Samuel John Stone

Samuel John Stone
Samuel John Stone
Born	25 April 1839 Staffordshire
Died	19 November 1900 London

Samuel John Stone (25 April 1839 – 19 November 1900) was an English poet, hymnodist, and a priest in the Church of England.

Life and career

Stone was born on 25 April 1839 at his father's rectory in the parish of Whitmore, Staffordshire.^[1] His father, William, was a Hebrew scholar and a botanist 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.^[1] When Samuel was 13 the family moved to London where his father had obtained a curacy.^[1]

Following his schooling at Charterhouse he went up to Pembroke College, Oxford, 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.^[2] He served a curacy 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, appears.^[3] In 1870 he moved to St. Paul's, Haggerston where, in 1874, he became the vicar.^[1]^[4] He remained at Haggerston for twenty years before taking up his final post at All Hallows' London Wall also in London.^[1]^[5]

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 "The Church's One Foundation".

Hymns (1886)

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Ellerton, F.G. (1903). "A Memoir of Samuel John Stone". In Stone, S.J. (ed.). Poems and Hymns. Methuen.
^ The Oxford University Calendar, 1868, p.93
^ "Samuel John Stone", The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, Canterbury Press, accessed August 15, 2020
^ "Samuel John Stone". Cyber Hymnal. Retrieved 3 July 2008.
^ "England, London Electoral Registers, 1847-1913: Division 4.-Broad Street.-1899". FamilySearch. 14 May 2014. p. 884. Retrieved 18 August 2016.