Samuel John Stone

Samuel John Stone (25 April 1839 – 19 November 1900) was an English poet, hymnodist, and a priest in the Church of England.

Life and career

Stone was born on 25 April 1839 at his father's rectory in the parish of Whitmore, Staffordshire. His father, William, was a Hebrew scholar and a botanist alongside his clerical work, who had published various works including a six volume religious epic and various compilations of hymns. Samuel had one sister, Sarah, who was born two years after him. He served a curacy in New Windsor from 1862 and while there wrote for his congregation the hymns of Lyra Fidelium, in which his most famous hymn, The Church's One Foundation, appears. In 1870 he moved to St. Paul's, Haggerston where, in 1874, he became the vicar. He remained at Haggerston for twenty years before taking up his final post at All Hallows' London Wall also in London.

Stone died on 19 November 1900.

Select bibliography

Poems The Knight of Intercession (1872) Sonnets of the Sacred Year (1875) Deare Chylde, a Parish Idyll (1877) Lays of Iona and other poems (1897) Poems and Hymns (1903)

Hymns Lyra Fidelium: Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostles' Creed (1866) including "The Church's One Foundation". Hymns (1886)