Henry Alford

Born: October 7, 1810, Blooms­bu­ry, Mid­dle­sex, Eng­land. Died: Jan­u­ary 12, 1871, Can­ter­bu­ry, Kent, Eng­land. For his own ep­i­taph, he wrote: “The inn of a pil­grim tra­vel­ing to Je­ru­sa­lem.” Buried: St. Mar­tin’s, Can­ter­bu­ry, Kent, Eng­land. Alford wrote the following in his Bible at age 16: I do this day in the presence of God and my own soul re­new my cov­e­nant with God and sol­emn­ly de­ter­mine hence­forth to be­come his and to do his work as far as in me lies. Alford at­tend­ed Il­min­ster Gram­mar School and Trin­i­ty Col­lege, Cam­bridge, and was or­dained in 1833. He was cur­ate at Wink­field, Wilt­shire, and Amp­ton, and vic­ar at Wyme­swold, Lei­ces­ter­shire (where he served 18 years). In 1853, he went to Que­bec Cha­pel, Lon­don; in 1857, he be­came dean of Can­ter­bury Ca­thed­ral. He was al­so a schol­ar, pro­duc­ing vol­umes on Homer, Eng­lish po­et­ry, and the Greek New Test­a­ment. His works in­clude: Poems and Poetical Fragments (Cambridge, England: J. J. Deighton, 1833) Psalms and Hymns, 1844 Poetical Works, 1845 The Year of Praise, 1867