The year 1744 was a time of great political unrest in England because of the war with France and the effort to reestablish the House of Stuart. Many Roman Catholic Jacobites and sympathizers with Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, were at work throughout the country, and the new groups of Methodists formed by the Wesley brothers were often falsely accused of being papist in disguise. Their meetings were often broken up by hooligans, and both preachers and congregation were pelted with rotten eggs, cabbages, and bricks. Many were arrested and brought before the magistrates as disturbers of the peace, but this persecution failed to daunt them. For their encouragement Charles Wesley (1707-1788; see Biographies) wrote several hymns under the title Hymns for Times of Trouble and Persecution. This particular one had the instruction: “To be sung in a tumult”; it first appeared anonymously in 1744. There were 17 stanzas in all, six in Part I, seven in Part II, and four in Part III. SDAH has stanza 1, 4, 5, and 6 pf Part I.

     HANOVER was composed in 1708 by William Croft (1678-1727; see SDAH 103), and first appeared in Tate and Brady’s New Version under the title “A New Tune to the 149^th Psalm of the New Version and the 104^th of the Old.” It was one of the early departures from the common 4/4 style of singing to a new triple time. It was named BROMSWICK by John Wesley in 1742, but is now known as HANOVER in honor of the accession of George III of Hanover to the throne of England. Croft also composed ST. ANNE, SDAH 103.