William Croft

William Croft (1678–1727) was an English organist and composer closely associated with the Chapel Royal and Westminster Abbey. Baptized at Nether Ettington in Warwickshire on December 30, 1678, he was trained as a Chapel Royal chorister under John Blow. He later served as organist of St. Anne’s, Soho, and held several Chapel Royal appointments, including organist, composer, and Master of the Children. In 1709 he became organist of Westminster Abbey, and Oxford awarded him the degree of Doctor of Music in 1713.

Croft composed anthems, services, instrumental music, and music for royal and state occasions. His major publication Musica Sacra appeared in 1724 and gathered a substantial body of English sacred music in full score. He remained organist of Westminster Abbey until his death in Bath on August 14, 1727, and was buried in the Abbey.

The hymn tune CROFT’S 136TH is attributed to him and is traced to the early eighteenth-century psalmody tradition associated with Henry Playford’s Divine Companion. Later Anglican hymnals have paired this tune with Isaac Watts’s “Lord of the Worlds Above.” That pairing is distinct from ST. ANNE, another well-known tune often associated with a different Watts paraphrase, “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past.”