Edward Mote

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 1826 in An Appendix to the Second Edition of a Collection of Psalms and Hymns, edited by John Rees. According to Mote’s own account, he wrote the hymn in Holborn, London, on his way to work, with the...