Montgomery, James

(1771-1854)

   He was born at Irvine in Ayrshire, where his father was pastor of the only Moravian congregation in Scotland. In 1783, his parents went as missionaries to the West Indies leaving James at the Moravian school at Fulneck, near Leeds; by 1791 both his parents were dead. In 1792 he began work as a clerk and bookkeeper for the Sheffield Register. He quickly became the editor, then in 1795, the owner, the name having been changed to the Sheffield Iris. He endured two short terms of imprisonment for indiscreet articles in the paper. Much of his life was devoted to religious and philanthropic undertakings, and he was honored by a public funeral. A monument was erected over his grave in the Sheffield cemetery. He was a prolific writer of both hymns and poems. Many of his hymns can be found in modern hymnbooks. Some of his publications: Prison Amusements, 1797. The Wanderer of Switzerland, 1806. Greenland and Other Poems, 1819. The Christian Psalmist, 1825. Some of his hymn/poems: "Angels from the Realms of Glory," "Forever with the Lord," "The Ages of Man," "The Daisy in India."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). Prison Amusement by James Mongomery (http://freespace.virgin.net/cade.york/castle/prison5.htm). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Cyber Hymnal (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm). The Home Book of Verse. Burton Egbert Stevenson, ed. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1953. The New Oxford Book of Romantic Period Verse. Jerome J. McGann. Oxford University Press, 1993. The Poetical Works of James Montgomery, Vol. 2. Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, 1841. The Poetical Works of James Montgomery, Vol. 3. Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, 1841.