William Henry Havergal

William Henry Havergal (18 January 1793 – 19 April 1870) was an Anglican clergyman, writer, composer and hymnwriter, and a publisher of sermons and pamphlets.

Havergal was born in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he gained a BA in 1815 and an MA in 1819.

He was ordained deacon in 1816 and priest in 1817, and became rector of Astley in Worcestershire in 1829, St. Nicholas, Worcester in 1842, and perpetual curate of Shareshill near Wolverhampton in 1860.

He was originally intended for the medical profession, but eventually went to Oxford, matriculating from St Edmund Hall on 10 July 1812.

He became an assistant curate under Thomas Tregenna Biddulph, at the churches of St. James, Bristol, and Creech Heathfield.

His first public composition was an anthem-like setting of Reginald Heber's From Greenland's Icy Mountains, the proceeds of which (180l.)

In 1867 increasing infirmities forced him to lay aside all regular parish work and remove to Leamington, where, with the exception of visits to the continent, he continued to reside.

Havergal was the author of: He also wrote, selected, harmonised, and arranged, upwards of thirty works and pieces of music.

Archives related to Havergal, including his music notebook and family papers, are held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.