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{{Short description|English churchman, theologian, textual critic, scholar, poet, hymnodist and writer (1810–1871)}}
{{For|other people with this name|Henry Alford (disambiguation)}}
 
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2012}}
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|birth_place = London, England
|death_date = {{death date and age|1871|1|12|1810|10|7|df=y}}
|resting_place= [[St Martin's Church, Canterbury]]
|nationality = English
|spouse = Frances Oke Alford (cousin)
|children = 2 sons and 2 daughters
|occupation = churchman, scholar, poet and writer
}}
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==Life==
Alford was born at 25 Alfred Place, Bedford Square, London<ref name=odnb>{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/341|title=Alford, Henry}}</ref>
Alford was born in London, of a [[Somerset]] family, which had given five consecutive generations of clergymen to the [[Anglican church]]. Alford's early years were passed with his widowed father, who was curate of [[Steeple Ashton]] in [[Wiltshire]]. He was a precocious boy, and before he was ten had written several [[Latin]] odes, a history of the [[Jew]]s and a series of [[homiletic]] outlines. After a peripatetic school course he went up to [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], in 1827 as a scholar. In 1832 he was 34th wrangler and 8th classic, and in 1834 was made fellow of Trinity.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>{{acad|id=ALFT827H|name=Alford, Henry}}</ref>▼
 
▲Alford was born in London, <blockquote>of a [[Somerset|Somersetshire]] family, which had given five consecutive generations of clergymen to the [[Anglican church]]. Alford's early years were passed with his widowed father, who was curate of [[Steeple Ashton]] in [[Wiltshire]]. He was a precocious boylad, and before he was ten had written several [[Latin]] odes, a history of the [[Jew]]s and a series of [[homiletic]] outlines. After a peripatetic school course he went up to Cambridge in 1827 as a scholar of [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity]], in 1827 as a scholar. In 1832 he was 34th wrangler and 8th classic, and in 1834 was made a fellow of Trinity.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>{{acad|id=ALFT827H|name=Alford, Henry}}</refblockquote>
 
==Service==
<blockquote>He had already taken orders, and in 1835 began his eighteen-year years' tenure of the vicarage of [[Wymeswold]] in [[Leicestershire]], from which seclusion the twice-repeated offer of a colonial [[Diocese|bishopric]] failed to draw him. He was [[Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity|Hulsean lecturer]] at Cambridge in 1841–1842, and steadily built up a reputation as scholar and preacher, which mightwould have been greaterenhanced if notbut for his excursionsdiscursive intoramblings in the fields of minor poetry and magazine editing.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}</blockquote>
 
In 1844, he joined the [[Cambridge Camden Society]] (CCS) which published a list of do's and don'ts for church layout which they promoted as a science. He commissioned [[Augustus Pugin|A.W.N. Pugin]] to restore St Mary's church. He also was a member of the [[Metaphysical Society]], founded in 1869 by [[James Thomas Knowles (1831-19081831–1908)|James Knowles]].
 
<blockquote>In September 1853 Alford moved to [[Church of the Annunciation, Marble Arch|Quebec Street Chapel]], [[Marylebone]], London, where he had a large congregation.<ref>{{cite book|last = Duffield|first = Samuel Willoughby|title = English hymns : their authors and history|yearcultured = 2005|publisher = Kessinger Publishing|location = [England]|isbn = 9780766154292|page = 120|author-link = Samuel Willoughby Duffield}}</ref>congregation. In March 1857 [[Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Lord Palmerston]] advanced him to the [[Dean of Canterbury|deanery of Canterbury]], where, till his death [...], he lived the same energeticstrenuous and diversediversified waylife as ever. Hethat had beenalways thecharacterized friend of most of his eminent contemporaries, and was much beloved for his amiable character. The inscription on his tomb, chosen by himself, is ''Diversorium Viatoris Hierosolymam Proficiscentis'' ("the lodging place of a traveler on his way to Jerusalem")him.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}</blockquote>
 
==Personal life==
Henry Alford married his cousin Frances (Fanny) Oke Alford on 10 March 1835 in [[Curry Rivel]], [[Somerset]]. They had four children, all born in Wymeswold, of whom both the sons died in childhood.<ref name=odnb>{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/341|title=Alford, Henry}}</ref> The first was Clement Henry Oke, who died in 1844, aged 11 months; the second was his elder brother Ambrose Oke, who died in [[Babbacombe]], [[Torquay]] aged 10, on 31 August 1850.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Deaths|newspaper=Trewman's Exeter Flying Post|page=8|date=12 September 1850}}</ref>
 
Henry and Francis' two daughters were:
 
