1769 - 1822 Hymnal Number: d23 Author of "As o'er the past my memory strays" in The Christian Lyre Middleton, Thomas Fanshaw, D.D., son of Thomas Middleton, Rector of Redleston, in Derbyshire, was born there on Jan. 26, 1769. He was educated first by his father, then at Christ's Hospital, and finally at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge (B.A. in honours 1792). He was successively Curate of Gainsborough; Rector of Tansor, Northamptonshire, 1795; Vicar of St. Pancras, 1810; Archdeacon of Huntingdon, 1812; and the first bishop of Calcutta, 1814. He died in Calcutta, July 8, 1822. Bishop Middleton's publications were mainly confined to various Sermons and Charges, and a work on the Greek Article. In 1824 his Sermons and Charges were collected and published with a short Memoir, by Dr. H. R. Bonney. At p. xciv. the only hymn ascribed to him is given with the explanation that it was composed by the Bishop "and always sung on new year's day, by his desire." It is: "As o'er the past my mem'ry strays"(New Year), in 4 st. of 4 1. It was printed in the August number of Carus Wilson's Family Visitor, 1826; again in Hall's Mitre Hymnal, 1836, and later in several collections. Original text in Book of Praise, 1862, p. 238.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
T. F. Middleton
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