Engraving of James Montgomery. Source: Picture Sheffield.
‘Every time the organ plays over a hymn tune and the singers take a deep breath to proclaim “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed” they are using the words of James Montgomery, born in 1771 and died in 1854 after a colourful life’.
James Montgomery wrote more than 400 hymns, many of which are still sung today, including ‘Angels from the Realms of Glory’. Born in Scotland he came to Sheffield in 1792 and, after a period working as an assistant to Joseph Gales, the printer of the Sheffield Register, Montgomery took over the paper and changed its name to the Sheffield Iris. Gales was a Unitarian and an advocate for various radical causes, including support for the French Revolution. As a founding member of the Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information he was at risk of arrest and left England for America. Montgomery himself was very much in accord with Gales’ views and he was twice imprisoned for sedition: in 1795 he published a poem celebrating the fall of the Bastille in revolutionary France, and in 1796 for criticising a magistrate.
For a while the Iris was the only newspaper in Sheffield but Mongomery was essentially a poet rather than a journalist and he sold the paper in 1825. While he continued to write and publish poems and hymns Mongomery also became a noted reformer and philanthropist across the town. He campaigned for the abolition of the slave trade, for Sunday Schools and education for all, and championed the cause of chimney sweeps’ boys. Among his many public roles he was Chairman of Sheffield General Infirmary, a member of the Police Authority, and one of the founders of the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society.
In 1861 a monument designed by John Bell was erected over his grave in Sheffield General Cemetery at the cost of £1000, an amount raised by public subscription. The pedestal is inscribed: ‘Here lies interred, beloved by all who knew him, the Christian poet, patriot and philanthropist’.
Montgomery’s memorial and statue fell into disrepair and it was moved to the precincts of Sheffield Anglican Cathedral in 1971.
James Montgomery’s monument in the Sheffield General Cemetery. Source: Picture Sheffield.