Francis Pott
1832 - 1909
Church of England
Biography
Francis Pott was an English Anglican priest, hymn writer, editor, and translator born in London in 1832. He studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, receiving his B.A. in 1854 and M.A. in 1857. Ordained deacon in 1856 and priest in 1857, he served several curacies before becoming rector of Northill, Bedfordshire. Increasing deafness eventually forced him to resign parish ministry in 1891.
Pott had a strong command of classical and ecclesiastical languages and became particularly associated with the nineteenth-century Anglican recovery of ancient and medieval hymnody. In 1861 he published his English translation of the Latin Easter hymn “Finita iam sunt proelia” in “Hymns Fitted to the Order of Common Prayer.” A somewhat altered form entered the first edition of “Hymns Ancient and Modern” that same year, helping establish the translation in Anglican worship and beyond.
Pott also wrote original hymns, including “Angel Voices, Ever Singing.” His work illustrates the Victorian practice of bringing older Latin Christian texts into contemporary congregational worship while reshaping them into idiomatic English verse.
Pott had a strong command of classical and ecclesiastical languages and became particularly associated with the nineteenth-century Anglican recovery of ancient and medieval hymnody. In 1861 he published his English translation of the Latin Easter hymn “Finita iam sunt proelia” in “Hymns Fitted to the Order of Common Prayer.” A somewhat altered form entered the first edition of “Hymns Ancient and Modern” that same year, helping establish the translation in Anglican worship and beyond.
Pott also wrote original hymns, including “Angel Voices, Ever Singing.” His work illustrates the Victorian practice of bringing older Latin Christian texts into contemporary congregational worship while reshaping them into idiomatic English verse.
Hymns by Francis Pott
The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Done
Role: Lyricist