Born: De­cem­ber 12, 1800, Poug­hill, De­von­shire, Eng­land, Eng­land.

Died: June 9, 1881, St. Ma­ry­le­bone, Eng­land.

Wreford trained for the Un­i­tar­i­an min­is­try at Man­ches­ter Coll­ege, York, and in 1826 suc­ceed­ed James Yates as co-pas­tor to John Kent­ish at the New Meet­ing in Birm­ing­ham. In 1831, his voice failed, and he with­drew from the min­is­try; in con­junct­ion with Hugh Hutton, he opened a school at Edg­bas­ton, Birmingham. In 1837, he con­trib­ut­ed 55 hymns to J. R. Beard’s Col­lect­ion of Hymns for Pub­lic and Pri­vate Wor­ship. Wre­ford al­so wrote sev­er­al vol­umes of verse, main­ly de­vo­tion­al. He spent the lat­ter years of his life in re­tire­ment in Bris­tol. Wre­ford’s works in­clude:

• A trans­la­tion of Cel­ler­i­er’s Dis­course on the Au­then­ti­ci­ty and Di­vine Ori­gin of the Old Test­a­ment, 1830
• Sketch of the His­to­ry of Pres­by­ter­i­an Non­con­for­mi­ty in Birm­ing­ham, 1832
• Lays of Loy­al­ty, 1837 (in cel­e­bra­tion of Queen Vic­tor­ia’s ac­cess­ion)

Sources

Hymns

1. God of the Ocean, Earth and Sky
2. Lord, I Be­lieve, Thy Pow­er I Own
3. Lord, While for All Man­kind We Pray
4. When My Love to God Grows Weak