{{block indent|(1) Alice Oke, born on 23 October 1836 and who died on 13 June 1908. She married William Thomas Bullock in Canterbury Cathedral. William, who was 18 years her senior, became the chaplain at Kensington Palace; he died on 27 February 1879.<ref>Personal communication from Chris Sutton, May 2024</ref>}}
 
{{block indent|(2) Frances Mary Oke, who married the Reverend Henry Edmund Tilsley Cruso on 12 February 1867 in Canterbury.}}
 
Henry Alford was the friend of many of his eminent contemporaries, and was much loved for his amiable character. He was buried at [[St Martin's Church, Canterbury]]. A description of the funeral and a tribute to Dean Alford were published in ''The Times''.<ref>{{Cite news|title=The late Dean Alford|location=London|newspaper=The Times|date=18 January 1871|page=5}}</ref> "The inscription on his tomb, chosen by himself, is ''Diversorium Viatoris Hierosolymam Proficiscentis'' ('the lodging place of a traveller on his way to Jerusalem')."{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} <!-- <ref>{{cite book|last = Duffield|first = Samuel Willoughby|title = English hymns : their authors and history|year = 2005|publisher = Kessinger Publishing|location = [England]|isbn = 9780766154292|page = 120|author-link = Samuel Willoughby Duffield}}</ref> -->
[[File:Alfords Greek testament.png|thumb|''New Testament in Greek'', now in 3 volume set]]
 
Frances Alford died in [[Middlesex]] on 18 November 1878.
 
==Published works==
 
<blockquote>Alford was a talented artist, as his picture-book, ''The Riviera'' (1870), shows, and he had abundant musical and mechanical talent. Besides editing the works of [[John Donne]], he published several volumes of his own verse, ''The School of the Heart'' (1835), ''The Abbot of Muchelnaye'' (1841), ''The Greek Testament. The Four Gospels'' (1849), and a number of [[hymns]], the best-known of which are "Forward! be our watchword," "[[Come, ye thankful people, come]]", and "Ten thousand times ten thousand." He translated the ''[[Odyssey]]'', wrote a well-known manual of [[idiom]], ''A Plea for the Queen's English'' (1863), and was the first editor of the [[The Contemporary Review|''Contemporary Review'']] (1866–1870).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}</blockquote>
 
{{Further|English translations of Homer#Alford}}
 
<blockquote>His chief fame, however, rests on his monumental edition of the ''New Testament in Greek'' (8 vols.), on which occupiedhe himworked from 1841 to 1861. In this work he first producedbrought before English students a careful collation of the readings of the chief manuscripts and the researches of the ripest continental scholarship of his day. [[philology|Philological]] rather than [[theology|theological]] in character, it marked an epochal change from the old homiletic commentary, and though more recent research, [[patristic]] and papyral, has largely changed the method of [[New Testament]] [[exegesis]], Alford's work is still a quarry where the student can dig with a good deal of profit.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}</blockquote> See [[Alford's Law]] for an example.
 
See [[Alford's Law]] for an example. Alford subsequently published the ''New Testament for English Readers'' (4 vols., Rivingtons, 1868). "His ''Life'', written by his widow, appeared in 1873 (Rivingtons)."{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
 
==References==
{{Reflist}}
 
==Further reading==
*{{Cite news|title=The Late Dean Alford|location=London|newspaper=The Times|date=3 April 1874|page=3}}
*{{Cite web|title=Biographical Sketches: Henry Alford|website=The Hare Society Website|url=https://augustus-hare.tripod.com/bsalford.html|access-date=26 May 2024}}
 
==Attribution==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Alford, Henry|volume=1|page=582}}
 
==Bibliography==
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| first =Charles S.
|last=Nutter
| title =Charles S. Nutter: Hymn Writers of the Church - Christian Classics Ethereal Library
|entry=Alford, Henry
|encyclopedia=Hymn Writers of the Church
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| url =http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc01/htm/iii.iii.vii.htm
| access-date = 2007-02-17 }}
*{{cite book
| last =Geraci
| first =Paolo
| title =Loano isola del Ponente. Variazioni su un tema di Alford. I
| publisher =Monboso Casa Editrice
| date =March 2000
| location =Gressoney Saint Jean, Ao, I
| pages =XXIII-XXIV
}}
 
==External links==
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* [http://matthew.journalspace.com/?cmd=displaycomments&dcid=2896&entryid=2896 Article on one of Alford's Hymns]{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* [http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/A/ALF/henry-alford.html Henry Alford] at the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1902)
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Alford,+Henry 36069| name=Henry Alford}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry Alford}}
 
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[[Category:1810 births]]
[[Category:1871 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century English Christian theologians]]
[[Category:Linguists of English]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
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[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:19th-century English musicians]]
[[Category:19th-century BritishEnglish male writers]]
[[Category:19th-century English writers]]
[[Category:People from Wymeswold]]
[[Category:Translators of Homer]]
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