John B. Matthias

Born: January 21, 1767, Germantown, New York.
Died: May 27, 1848, Hempstead, Long Island, New York.
Buried: Methodist churchyard, Hempstead, Long Island, New York.

Matthias moved to New York City as a young man, and attended the John Street Methodist Church. He was licensed as a Methodist preacher in 1793, and four years later Bishop Asbury ordained him a deacon. He entered the "itinerant connection" in 1811, and in 1813 Bishop McKendree ordained him an elder. He pastored at a number of locations in New York, and by 1836 was in Huntington, where he wrote Deliverance Will Come. In 1841, failing eyesight forced him to retire to Hempstead, Long Island.

Sources:
Choir Herald, June 1947, pp. 222-23

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/m/a/t/matthias_jb.htm

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Matthias