Elizabeth Cecilia Douglas Clephane (18 June 1830 – 19 February 1869) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

songwriter, who wrote the hymns "The Ninety and Nine" and "Beneath the Cross of Jesus".

Early life

Clephane was born at 5 West Circus Place in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, the third daughter of Andrew Douglas Clephane

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(1780-1838), advocate and Sheriff of

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

, and his wife, Anna Maria Douglas (daughter of Lt Col Robert Douglas and Anna Maria Ashenhurst).

Hymns

Eight hymns by Clephane were published posthumously in ''The Family Treasury'', a Presbyterian magazine, between 1872 and 1874. Clephane's hymns were promoted in America by Ira D. Sankey who wrote a tune entitled "Clephane" to accompany "The Ninety and Nine". Another Clephane hymn, "Beneath the Cross of Jesus", is often heard at Easter, and is usually sung to the tune "St Christopher" by English organist Frederick Charles Maker. Clephane's "The Ninety and Nine" is a reference to the

Parable of the Lost Sheep The Parable of the Lost Sheep is one of the parables of Jesus. It appears in the Gospels of Matthew () and Luke (). It is about a man who leaves his flock of ninety-nine sheep in order to find the one which is lost. In Luke 15, it is the firs ...

, ending with the celebratory lines, "And the angels echoed around the throne, 'Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!'" It was sometimes performed on special occasions by a choir of 99 singers. The hymn was said to be written after the death of her brother, George Clephane (1819-1851), who had a troubled life in Canada. As the story goes, he fell from his horse while intoxicated, struck his head upon a rock and died. His grave site at Fergus,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada has become a site of interest for admirers of Clephane's hymns. A memorial service was held there in 1933, as part of the town's centennial observances.

Personal life

Clephane was considered frail. She gave much to poor relief; it is said that she sold her horses to raise money for philanthropic causes. She died in 1869, aged 38 years, at Bridgend House, near Melrose, Roxburghshire, Scotland where she had spent most of her later life. Her grave is with her parents' graves in St Cuthbert's churchyard in central

. There is also a memorial brass plaque to Clephane at

Melrose Abbey St Mary's Abbey, Melrose is a partly ruined monastery of the Cistercian order in Melrose, Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders. It was founded in 1136 by Cistercian monks at the request of King David I of Scotland and was the chief house of t ...

References

External links

*
Elizabeth Clephane
- Page contains a photo of Elizabeth Clephane and a MIDI file
A 1909 recording of "The Ninety and the Nine" by Elizabeth Clephane
in the National Jukebox,

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clephane, Elizabeth C. 1830 births 1869 deaths Musicians from Edinburgh Scottish women songwriters Scottish Presbyterians Hymnwriters British women hymnwriters