Robert Jackson
1840 - 1914
Church of England
Biography
Robert Jackson was an English organist, conductor, and composer born in Oldham, Lancashire, in 1840. Some older reference sources give 1842 as his birth year, but Hymnary.org’s person authority and later research based on historical records support 1840. Jackson studied at the Royal Academy of Music and briefly served as organist of St Mark’s Church, Grosvenor Square, London.
In 1868 he returned to Oldham and succeeded his father as organist of St Peter’s Church. His father had already served there for forty-eight years; Robert remained for another forty-six years, continuing until his death in 1914. He also conducted the Oldham Music Society and the Werneth Vocal Society and composed a number of hymn tunes.
Jackson wrote TRENTHAM for Henry W. Baker’s Passiontide hymn O Perfect Life of Love. The tune was published with Baker’s text in Fifty Sacred Leaflets in 1888. It was therefore not composed for Edwin Hatch’s hymn. By around the beginning of the twentieth century, however, TRENTHAM had become closely associated with Breathe on Me, Breath of God and eventually became its most familiar tune in many North American hymnals.
In 1868 he returned to Oldham and succeeded his father as organist of St Peter’s Church. His father had already served there for forty-eight years; Robert remained for another forty-six years, continuing until his death in 1914. He also conducted the Oldham Music Society and the Werneth Vocal Society and composed a number of hymn tunes.
Jackson wrote TRENTHAM for Henry W. Baker’s Passiontide hymn O Perfect Life of Love. The tune was published with Baker’s text in Fifty Sacred Leaflets in 1888. It was therefore not composed for Edwin Hatch’s hymn. By around the beginning of the twentieth century, however, TRENTHAM had become closely associated with Breathe on Me, Breath of God and eventually became its most familiar tune in many North American hymnals.
Hymns by Robert Jackson
Breathe on Me, Breath of God
Role: Composer