There's Not a Bird with Lonely Nest

Author: Baptist W. Noel

Noel, Hon. Baptist Wriothesley, M.A., younger son of Sir Gerard Noel Noel, Bart., and brother of the Earl of Gainsborough, was born at Leithmont, near Leith, July 10, 1799, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Taking Holy Orders he was for some time Incumbent of St. John's Episcopal Chapel, Bedford Row, London, and Chaplain to the Queen; but in 1848 he seceded from the Church of England, and subsequently became a Baptist Minister. He was pastor of St. John's Street Chapel, Bedford Row, until 1868. He died Jan. 19, 1873. His prose works, about twelve in all, were published between 1847 and 1863. His association with hymnology is through:— (1) A Selection of Psalms and Hymns adapted chiefly for Congregational and Social Worship by… Go to person page >

There's not a bird with lonely nest. W. B. Noel. [God the Divine Father of All.] This hymn was given anonymously in common with the rest of the hymns, in W. B. Noel’s Selection of Psalms and Hymns 1832 (ed. 1853, No. 561), in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. It is commonly attributed to W. B. Noel, and we see no reason to doubt the authorship. It is in several collections, but usually in an abbreviated form. In Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody, 1833, No. 37, it is given in its full form. In R. Bingham's Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1871, stanzas i., iii.-v., are rendered into Latin as, "Non avis est, nidum quae sola ponit eremo."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)