William Batchelder Bradbury

William Batchelder Bradbury (1816–1868) was an American composer, organist, music educator, conductor, editor, publisher, and piano manufacturer. Born in York, Maine, he moved with his family to Boston in 1830 and entered the musical circle of Lowell Mason. As a young man he worked as an organist and teacher, and he later directed music in Baptist churches in Brooklyn and New York. His children's singing classes and large juvenile music festivals helped expand the place of organized music instruction in churches and schools.

Bradbury studied in Europe from 1847 to 1849 before returning to the United States to teach, compose, conduct conventions, and compile music books. His publications, including The Jubilee, The Golden Chain, and Fresh Laurels, circulated widely in Sunday schools and churches. He also entered the piano business with his brother and partners, combining publishing, performance, education, and commerce in a career characteristic of nineteenth-century American sacred music.

Bradbury wrote hundreds of hymn tunes in an accessible style intended for congregational and educational use. Tunes associated with such texts as “Jesus Loves Me,” “He Leadeth Me,” and “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” helped establish his lasting reputation. His tune OLIVE'S BROW, published in The Shawm in 1853, was written for William B. Tappan's “'Tis Midnight; and on Olive's Brow” and was later paired in several hymnals with Charles Wesley's “'Tis Finished! The Messiah Dies.”