Frederick Whitfield

Frederick Whitfield was born at Threapwood, Shropshire, on January 7, probably in 1827. Parish-based local research reports a baptism there on January 11, 1827, although John Julian, the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, and many later indexes give 1829. Whitfield studied at Trinity College Dublin, receiving his BA in 1859. He was ordained deacon that year and priest in 1860, then served as curate of Otley, rector of Kirkby Ravensworth, senior curate at Greenwich, and incumbent at Bexley Heath before ministering in Hastings. He also worked with the Irish Church Missions.

Whitfield wrote the text associated with O How I Love Jesus during his student years. His literary output exceeded thirty works of prose and verse, including Sacred Poems and Prose, Voices from the Valley Testifying of Jesus, The Word Unveiled, and Gleanings from Scripture. Another enduring hymn, I Need Thee, Precious Jesus, displays the same evangelical concentration on Christ. His vocation united parish ministry with devotional publishing rather than professional music. Retiring as his health declined, he spent his final years at Lower Norwood and died on September 13, 1904. The anonymous American refrain and camp-meeting tune now inseparable from his best-known text were later additions, not compositions by Whitfield.