Thomasschule and Thomaskirche in Leipzig. He was also associated with the University at Leipzig where he lectured on...
THURMAIR, Georg. b. München/Munich, 7 February 1909; d. München, 20 January 1984.
After education at Business School in München/Munich, Thurmair moved in 1926 to Düsseldorf to be assistant to Ludwig Wolker, then in charge of the Catholic youth movement which became Sturmschar in 1929. He edited a weekend magazine, Jungen Front, which was critical of the up-and-coming National Socialist movement. It was compelled to change its name to Michael, and in 1936 it was forbidden. At this time Thurmair...
SIMONS, George Albert. b. LaPorte, Indiana, 19 March 1874; d. Brooklyn, New York, 2 August 1952. Son of a Methodist pastor, George Henry Simons and his wife Ottilie Schulz, Simons attended Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, New York; German-Wallace College (now Baldwin-Wallace College), Berea, Ohio (AB, 1899; DD, 1908); New York University (AB, 1903); the Theological School of Drew University, Madison, New Jersey (BD, 1905). In 1899, after finishing theological studies, he was ordained in the Methodist...
BLACK, George Alexander. b. Toronto, 8 May 1931; d. Paris, France, 1 July 2003. He was professor of French Language and Literature, Latin, Liturgy and Church Music at Huron College, University of Western Ontario at London, Ontario; and a Canadian liturgist, hymnist, organist and choral director. George Black served as organist and choir director at several Toronto churches before he moved to London, ON, where he continued leading congregational music while teaching at Huron College. As Director...
BURDER, George. b. London, 5 June 1752; d. 29 May 1832. Burder trained as an engraver, but became a preacher of the Calvinistic Methodist persuasion, and subsequently a pastor in Independent chapels. He served the Independent or Congregational chapels at Lancaster (1777-83), Coventry (1783-1800), and Fetter Lane, London (1800- ). He was a forceful promoter of evangelical activity: he was one of the founders of the Religious Tract Society, the London Missionary Society, and the British and...
STEBBINS, George Coles. b. East Carlton, New York, 26 February 1846; d. Catskill, New York, 6 October 1945. Stebbins was a prominent and abiding northern Baptist composer, compiler, soloist, and song leader of 19th- and early 20th-century urban revivals in the UK and the USA. Following his education in an academy in Albany, and early experiences in singing schools (see USA hymnody, music*), he studied music in Buffalo, New York City, and Rochester, where he sang tenor in a church solo quartet....
KNIGHT, George Litch. b. Rockford, Illinois, 2 January 1925; d. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 6 October 1995. Hymnologist, historian and clergyman, Knight attended Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana, the University of Chicago, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky (BA, 1947), and Union Theological Seminary, New York City (BD, 1951).
Ordained by the Freeport Presbytery (Illinois) in 1951, Knight served the West Side Presbyterian Church of Englewood, New Jersey, first as assistant minister (1951-1956),...
MULRAIN, George MacDonald, b. Caribbean Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, 30 March 1946. Pastor, educator, author, and composer, Mulrain attended the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI), Kingston, Jamaica (Dipl. Ministerial studies, 1973), the University of the West Indies (BA Theology, 1973), and the University of Birmingham, UK (PhD, 1982: dissertation, 'Theological Significance of Haitian Folk Religion'). Mulrain, an ordained elder of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean...
RAWSON, George. b. Leeds, 5 June 1807; d. Bristol, 24 March 1889. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School. He became a solicitor and practised in Leeds, where he was also an active Congregationalist. He assisted George William Conder* and other local figures in the preparation of an influential Congregationalist collection entitled Psalms, Hymns, and Passages of Scripture for Christian Worship, usually called the 'Leeds Hymn Book' (1853). He then assisted the Baptists in the compilation...
SMART, (Sir) George Thomas. b. London, 10 May 1776; d. London, 23 February 1867. He received his early musical education as a Child (chorister) of the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, and began his career as organist of St James' Chapel, Hampstead Road (1791). A few years later he added a similar post at Brunswick Chapel and in 1822 he was appointed one of the two joint organists of the Chapel Royal. By the end of his career his inability to play the pedals was out-dated: when invited to try a...
WHITEFIELD, George. b. Gloucester, 16 December 1714; d. Newburyport, Massachusetts, 30 September 1770. He was the son of an innkeeper, who died when he was two years old. His mother remarried, unhappily, and the inn was mismanaged by his step-father. Whitefield's childhood cannot have been a settled one, although he was educated at Gloucester Cathedral School and the Crypt School. In 1732 he matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford, as a 'Servitor', performing menial tasks in order to pay for...
CONDER, George William. b. Hitchin, Hertforshire, 30 November 1821; d. Forest Hill, London, 8 November 1874. He was educated at Hitchin Grammar School. He then went to London to make a career in business, becoming a member of King's Weigh House Chapel under the ministry of Thomas Binney*. Binney encouraged him to enter the Congregational Church ministry, and he trained at Highbury College before serving at High Wycombe (1845-47), Ryde, Isle of Wight (1847-49), and Belgrave Chapel, Leeds...
CARTFORD, Gerhard M. b. Madagascar, 21 March, 1923; d. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 8 February 2016. He was the son of missionary parents. He studied at St Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota (BM, 1948), The School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary, New York (MSM, 1950), Luther Northwestern Seminary (now Luther Seminary*) St Paul, Minnesota (1954-1955), St John's University, St Cloud, Minnesota (1955), and the University of Minnesota (PhD in musicology, 1961). As a Fulbright scholar, he...
GERMANOS of Neai Patrai. b. Tyrnavo/Thessalia, ca.1625; d. ca. 1685. Germanos was born in and studied Byzantine music in Constantinople with Georgios Rhaidestinos and Chrysaphes the Younger*, although in many sources he is mentioned as a contemporary of the latter. In ca. 1665 he was appointed metropolitan of Neai Patrai (today Ypati in the district of Phthiotida) by patriarch Dionysios III. In 1683 he seems to have resigned from this post and gone to live in Wallachia.
There are five known...
HANCOCK, Gerre. b. Lubbock, Texas, 21 February 1934; d. Austin, Texas, 21 January 2012. He was an organist, professor, choir trainer, and composer, known especially for his book Improvising: How to Master the Art, which is largely based on hymn tunes.
His father, Edward Ervin Hancock (1902-1965) was Lubbock County Superintendent of Schools, and his mother, Flake (née Steger) Hancock, was a pianist for several churches. Gerre began playing the piano at age four and took lessons from his mother....
RORISON, Gilbert. b. Glasgow, 7 February 1821; d. Bridge of Allan, 11 October 1869. He was educated at the University of Glasgow. He was a member of the United Presbyterian Church, but joined the Episcopal Church of Scotland. After theological training in Edinburgh he was ordained in 1843, and served as an Episcopal Church priest at Leith, Helensburgh and Peterhead.
He published sermons and other devotional works (On the Christian miracles, 1854; Depression of the clergy the danger to the...
SADOH, Godwin. b. Lagos State, Nigeria, 28 March 1965. An Anglican organist, composer, hymn writer, church musician, and professor of music, Godwin Sadoh received certificates in piano, theory, and general musicianship from the Royal School of Music, London (1982-1986), and degrees in piano and composition from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria (BA, 1988); in African ethnomusicology from University of Pittsburgh (MA, 1998), in organ performance and church music from University of...
ARNOLD, Gottfried. b. Annaberg, Saxony, 5 Sept 1666; d. Perleberg, Brandenburg, 30 May 1714. He was educated at the Gymnasium at Gera followed by the University of Wittenberg (1685-89). He became a private tutor to a family at Dresden, where he was much influenced by the sermons of Philipp Jakob Spener*, then Senior Court Preacher (until 1690). On Spener's recommendation Arnold obtained another tutor's post at Quedlinburg (1693-97); while at Quedlinburg he published Die erste Liebe, das ist,...
See 'Gottschalk of Orbais'*
GOTTSCHALK of Orbais (Gottschalk der Sachse). b. ca. 803, d. 867 or 869. Born to a Saxon count named Berno, Gottschalk was given to the abbey of Fulda as a child oblate. He later challenged the validity of his oblation and petitioned to be released from his monastic vow. Gottschalk was allowed to leave Fulda by decree of a council at Mainz in 829, but Louis the Pious declared the decision void at the request of Hrabanus Maurus*, abbot of Fulda. Gottschalk was then transferred to the abbey of...
TULLAR, Grant Colfax. b. Bolton, Connecticut, 5 August 1869; d. Ocean Grove, New Jersey, 20 May 1950. He was a gospel singer, evangelist, publisher, writer of hymn texts, and composer of hymn tunes.
A few months before Tullar's birth, Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) and Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885) were inaugurated President and Vice-President of the United States. Tullar was named in their honor. His father, Austin Milleon Tullar (1830-1896) fought briefly in the Civil War, having enlisted 30...
WOOD, Harold D'Arcy. b. Nuku'alofa, Tonga, 9 December 1936. He is the son of Methodist missionary parents who for 13 years directed Tupou College, a school for boys in Tonga. His father, Alfred Harold Wood (1896-1989), played the piano, conducted choirs and published extensively on hymns. He was chairman of the Australian Hymn Book Committee from its formation in 1968 to the publication of the hymnbook in 1977.
On the family's return to Australia, D'Arcy Wood was educated at Wesley College and...
FRIEDELL, Harold William. b. Jamaica, Queens, New York, 11 May 1905; d. Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, 17 February 1958. Friedell was an organist, choirmaster, teacher, and composer of over 100 choral, organ and instrumental works. A 'Profile' in the Hudson Dispatch (New York), 16 September 1936, compared Friedell's anthems, in 'artistic temperament to the school of English composers who are writing a new chapter in the music on the ancient “modes” as opposed to the schools which are...
SPAETH, Harriet Reynolds Krauth (Harriet Krauth). b. Baltimore, Maryland, 21 September 1845; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 5 May 1925. Spaeth was an author and translator of hymn texts and composer of hymn tunes, and a music editor. Her best known translations are 'As each happy Christmas' and verses 3 and 4 of 'Lo, how a rose e'er blooming' (see 'Es ist ein' Ros entsprungen'*). She was the daughter of Charles Porterfield Krauth (1823-1883) and Susan Reynolds Krauth (1821-1853). C. P. Krauth,...
CLARKE, Harry Dixon. b. Cardiff, Wales, 28 January 1889, d. Lexington, Kentucky, 14 October 1957. Harry Dixon Clarke was born in Cardiff (some sources indicate that he later changed his middle name to Dudley). Orphaned at a young age, he ran away from the orphanage, found his way to London, and went to sea for nearly a decade. With his brother's assistance, Clarke moved to Canada and then to the United States, where he experienced his conversion. After studying at Moody Bible...
