Jeannette Threlfall

Jeannette Threlfall was an English writer of hymns and devotional poetry, born in Blackburn, Lancashire, on March 24, 1821. Orphaned while young, she was raised by relatives and became largely self-educated through extensive reading. Poor health and two serious accidents limited her mobility for much of her adult life, yet contemporary accounts remember her for sustained religious devotion, literary work, and care for others.

Threlfall wrote sacred verse for periodicals, often anonymously or under the initials “J. T.” Her first collection, “Woodsorrel; or, Leaves from a Retired Home,” appeared in 1856. In 1873 she published “Sunshine and Shadow,” with an introduction by Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln. That volume contained “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna,” the text that became her most enduring contribution to congregational hymnody.

Threlfall also wrote texts such as “I Think of Thee, O Savior” and “Thou Biddest Us Seek Thee Early.” Her Palm Sunday hymn is especially distinctive for placing children near the center of the triumphal-entry story and linking their praise with the church’s continuing worship.