John Byrom

BYROM, John. b. Manchester, 29 February 1692; d. Manchester, 26 Sept 1763. Byrom was born into a prosperous family of merchants and landowners, and received his formal education at Chester Free Grammar School, Merchant Taylors’ School (then occupying a site in the heart of the City of London) and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1712; MA, 1715), where he was elected to a college fellowship in 1714. This education was intended, in his father’s words, ‘to fit [him] for sacred orders’, but Byrom’s scruples over the requisite oaths for becoming a clergyman – scruples stemming from his Jacobitism – were just one reason why any such intention was to become thwarted. Profounder explanations lay in...

If you have a valid subscription to Dictionary of Hymnology, please log in to view this content. If you require a subscription, please click here.

Cite this article