1776-1848

Feb­ru­a­ry 12, 1776, South­amp­ton, Eng­land.

No­vem­ber 2, 1848, Bal­ly­mo­ney, Coun­ty An­trim, Ire­land.

St. James’ church­yard, Hills­bo­rough, Coun­ty Down, Ire­land.

Richard Mant (1776-1848)

Mant was ed­u­cat­ed at Win­ches­ter and Trin­i­ty, Ox­ford (BA 1797, MA 1799). At Ox­ford, he won the Chan­cel­lor’s prize for an Eng­lish es­say; he was a Fel­low of Or­i­el, and for some time Coll­ege Tu­tor. Af­ter tak­ing Ho­ly Or­ders, he was suc­cess­ive­ly cur­ate to his fa­ther, then of one or two other plac­es; Vi­car of Cog­ges­hall, Es­sex (1810); Do­mes­tic Chap­lain to the Arch­bi­shop of Can­ter­bu­ry (1813); rec­tor of St. Bo­tolph, Bi­shops­gate, Lon­don (1816), and East Hors­ley (1818); Bi­shop of Kil­la­loe (1820); of Down and Con­nor (1823); and of Dro­more (1842). He was al­so Bamp­ton Lec­tur­er in 1811.

Mant is known chief­ly through his trans­la­tions from La­tin. John El­ler­ton, in his Notes on Church Hymns, 1881, said:

Mant had lit­tle know­ledge of hymns, and mere­ly took those of the ex­ist­ing Ro­man Bre­vi­a­ry as he found them; con­se­quent­ly he had to omit ma­ny, and so to al­ter others that they have in fact be­come dif­fer­ent hymns; nor was he al­ways hap­py in his ma­nip­u­la­tion of them. But his book has much good taste and de­vout feel­ing, and has fal­len in­to un­de­served ne­glect.

Mant’s other works in­clude:

  1. Before Thy Mer­cy’s Throne
  2. Blessed Be the Lord Most High
  3. Bright the Vision That De­light­ed
  4. Father of All, from Whom We Trace
  5. For These Who First Pro­claimed Thy Word
  6. For Thy Dear Saints
  7. God My King, Thy Might Con­fess­ing
  8. Lo! He Comes, an In­fant Stran­ger
  9. Lo, the Day the Lord Hath Made
  10. Lord, Thy Glo­ry Fills the Hea­ven
  11. Lord, to Thee I Make My Vows
  12. My Trust Is in the High­est Name
  13. No! When He Bids Me Seek His Face
  14. Oft as in God’s Own House We Sit
  15. Put Off Thy Shoes, ’Tis Ho­ly Ground
  16. Reign, Je­ho­vah, King Su­preme
  17. Savior of Men, Our Hope and Rest
  18. Savior, Who Ex­alt­ed High
  19. There Is a Dwell­ing Place Above
  20. Thy House Each Day of Hal­lowed Rest
  21. Thy List­en­ing Ear, O Lord, In­cline
  22. To God My Ear­nest Voice I Raise
  23. To Je­ho­vah Hymn the Lay
  24. We Bless Thee for Thy Church, O Lord
  25. We Deem and Own It, Lord, a Proof
  1. Come Ho­ly Ghost, Cre­at­or Blest
  2. Let the Round World with Songs Re­joice, Let All on Earth Their Voic­es Raise
  3. See the Des­tined Day Arise