WILLAN, (James) Healey. b. Balham, Surrey, England, 12 October 1880; d. Toronto, Canada, 16 February 1968. Willan's father was a chemist, his mother an amateur pianist who gave him his first instruction in music. He was educated at St. Saviour's Choir School in Eastbourne, Sussex, followed by private organ lessons with William Stevenson Hoyte in London. After a succession of organist-choirmaster positions in London, he moved in 1913 to Toronto, serving first at St Paul's Anglican Church, and...
CAPIEU, Henri. b. Bizerte, Tunisia 1909; d. Meudon, France 1993. Capieu was a French Reformed Pastor, ordained in 1933, who served at Clairac and at Les Salies de Béarn (1946-47). He was inspired by the discreet piety of his mother, biblical narratives, and the Protestant poet Antoine de la Roche Chandieu (1534-1591). He pastored the church in Algiers (1947-61) where he befriended Albert Camus, and worked against torture during the Algerian war. He then became pastor in central Paris at the...
AINSWORTH, Henry. b. Swanton Morley (north west of Norwich), Norfolk, 1569 (baptized 15 January 1570); d. 1622. He was educated at Swanton Morley and at St John's College, Cambridge, moving to Gonville and Caius College, where he excelled at Hebrew but left in 1591 without taking a degree. He developed Separatist views, and was at variance with the Church of England, and also with other sectarians. At some point in the 1590s he emigrated to Holland, living in Amsterdam, where he continued his...
ALLON, Henry. b. Welton, near Hull, 13 October 1818; d. London (? buried at Abney Park Cemetery)16 April 1892. He was apprenticed as a builder, but decided to become a minister of the Congregational Church. He was educated at Cheshunt College from 1839. He became assistant pastor of Union Chapel, Islington, in 1844, and sole pastor from 1852 to 1892.
His organists there were Henry John Gauntlett* from 1853 to 1861 and Ebenezer Prout* from 1861 to 1873. He wrote a hymn for Passion-tide, 'Low in...
HILES, Henry. b. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, 31 December 1826; d. Worthing, Sussex, 20 October 1904. Hiles was a self-taught organist with the assistance of his brother John (1810-1882), and he was playing in local churches at an early age. At the age of 18 he became organist of the large parish church at Bury, Lancashire, moving to Bishopwearmouth, County Durham, where he was organist from 1847 to 1852. He travelled widely from 1852 to 1859, visiting Australia and other countries. On his return he...
MUHLENBERG, Henry Melchior ('Melchior Heinrich Mühlenberg' was his given name which he reversed, and the anglicized versions of 'Henry' and 'Muhlenberg' with no umlaut on the 'u' are normally used today). b. Einbeck, (southern Lower Saxony), Germany, 6 September 1711; d. Trappe, Pennsylvania, 7 October 1787.
Known as 'the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America', Muhlenberg was the seventh child in a poor family of nine. His parents were Nicolaus Melchior Muhlenberg (1660/66-1723/29) and...
PLAYFORD, Henry. b. Islington, London, 5 May 1657; d. London, May-Dec 1709. As the son of the leading English music publisher of the time, John Playford*, he naturally followed in the same line, being apprenticed to his father in 1674, and inheriting part of the business in 1687. Henry maintained many of John Playford's titles and adhered to his preference for typeset music, which was steadily losing ground to the new engraving methods; for these reasons he never attained his father's dominance...
CUTLER, Henry Stephen. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 October 1825; d. Swampscott, Massachusetts, 5 December 1902. Cutler was an organist, choirmaster, and composer, known especially for his hymn tune, ALL SAINTS (also called ALL SAINTS NEW). The place of Cutler's death is sometimes given as Boston; however, he died at home in Swampscott, about 12 miles north of the city. Cutler's parents were Roland Cutler (1798-1873) and Martha Richardson Cutler (1803-?) (see Josiah Adams, The Genealogy of...
BEECHER, Henry Ward. b. Litchfield, Connecticut, 24 June 1813; d. New York, 8 March 1887. He was the son of Lyman Beecher, a celebrated Presbyterian minister; one of his sisters was Harriet Beecher Stowe*, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Henry was educated at Amherst College, Massachusetts (graduating in 1834), and Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, where his father had become Principal. In 1837 he was ordained to First Presbyterian Church in the small town of Lawrenceburg, Indiana,...
FOOTE, Henry Wilder (II). b. Boston, Massachusetts, 2 February 1875; d. Southwest Harbor, Maine, 27 August 1964. Highly respected author, scholar, and hymnologist, Foote was a Unitarian minister, teacher, and progressive figure whose ministry highlighted music, poetry, and art. Born to Frances Anne Eliot (1838-1896) and Henry Wilder Foote (1838-1889), the younger Foote had strong connections with Unitarianism and Harvard University. His grandfather, Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798-1862) was mayor of...
DANIEL, Hermann Adalbert. b. Köthen, south of Magdeburg, 18 November 1812; d. Leipzig, 13 September 1871. He was educated at the University of Halle (PhD 1835). He became a master at the Paedagogium in Halle, then an assistant inspector, and finally Professor (1854). He retired to Dresden (1870), and died at Leipzig. He was the compiler of an Evangelisches Kirchengesangbuch (Halle, 1842), described in JJ as 'a very indifferent hymn-book' (p. 279), but he is chiefly known as the compiler of the...
See 'Gottschalk of Orbais'*
THWAITES, Honor Mary (née Scott Good). b. Young, New South Wales, Australia, 21 September 1914; d. Canberra, 24 November 1993. Born into a Presbyterian family (her father, a family doctor, was an elder of the Presbyterian Church), she became a member of that church as well as working as a Sunday-school teacher. She was educated at the Geelong Church of England Grammar School, and went on to study French and German at the University of Melbourne, graduating with a BA Hons degree. It was while...
BALLOU, Hosea. b. Richmond, New Hampshire, 30 April 1771; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 6 June 1852. The eleventh child of Maturin (1720-1804) a Calvinist Baptist preacher, and Lydia (née) Harris Ballou (1728-73), Hosea converted to Universalism in 1789. He spent several years as an itinerant preacher before taking his first congregation in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1809. He subsequently received a call to serve the Second Universalist Society of Boston in 1815. Hosea Ballou made a notable...
OLSON, Howard. b. St Paul, Minnesota, 18 July 1922; d. Sun City Center, Florida, 1 July 2010. Howard Olson has a well-deserved reputation for his African hymns, such as 'Christ has arisen, Alleluia (Mfurahini, Haleluya)*, 'Neno lake Mungu' ('Listen, God Is Calling'), and 'Njoo kwetu, Roho mwema' ('Gracious Spirit, Heed Our Pleading'). They have have found their way into hymnals around the globe. Olson's Tumshangilie Mungu: Nyimbo za Kikristo za Kiafrika has gone through six successive...
LEWIS, Howell Elvet. b. Cynwyl Elfed, Carmarthenshire, 14 April 1860; d. Penarth, Glamorgan, 10 December 1953. Lewis was born into a farming family. He trained for the ministry in the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, but in fact he read so widely that he was largely self-taught. He was ordained in the Congregational ministry in 1880, serving from then until 1904 in English-speaking churches in Wales and England. It was, however, during this period that he was most active as a poet in Welsh,...
MARTIN, Hugh. b. Glasgow, 7 April 1890; d. East Grinstead, Sussex, 2 July 1964. He was educated at the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Baptist College. He was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Student Christian Movement in 1914, and worked for the SCM until 1950; he was one of the founders of the SCM Press, and later editor of the Press. An eminent Baptist, he was Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council, 1953-54. He was made a Companion of Honour in 1955.
For the SCM Press he wrote or...
FRANZ, Ignaz. b. Protzan, Silesia, 12 October 1719; d. Breslau (Wroclaw, Poland), 19 August 1790. Franz studied at Glatz Gymnasium and then studied Philosophy and Theology at Breslau University. He was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest at Olmütz in 1742 and in the same year became chaplain at Grossglogau. In 1753, he became archpriest at Schlawa, then Leiter des Priesteralumnats (head of a seminary) in Breslau in 1766.
He edited hymnbooks, including Die christ-katholische Lehre in Liedern...
SANKEY, Ira David. b. Edinburgh, near New Castle, Pennsylvania, 28 August 1840; d. Brooklyn, New York 14 August 1908. He was one of eleven children born of the marriage of devout Methodists David and Mary (née Leeper) Sankey. The family settled a few miles east in Western Reserve Harbour and attended the nearby Methodist Church in King's Chapel where Sankey at age 16 was 'converted'. Sankey learned to sing hymns in Sunday school and in the family hymn sings. 'By the time he was eight . . . he...
PROKHANOFF, Ivan Stepanovich. b. Vladikavkas, Russia, 17 April 1869; d. Berlin, Germany, 6 October 1935. Prokhanoff was a gifted author, preacher, poet and hymn writer, and a primary leader of the evangelical community in Russia. St Petersburg was the center of his activity. Here he founded the Russia Evangelical Association (1905), and the All-Russian Evangelical Association (1908).
His parents grew up in the Molokan ('milk drinkers') tradition of Russia, a pietistic movement that emerged...
Higginson, J. Vincent. b. Irvington, New Jersey, 17 May 1896; d. Albuquerque, New Mexico, 11 April 1994. Joseph Vincent Edward Higginson was the son of George and Anna A. Higginson. He married Lillian Rendelman (1906–1987), August 17, 1939, in New York City. Higginson received his education at Manhattan College, Julliard School, Pius X School of Liturgical Music, and at New York University (BMus 1929; MA 1938). He taught at Pius X School of Liturgical Music and lectured at New York University,...
FRENCH, Jacob. b. Stoughton, Massachusetts, 15 July 1754; d. Simsbury, Connecticut, May 1817. He was a composer, singing master, and compiler of three collections: The New American Melody, The Psalmodist's Companion, and Harmony of Harmony.
French was the second son born to Jacob French (nda) and Miriam Downs French (nda). The town of his birth, about 17 miles south and slightly west of Boston, was known for its musical activities. In particular, in 1774, William Billings* led a Singing school*...
ALLEN, James. b. Gayle, Wensleydale, Yorkshire, 24 June 1734; d. Gayle, 31 October 1804. He was educated privately, and then briefly at St John's College, Cambridge, with a view to taking Holy Orders; but he left Cambridge in 1752 to become a follower of Benjamin Ingham*, the Yorkshire evangelist. He is known to hymnody as the co-editor with Christopher Batty (1715-1797, JJ, p. 118) of the Inghamite Collection of Hymns for the Use of Those that Seek, and Those that have Redemption in the Blood...
