Henry Wellington Greatorex

Henry Wellington Greatorex was an English-born American organist, composer, editor, arranger, singer, and music teacher born at Burton upon Trent on December 24, 1813. He was trained by his father, Thomas Greatorex, the distinguished organist of Westminster Abbey and conductor of the Concerts of Ancient Music. Henry emigrated to the United States in 1839, worked as an organist in Hartford, Connecticut, and later held important church-music posts in New York, including Calvary Church and St. Paul's Chapel. He eventually worked in Charleston, South Carolina, where he died of yellow fever in September 1858.

Greatorex's major publication was A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Chants, Anthems, and Sentences, issued in Boston in 1851 for Episcopal and other congregations. The volume combined original music, arrangements, and selections from earlier composers and became an influential American church-music collection. His setting of the Gloria Patri also remained widely used.

MANOAH first appeared in Greatorex's 1851 collection. Later hymnals have variously attributed its melodic source to Greatorex, Joseph Haydn, or Gioachino Rossini, but hymnological research has not traced a convincing earlier source. Modern authorities therefore commonly credit Greatorex as the probable composer while acknowledging the historical uncertainty.