The only one of Mrs. Follen’s hymns in present use is 4c, in The Isles of Shoals Hymn Book, 1908, but several of her poems are included in Putnam’s Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith.
J. 380, 1298 H.W.F.
Foote, Rev. Henry Wilder (I), Salem, Massachusetts, June 2, 1838—May 29, 1889, Boston, Massachusetts. Educated at Harvard, A.B. 1858; A.M. 1861; graduated at the Harvard Divinity School, 1861. He was minister of King’s Chapel (Unitarian), Boston, from 1861 until his death, and his book, The Annals of King’s Chapel (vol. I, 1882, vol. II, 1896, completed by others) gives an authoritative account of the religious controversies in Colonial Boston. At the time of his death he had in preparation a hymnbook to replace the [Collection of Psalms and Hymns] which his predecessor, Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood, q.v., had published in 1830. His hymnbook was completed by his widow, his sister [Mrs. Mary W. Tileston], (q.v.) and his brother Arthur Foote, and was published in 1891 as Hymns of the Church Universal. It was notable for its scholarly catholicity and helped to introduce to American congregations the then popular English hymn tunes of the “cathedral school” by Barnby, Dykes, Stainer, Sullivan and others. The book included the hymn which Mr. Foote had written for the Visitation Day (graduation exercises) at the Divinity School in 1861,
O Thou with whom in sweet content
This hymn has also been included in Hymns for Church and Home, 1896, in The New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914, and in Hymns of the Spirit, 1937.
J. 1604 H.W.F.
Foote, Rev. Henry Wilder (II), D.D., Litt.D., Boston, Massachusetts, February 2, 1875—still living. Son of the above; educated at Harvard, A.B. 1897; A.M. 1900; S.T.B. 1902. He entered the Unitarian ministry and has served churches in New Orleans, Louisiana; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Belmont, Massachusetts and Charlottesville, Virginia. From 1914-1924 he was an assistant professor at the Harvard Divinity School where he gave a course on the history of Christian hymnody. He was secretary of the committee which edited The New Hymn and Tune Book, published in 1914 by the American Unitarian Association, and was chairman of the committee which edited Hymns of the Spirit, published in 1937 by the Beacon Press (to be distinguished from the earlier Hymns of the Spirit by S. Johnson and S. Longfellow, 1864). This later book includes one hymn by Dr. Foote beginning,
Thou whose love brought us to birth,
Dr. Foote also edited the words in The Concord Anthem Book, 1924, and in The Second Concord Anthem Book, 1936, for which Professor Archibald T. Davison selected and edited the music. He is the author of several books and articles on the cultural or religious aspects of American colonial history, one of which, Three Centuries of American Hymnody, 1940, covers the period from the publication of the Bay Psalm Book in 1640 to the late nineteen-thirties.
Freeman, James, D.D., Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 22, 1759—November 14, 1835, Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1777. In March, 1776, Rev. Henry Caner, rector of King’s Chapel, Boston, left with the British troops when they evacuated the town, accompanied by many of his leading parishioners. The remaining members of the church in September, 1782, engaged James Freeman as a lay “Reader” to conduct worship. The prayers for the King and royal family of England had been dropped and Freemen soon began to omit references to the Trinity, expecting soon to be dismissed as Reader. Instead the congregation voted to revise the liturgy in accordance with his beliefs and in 1785 published the first edition of the “Book of Common Prayer according to the Use of King’s Chapel.” This action led Bishop Seabury, after his arrival in America, to refuse ordination to Freeman, whereupon the congregation ordained him according to Congregational usage. Freeman thus became “the first avowed preacher of Unitarianism in the United States.” He remained active pastor of the Chapel until 1826. He edited a Collection of Psalms and Hymns for public worship, published in 1799. It included 155 psalms “selected chiefly from Tate and Brady,” followed by 90 hymns, and remained in use in the Chapel until the publication in 1830 of the much better [Collection edited by his successor, Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood], q.v. Freeman wrote one hymn