High let us swell our tuneful notes. P. Doddridge. [Christmas.] This hymn is undated in the D. MSS. It was first published in Job Orton's posthumous edition of Doddridge's Hymns, &c, 1755, No. 101, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and again in J. D. Humphreys's edition of the same, 1839, No. 224. It was included in the Supplement to Tate & Brady's New Version (q.v.), under the same circumstances as Doddridge's “My God, and is Thy table spread," and a few other hymns. It is in extensive use, the text adopted in most cases being that in the Supplement to Tate & Brady.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >
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