Robert Hall Baynes


Robert Hall Baynes was a bishop, a hymnodist and a hymn writer. He was editor of the Lyra Anglicana, which was among the most influential hymnals of the Oxford Movement in the 1860s and 1870s, having a relatively broad selection of Anglican authors.

Life

Baynes was born on 10 March 1831 at Wellington, Somerset, the son of Rev. Joseph Baynes and Ann Day Ash. Baynes married Clara Tate in Kensington, London, with whom he had four children.
He was educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford and graduated in 1856 with a Bachelor of Arts, and in 1859 with his Master of Arts. He took Holy Orders, and was successively curate of Christ Church, Blackfriars, London, perpetual curate of St Paul, Whitechapel and Holy Trinity, Maidstone, and vicar of St Michael and All Angels, Coventry. In 1870 he became Bishop designate of Madagascar; but he resigned in 1871 before taking up the post. In 1873 he was appointed as Hon. Canon of Worcester Cathedral, and in 1880 Vicar of Holy Trinity, Folkestone.
During his later life, Baynes became an alcoholic, and was convicted and imprisoned several times for fraud and theft. In October 1892 he was convicted of indecent assault upon on a girl of 10 in Twickenham.
He died at Oxford in March 1895 by accidentally catching his clothes alight while standing in front of the open fire in his lodgings.
Robert Hall Baynes is more widely known as the compiler of some most successful books of sacred poetry than as an original hymn-writer, although some of his hymns are of considerable merit, and are in extensive use. Of these the best known are “Jesu, to Thy table led," and "Holy Spirit, Lord of glory." He was editor of Lyra Anglicana, English Lyrics, The Canterbury Hymnal and the Supplementary Hymnal, The Illustrated Book of Sacred Poems and author of the Autumn Memories and other Verses. His hymns appeared in The Canterbury Hymnal, the Autumn Memories, and in the Churchman’s Shilling Magazine, of which he was sometime editor. His Home Songs for Quiet Hours were published in 1878, and the Hymns for Home Mission Services in the Church of England in 1879. To his eucharistic manual, At the Communion Time, a series of hymns for Holy Communion were added.

Works

Hymnbooks
Other books
Hymns