Robert Brown-Borthwick › Tunes

Brown-Borthwick, Robert, born at Aberdeen, May 18, 1840, and educated at St. Mary Hall, Oxford. Taking Holy Orders in 1865, he has been Curate of Sudeley (and Chaplain of the Winchcombs Union), Gloucestershire, 1865-6, and Evesham, 1866-8; Assistant Minister of Quebec Chapel, London, 1868-9; and Incumbent of Holy Trinity, Grange, near Keswick, 1869. He is now (1886) Vicar of All Saints, Scarborough. His publications, in addition to his prose works, are:— Supplemental Hymn and Tune Book, 1867 (4th edition, 1871); Sixteen Hymns for Church and Home, 1870; Select Hymns for Church and Home, 1871; and various Kyries, Hymn Tunes, Chants, &c. In addition he has rendered good service as one of the four Editors of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns. In this last work three of his best hymns are found: “Come, O Jesu, to Thy Table"; "O Holy Jesu, Prince of Peace”; "Let us raise our grateful voices." Canon Westcott in his Paragraph Psalter acknowledges Mr. Brown-Borthwick's assistance in preparing that work for the press as of great value thereto. He died March 17, 1894.
Of Mr. Brown-Borthwick's hymns the following appeared in his Sixteen Hymns, &c, 1870:—
1. Come, O Jesus, to Thy Table. Holy Communion.
2. Lord, in the watches of the night. Midnight.
3. O Holy Jesu, Prince of Peace. Holy Communion. The author's note to this hymn is, "This is not a congregational hymn, but a meditation, to be read while non-communicants are retiring, or to be sung by the choir alone, anthem-wise, kneeling."
These hymns were repeated in his Select Hymns, &c, 1871-85. The following is also in that collection:—
4. Let us raise our grateful [gladsome] voices . Flower Services, or Thanksgiving. "Written in Borrowdale, on a summer morning in 1870," and published in the S. P. C. K. Church Hymns, 1871, &c.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)