Mary Ann Thomson

Mary Ann Thomson, born Mary Ann Faulkner in London in 1834, was an English-born American Episcopal hymn writer whose work became part of nineteenth-century Protestant worship in the United States. She moved to the United States as a girl and later married John Thomson, who became the first head librarian of the Free Library of Philadelphia. The family lived in Philadelphia and was active in the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation.

Thomson wrote roughly forty hymns and religious poems, many of which appeared in Episcopal periodicals including The Churchman and The Living Church. Several of her texts were included in the Protestant Episcopal Hymnal of 1892. Her writing often combined biblical language, devotional directness, and themes suited to the church year, Christian mission, and congregational worship.

She is remembered especially for her missionary hymn written beginning in 1868 and completed several years later, but her broader contribution includes texts for feasts, doctrinal themes, and general worship. Thomson died in Philadelphia in 1923. Her career illustrates the important role played by women hymn writers in shaping late nineteenth-century American church song, especially through denominational periodicals and hymnals.