Jane C. Simpson

Simpson, Jane Cross, née Bell, daughter of James Bell, Advocate, of Glasgow, was born Nov. 12, 1811. She contributed several pieces to The Edinburgh Literary Journal, of which her brother, Henry G. Bell, was editor, under the nom de plume of Gertrude; and later to the Scottish Christian Herald. She was married in 1837 to her cousin, Mr. J. B. Simpson, of Glasgow; and died June 17, 1886.

Her publications are:—(1) The Piety of Daily Life, 1836; (2) April Hours, 1838; (3) Woman's History, 1848; (4) Linda, or Beauty and Genius, 1859; (5) Picture Poems, 1879; (6) Linda, and other Poems, 1879.

Her hymns in common use are:—
1. Go when the morning shineth. Prayer. This appeared in The Edinburgh Literary Journal, Feb. 26, 1831, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines, and again in her April Hours, 1838, in 3 st. The full text from Mrs. Simpson's manuscript was given in Lyra Britannica, 1867, p. 507. It is extensively used. It is sometimes erroneously attributed to "Lord Morpeth;" and again to "Lord Carlisle."
2. I had a lesson to teach them. The Death of Children. Contributed to Dr. Rogers's Lyra Britannica, 1867, p. 508, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines. It was repeated in full in Martineau's Hymns, &c, 1873.
3. Star of morning, brightly shining. For use at Sea. Given in E. Prout's Psalmist, 1878.
4. Star of peace to wanderers weary. For those at Sea. Written in 1830, and given in the Scottish Evangelical Union Hymnal, 1878.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)