MARTINEAU, James. b. Norwich, 21 April 1805; d. London, 11 Jan 1900. He was born into a Unitarian family of Huguenot descent, and educated at Norwich Grammar School and at the school at Bristol run by the distinguished Unitarian Dr Lant Carpenter. He became an engineering apprentice at Derby, but decided to become a Unitarian minister and entered Manchester College, then at York, in 1822. In 1828 he became minister of Eustace Street Presbyterian Meeting House, Dublin, and in 1832 moved to...
BLACK, James Milton. b. South Hill, New York, 19 August 1856; d. Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 21 December 1938. Black was an enthusiastic promoter of Gospel hymnody, compiling volume after volume, often with sub-titles such as 'for use in Sunday schools, prayer meetings, revivals, young people's meetings, and on special occasions'. His Songs of the Soul (1894) was very successful, selling, it is believed, 400,000 copies. He was extremely active at the turn of the century, publishing a series of...
SYDNOR, James Rawlings. b. Floyd County, Georgia, 8 March 1911; d. Richmond, Virginia, 28 November 1999. Sydnor was one of five children born into the marriage of Presbyterian minister, G. G. Snyder (b. 1864), whose family name was changed to Sydnor in a census of 1900, and Evelyn Aiken Sackett (1875-1939). Sydnor was educated at Hampton-Sydney College, Hampton-Sydney, Virginia (1929-1931), Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey (BM 1935, MM 1938), Rutgers University, New Brunswick,...
RELLY, James. b. Jeffreyston, near Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire, 1721/22; d. London, 25 April, 1778. He was educated at the local school, and apprenticed to a cow farrier. He was converted, perhaps by George Whitefield* or by one of Whitefield's adherents, John Harris. He became a Calvinistic Methodist preacher at Narberth, South Wales, and later an itinerant preacher, mainly in the South West of England. He became a preacher at Whitefield's Tabernacle, ca. 1746, but his belief in universal...
STEELE, Jean Woodward. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 22 February 1910; d. 1 September 1984. Jean Steele received a BA degree from Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (1932). Four years later she joined the music publishing arm of Westminster Press, of the United Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, remaining there until her retirement in 1975. Working with two music editors, Calvin Weiss Laufer* (1874-1938) and W. Lawrence Curry (1906-1966), Steele collaborated on a number of...
INGALLS, Jeremiah. b. Andover, Massachusetts, 1 March 1764; d. Hancock, Vermont, 6 April 1838. Ingalls is known primarily for The Christian Harmony; or, Songster's Companion (Exeter, New Hampshire, 1805). (https://archive.org/details/christianharmony00inga)
Before marrying Mary Bigelow in 1781, Ingalls had moved to Newbury, Vermont, where he made a living as a cooper and farmer. In 1794, he became a choir leader at the Newbury Congregational Church, and two years later, his tune NEW JERUSALEM...
MERCER, Jesse. b. Halifax County, North Carolina, 16 December 1769; d. Butts County, Georgia, 6 September 1841. Mercer was a prominent Baptist minister, and essentially the founder of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. His main contribution to hymnody was The Cluster of Spiritual Songs ('Mercer's 'Cluster'*), a words-only collection that provided texts for William Walker*'s Southern Harmony* and other important shape-note collections.
Jesse Mercer was the first of eight children born to Silas...
FREYLINGHAUSEN, Johann Anastasius. b. Gandersheim, near Braunschweig, 2 December 1670; d. Halle, 12 February 1739. He was educated at the University of Jena, which he found unsatisfactory (1689-91), so that he moved to Erfurt, where he was influenced by Joachim Justus Breithaupt and August Hermann Francke*: he became assistant to Francke in 1694, and moved with him to Glaucha, a part of Halle. Freylinghausen married Francke's daughter Johanna in 1715, and became his colleague at St Ulrich's at...
CRÜGER (Krüger), Johann. b. Gross Breesen near Guben, Niederlausitz, 9 April 1598; d. Berlin, 23 February 1662. German Cantor, composer and music theorist. Crüger stands as the most significant melodist since the Reformation. 80 melodies and 19 reworkings of melodies have been attributed to him (Fischer-Krückeberg, 1933). His melodies point stylistically to the transition from 'Kirchenchoral zur Andachtsarie' ('church chorale to devotional song', Moser, p. 84).
Crüger was above all one of the...
SCHICHT, Johann Gottfried. b. Reichenau, 29 September 1753; d. Leipzig, 16 February 1823. Schicht attended the Gymnasium in Zittau, near Reichenau, where he also studied music. He was a keyboardist, violinist and singer. Schicht began to study law at Leipzig University from 1776, but his musical interests, such as participating in the Grosses Concert under J.A. Hiller, led him to abandon his university studies. Schicht played in the Musikübende Gesellschaft and began playing in Gewandhaus...
STEINER, Johann Ludwig. b. Zürich, 1 July 1688; d. Zürich, 27 March 1761. He was the son of the town trumpeter of Zürich, whom he succeeded in 1705, carrying on the family tradition of providing the town trumpeter for almost 200 years, from 1617 to 1803. Johann was an accomplished musician, who had organ lessons from L. Kellersberger at Baden (Aargau), and who played other instruments. He was also a skilled clock-maker. He was the composer of the first Swiss single-author collection of hymn...
OLEARIUS, Johann. b. Halle, 17 September 1611; d. Weissenfels, 14 May 1684. Born the son of a well-known Lutheran superintendent, he was educated at the Latin school and at the University of Wittenberg (MA 1627, adjunct of the Faculty of Philosophy, 1635). In 1637 he became Licentiate and Superintendent at Querfurt (south-west of Halle); in 1643 he became 'Hofprediger' (court preacher) and 'Beichtvater' (private chaplain) to the Duke August von Sachsen-Weissenfels at Halle. In the same year he...
LANGE, Johann Peter. b. Sonnborn, near Elberfeld, 10 April 1802; d. Bonn, 8 July 1884. He was the son of a farmer and haulage contractor. He studied Protestant theology at Bonn, 1822-25, and became a pastor of the Reformed Church. He was appointed Professor of Dogmatics and Church History at Zürich, Switzerland, in 1841, and Professor of Systematic Theology at Bonn, 1854, where he remained until his death.
Lange published in all disciplines of theology, notably a critique of D.F. Strauss, Das...
AHLE, Johann Rudolf. b. Mühlhausen, Thuringia, 24 December 1625, d. Mühlhausen, 9 July 1673. Ahle began his education at the Gymnasium at Mühlhausen, moved ca. 1643 to Göttingen, and started to study theology at Erfurt University in 1645. Nothing is known of his musical training in these years, but during his university years he took up the office of Kantor at the school and church of St. Andreas in Erfurt (1646). Ahle returned to Mühlhausen in 1650, where he became organist at St. Blasius in...
WALTER, Johann. b. Kahla ( ?), 1496 ; d. Torgau, 25 March 1570. He was possibly born in Kahla (Thüringen). After studying at the Latin schools in Kahla and Rochlitz (Saxony), Walter matriculated at the University of Leipzig in 1517, where he may have had personal contact with Georg Rhau*, cantor at the Thomaskirche at the time. By 1521 he was a bass in the court chapel of Friedrich the Wise, Elector of Saxony, although this was disbanded in 1525 following the Elector's death. In 1525, Walter...
SCHMIDLIN, Johannes. b. Zürich, 22 May 1722; d. Wetzikon, 5 November 1771. The son of a ship's captain, he was a student at the music college of the church of Our Lady at Zürich. From 1736 he attended the Collegium Carolinum under Cantor Johann Caspar Bachofen, who influenced him greatly. At the same time he studied theology, and was ordained in 1743. He was vicar of Dietlikon (1744-54) and priest of Wetzikon and Seegräben from 1754 until his death. He was known as a composer of edifying...
AMBROSE, John Edward. b. Ottawa, Ontario, 30 January 1936. Minister, denominational worship official, and hymnal editor, John Ambrose received degrees at Carlton University (BA, 1959), Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto (MDiv, 1962), and University of Notre Dame (MA, Liturgical Studies, 1982). Following his ordination as a minister in The United Church of Canada (1962), he served congregations in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. He was called to create the...
LLOYD, John Ambrose. b. Mold, North Wales, 14 June 1815; d. Liverpool, 14 November 1874. John Lloyd (he took the name Ambrose later) received a good education at Mold in Welsh, English and music. He moved in 1830 with his elder brother to Liverpool, where he was a commercial traveller and a distinguished amateur musician. In 1841 he took charge of the music at the newly founded Chapel Salem, Brownlow. There he founded a choir and taught the members to read music, using an early form of Tonic...
ASH, John. b. 1724; d. Pershore, Worcestershire, 10 April 1779. Ash was received for training at Bristol Academy in July 1740, commended by the Loughwood Baptist Church, Devon. His only church was at Pershore, where he was ordained in 1751. He published several grammars and dictionaries, and also Sentiments on Education Collected from the best writers (2 vols, London, 1777); his section 'On female accomplishments' was much liked by Anne Steele*. He was a friend of Caleb Evans*. The close...
AUSTIN, John. b. Walpole, Norfolk, 1613; d. London, 1669 (buried 31 March). He was educated at the grammar school, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, and St John's College, Cambridge. He became a Roman Catholic sometime between 1632 and 1640. He entered Lincoln's Inn to study for the Bar, but abandoned the law and became tutor to the Catholic Fowler family at the priory of St Thomas near Stafford. He published Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices Containing Exercises for every day in the Week (Paris,...
CENNICK, John. b. Reading, Berkshire, 12 December 1718; d. London, 4 July 1755. On one side of the family his grandparents had been Quakers, persecuted for their beliefs, but his parents were members of the Church of England. He was educated at Reading, and brought up strictly, 'kept constant to daily Prayers'. As a young man he subsequently went through a period of depression. He was trained as a shoemaker.
He had an experience of salvation in 7 September 1737, and sought out the Methodists in...
KUNZE, John Christopher. b. Artern, Saxony, Germany, 5 August 1744; d. New York City, 24 July 1807. A prominent, innovative educator and Lutheran clergyman of Pietist persuasion, Kunze was orphaned in 1758. He attended the orphanage school in Halle, and received a classical education at the gymnasia in Rossleben and Merseburg. He went on to study history, philosophy, and theology at the University of Leipzig, following which he worked as a teacher for three years at Closter-Bergen, near...
DAY, John. b. Dunwich, Suffolk, 1522; d. 23 July 1584. Day became an important London printer, and one of very few who printed music. In 1559 he was fined for printing an unauthorized edition of the psalms, but produced a further edition of 83 psalms in 1561 (JJ, pp. 858-9). He produced a collection of liturgical music, Certaine Notes (publication begun in 1560, completed in 1565). But his career was built on a monopoly, granted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1559, in the common psalm book, Sternhold*...
