You help make Hymnary.org possible.

In 2025, more than 10 million people from 200+ countries found hymns, liturgical resources, and encouragement here. If Hymnary has meant something to you this year, would you take a moment to help sustain it? A gift of any size — and a note of encouragement, if you'd like to share one — directly supports the server costs, research, and curation that keep this resource freely available to the world.

Give securely online today, or mail a check to:
Hymnary.org (c/o Calvin University)
3201 Burton Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546

Thank you for being part of this important online ministry resource.

Click here to donate to Hymnary.org I have already donated. Please don't show this to me again

William Canton

Short Name: William Canton
Full Name: Canton, William, 1845-1926
Birth Year: 1845
Death Year: 1926

Canton, William, was b. Oct. 27, 1845, on the Isle of Chusan, China, and now (1906) resides in Highgate, London. He is the author of various volumes of poems, of a History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1903, &c. Two of his poems are used as hymns in the English Hymnal, 1906, and others.
1. Hold Thou my hands! [Hold Thou me up.] First published in Good Words, May 1893, p. 333, and reprinted in his The Invisible Playmate, 1894, p. 21.
2. Through the night Thy angels kept. [Morning.] From his The Comrades, 1902, p. 233. [Rev. James Mearns. M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Hymnary Pro Subscribers
Access an additional article on the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
Hymnary Pro subscribers have full access to the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Get Hymnary Pro

Data Sources

Suggestions or corrections? Contact us
It looks like you are using an ad-blocker. Ad revenue helps keep us running. Please consider white-listing Hymnary.org or getting Hymnary Pro to eliminate ads entirely and help support Hymnary.org.