Composer - Lyricist: Henry Williams Baker
From HymnsWithoutWords
Biography
Rev. Sir Henry Williams Baker (1821 - 1877) 3rd Baronet Baker, of Dunstable House, in Richmond, Surrey was born at Belmont House, Vauxhall, Surrey, England. Baker was the son of Vice Admiral Henry Loraine Baker. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and was ordained to the Anglican priesthood in 1844, becoming assistant curate at Great Hockesley, near Colchester, Essex. In 1851, he became Vicar of Monkland Priory Church, near Leominster in Herefordshire, on the English-Welsh border, where he served most of his life. Upon his father’s death in 1859, Baker assumed the family baronetcy.
His contribution to the English hymnody was great, writing dozens of hymns, but Baker can also take the credit for the preparation and compilation of Hymns Ancient and Modern, first published in 1860, which did so much to promote the practice of hymn-singing in the Church of England. A member of the Anglo-Catholic wing, Baker was anxious to restore to the church the treasures of early Latin hymns. One of his successes in that direction was to secure the many fine translations of that great hymnwriter, John Mason Neale. He died unmarried in 1877.
