Samuel John Stone (25 April 1839 – 19 November 1900) was an English

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

hymnodist A hymnwriter (or hymn writer, hymnist, hymnodist, hymnographer, etc.) is someone who writes the text, music, or both of hymns. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the composition of hymns dates back to before the time of David, who is traditionally ...

, and a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Life and career

Stone was born on 25 April 1839 at his father's rectory in the parish of Whitmore,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

. His father, William, was a

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

scholar and a

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

alongside his clerical work, who had published various works including a six volume religious epic and various compilations of hymns. Samuel had one sister, Sarah, who was born two years after him. When Samuel was 13 the family moved to London where his father had obtained a curacy. Following his schooling at Charterhouse he went up to

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

, gaining a BA in 1862 and being awarded an MA in 1872. During that period too he was awarded the 1866 prize for a poem on a religious subject, in this case on Sinai, but was then deprived of it since he was no longer on the college books. He served a

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are ass ...

in New Windsor from 1862 and while there wrote for his congregation the hymns of ''Lyra Fidelium'', in which his most famous hymn, ''

The Church's One Foundation "The Church's One Foundation" is a Christian hymn written in the 1860s by Samuel John Stone. Background The song was written as a direct response to the schism within the Church of South Africa caused by John William Colenso, first Bishop of ...

'', appears. In 1870 he moved to St. Paul's,

Haggerston Haggerston is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Hackney. It is in East London and part of the East End of London, East End. There is an Haggerston (ward), electoral ward called Haggerston within the borough. H ...

where, in 1874, he became the vicar. He remained at Haggerston for twenty years before taking up his final post at All Hallows' London Wall also in London. Stone died on 19 November 1900.

Select Bibliography

Poems

''The Knight of Intercession''
(1872)
''Sonnets of the Sacred Year''
(1875) * ''Deare Chylde, a Parish Idyll'' (1877)
''Lays of Iona and other poems''
(1897)
''Poems and Hymns''
(1903)

Hymns

''Lyra Fidelium: Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostles' Creed''
(1866) including "

". * ''Hymns'' (1886)

References

External links

* 1839 births 1900 deaths English Christian hymnwriters People educated at Charterhouse School Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford {{UK-Christian-clergy-stub