Robert S. McAll

McAll, Robert Stephens, LL.D., son of the Rev. Robert McAll, was born at Plymouth, Aug. 4, 1792, and educated at Axminster, Devon; Hoxton, London; and Edinburgh University. He graduated M.A. at Edinburgh in 1813, and gave himself for a time to the study of medicine. He was for some time Chaplain of the Macclesfield School, and from 1814 to 1826 minister of St. George's Chapel in the same town. In 1827 he became minister of Mosley Street Chapel, Manchester, and held the same to his death on July 27, 1838. In 1812 he contributed to Dr. Collyer's Collection 8 hymns, which appeared as by "K. S. M." Through one of these, "Hark! how the choral song of heaven" (The Song of Heaven), he is somewhat widely known to hymnody. His Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship, Macclesfield, J. Swinnerton, n. d. [circa 1823], was published without Preface, or names of authors. Not one of the 8 hymns contributed by him to Collyer's Collection is therein, and there is nothing to show which are his original compositions. [F. J. Faulding, D.D.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)