William John Blew

Blew, William John, M.A., son of William Blew, born April 13, 1808, and educated at Great Ealing School, and Wadham College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1830, and M.A., 1832. On taking Holy Orders, Mr. Blew was Curate of Nuthurst and Cocking, and St. Anne's, Westminster, and for a time Incumbent of St. John's next Gravesend. Besides translations from Homer (Iliad, bks. i., ii., &c.) and Æschylus (Agamemnon the King), and works on the Book of Common Prayer, including a paraphrase on a translation of the same in Latin, he edited the Breviarium Aherdonense, 1854; and published a pamphlet on Hymns and Hymn Books, 1858; and (with Dr. H. J. Gauntlett) The Church Hymn and Tune Book, 1852, 2nd ed. 1855. Tho hymns in this last work are chiefly translations by Mr. Blew of Latin hymns. They were written from 1845 to 1852, and printed on fly-sheets for the use of his congregation. Many of these translations have come into common use. The following original hymns were also contributed by him to the same work:—
1. Christ in the Father's glory bright. Morning.
2. God's ark is in the field. Evening. The second stanza of this hymn is from Bp. Cosin's Hours, in his Collection of Private Devotions, 1627.
3. Hark, through the dewy morning. Morning.
4. Lord of the golden day. Evening.
5. 0 Lord, Thy wing outspread. Whitsuntide.
6. 0 Thou, Who on Thy sainted quire. Whitsuntide.
7. Sleeper, awake, arise. Epiphany.
8. Sweet Babe, that wrapt in twilight. Epiphany.
9. Ye crowned kings, approach ye. Epiphany. This is written to the tune “Adeste fideles," and might easily be mistaken as a free translation of the "Adeste."
Mr. Blew has also translated The Altar Service of the Church of England, in the year 1548, into English. His translations are terse, vigorous, musical, and of great merit. They have been strangely overlooked by the compilers of recent hymn-books. He died Dec. 27, 1894.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)