Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Critical and Biographical Essay by Alfred H. Miles

The Moultries

THE MOULTRIES, father, son, and daughter, were all writers of verse which became more or less popular. The Rev. John Moultrie (1799–1874) was for nearly fifty years Rector of Rugby, where his son, Gerard Moultrie, and his daughter, Mary Dunlop Moultrie, were born. While at Eton, where he was contemporary with Praed and the other brilliant boys who started the Etonian, he wrote a poem, “My Brother’s Grave,” in commemoration of a brother who had died at Eton, and was buried in the chapel—a noteworthy poem for one so young, and one which gave the title to a volume of poems published by him in 1837, “My Brother’s Grave and other Poems.” This volume contained two other poems, which have been many times reprinted, “The Three Sons,” and a song “Here’s to thee, my Scottish Lassie.” He also published “Dream of Life, Lays of the English Church” (1843); “Memoir and Poetical Remains of W. S. Walker” (1852), etc., etc. He also wrote a number of hymns which were included in “Psalms and Hymns as Sung at the Parish Church, Rugby” (1851).

His son Gerard Moultrie (1829–1885) was educated at Rugby and Exeter College, Oxford. After taking Holy Orders, he became third master and chaplain in Shrewsbury School; Curate of Brightwaltham, 1859; of Brinfield, Berks, 1860; Chaplain of the Donative of Barrow Gurney, Bristol, 1864; Vicar of Southleigh, 1869; and Warden of St. James’s College, Southleigh, 1873. He published “The Primer set forth at large for the Use of the Faithful in Family and Private Prayer,” edited from the post-Reformation editions (1864); “Hymns and Lyrics for the Seasons and Saints’ Days of the Church” (1867); “The Espousals of St. Dorothea and other Verses” (1870); “Cantica Sanctorum; or, Hymns for the Black-Letter Saints’ Days in the English and Scottish Calendars, to which are added a few Hymns for Special Occasions” (1880). Gerard Moultrie’s hymns include translations from the Greek, Latin, and German. The following is a favourable example.

Mary Dunlop Moultrie (1837–1866) contributed a number of hymns to her brother’s “Hymns and Lyrics” (1867), where they are distinguished by her initials.