FAWCETT, John. b. Lidget Green, Bradford, West Yorkshire, 6 January 1740; d. 25 July 1817. He was the son of Stephen Fawcett, who died young. Influenced while an apprentice by the preaching of George Whitefield on John 3: 14, he was interested in Methodism but joined the Particular Baptists in Bradford. He entered the ministry, and in May 1764 became minister at the small, damp Wainsgate Baptist Church high in the hills at Old Town above Hebden Bridge, where his remuneration never exceeded £25...
HOPKINS, John. b. Wednesbury, Staffordshire, 1520/1521; d. Great Waldingfield, Suffolk, October 1570 (buried 23 October). Nothing is known of his early life. He was probably the John Hopkins who was admitted to a BA degree at Oxford in 1544, and who was ordained a few years later (deacon 1551, priest 1552). In 1551 his age was given as 30, which is the only evidence of his birth date. He worked in London for a time, and there is a reference to him in Edward Hake's A Compendious Fourme of...
TUCKER, John Ireland. b. Brooklyn, New York, 26 November, 1819; d. Albany, New York, 17 August 1895. Tucker was an Episcopal priest and editor of several music editions of nineteenth-century Episcopal hymnals and related materials (see Episcopal Church, USA, hymnody*).
Tucker's parents, Fanning Cobham Tucker (1782-1856) and Ann Moore Sands (1781-1833), were born to well-established New York families. Fanning's father, Robert Tucker (1746-1792), was the first to receive the degree Doctor of...
See 'Zimbabwean hymnody#John Kaemmer'*
BELL, John Lamberton. b. Kilmarnock, 20 November 1949. He was educated at the University of Glasgow 1968-71 (MA), 1972-74 and 1977-78 (BD). During the intervening periods he served as President of the Students Representative Council (1974-75) and as Associate Pastor for the English Reformed Church in the Netherlands (1975-77). While a student he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow (1977-80).
His subsequent career was as follows: Youth Advisor, Presbytery of Glasgow (1978-83); Youth...
LOGAN, John. b. Soutra, Midlothian, 1747 or 1748; d. London, 28 December 1788. He was educated at schools at Soutra and Musselburgh, and at the University of Edinburgh (1762-65). His family had been members of the Associate Burgher Secession Church founded by Ebenezer Erskine, but Logan joined the Church of Scotland and was ordained as a minister at Leith in 1773. In 1775, perhaps through the influence of William Cameron*, he was appointed to the Committee of the General Assembly charged with...
PLAYFORD, John. b. Norwich, 1622/23; d. London, between 24 December 1686 and 7 February 1687. He became a London publisher and bookseller. He was apprenticed to the stationer John Benson in 1639/40 for seven years. On completion of his apprenticeship he became a member of the Yeomanry of the Stationers' Company, which entitled him to trade as a publisher. He thereupon obtained the tenancy of a shop in or near the porch of the Temple Church, from which all his publications were issued. His...
POLLOCK, John. b. Glasgow, Scotland, 27 October 1852; d. Belfast, Northern Ireland, 4 January 1935. The son of Janet, née Riddell, and Alexander Pollock, a grocer and tea merchant, John was baptized into the Free Church of Scotland, where his father was an Elder of the Kirk. His lively grasp of ideas and propensity for instructing others were in evidence at an early stage: he became a Sunday School teacher at the age of twelve.
At first attracted to a career in business, he entered the Arts...
BEARD, John Relly. b. Portsmouth, 4 August 1800; d. Ashton upon Mersey, 22 November 1876. He was educated at Portsmouth and in France (paid for by a member of the Portsmouth Unitarian chapel). He entered Manchester College (then at York) in 1820, and became a Unitarian minister at Salford, Manchester, then with the same congregation at Strangeways, Manchester (1825-64). He also ran a school to augment his income, and was enthusiastically engaged in promoting education for all. He was a...
RIPPON, John. b. Tiverton, Devon, 29 April 1751; d. London, 17 December 1836. Born into a devout Baptist family, he studied at the Bristol Baptist Academy (1769-73) and became pastor of the influential Carter Lane Particular Baptist Church in Southwark, London, where he served from 1773 until his death 63 years later. Active in all denominational and many Dissenting activities, Rippon promoted a moderate Calvinism and encouraged many new ventures in Baptist life. He published the Baptist Annual...
ROBERTS, John ('Ieuan Gwyllt'). b. Tanrhiwfelen, near Aberystwyth, 27 December 1822; d. Y Fron, Llanfaglan, Caernarfonshire, 14 May 1877. Roberts was born into a musical family, and was brought up near Aberystwyth. In 1842 he obtained a place in a pharmacy in that town, but in 1844 took a post as schoolmaster. After a period of training in the Borough Road Normal School in London he returned to Wales in 1844 and became clerk to a firm of solicitors in Aberystwyth. In 1852 he moved to Liverpool...
MURRAY, John Stewart. b. Invercargill, New Zealand, 5 November 1929; d. 17 February 2017. The son of a pioneer Scottish settler family, John Murray was educated at King's High School and the University of Otago, Dunedin. After graduating (MA 1952), he studied at King's College, Cambridge, from 1952 to 1955, completing an MA in Divinity in 1954, followed by a period of study at the Graduate School, Bossey Ecumenical Institute, Geneva, where he was awarded a Diploma in Ecumenical Studies. He...
SWERTNER, John. b. Haarlem, the Netherlands, 1746; d. Bristol, 11 March 1813. As a young man he came to England, where he married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Cennick*. He was the minister of the Moravian church at Dublin, and for ten years minister of the Fairfield Moravian Settlement, Droylsden, Manchester (1790-1800).
He was the editor of the British Moravian hymnbook, A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren (1789) and of its enlarged edition,...
Troutbeck, John. b. Blencowe, Cumberland, England, 12 November 1832; d. London, 11 October 1899. An Anglican minister, church musician, and translator, Troutbeck received degrees from University College, Oxford (BA 1856; MA 1858). The son of George Troutbeck of Penrith, John married Elizabeth Forbes (1832–1923) in 1856. Following his ordination (deacon, 1855, priest, 1856), he served as precentor at Manchester Cathedral (1865–1869) and a minor canon and precentor at Westminster Abbey in 1869....
TUFTS, John. b. Medford, Massachusetts, 26 February 1689; d. Amesbury, Massachusetts, 17 August 1750. Tufts was a minister, merchant, probably a singing teacher, and possibly a composer. He compiled An Introduction to the Art of Singing Psalm-Tunes (1721?), considered the first American music textbook.
John Tufts was the third son of Captain Peter Tufts (1648-1721) and Mercy Cotton Tufts (1666-1715). He graduated from Harvard College (AB, 1708), and was ordained on 30 June 1714 in connection...
GRANT, John Webster. b. Truro, Nova Scotia, 27 June 1919; d. Toronto, 16 December 2006. He was educated at Pictou Academy and Dalhousie University, Halifax (BA 1938, MA 1941). He attended Princeton University on a graduate scholarship before enrolling in Pine Hill Divinity Hall at Halifax. Ordained to the ministry of the United Church of Canada in 1943, he was appointed director of information to the non-Roman Catholic churches with the Wartime Information Board and chaplain to the Royal...
WESLEY, John. b. Epworth, Lincolnshire, 17 June 1703; d. London, 2 March 1791. He was the son of Samuel Wesley (I)*, rector of Epworth, the younger brother of Samuel Wesley (II)* and the older brother of Charles Wesley*. As a child of five John was saved from a dangerous fire at the rectory, 'a brand plucked from the burning'. He was educated at home under his remarkable mother, Susanna, 'the mother of Methodism', and then at Charterhouse School and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1724, MA 1727). He...
YLVISAKER, John Carl. b. Fargo, North Dakota, 11 September 1937; d. Waverly, Iowa, 9 March 2017. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) composer of over 1,000 songs and hymns, church musician, and a performer, he was influenced by the music of the Civil Rights Movement in the USA, including the songs of Pete Seeger (1919-2014). The content of many of the texts and the folk musical style of his songs led Gracia Grindal* to call him the 'Bob Dylan of Lutheranism' (Ortárola, Star...
ZUNDEL, John. b. Hochdorf (south of Ulm), Germany, 10 December 1815; d. Cannstadt, Germany, July 1882. He was educated in Germany. His first major appointment was in Russia, as organist of St Anne's Lutheran Church, St Petersburg. He emigrated to the USA in 1847, and became organist of First Unitarian Church, Brooklyn, St George's Church, New York, and finally of the celebrated Plymouth Congregational Church, New York. The minister of Plymouth Church was Henry Ward Beecher*, brother of the...
SPALDING, Joshua. b. Killingly, Connecticut, 14 December 1760; d. Newburgh, New York State, 26 September 1825. According to the Douglas Family Records (see below) Spalding, whose name is sometimes spelt 'Spaulding', studied theology with the Rev Mr Bradford, of Rowley, Massachusetts. In 1785 he was ordained 'over the church and society' of the Tabernacle church, Salem, Massachusetts, where he was remembered as 'an energetic pastor', so that 'the drooping interests of the church and society...
CLEVELAND, Judge Jefferson. b. Elberton, Elbert County, Georgia, 21 September 1937; d. Washington, DC, 20 June 1986. Pianist, vocalist, composer, and prominent scholar and editor/arranger of AfricanAmerican congregational song, Cleveland was salutatorian at Clark College, Atlanta, Georgia (BA in music, 1958); he then attended Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois (MME, 1959), and Boston University (DMA, 1972). He taught at three historically black Christian colleges: Claflin...
SPITTA, Karl Johann Philipp. b. Hannover, 1 August 1801; d. Burgdorf, 28 September 1859. He was born into a Huguenot family; his father was a teacher of French. He was apprenticed to a watchmaker, but left the craft in 1818 to study at the Gymnasium at Hannover and then at the University of Göttingen (1821-24). He became a private tutor to the family of a judge at Lüne (1824-28), before being ordained as a Lutheran pastor at Südwald in the Grafschaft (County) of Hoya (1828-30). He became a...
COBER, Kenneth Lorne. b. Dayton, Ohio, 12 July 1902; d. Penney Farms, Florida, 21 September 1993. Born the son of missionaries, Cober was raised in Puerto Rico. He was educated at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and Colgate Rochester Divinity School, Rochester, New York. He held pastorates at First Baptist Church, Canandaigua, New York, and Lafayette Avenue Baptist Church, Buffalo, New York; then served as executive director of the Division of Christian Education for the American...
MORRIS, Kenneth. b. Jamaica, New York, 28 August 1917; d. Chicago, Illinois, 1 February 1989. A gospel song composer and publisher, Morris was the son of Ettuila (née White) and John Morris. Though he attended the Manhattan Conservatory of Music where he studied classical music, his first interest was in jazz piano. He formed the Kenneth Morris Jazz Band in New York City. An invitation to perform at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago in 1934 changed the course of his life. He...
