Duffield’s fa­ther and grand­fa­ther were Pres­by­ter­i­an min­is­ters. He grad­u­at­ed from Yale Un­i­ver­si­ty in 1837, and from the Un­ion The­o­log­ic­al Sem­in­ary in 1840. Or­dained a Pres­by­ter­i­an min­is­ter like his fa­ther and grand­fa­ther, he first pas­tored at the Fifth Pres­by­ter­i­an Church in Brook­lyn, New York, for se­ven years. He then served at the First Church of Bloom­field, New Jer­sey (1847-52), the Cen­tral Pres­by­ter­i­an Church of the North­ern Lib­er­ties in Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia (1852-61). There he found a mort­gaged church build­ing in a neigh­bor­hood from which the pop­u­la­tion was mov­ing west­ward, a con­gre­ga­tion re­duced in num­bers, dis­heart­ened, and un­a­ble to meet its fi­nan­cial ob­li­ga­tions. Duf­field held on un­til 1861, when he re­signed his pas­tor­ate. He lat­er served at Adri­an, Mich­i­gan (1861-5); Gales­burg, Ill­i­nois (1865-9); then Sag­i­naw Ci­ty, Mich­i­gan, 1869; and Ann Ar­bor and Lans­ing, Mi­chi­gan (from 1869). Hymn­ol­o­gist Sam­u­el Duf­field was his son. George’s works in­clude:

• Hymns for Schools and Bi­ble Class­es, 1859
• Hymns, Orig­in­al and Trans­lat­ed, 1888

Sources

Hymns

1. Blessed Savior, Thee I Love
2. Parted for Some Anxious Days
3. Slowly in Sadness and in Tears
4. Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus