Born: De­cem­ber 4, 1779, Can­nock, Staf­ford­shire, Eng­land.

Died: De­cem­ber 29, 1823, Shef­field, Eng­land (Ju­li­an says the Gen­tle­men’s Mag­a­zine in­cor­rect­ly pub­lished Cot­ter­ill’s death date as Jan­u­a­ry 5, 1824).

After at­tend­ing the lo­cal board­ing school of Rev. J. Lo­max, Cot­ter­ill went the Free School in Birm­ing­ham. He gra­du­a­ted from St. John’s Coll­ege, Cam­bridge (BA 1801, MA 1805), of which he be­came a Fel­low. Tak­ing Ho­ly Or­ders, he be­came Cur­ate of Tut­bu­ry in June 1803. Sub­se­quen­tly, he held po­si­tions as In­cum­bent of Lane End, Staf­ford­shire, 1808-17, and Per­pe­tu­al Cur­ate of St. Paul’s Shef­field, 1817-1823.

Cotterill pub­lished his Fam­i­ly Pray­ers in six edi­tions. Though he wrote some orig­in­al hymns, he is bet­ter known as the com­pil­er of Se­lect­ion of Psalms and Hymns, Adapt­ed to the Fes­tiv­als of the Church of Eng­land, which had a marked ef­fect on mo­dern hymn­als. The first edi­tion of the Se­lect­ion was in 1810, and the ninth in 1820. Cot­ter­ill him­self con­trib­ut­ed 25 orig­in­al hymns and ver­sions of in­di­vid­u­al psalms to the Se­lect­ion.

Sources

Hymns

1. Awake, O Sword, the Father Cried
2. Before Thy Throne of Grace, O Lord
3. Blessed Are They Who Mourn for Sin
4. Dread Jehovah, God of Na­tions
5. Father of Mercies, Let Our Songs
6. From Sinai’s Mount, in Might Arrayed
7. From Thine All Seeing Spirit, Lord
8. God, in the Gospel of His Son
9. Help Us, O Lord, Thy Yoke to Wear
10. I Love the Lord, for He Hath Heard
11. I Was Alive Without the Law
12. In All the Ways and Works of God
13. In Memory of the Savior’s Love
14. Jesus Exalted Far on High
15. Let Songs of Prais­es Fill the Sky
16. Lo in the East a Star Appears
17. Lord, Cause Thy Face on Us to Shine
18. Lord, Who Once on Calvary, The
19. Lord of the Sabbath, ’Tis Thy Day
20. O’er the Realms of Pagan Darkness
21. Out of the Deeps, O Lord, We Call
22. When Christ, Victorious from the Grave