William Josiah Irons

IRONS, William Josiah. b. Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, 12 September 1812; d. St Pancras, London, 18 June 1883. He was the son of Joseph Irons (1785-1852), an itinerant preacher and hymn writer, who was a friend and assistant of John Newton* when Newton was rector of St Mary Woolnoth, in the City of London. Three of Joseph Irons’s hymns are found in some modern Evangelical books: ‘Hark! how the choirs around the throne’, ‘Jesus, the glories of thy face’, and ‘What sacred fountain yonder springs’. William Josiah was educated at the Queen’s College, Oxford (BA 1833, MA 1835, BD 1842, DD, 1854). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1835, priest 1836) and became curate of St Mary’s, Newington (1835-37),...