John Bakewell
1721 - 1819
Methodist
Biography
John Bakewell (1721–1819) was an English lay evangelist, preacher, educator, and hymn writer associated with the early Methodist revival. Born at Brailsford in Derbyshire, he began preaching in the 1740s and later moved to London, where he knew John and Charles Wesley and other evangelical leaders. He also conducted the Greenwich Royal Park Academy before giving more of his time to preaching among Wesleyan Methodists.
Bakewell is traditionally associated with “Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus,” whose earliest known form appeared anonymously in 1757. Later hymnological research has treated the attribution with some caution because the first printing did not name an author, but Bakewell’s connection with the hymn became firmly established in subsequent hymnody. He wrote other devotional verse, yet this text became by far his best-known contribution to congregational song. He died at Lewisham in 1819 and was buried in the Wesleyan burial ground connected with City Road Chapel in London.
Bakewell is traditionally associated with “Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus,” whose earliest known form appeared anonymously in 1757. Later hymnological research has treated the attribution with some caution because the first printing did not name an author, but Bakewell’s connection with the hymn became firmly established in subsequent hymnody. He wrote other devotional verse, yet this text became by far his best-known contribution to congregational song. He died at Lewisham in 1819 and was buried in the Wesleyan burial ground connected with City Road Chapel in London.
Hymns by John Bakewell
Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus
Role: Lyricist