Joseph Medlicott Scriven

Joseph Medlicott Scriven was an Irish-born Christian preacher, teacher, poet, and philanthropist whose adult life was spent largely in Canada. Born at Banbridge, County Down, he attended Addiscombe Military College before leaving for reasons of health and received a B.A. from Trinity College Dublin in 1842. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography records that he adopted the faith of the Plymouth Brethren and emigrated to Canada West in 1845. He taught at Woodstock and Brantford, preached in several communities, and later lived near Bewdley and Port Hope, Ontario.

Scriven became locally known for unusually practical acts of charity. Contemporary recollections preserved by his biographers describe him sawing wood for people unable to pay, assisting widows and the poor, and giving away possessions despite having little wealth himself. He also experienced serious personal loss: Eliza Catherine Roach, to whom he became engaged after moving near Bewdley, died in 1860.

“What a Friend We Have in Jesus” circulated privately in manuscript before appearing anonymously in print. Scriven himself did not include it in his 1869 collection “Hymns and Other Verses.” His authorship became publicly established only late in his life and after his death, making the hymn’s transmission unusually dependent on friends, editors, and later hymnologists.