MILLER, Lester David Jr. b. Lenoir, North Carolina, 15 April 1919; d. Columbia, South Carolina, 21 May 2003. David Miller was a minister, musician, and teacher. His father, for whom he was named, was a Lutheran pastor. He earned degrees from Lenoir-Rhyne College (now University) (AB, 1939) and Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (BD, 1942). While a student, he served as minister of music at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Columbia, South Carolina. Following graduation and ordination, he held a...
MACBEAN, Lachlan. b. Kiltarlity, Inverness, 6 November 1853; d. Kirkcaldy, 24 January 1931. He was a Gaelic scholar and journalist. He edited the Fifeshire Advertiser, but his principal interest was in Gaelic language and literature. He published several instruction books, including Elementary Lessons in Gaelic (1889) and a Guide to Gaelic Conversation and Pronunciation (1895).
He is also remembered for his interest in Gaelic hymnody: he published The Sacred Songs of the Gael (1886) and Songs...
BÉVENOT, Ludovic Eloi Isidore Jean Joseph (Monastic name: Laurence) OSB. b. Birmingham, 21 June 1901; d. 22 October 1990. He was born to French immigrant parents: his father was professor of Romance Languages at Birmingham University. He was educated at Mount St Mary's Preparatory School, Derbyshire (1909-14) and Ampleforth College, Yorkshire (1914-19). He joined the monastic community at Ampleforth in 1919. He read Mathematics at St Benet's Hall, Oxford University (1922-25). From 1928 to 1951...
BARTLETT, Lawrence Francis. b. Mosman, Sydney, 13 February 1933, d. Melbourne, 17 March 2002. He was educated at public schools in Mosman and Manly, and at the North Technical High School, where he accompanied the school choir and made musical arrangements for it. From 1950 to 1957 he studied harmony, piano, organ and singing at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and in 1960 at the Melbourne Conservatorium.
After holding the position of Assistant Director of Music at the King's School,...
ELLINWOOD, Leonard Webster. b. Thomaston, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 13 February 1905; d. Washington, DC, 8 July 1994. Leonard Ellinwood was a musicologist, hymnologist, librarian, choral singer, and minister. The son of George Francis Ellinwood (1873–1924) and Lois May Ellinwood (née Magoon) (1874–1925), Leonard grew up in Littleton, New Hampshire and had one younger brother, David (1909–1969). He attended Amherst College (1922–23), graduating from Aurora College (now Aurora University,...
Lim, Swee Hong (林瑞峰).b. Singapore; 11 June 1963.
Lim, Swee Hong is a Singaporean church musician, composer, and educator. Born into a Chinese Christian family, Lim inherited the faith of his maternal heritage as a fourth-generation Christian. His father (Baptist) and mother (Presbyterian) instilled the value of service to God. Along with his siblings, Lim was encouraged by his mother to serve the church through music-making. Lim began to learn musical instruments at an early age, planting the...
McKim, LindaJo K. (née Horton). b. Uniontown, Pennsylvania, 9 June 1946. Pastor, teacher and hymnal editor, McKim attended high school in Uniontown, Pennsylvania; West Virginia University, Morgantown (BM, 1968); Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania] Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1977); and the University of Dubuque [Iowa] Theological Seminary (DMin, 1984). An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, USA, she has pastored churches, and served as adjunct faculty at the University of Dubuque Theological...
ADEY, Lionel. b. Wednesbury, near Birmingham, UK, 4 January 1925; d. Cadboro Bay, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 17 September 2009. Adey took his undergraduate degrees at Birmingham University, and his PhD in English at the University of Leicester. He taught in grammar schools at Sheffield and Leicester until he accepted a teaching post at the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, in the Canadian centennial year, 1967.
Adey wrote two ground-breaking studies on the function of hymns in...
KROEHLER, Lois Clara. b. Saint Louis, Missouri, 9 September 1927; d. Bremerton, Washington, 3 August 2019. Missionary, translator, music teacher, hymn writer, and hymnal editor, Lois Kroehler lived in Belleville, Illinois, Ft. Collins, Colorado, and Lyman, Nebraska during her childhood. She graduated from the University of Nebraska (1949) with a major in Spanish and went immediately to Cuba upon graduation to serve as an English language secretary for the Cuban Director of Presbyterian Schools...
MANZARA, Loretta, CSJ. b. London, Ontario, Canada, 4 May 1948. Loretta Manzara, CSJ, is a liturgist, organist, and hymnal editor. Her family's origins, and the rich cultural roots which fed her early life, can be traced to England on her maternal grandparents' side and to Italy on the side of her paternal grandparents. Music was a part of the life of her parents and their six children. After working his regular job at GM Diesel, her father took weekend bartending work to pay for her music...
BENSON, Louis Fitzgerald. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 22 July 1855; d. Philadelphia, 10 October 1930. Benson was educated in law at the University of Pennsylvania and admitted to the bar (1877). After more studies at Princeton Theological Seminary (1884-86), he was ordained and served the Church of the Redeemer [Presbyterian] in Germantown, Pennsylvania (1886-92). He resigned his pastorate to take up editorial work at Philadelphia in the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School...
LINDEMAN, Ludvig Mathias. b. 28 November 1812; d. 23 May 1887. Born at Trondhjem [Trondheim], Lindeman was the best known member of a family of Norwegian church musicians. Of German ancestry, his grandfather, Christopher Madsen (1706/08-1788), studied medicine in London, and changed his name to Lindeman after establishing a medical practice in Trondheim. His father, Ole Andreas Lindeman (1769-1857) was for 57 years organist of Vår Frue (Our Lady's) church, Trondheim, a concert pianist, and...
CONNAUGHTON, Luke. b. Bolton, Lancashire, 2 June 1917; d. Oulton, near Stone, Staffordshire, 2 September 1979. Born into a Roman Catholic family, Connaughton was destined for the priesthood, but abandoned his vocation and became a journalist. He was closely associated with the firm of Mayhew-McCrimmon, for whom he edited Sing a New Song to the Lord (Great Wakering, Essex, 1970). In this book 33 texts by him were included, some with the pseudonyms 'Peter Icarus' and 'J. Smith'. After his death...
REED, Luther Dotterer. b. North Wales, Pennsylvania, 21 March 1873; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 3 April 1972. Reed's distinguished career included a wide spectrum of activity in liturgics, church art and architecture, church music, and hymnody. He attended Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (AB, 1882, MA, 1897), the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia ['Mt. Airy'] (BD, 1895), with further study in Germany, Scandinavia and Great Britain (1902-1903). He was...
LANDSTAD, Magnus Brostrup. b. 7 October 1802; d. 8 October 1880. Born at Måsøy, he was one of ten children born to parish priest Hans Landstad (1771-1838) and Margrethe Elisabeth Schnitler (1768-1850). His family moved several times, settling finally in Seljord, Telemark, in 1819. He was raised in a period of abject poverty in rural Norway, partially caused by the Napoleonic wars. His father educated him until 1822, when he began studies at the University of Christiania (Oslo), where he...
LUTHER, Martin. b. Eisleben, Thuringia, probably 10 November 1483; d. Eisleben, 18 February 1546. Born the son of a miner who later became a mine-owner, he was educated at schools at Mansfeld, Magdeburg and Eisenach, before entering the University of Erfurt in 1501 (BA 1501, MA 1505). After a very brief period studying law, he decided to become an Augustinian friar, entering the cloister at Erfurt in July 1505. He entered the Order formally in 1506, becoming a priest in 1507 and saying his...
SIDEBOTHAM, Mary Ann. b. London, 31 July 1833; d. Ryde, Isle of Wight, 20 February 1913. According to Frost (1962) she was a talented musician. She lived with her brother Thomas, vicar of St Thomas on the Bourne, Farnham, Surrey, where she was church organist. She was a friend of the composer Henry Thomas Smart*, and it may have been at his suggestion that she became music editor of The Children's Hymn Book, for use in children's services, Sunday schools, and families (1881), edited by Frances...
VULPIUS, Melchior. b. Wasungen, near Meiningen, Thuringia, 1570; d. Weimar, 7 August 1615. His surname was originally Fuchs ('Fox'); he latinised it to Vulpius (a common practice, cf. Paul Speratus*) during his time in Schleusingen, Thuringia, where, under the patronage of the court chaplain, A. Scherdinger, he became a teaching assistant at the Gymnasium in 1589; then, from 1591, Cantor choralis, and later Cantor figuralis. One can infer from a petition of September 1590 that at first Vulpius...
WEISSE, Michael. b. Neisse, Silesia (now Nysa, Poland), ca. 1480; d. Landskron (now Landškroun, Czech Republic), March 1534. He is recorded as having been a monk at Breslau (Wroclaw, Poland), where he took priest's orders. In 1518 he and some other brothers left the monastery and joined the Bohemian Brethren. By 1522 he was the leader of the German-speaking community in Landskron, Bohemia, and then at Fulneck, Moravia. Together with Jan Roh (Johann Horn), he was in contact with Martin Luther*,...
GUIMONT, Michel. b. 1950. Composer and choral director, Michel Guimont studied psychology at Concordia University, received his Bachelor of Music and Masters in Music Composition at the University of Montreal and attended Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. He has studied conducting with Canadian choral conductor Wayne Riddell in Montreal and attended numerous master classes with Frieder Bernius and Helmuth Rilling from Germany.
Director of music at Notre Dame Cathedral-Basilica...
PATRICK, Millar. b. Ladybank, Fife, 28 June 1868; d. Colinton, Edinburgh, 2 August 1951. The son of a railway fireman, he was educated at Dundee High School and the University of St Andrews (MA 1890). His parents were members of the United Secession Church (part of the United Presbyterian Church: see 'Synod of Relief hymns*) and Patrick went from St Andrews to Edinburgh United Presbyterian College to train for the ministry (1890-93). When the USC merged with the Free Church of Scotland to...
LITTLEFIELD, Milton Smith, Jr. b. New York, New York, 21 August 1864; d. New York, 11 June 1934. His parents were Anna Elizabeth Schull (1836–1904) and Milton Smith Littlefield Sr. (1830–1899). His father was an ally of Abraham Lincoln, superintendent of recruitment of Black troops in the South for the Union during the Civil War, and an opportunistic businessman in North Carolina during Reconstruction.
Littlefield graduated from Johns Hopkins University (BA, 1889) and Union Theological...
KROETSCH, Murray John. b. Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, 7 April 1952. He was educated at St. Jerome's University College, University of Waterloo (BA in Religious Studies, 1974) and King's College, University of Western Ontario (MDiv, 1978); University of Notre Dame, Indiana (MA in Liturgical Studies, 1985); and postgraduate studies at Lateran University, Rome (2002-03).
Murray Kroetsch was ordained a priest for Hamilton Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada on 29 April 1978; and was...
