William Medlen Hutchings

Hutchings, William Medlen, son of William Hutchings, was born at Devonport, Aug. 28, 1827, and died May 21,1876. Mr. Hutchings was engaged for some time as a printer and publisher in London. His well-known hymn, "When mothers of Salem their children brought to Jesus" (Children brought to Christ), was written for the anniversary service of St. Paul's Chapel Sunday School, Wigan, in 1850, and was published in a revised form in the Juvenile Missionary Magazine of June 1850. A full account of the original and the revised texts is given in a note in W. F. Stevenson's Hymns for Church and Home, 1873. Another hymn by Mr. Hutchings, "We have heard the wondrous story" (The Life of Jesus), appeared in the Sunday School Union Voice of Praise, 1886.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)