Gerard Thomas Noel

Gerard Thomas Noel (1782–1851) was a Church of England cleric, known as a hymn writer.[1]

Life

Born on 2 December 1782, he was second son of Sir Gerard Noel, 2nd Baronet, and Diana Noel, a baroness in her own right as the only child of Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham; one of a family of 18, he was elder brother of Baptist Wriothesley Noel. The eldest son Charles was created an Earl in 1841, and the brothers were given the courtesy prefix The Honourable. His mother was a noted patron of evangelical ministers and abolitionist.[2][3]

Noel was at school in Langley, Kent. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, entered Lincoln's Inn in 1798, and went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1805 and M.A. in 1808.[2][4]

On taking holy orders Noel held successively the curacy of Radwell, Hertfordshire and the vicarage of Rainham, Kent, also being curate at Richmond, Surrey.[2][5] He became vicar of Romsey Abbey, Hampshire. He was instituted to Romsey in 1840. He was also appointed in 1834 to an honorary canonry at Winchester Cathedral. At Romsey he restored the abbey church.[2]

Noel died at Romsey on 24 February 1851.[2] He has been described as "a conservative evangelical whose theology was Calvinistic and premillennialist", and an opponent of the Catholic Apostolic Church.[6]

Romsey Abbey, today

Works

Noel's published works were:[2]

  • A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship, a compilation which includes compositions of his own, 1810.
  • Arvendel, or Sketches in Italy and Switzerland, 1826.
  • Fifty Sermons for the Use of Families, 1826, 1827.
  • A Brief Inquiry into the Prospects of the Church of Christ, 1828.
  • A Letter to ... Lord Teignmouth, President of the British and Foreign Bible Society, on the Present Character of the Institution, 1831.[7] Noel and his brother Baptist Noel left the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1831, over a denominational issue; but they returned the following year.[8]
  • Fifty Sermons preached at Romsey, 1853, with preface by Samuel Wilberforce, a close friend.

Family

Noel was twice married, first in 1806 to Charlotte Sophia, daughter of Sir Lucius O'Brien, 3rd Baronet, and secondly in 1841 to Susan, daughter of Sir John Kennaway, 1st Baronet.[2][9] There were six daughters of the first marriage:[10][11]

Notes

  1. ↑ Josiah Miller (1866). Our Hymns: their authors and origin, etc. p. 298.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Noel, Gerard Thomas" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 41. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. ↑ Carter, Grayson. "Noel. Diana". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/47112. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ↑ "Noel, the Hon. Gerard Thomas (NL801GT)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  5. ↑ Miller, Josiah (1869). Singers and songs of the Church, sketches of the hymn-writers. p. 371.
  6. ↑ "Summary of Individual, Hon. Rev. Gerard Thomas Noel 2nd Dec 1782 – 24th Feb 1851, Legacies of British Slave-ownership". Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  7. ↑ Gerard Thomas Noel (1831). A Letter to ... Lord Teignmouth, President of the British and Foreign Bible Society, on the Present Character of the Institution. J. Hatchard & Son.
  8. ↑ William Jones (1834). Memoirs of the Life, Ministry and Writings of the Rev. Rowland Hill. J. Bennett. p. 267.
  9. ↑ The Peerage, Baronetage, And Knightage, Of Great Britain And Ireland. Whittaker And Company. 1863. p. 694.
  10. ↑ Carter, Grayson. "Noel, Gerard Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20233. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  11. ↑ Burke, Bernard (1891). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry. Vol. I. London: Harrison. p. 112. Retrieved 28 February 2017 – via Internet Archive.
  12. ↑ Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry. H. Colburn. 1847. p. 875.
  13. ↑ "Drummond, James Money (MNY823JD)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  14. ↑ Philip H. Highfill; Kalman A. Burnim; Edward A. Langhans (1984). A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800: M'Intosh to Nash. SIU Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-8093-1130-9.
  15. ↑ Thom's Directory of Ireland. 1876. p. 350.
  16. ↑ Ian Bradley (14 September 2006). Daily Telegraph Book of Hymns. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-4411-3969-6.
  17. ↑ "Caroline Maria Noel - Dictionary of Hymnology". Retrieved 28 February 2017.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Noel, Gerard Thomas". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 41. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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