TATE, Nahum. b. ca. 1652; d. 30 July 1715. Born of an Irish family, he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1672). He moved to London in 1676, and became part of the London literary scene, where he became a friend of John Dryden* and published poems and translations from Ovid and Juvenal. He was active in the drama also, re-writing the end of Shakespeare's King Lear to give it a happy ending (which is not such a silly idea as it sounds: Dr Johnson approved of it, and it was played as the...
NETO, Rodolfo Gaede. b. Ituêta, Minas Gerais, Brazil; 26 July 1951. Neto, a pastor in the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB), is a composer and hymnwriter. The son of Herman Carlos Ludwig Gaede and Hilda Dummer Gaede, Gaede Neto pursued the Bachelor of Theology, master's, and doctoral degrees from the Escola Superior de Teologia in São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul state.
From 1979 to 1985, Neto served congregations in the Parishes of Alto Jatibocas (Itarana,...
BRADY, Nicholas. b. Bandon, Cork, Ireland, 28 October 1659; d. Richmond, Surrey, 20 May 1726. He was educated at Cork, and at Westminster School, London. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, but was sent down, for reasons that are unknown. He returned to Ireland and entered Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1685, MA 1686). He was ordained in 1687, becoming a prebendary of Cork Cathedral and the holder of several poor Irish livings. Early in the reign of William III he came to London, where he...
COKE-JEPHCOTT, Norman. b. Coventry, Warwickshire, England, 17 March 1893; d. New York City, 14 March 1962. Coke-Jephcott was an organist, choral director, and composer. His main contribution to hymnic bibliography is The Saint Thomas Church Descant Book.
Norman Coke-Jephcott's parents were Edwin Coke Jephcott (1857-1927) and Annie May (Clarke) Jephcott (1855-1922). Edwin was a music teacher and organist in Coventry, where, in Holy Trinity Church, Norman was baptized on 20 April 1893. On 29...
WESTENDORF, Omer Evers. b. Cincinnati, Ohio, 24 February1916; d. Cincinnati, 22 October 1997. Educated at the College of Music of Cincinnati (Certificate in Piano, 1947; BM, 1948, MM, 1950), Westendorf served for forty years as organist and choirmaster of St Bonaventure [Roman Catholic] Church in the South Fairmount neighborhood (1936-76). His tenure was interrupted by military service during the Second World War in Europe, where in the Netherlands he heard and obtained copies of a wide range...
SHIPLEY, Orby. b. Twyford, Hampshire, 1 July 1832; d. Lyme Regis, Dorset, 5 July 1916. He came from a distinguished clerical and military family: his grandfather, William Davies Shipley, was the Dean of St Asaph in whose house Reginald Heber* wrote 'From Greenland's icy mountains'*. Educated at Jesus College, Cambridge (BA 1854, MA 1857), he took Holy Orders (deacon 1855, priest 1858), becoming curate of the high-church St Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, and then of St Alban the Martyr, Holborn,...
SOSA, Pablo. b. in Chivilcoy, a province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 16 December 1933; d. Buenos Aires, 11 January 2020. Sosa was a composer, church musician and a local minister of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Argentina. He was emeritus professor of Liturgy and Hymnology at the Instituto Universitario ISEDET (Buenos Aires), and Choir Conducting at the National State Conservatory in Buenos Aires (1975-2005). He also established the musical group 'Música para Todos' in 1972, directing and...
PARK, Chai-hoon (Jai-hoon) 박재훈. b. Gimwha County, Gangwon Province, Korea (now North Korea), 14 November 1922; d. Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, 2 August 2021. Park was a composer and the foremost Korean hymnodist. His music-making and life influenced and shaped the development of Korean church music. He grew up in a Christian family, a rarity in that era, the youngest of the four sons from nine siblings. All four brothers became ministers later, a pledge that his mother had made to God. An...
MATSIKENYIRI, Patrick. b. Biriri, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), 27 July 1937; d. Mutare, Zimbabwe, 15 January 2021. Patrick Matsikenyiri's career included virtually all aspects of church music—singing, choral directing, composition, hymnal editor, festival leader, professor, and enlivener of global songs in venues worldwide. In the spirit of a Shona proverb—'If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance'—he believed music was for everyone.
After serving as a headmaster for...
DATHEEN, Peter (Petrus). b. Cassell, Nord, Belgium, c. 1531; d. Elbing, Germany, 17 March 1588. Datheen's parentage is unknown. At an early age he was placed in a Carmelite monastery at Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium, where he was schooled in medicine and theology by monks who were sympathetic to Reformation ideals. At about 18, when the monastery at Ypres was, along with many in the region, threatened with dissolution by agents of the Inquisition, Datheen fled to London, where he was part of...
WILLIAMS, Peter. b. West Marsh, near Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, 7 January 1723; d. Llandyfaelog, Carmarthenshire, 8 August 1796. He was educated at Carmarthen Grammar School. He was converted in 1743 by the preaching of George Whitefield*. He became a schoolmaster, and then decided to take Holy Orders: although he was ordained deacon, the Bishop of St David's refused to ordain him to the priesthood because of his Methodist sympathies. He was licensed as a curate, but his Methodism brought him...
SCHAFF, Philip. b. Chur, Switzerland, 1 January 1819; d. New York, 20 October 1893. He was an illegitimate child from a poor family. His father died before Philip was one year old, and he had a disturbed and unhappy childhood in an orphanage from which he was rescued by a local minister, who arranged for the clever child to be educated at a Lutheran school at Kornthal, Württemberg, and then at the Gymnasium at Stuttgart, and at the Universities of Tübingen, Halle, and Berlin. After working as a...
HOBBS, R. Gerald. b. Dundalk, Ontario, 16 July 1941. Professor of church history, biblical studies, and church music, Gerald Hobbs was educated at the University Toronto (BA, Victoria College, 1963; MA in Near Eastern Studies, 1965; and BD, Emmanuel College), followed by ordination to the United Church of Canada, (1966). He earned a doctorate in Reformation history from the Faculté de Théologie Protestante at the Université de Strasbourg in 1971, writing his dissertation on 'An introduction to...
MORTENSEN, Ralph. b. Mankato, Minnesota, 29 January 1894; d. Southington, Connecticut, September 1986. Mortensen attended Augsburg College and Seminary, Minneapolis, Minnesota (BA 1913), the University of Oslo, Norway, and Hartford Seminary, Hartford Connecticut, (STM 1918, PhD 1927). He was a Lutheran (American Synod) missionary in China and Hong Kong (1918-58), and the organizing chairperson of the Hymnbook and Tunebook Revision Committee that produced Hymns of Praise [頌主聖詩 (Hong Kong?,...
WARDLAW, Ralph. b. Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, 22 December 1779; d. Easterhouse, Glasgow, 17 December 1853. His family moved to Glasgow when he was a baby, and he was educated there and at Glasgow University, which he entered at the age of 12. His family were members of the Associated Synod, or 'Burgher Church', and Ralph trained for the ministry of that church at the Theological Hall of the Secession Church in Glasgow. Controversies within the branches of the seceding church led him to join the...
GLOVER, Raymond F. b. Buffalo, New York, 23 May 1928; d. Alexandria, Virginia, 15 December 2017. Ray Glover, distinguished hymnist and church musician, was a boy chorister at St Paul's Cathedral, Buffalo. He studied with Healey Willan* at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (BM, 1952), and Robert Baker (1916-2005) at the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary, New York City (MSM, 1954). Returning to Buffalo he served as organist and choirmaster, St Paul's Cathedral...
McALL, Reginald Ley. b. Bocking, Essex, England, 20 August 1878; d. Meredith, New Hampshire, 9 July 1954. McAll was an organist, administrator, and humanitarian. His parents were Robert McAll (1837–1890), a Congregational minister, and Elizabeth Lonsdale McCall (1844–1932). After immigrating to New York in 1897, he earned the BA degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1900 and studied at the Peabody Conservatory. McAll became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1923.
Following brief...
ALLISON, Richard. b. ?1560–70, d. ?before 1610. He was a servant of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick (d. 1589/90); little is known about his musical activities other than his publications.
He provided ten harmonizations of tunes in The Whole Book of Psalms: with their wonted tunes by Thomas East*, but his most significant contribution was his own collection, published in 1599 as The Psalmes of David in Meter . . . to be Sung and Plaide upon the Lute, Orpharyon, Cittern or Base Violl....
TRENCH, Richard Chenevix. b. Dublin, 9 September 1807; d. London, 28 March 1886. He came from a distinguished family: his uncle Frederic was Lord Ashtown, and his great-grandfather was Bishop of Waterford. He was educated at Harrow School (1819-25) and Trinity College, Cambridge (1825-29: BA 1829; MA 1833), where he was a member of the exclusive 'Apostles' club, together with Alfred Tennyson* and Arthur Hallam. After a period spent travelling, he took Holy Orders (deacon 1832, priest 1835),...
SMITH, Robert Archibald. b. Reading, Berkshire, 16 November 1780; d. Edinburgh, 3 January 1829. He was the son of a Scottish silk weaver, who had moved south to find work; Robert himself became a weaver, working in Reading and then in Paisley when the family moved back to Scotland in 1800. In 1803 he felt confident enough in his musical abilities to give up weaving and become a teacher of singing, and in 1807 he was appointed precentor of Paisley Abbey, where he made the choir famous. He...
BROWN-BORTHWICK, Robert. b. Aberdeen, 18 May 1840; d. 17 March 1894 . He was educated at St Mary Hall, Oxford, then an independent Hall associated with the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, now a part of Oriel College. He took Holy Orders in 1865, serving curacies at Sudeley, Gloucestershire (1865-66), Evesham, Worcestershire (1866-68). He became Assistant Minister of Quebec Chapel (1868-69), Incumbent of the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, Grange in Borrowdale, near Keswick (1869-86), and...
Farlee, Robert Buckley. b. Santa Monica, California; 23 February 1950. Robert Farlee is the second of four children born to Lee (1917–1999) and Irene (née Berglund) (1921–2016) Farlee. He was raised in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod tradition at First Lutheran Church of Culver City and Palms (Los Angeles). His early education took place in Missouri Synod elementary and secondary schools. He graduated from Concordia Teachers' College (now Concordia University, Nebraska) in secondary music...
BENSON, Robert (Bob) Green, Jr. b. Nashville, Tennessee, 26 August 1930; d. Nashville, 22 March 1986. Benson was the grandson of John T. Benson, Sr.*, founder of the John T. Benson Publishing Company, Nashville. Benson attended Trevecca Nazarene College (now University), Nashville (AB, 1951), and Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri (BD, 1955). He was ordained in the ministry of the Church of the Nazarene, pastored a local church in Orlando, Florida, and was interim chaplain at...
COLEMAN, Robert Henry. b. Bardstown, Kentucky, 1 November 1869; d. Dallas, Texas, 13 February 1946. Coleman attended Georgetown College, Kentucky before moving to Plano, Texas where he operated a drugstore and edited the Plano Courier. During 1903-09, and 1915-46 he served as assistant secretary of the Dallas YMCA and administrative assistant and director of congregational singing at First Baptist Church, Dallas, where George W. Truett (1867-1944) was pastor. Coleman was business manager of the...
See 'Zimbabwean hymnody#Robert Kauffman'*
STEWART, Robert Prescott. b. Dublin, 16 December 1825; d. Dublin, 24 March 1894. Born at Pitt Street (now Balfe Street), Dublin, Stewart joined the choir school at Christ Church Cathedral in 1833. His musical career commenced in 1844 when at the age of 19 he succeeded John Robinson as organist at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and at the Chapel of Trinity College. Two years later, after the resignation of Joseph Robinson, Stewart assumed the conductorship of the University of Dublin Choral...
MANN, Robin. b. Murray Bridge, near Adelaide, South Australia, 26 July 1949. He was the son of sixth-generation German Lutheran parents. He was educated at Immanuel College, where he took piano lessons, and the University of Adelaide, where he completed a BA and Dip Ed. He underwent some musical and theological training at Luther Seminary, Adelaide. Three years of high-school teaching followed, before he took up work as a parish lay worker for St Stephen's Lutheran Church, Adelaide (1976-95)....
SMITH, Rodney ('Gipsy' Smith). b. Epping Forest, near London, 31 March 1860; d. at sea 4 August 1947). He was born in a Romany tent, the fourth of six children of Cornelius Smith (1831-1922) and Mary Welch (ca. 1831-1865). His family made a living selling baskets, clothes pegs, tinware, and through horse-dealing; neither of his parents could read. He grew up 'as wild as the birds, frolicsome as the lambs, and as difficult to catch as the rabbits' (Smith, 1901, Chapter 1). His mother died of...
TRUNK, Roger Ernest. b. Fortschwihr near Colmar, 1930; d. Strasbourg, 4 December 2013. Trunk was a Lutheran Pastor in Alsace, and a musician and hymnwriter, who studied music and theology at Strasbourg and Geneva. He was a minister in Strasbourg from 1985. Between 1984-2000 he was the Secretary of the European Conference for Protestant Church Music (EKEK). He took part in the making of the German Evangelisches Gesangbuch (EG 1993) and the Franco-Swiss Protestant Hymnbook Alléluia (2005).
His...
HARBOR, Ronald Dean. b. Greenville, South Carolina, 7 August 1947. Ronald Dean (Rawn) Harbor is a Catholic composer and liturgical musician. He received early encouragement and piano instruction from his family, a high school music teacher, and Springfield Baptist Church, an African American congregation in Greenville. Harbor received degrees from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina (BM, 1971) in music theory and composition, and the Franciscan School of Theology in San Diego,...
OCCOM, Samson. b. Mohegan Nation, near New London, Connecticut, 1723; d. Brothertown, New York, 14 July 1792. Occom was converted to Christianity in 1741 by the preaching and singing of James Davenport (1716-1757), a Connecticut 'New light' preacher. He attended Eleazar Wheelock's (1711-1779) school for four years and learned English, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Occom was ordained by the Suffolk Presbytery on Long Island, New York, in 1759, and served as a teacher and minister and in a variety of...
OULD, Dom Samuel Gregory, OSB. b. London, 8 December 1864; d. Exton, Rutland, 10 February 1939. The son of Wesleyan Methodist parents, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1879, and entered Fort Augustus Abbey in 1884 (Clothed 21 September). Fort Augustus had become celebrated for its renewal of plainsong, and for its leaving the English Bendictine Congregation to become more austere and encouraging the development of a liturgical life inspired by the example of Solesmes.
Ould...
STENNETT, Samuel. b. Exeter, 1 June 1727; d. Muswell Hill, Middlesex, 24 August 1795. He was the grandson of Joseph Stennett*, and one of a line of father-to-son Baptist pastors. He was born at Exeter, where his father was pastor at the time. When he was ten his father moved to London, to the Baptist congregation in Little Wild Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Samuel was educated in London, after which he became assistant to his father. He took over as pastor in 1758, and remained there until his...
MURRAY, Shirley Erena. b. Invercargill, New Zealand, 31 March 1931; d. Wellington, NZ, 25 January 2020. She was educated at Southland Girls' High School, and held an MA with Honours in Classics and French from the University of Otago, Dunedin, where she took an active part in the Student Christian Movement. She became a teacher, researcher and radio hymn programme producer. In 1954 she married Presbyterian minister John Stewart Murray*, and eventually moved with him to St Andrew's Church on the...
BALLOU, Silas. b. Cumberland, Rhode Island, 24 February 1753; d. Richmond, New Hampshire, 10 February 1837. Silas Ballou was the son of James (1723-1812) and Tamasin (née) Cook Ballou (1725-1804) , and a cousin of Hosea Ballou*. He was largely self-educated and his verses were popular with his peers. In addition to hymns, he wrote several patriotic ballads and occasional verses. He married Hannah Hilton (1756-1837) in 1774 and they had seven children.
Ballou compiled an early Universalist...
CHÁVEZ-MELO, Skinner. b. Mexico City, 17 November 1944; d. New York City 25 January 1992. Chávez-Melo attended Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts (BM, 1968), Union Theological Seminary, New York City, New York (MSM, 1971) [later serving there as choirmaster] with additional study at the Juilliard School of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music. From 1972-1985 he held faculty and administrative positions at the Manhattan School of Music and The Mannes College of Music in New...
OSBORNE, Stanley Llewellyn. b. Clarke Township on a farm near Bowmanville, close to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 6 January 1907; d. Oshawa, Ontario, 7 December 2000. He graduated (BA 1929, BD 1932) from Victoria University, Toronto. After ordination in The United Church of Canada in 1932, he served as minister in Alberta at Paradise Valley, and in Ontario at Core Hill, Hay Bay, Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto, and First United Church in Port Credit. In 1948, he became principal of Ontario...
DEAN, Stephen. b. Horsham, Sussex, 5 May 1948. He was choirmaster at the English College in Rome during the late 1960s, and subsequently went to live in Barcelona in the mid-1970s before returning to England. He worked with Fr. Harold Winstone at the St Thomas More Centre for Pastoral Liturgy in North London as liturgist (1969-73 and 1986-91). He was Director of Music at Arundel Cathedral (1979-85), and is Diocesan Music advisor for East Anglia (1991- ).
Dean is one of the founder members of...
See 'Edward Stephen (Jones)'*
THEODORE of Studios, St (or 'St Theodore of the Studium'). b. 759; d. 11 November 826. Born on the family estate on the Sea of Marmora, Theodore entered the monastery of Sakkoudion in Bithynia in 781, became a priest in 784 or 787, and abbot of Sakkoudion in 794. After an Arab raid in 799, he and his monks fled to Constantinople, and he became abbot of Studios. His pro-icon stance led to his being exiled on several occasions, and he died in exile on the island of Chalcis. He wrote many letters,...
EAST [Est, Este], Thomas. b. Swavesey, near Cambridge, ca. 1540; d. London, 1608. Born in Cambridgeshire, East spent his working life in London. He was the leading music printer of the late Elizabethan period, working as the assignee of William Byrd, who held a monopoly in the printing of polyphonic music. He printed most of Byrd's and Morley's music as well as such landmark publications as Musica transalpina (1588), Dowland's Second Booke of Songes or Ayres (1600) and The Triumphes of Oriana...
KINGO, Thomas Hansen. b. 15 December 1634; d. 14 October 1703. He was born at Slangerup, North Zealand, Denmark, the son of a weaver. He attended the newly founded grammar-school at Frederiksborg from 1650 to 1654, and after four years at the University of Copenhagen he graduated in 1658 as Master of Theology. After some years as private tutor in West Zealand, he became chaplain in 1661 at Kirke Helsinge, also in West Zealand. In 1668 Kingo was appointed as priest in his native town of...
KELLY, Thomas. b. Kellyville, Queen's County [Co. Laois], Ireland, 13 July 1769; d. Dublin, 14 May 1855. He was the son of an Irish judge, Baron Kelly of Kellyville. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA, 1789), and began studying for a legal career. Against the wishes of his family, however, he gave up the law and became ordained as a priest in the Church of England in Ireland (1792). He began preaching in Dublin in 1793: the emphasis on the doctrine of grace, and the unusual energy...
RAVENSCROFT, Thomas. b. ?1589; d. ? Ravenscroft became a chorister at Chichester Cathedral in 1594 and then, ca. 1598, of St Paul's Cathedral. At that time the choirboys of St Paul's, in addition to their cathedral duties, also constituted a theatrical company which put on plays in the private theatres - plays in which music had a prominent place. While at St Paul's he studied at Gresham College, and at the age of 14 went to Cambridge University, from where he graduated in 1605. He first sought...
STERNHOLD, Thomas. b. date unknown; d. 23 August 1549. Little is known of Sternhold's early life. He may have originated in Gloucestershire, and been educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He entered the service of Henry VIII and by ca. 1540 he was 'groom of the robes' to the king. In 1543 he was imprisoned for his Protestant beliefs, but he later became Member of Parliament for Plymouth (1545-47) and he flourished at the Reformation, benefiting from the dissolution of the monasteries and the...
GRIFFITHS, Thomas Vernon. b. West Kirby, Cheshire, England, 22 June 1894; d. 23 November 1985. He was the son of an Anglican priest, educated at Norwich Grammar School. After war service in Europe, he won an organ scholarship to the University of Cambridge. There he gained a BA in History (1921) and a MusB (1922). He converted to Catholicism; and in 1926 he emigrated to New Zealand to take up a post as lecturer in music at Christchurch Teachers' Training College with responsibility for the...
FOSBERY, Thomas Vincent. b. Limerick, Ireland, 1807; d. Bracknell, Berkshire, 1875. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1830, MA 1847). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1831, priest 1832), serving a curacy at Etchilhampton, Wiltshire (1831-34). From 1834 to 1849 his career is uncertain. He is listed in the Clergy Lists from 1841 onward as living at Westcliff House, Niton, Isle of Wight, but with no benefice. He became the incumbent of Sunningdale, Berkshire (1849-57) and vicar of St...
FETTKE, Thomas Eugene, b. Bronx, New York, 24 February 1941. Composer, arranger, and music producer, Fettke attended Oakland City College (AA [Associate of Arts] 1962) California State University at Hayward (BA 1966). He was a secondary school teacher for more than three decades, teaching voice and directing both public and private school ensembles, including Redwood Christian School system (1978-84), a K-12 interdenominational school system located in the San Francisco East Bay area, where he...
LEUPOLD, Ulrich Siegfried. b. Berlin, Germany, 15 January 1909; d. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 9 June 1970. He undertook musicological studies at Friedrich Wilhelm University, Berlin (1927–31), under such leading musicologists as Johannes Wolf, Arnold Schering, Curt Sachs, and Hans Joachim Moser; theological studies at the University of Zürich under Reinhold Seeberg, and in Berlin with Leonhardt Fendt, Emil Brunner, and Hans Asmussen, among others. His PhD thesis, Die liturgischen Gesänge der...
NIX, Verolga. b. Cleveland, Ohio, 6 April 1933; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 9 December 2014. The daughter of Rev. Andrew W. Nix Sr. and Ida A. Nix, Verolga Nix was a noted pianist, choral conductor, composer, arranger of gospel songs and African American spirituals*, and co-editor of the influential Songs of Zion (Nashville, 1981) with Judge Jefferson Cleveland*.
Her musical education began with voice and piano study at age six. She became organist at Mount Zion Baptist Church (Holmesburg,...
MENDOZA, Vicente Polanco. b. Guadalajara, Mexico, 24 December 1875; d. Mexico City, 14 June 1955. Methodist evangelist, hymn writer, and translator, he was acclaimed by many as the leading evangelist in Mexican Methodism of his generation, and the author of some of the most beloved hymns from this era in the Spanish language. Vicente P. Mendoza should not be confused with two others of his generation with a similar name: Vicente T. Mendoza (1894-1964), a Mexican Methodist musicologist,...
CARBERY, Lady Victoria Cecil Evans-Freke (née Cecil). b. 6 November 1843; d. 22 February 1932. She was the daughter of Brownlow Cecil, second Marquess of Exeter, who christened her after the young Queen. In 1866 she married (his second marriage) William Charles Evans-Freke (d. 1894), eighth Baron Carbery. She was designated Baroness Carbery in 1889. Before that date, as 'V. Evans-Freke', she had (probably through the Earl of Harrowby) become friendly with Edward Harland*. She produced The Song...
NOVELLO, (Francis) Vincent. b. London, 6 September 1781; d. Nice, 9 August 1861. The son of a Piedmontese pastry cook, he went to school in Huitmille, Boulogne, in the early 1790s. From 1793 his training took place as chorister and organist in London's Roman Catholic embassy chapels. He sang for and studied with Samuel Webbe (I)* the Elder at the Sardinian Embassy Chapel. He deputised as organist for Webbe at the Sardinian and Bavarian Embassies and for John Danby at the Spanish Embassy. It was...
DAVISON, W(illiam) Hope. b. Sunderland, 27 November 1827; d. Plymouth, August 1894. He was a Congregational minister (ordained 1832) of Duke's-Alley Chapel, Bolton, in 1857, when he compiled and edited Psalms and Hymns for Public and Social Worship (Bolton, 1857), and afterwards at St George's Road Congregational Church, Bolton. He later served as a minister at Chatham, Pentonville, Tooting, and Plymouth. He also published The Sunday Scholars' Service of Sacred Song, in what appears to have...
JUDE, William Herbert. b. Westleton, near Aldeburgh, Suffolk, September 1852; d. Willesden, Middlesex, 8 August 1922. His family moved to Norfolk when he was a child, and he went to school at Wisbech Grammar School, where he was a precocious musician, composing incidental music for Shakespeare's plays. Realising his talent, his parents sent him to Liverpool, where he was looked after by an uncle, D.C. Browne, himself a composer and organist. At the age of 14 he became the organist of a church...
GILBERT, Walter Bond. b. Exeter, 21 April 1829; d. Oxford, 2 March 1910. The son of Samuel Thomas Gilbert, he studied music, and as a young man played the organ at St Thomas's Church, Exeter. He was further taught by the Exeter Cathedral organist, Samuel Sebastian Wesley* (organist 1835-42). Gilbert was organist of several notable Churches from 1847 onwards: Topsham, Devon (1847-49); Bideford, Devon (1849-54); Tonbridge, Kent (1854-59); Maidstone, Kent (1859-66); Lee, Kent (1866-68); and...
BUSZIN, Walter Edwin. b. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 4 December 1899; d. Omaha, Nebraska, 2 July 1973. Walter Buszin was born to Paul Theodore Buszin (1873-1944), a Lutheran school teacher and musician, and Lydia Buszin (née Lang, 1876-1953). He was baptized at St Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His paternal grandfather, Theodor Ludwig Buszin (1834 or 1830-1892), was born into a Jewish family in Germany. His name may have been Ludwig Levin, though that is not certain. He...
FORBIS, Wesley Lee. b. Chickasha, Oklahoma 31 October 1930; d. Goodlettsville, Tennessee, 14 January 2011. Forbis attended the University of Tulsa (BMusEd, 1952; MA in religion, 1955; thesis: 'Music in the Old Testament: A Survey,' 1959); Baylor University, Waco, Texas (MA, 1966; thesis: 'Christian Hymnody: A survey'); and Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University), Nashville, Tennessee (PhD, 1968; dissertation, 'The Galin-Paris-Cheve Method of Rhythmic Instruction: A History'. Forbis...
MILGATE, Wesley. b. Leura, New South Wales, 18 January 1916; d. Sydney, 15 July 1999. His primary and secondary school education took place at Leura and at Katoomba. Milgate (known universally as 'Wes') completed a BA (1935) and MA (1943) at the University of Sydney. He trained as a secondary school teacher at Sydney Teachers' College in 1935 and taught in several state schools from 1936 to 1945. He held the first Nuffield Dominion Fellowship in the Humanities at Merton College, Oxford...
Townsend, Willa Ann Hadley. b. Nashville, Tennessee, 22 April 1880; d. Nashville, 24 April 1947. A Black educator devoted to improving the lives of African Americans, she was a civic leader, church musician, and editor/compiler of three influential Black collections of hymns, gospel songs, and African American spirituals*.
The daughter of Samuel Porterfield Hadley (1849–1905) and Mary Hadley, she received her education in the Nashville Public Schools, Fisk University, Nashville, Roger Williams...
HAMILTON, William (H). b. Barnhill, Dundee, 24 March 1886; d. Insch, Aberdeenshire, 25 December 1958. He was educated at St Andrews University and the United Free Church College, Glasgow. After ordination, he held various pastorates, until he became General Secretary of the World Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches in 1927.
In addition to being a United Free Church minister, he was a writer and editor (the Great Heart Magazine, 1921-28, Holyrood Anthology of Modern Scots Poems,...
MUHLENBERG, William Augustus. b. Philadelphia, 16 September 1796; d. New York City, 8 April 1877. William Augustus was the great-grandson of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg* 'the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America'. His name is sometimes spelt Mühlenberg, as in JJ, but he used it without an umlaut.
William Augustus became a member of the Episcopal Church in his ninth year. Educated at Philadelphia Academy and the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) (AB 1814), he was ordained deacon in...
BARTON, William. b. ca. 1597/8; d. 14 May 1678. Nothing is known of his early life. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1622, MA 1625), and ordained priest in 1623. He may have been the William Barton who was vicar of Mayfield, Staffordshire, in 1643, and who suffered for his Puritan sympathies at the hands of the local Royalists. Under the Commonwealth he flourished: he became minister of St John Zachary, London, in 1646, and vicar of St Martin's, Leicester (now Leicester...
WILSON, William Carus. b. Heversham, Westmorland, 7 July 1791; d. London, 30 December 1859. Born William Carus, he had the name Wilson from his father, William Carus (1764-1851), who took it when he inherited Casterton Hall and its estates from an aunt in 1793. The father was Member of Parliament for Cockermouth (1821-26).
William Carus Wilson, the son, was educated privately and at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1815, MA 1818). After initially being rejected for ordination on account of his...
GANNETT, William Channing. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 March 1840; d. Rochester, New York State, 15 December 1923. He was a member of a great Unitarian dynasty of the 19th century in the United States: he was the son of Ezra Stiles Gannett (1801-1871), a friend of the notable preacher and scholar William Ellery Channing (1780-1842, after whom William Channing Gannett was named, and by whom he was baptized); and the daughter of Anna Linzee Tilden (d. 1846: see Wider, 1997).
William Channing...
ENFIELD, William. b. Sudbury, Suffolk, 29 March 1741; d. Norwich, 3 November 1797. Enfield came from a poor family, but was encouraged and taught by the local minister, William Hextal (or Hextall), who secured his entry to a Dissenting Academy at Daventry. He became pastor of a Presbyterian chapel at Liverpool (1763-70), and then at Warrington (1770-85), where he taught belles-lettres at the celebrated Warrington Academy. He was minister of the Octagon Chapel, Norwich (then still Presbyterian,...
GADSBY, William. b. Attleborough, Nuneaton, 3 January 1773; d. Manchester, 27 January 1844. Gadsby came from a very poor family (his father was a road-mender), and was uneducated. He had an unsettled childhood, but was converted at the age of 17. He attended an Independent chapel at Bedworth, but then joined the Strict and Particular Baptists at Coventry, and was baptised in December 1793 at the Cow Lane chapel. He continued to work, first as a ribbon weaver and then as a stocking weaver at...
WALTER, William Henry. b. Newark, New Jersey, 1 July 1825; d. New York, 19 April 1893. Walter taught music in public schools, and was organist associated with Trinity Church, Manhattan, and its chapels. He composed at least 43 hymn tunes, most published in Charles Lewis Hutchins*'s The Church Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged (Boston, 1908). Among his tunes, FESTAL SONG (1872) is still widely sung to a variety of texts.
His parents were James Hahn Walter (nda) and Mary (née Cheetham) Walter...
DOANE, William Howard. b. Preston, New London County, Connecticut, 3 February 1832; d. South Orange, New Jersey, 24 December 1915. Doane was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, composer, and hymnbook compiler best known for his collaborations with Robert Lowry* on numerous Sunday School collections and his frequent partnering with Fanny Crosby* in providing over 1,000 hymn tunes for her Gospel texts. Approximately 30 of his over 2,200 tunes remain in common use.
Born to Joseph...
FOX, William Johnson. b. Wrentham, Suffolk, 1 March 1786; d. London, 3 June 1864. He was brought up in Norwich, to which his family moved when he was a small child in 1788. He was a clerk in a Bank at Norwich from 1799 to 1806, educating himself in his spare time. With the intention of becoming an Independent minister, he attended the Independent academy at Homerton, near London, serving briefly as a minister to a congregation at Fareham in Hampshire. After leaving Homerton in 1810 he moved...
PENNEFATHER, William. b. Dublin, 5 February 1816; d. Muswell Hill, Middlesex, 30 April 1873. He was the son of a distinguished Irish lawyer who became chief Baron of the Exchequer Court. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin (BA 1840; his undergraduate career was interrupted by illness). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1841, priest 1842), and was successively curate at Ballymacugh and vicar of Mellifont, near Drogheda, where he ministered to the people during the famine of 1845. He moved to...