Spirit, leave thine house of clay. J. Montgomery. [Death and Burial.] This, in its original form, is a poem in 14 stanzas of 4 lines. It was printed in Montgomery's Iris newspaper, July 14, 1803, and repeated in his Wanderer of Switzerland, and other Poems, in 1806, and again in his Poetical Works in 1828 and 1841. Its origin is explained in its title, which reads:—
”Verses to the Memory of the late Joseph Browne, of Lothersdale, one of the People called Quakers, Who suffered a long Confinement in the Castle of York, and Loss of all his worldly Property, for Conscience Sake."
To adapt the poem for congregational use stanzas i.-iv., xiii., and xiv., were slightly altered, and given in Collyer's Collection, 1812. This form was repeated in J. Conder's Congregational Hymn Book, 1836; the Leeds Hymn Book, 1853, and others, as "Spirit, leave thy house of clay."
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)