S. Fletcher

Fletcher, Samuel, born at Compton, near Wolverhampton, in 1785, and educated at the Wolverhampton Grammar School. In 1805 he went to Manchester, and entering into business, he gradually rose to a position of wealth and influence. He died at Manchester, Oct. 13, 1863. Although engaged in extensive mercantile pursuits he took an active interest in literature, and was one of the chief promoters of Owens College, Manchester. His hymns appeared in a small collection which he prepared during an illness, for use in his own family, and subsequently published as Family Praise, 1850.

From this collection the following hymns have come into common use:—
1. Father of light and life. Family Worship, Morning.
2. Lord, as a family we meet. Family Worship.
These hymns were given in the New Congregational Hymn Book, 1859. Miller's note on Mr. Fletcher (Singers and Songs, &c), and an article in Good Words, July, 1864, are well written and full of information.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)