John Samuel Norris

John Samuel Norris was a British-born American minister and gospel-song musician born at West Cowes, Isle of Wight, on December 4, 1844. He was educated in Canada and ordained to Methodist ministry at Oshawa, Ontario, in 1868. After serving Methodist congregations in Canada, New York, and Wisconsin, he entered the Congregational ministry in 1878 and later served churches in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa. He died in Chicago on September 23, 1907.

Norris is traditionally credited as composer of the tune now called NORRIS, associated with Where He Leads Me. Recent archival research complicates that attribution. An early printing connected with the hymn describes the music as “arranged by J. S. Norris” and gives an 1889 copyright, while later songbooks sometimes link the musical material with P. P. Bliss. A closely related melody can be traced to an 1874 Bliss gospel song, and another similar adaptation appeared in 1889 with a text by George W. Collins and an arrangement by William J. Kirkpatrick.

Modern hymnals generally retain Norris as the tune’s composer or principal musical contributor, but the surviving evidence suggests that his role may have included adaptation of pre-existing gospel-song material. His broader musical work included the collection Songs of the Soul.