General Reference Frances Ridley Havergal was born in Worcestershire, England in 1836. “When fifteen years old,” she once wrote, “I committed my soul to the Saviour, and earth and heaven seemed brighter from that moment.” Highly educated, her knowledge of Hebrew and Greek and modern languages was extensive and her hymn writing skills are celebrated to this day.
Edwin Hatch, a Church of England clergyman, was born in Derby, England in 1835. He graduated from Oxford in 1857 and became, in 1867, vice-principal of St. Mary’s Hall, Oxford. He was rector of Purleigh from 1883 until his death in 1889.
Joseph Hart, a Congregational minister in England, was born in 1712 to pious parents. He was well educated and was for many years a teacher of the classics. As a young man he renounced religion but, at the age of 40, began reading the Bible and found the peace he sought.
Robert Grant was born in India in 1785. His father was a leading officer of the East India Company. He graduated from Cambridge in 1804 and was admitted to the bar in 1807. He later was appointed Governor of Bombay in 1824. He died in India in 1838.
Paul Gerhardt, a distinguished Lutheran minister, and, next to Luther, the most popular hymn-writer of Germany, was born in Saxony in 1607. He studied at the University of Wittenberg and later became a tutor in the family of his sponsor Andreas Barthold; whose daughter he later married in 1655.
Benjamin Francis, an English Baptist minister, was born in Wales in 1734. He joined the Baptist Church at 15 and began preaching when only 19. He accepted a call to the Baptist Church at Shortwood in 1757 and remained there until his death in 1799.