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James Montgomery, 1855

James Montgomery (November 4, 1771 - April 30, 1854) was a British editor and poet.

Montgomery, poet, son of a pastor and missionary of the Moravian Brethren, was born at Irvine in Ayrshire, and educated at the Moravian School at Fulneck, near Pudsey in Leeds. After various changes of occupation and abode, he settled in Sheffield in 1792 as clerk to a newspaper. In 1796 he had become editor of the Sheffield Iris, and was twice imprisoned for political articles for which he was held responsible. In 1797 he published Prison Amusements; but his first work to attract notice was The Wanderer of Switzerland (1806). It was followed by The West Indies (1809), The World before the Flood (1812), Greenland (1819), and The Pelican Island (1828), all of which contain passages of considerable imaginative and descriptive power, but are lacking in strength and fire. He himself expected that his name would live, if at all, in his hymns, and in this his judgment has proved true. Some of these, such as For ever with the Lord, Hail to the Lord's Anointed, Angels, from the Realms of Glory and Prayer is the Soul's sincere Desire, are sung wherever the English language is spoken. Probably his best-known poem is the one commemorating Arnold Winkelried [1] and "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief." Montgomery was a good and philanthropic man, the opponent of every form of injustice and oppression, and the friend of every movement for the welfare of the race. His virtues attained wide recognition.

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James Montgomery

This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.