Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey

Jersey, Margaret Elizabeth Villiers, née Leigh, Countess of, eldest daughter of Lord Leigh, of Stoneleigh, in the county of Warwick, was born Oct. 29,1849, and in 1872 was married to the Earl of Jersey. In 1871 the Religious Tract Society published a small collection of her hymns and poems under the title of Hymns and Poems for very Little Children. A second series under the same title appeared in 1875. They "were mostly written by Lady Jersey before she married, for the use of a little sister, it being difficult to find hymns composed in language simple enough for a very young child." And certainly they are distinguished by a charming simplicity both of thought and language. Six of these hymns were included in W. R. Stevenson's School Hymnal, 1880. Some of these are repeated in the Voice of Praise (London S. S. Union) and other collections. Her hymns in common use are:—
1. Here am I, for thou didst call me. Child Samuel.
2. Holy Jesus, Who didst die. A Child's Prayer.
3. I am a little soldier. A child of God.
4. 0 let me praise my God and King, Praise to God the Father.
5. Speak the truth, for that is right. Speaking the Truth.
6. There are many lovely things below!. Heaven.
[Rev. W. R. Stevenson, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)