Francis Pott (29 December 1832 - 26 October 1909) was an English

hymnwriter A hymnwriter (or hymn writer, hymnist, hymnodist, hymnographer, etc.) is someone who writes the text, music, or both of hymns. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the composition of hymns dates back to before the time of David, who composed many of ...

and

Anglican priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

. He is noted as the author or translator of a number of popular

Christian hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

s including " Angel Voices, Ever Singing" and "

The Strife is O'er, the Battle Done "The Strife is O'er, the Battle Done" is a Christian hymn that is traditionally sung at Easter to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. It was originally a 17th-century Latin hymn, ''"Finita iam sunt proelia"''; the popular English-language vers ...

". His hymns are an established part of the

Anglican church music Anglican church music is music that is written for Christian worship in Anglican religious services, forming part of the liturgy. It mostly consists of pieces written to be sung by a church choir, which may sing '' a cappella'' or accompanie ...

repertoire and commonly feature in

hymnal A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook (or hymn book). Hymnals are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts (normal for most hymnals for most centuries of Chri ...

s such as ''

The New English Hymnal ''The New English Hymnal'' is a hymn book and liturgical source aimed towards the Church of England. First published in 1986, it is a successor to, and published in the same style as, the 1906 ''English Hymnal''. It is published today by SCM Ca ...

''.

Early life

Francis Pott was born in

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the great-grandson of the surgeon

Percivall Pott Percivall Pott (6 January 1714, in London – 22 December 1788) was an English surgeon, one of the founders of orthopaedics, and the first scientist to demonstrate that a cancer may be caused by an environmental carcinogen. Career He was the ...

. His father was the proprietor of the family business, the Potts Vinegar factory (the site occupied today by the Sumner Buildings housing estate), and Francis grew up in a neighbouring house. The family firm was later taken over by Francis's brother, Robert Pott.

Education

Pott studied

classical languages A classical language is any language with an independent literary tradition and a large and ancient body of written literature. Classical languages are typically dead languages, or show a high degree of diglossia, as the spoken varieties of the ...

at Brasenose College, Oxford when

Edward Bouverie Pusey Edward Bouverie Pusey (; 22 August 180016 September 1882) was an English Anglican cleric, for more than fifty years Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. He was one of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement. Early years ...

was an influential figure in the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 1854 and obtaining his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in 1857.''

A Dictionary of Hymnology ''A Dictionary of Hymnology'' (or, more completely, ''A Dictionary of Hymnology: Origin and History of Christian Hymns and Hymnwriters of All Ages and Nations, Together with Biographical and Critical Notices of Their Authors and Translators'') by ...

'' - In 1856 he was ordained into the Anglican priesthood, initially serving as a curate in Bishopsworth,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

(1856-8), before going on to serve in

Ardingly Ardingly ( ) is an English village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. The village is in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty about south of London and east-north-east of the county town of Chich ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

from 1858 to 1861 and subsequently in

Ticehurst Ticehurst is both a village and a large civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The parish lies in the upper reaches of both the Bewl stream before it enters Bewl Water and in the upper reaches of the River Rother flowi ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

from 1861 to 1866. In 1866 he was appointed Rector of

Northill Northill is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of the county of Bedfordshire, England about southeast of the county town of Bedford. The 2011 census showed the population for Northill village as 338 and for the civ ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

. (In this context Northill is sometimes confused with the parish of Norhill in Cambridgeshire.) In 1891, Pott was forced to resign from active work as a priest due to his increasing deafness. He went to live at the Birchetts,

Speldhurst Speldhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The parish is to the west of Tunbridge Wells: the village is west of the town. Speldhurst has a primary school, a parish church, a general store with p ...

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

, Kent, where he continued in his hymn-writing work. Francis Pott died at Speldhurst on 26 October 1909. Owing to his involvement with the music and hymnody of the Anglican Church, Pott is frequently confused with his namesake and relative Francis Pott (b. 1957), the composer of the corpus of sacred choral and organ music sometimes misattributed to his ancestor.

Works

As a scholar of classical languages, Pott was able to translate

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

liturgical texts into English verse. One of his best-known hymns, "

", is a translation of a 17th-century Latin hymn, ''"Finita jam sun proelia"''. "The Strife is O'er" is often sung to the tune , adapted from a 1591 setting of the '' Gloria'' by

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina ( – 2 February 1594) was an Italian composer of late Renaissance music. The central representative of the Roman School, with Orlande de Lassus and Tomás Luis de Victoria, Palestrina is considered the leading ...

from a '' Magnificat tertii toni''. The additional ''

Alleluia Alleluia (derived from the Hebrew ''Hallelujah'', meaning "Praise Yahweh") is a Latin phrase in Christianity used to give praise to God. In Christian worship, Alleluia is used as a liturgical chant in which that word is combined with verses of ...

'' refrain was set to music by Monk. An alternative popular tune for this hymn is , named after its composer Melchior Vulpius, who originally wrote it for the hymn "

Gelobt sei Gott im höchsten Thron "" (literally: Praised be God on highest throne) is a hymn for Easter in 20 stanzas in German by Michael Weiße, widely known with a later melody by Melchior Vulpius. Shortened, it is part of current Protestant and Catholic German hymnals. Hist ...

" in his 1609 ''Gesangbuch''. "The Strife is O'er" first appeared with this setting, arranged by

Henry George Ley Henry George Ley (30 December 188724 August 1962) was an English organist, composer and music teacher.Songs of Praise''. Pott took an interest in the hymn tunes used to set his words to music; in particular, he expressed a dislike for the tune written by

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

for "Angel Voices, Ever Singing", which Pott considered a "trivial, pretty but altogether unfit tune". Pott subsequently made it a condition of publication of this hymn that it should not be set to Sullivan's tune. The hymn is more commonly sung to another tune of the same name by

Edwin George Monk Edwin George Monk (13 December 1819 – 3 January 1900), English church organist and composer, who was Organist and Master of Choristers at York Minster for a quarter of a century, and was previously associated with St Columba's and Radley Col ...

. In 1861 he published a hymnal entitled ''Hymns fitted to the Order of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Church of England, To which are added Hymns for Certain Local Festivals'', and in 1898 ''The Free Rhythm Psalter''. He also served on the publishing committee of the original edition of ''

Hymns Ancient and Modern ''Hymns Ancient and Modern'' is a hymnal in common use within the Church of England, a result of the efforts of the Oxford Movement. The hymnal was first published in 1861. The organization publishing it has now been formed into a charitabl ...

'' (1861).

Authored hymns

*"Alleluia" *"Angel Voices, Ever Singing" *"Christ's foe becomes his soldier" *"Hear, Holy Spirit, fount of sweetness" *"O God of Bethel, by Whose hand" *"Songs of Wesak hear us singing" *"The Shepherd now was smitten" *"The year is gone beyond recall"

Translated hymns

*"Ended His strife, the battle done" (Latin, anonymous, 1753) *"In hunger, watch and prayer" (Latin, ''"Jesu quadragenaiae"'', Unknown author, pre-12th century) *"The Strife is O'er, the Battle Done" (Latin, ''"Finita jam sun proelia"'', 17th century)

References