Henry Alford (1810-1871)

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Alford, Henry

b: October 10, 1810; London
d: January 12, 1871; Canterbury

Family

• Son of the Reverend Henry Alford
• His mother died in giving birth to him, and he was brought up in the family of his uncle, the Reverend Samuel Alford
• He married his cousin, Fanny Alford

Education

• Educated at several schools and privately, and at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1832, MA 1835)

Highlights & Accomplishments

• Took Holy Orders (deacon 1833, priest 1834)
• Was a fellow of Trinity College and his father’s curate at Ampton, near Bury St Edmunds
• Became vicar of Wymeswold, Leicestershire (1835-53)
• He was Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge (1841-42)
• Published a celebrated edition of the Greek New Testament, beginning in 1849
• Was incumbent of Quebec Chapel, Marylebone, London, 1853-57
• Also Dean of Canterbury, 1857-71.

Publications

• Published Poems and Poetical Fragments (Cambridge, 1833), The School of the Heart, and other Poems (Cambridge, 1835), and The Abbot of Muchelnaye (1841)
• Also published Hymns for the Sundays and Festivals throughout the Year (1836)
• Edited Psalms and Hymns, adapted to the Sundays and Holydays Throughout the Year (1844), for which he got William Wordsworth to write a new hymn
• Alford’s Poetical Works were published in 1845, and even reached a fifth edition by 1868

Hymns included in the Seventh-Day Adventist Hymnal

Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand, SDAH 433
Come, Ye Thankful People, SDAH 557

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