Frances Ridley Havergal

Frances Ridley Havergal (1836–1879) was an English Anglican hymn writer, devotional poet, author, editor, and musician whose work became a distinctive expression of Victorian evangelical spirituality. She was born at Astley, Worcestershire, on December 14, 1836, the youngest daughter of the clergyman and church musician William Henry Havergal. Her education included private study and schooling in England and Germany, and she developed unusual facility in languages, Scripture, poetry, and music.

Havergal wrote hymns, poems, prose devotions, children’s works, and music, often with practical Christian worship and discipleship in view. Her collections include The Ministry of Song, Under the Surface, and Loyal Responses, while later family-edited volumes preserved additional poems, letters, and devotional material. Among her best-known texts are “Take My Life and Let It Be,” “Like a River Glorious,” “Lord, Speak to Me,” “Who Is on the Lord’s Side?,” and “I Am Trusting Thee, Lord Jesus.” Her writing repeatedly emphasizes consecration, trust, holiness, service, and personal allegiance to Christ.

Havergal was also a capable musician and composed hymn tunes. The tune HERMAS, associated with “Welcome, Happy Morning” in a number of hymnals, is one of her durable melodies. Historical music references place its composition in 1870 and its publication in Havergal’s Psalmody in 1871; Hymnary catalogs it under Havergal with the date 1871. She died at Caswell Bay near Swansea on June 3, 1879, aged forty-two.