Samuel Trevor Francis was born in 1834 in Chestnut, Hertz, England. He was raised by a godly mother and grandmother. He was taught to read using the Bible as a textbook and remembers his mother praying that her sons would grow up to be God-fearing men. Samuel attended church services regularly with his family and sang with the choir, but he was not saved.
As he grew older, his father arranged for him to be an apprentice with a medical doctor. He was in that program for 12 years. But after that year his father passed away and Samuel dropped out of the program. He went to stay with his uncle in Hull. There he met Mr. Akester, a chemist who was leading youth Bible studies. Samuel was exposed to clear gospel preaching through these meetings.
At age 19 when traveling back to London, he had to cross the Hungerford Bridge. He was feeling so lonely that he was tempted to end his life. When he drew back from that thought another emerged, a question - “You do believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?”. Samuel immediately answered that he believed and that he puts his trust in Christ as his Savior. He received the reply “Then you are saved”. With the joy of that response, Samuel ran across the bridge and went back home.
After becoming saved, Samuel was in search of a home assembly. He found a church similar to the assembly he attended in Hull. Later, he joined the Moody and Sankey London campaign in 1873-1874 as their singing director during the meetings. He wrote many hymns, but they were not added to the Little Flock hymnbook. Samuel did not believe that his poems/hymns should be altered to suit the needs of the hymnbook compilers.
Samuel later had a partial loss of sight and was encouraged to take a sea voyage. This voyage later became a world tour covering Canada, Australia, Palestine, Egypt, and other parts of North Africa. In December 1925, at age 92, Samuel Trevor Francis went to be with the Lord.
Some of Samuel Trevor Francis’ more well-known hymns include:
