Born: Au­gust 15, 1802, Serjeants’ Inn, Fleet Street, Lon­don, Eng­land.

Died: March 8, 1862, Lon­don, Eng­land.

Eldest son of Sir John Gur­ney, Bar­on of the Ex­cheq­uer, Gur­ney was ed­u­cat­ed at Trin­i­ty Coll­ege, Cam­bridge (AB 1824, AM 1828). On tak­ing Ho­ly Or­ders, he be­came Cur­ate of Lut­ter­worth (1824-1844); and sub­se­quent­ly Rec­tor of St. Ma­ry’s, Ma­ry­le­bone; and Pre­ben­da­ry of St. Paul’s Ca­thed­ral. He was an ac­tive sup­port­er of the So­ci­e­ty for Pro­mot­ing Christ­ian Know­ledge and other re­li­gious so­ci­e­ties. His works in­clude:

• Church Psalm­ody: Hints for the Im­prove­ment of a Col­lect­ion of Hymns Pub­lished by the So­ci­e­ty for Pro­mot­ing Christ­ian Know­ledge, 1853
• A Col­lect­ion of Hymns for Pub­lic Wor­ship (Lut­ter­worth, 1838) (known as his Lut­ter­worth Col­lect­ion)
• Psalms and Hymns for Pub­lic Wor­ship, Se­lect­ed for Some of the Church­es of Ma­ry­le­bone (Lon­don: 1851) (known as his Ma­ry­le­bone Col­lect­ion)

Sources

Hymns

1. Earth to Earth, and Dust to Dust
2. Fair Waved the Gold­en Corn
3. Great King of Na­tions, Hear Our Pray­er
4. Lord, as to Thy Dear Cross We Flee
5. Savior, What Wealth Was Thine
6. Soon to the Dust We Speed
7. Thou God of Mer­cy and of Might
8. Thou Plen­te­ous Source of Light and Love
9. Thou Who of Old Didst Raise
10. Through Cen­tu­ries of Sin and Woe
11. We Praise Thee, Ev­er­last­ing God
12. We Saw Thee Not when Thou Didst Come
13. Yes, God Is Good