Martineau was son of a man­u­fac­tur­er and wine mer­chant of Hu­gue­not de­scent. Af­ter four years at the Nor­wich gram­mar school, and two as pu­pil of Dr. Lant Car­pent­er in Bris­tol, and a short ex­per­i­ence in the shops of a me­chan­ic­al en­gin­eer in Der­by, Martineau be­came a di­vin­i­ty stu­dent at Man­ches­ter Coll­ege, York. His first min­is­try was at Eus­tace Street Cha­pel, Dub­lin (1828-32), as as­sist­ant to his cou­sin, Rev. Philip Taylor. From 1832 to 1857, he was in Liv­er­pool as min­is­ter of the con­gre­ga­tion meet­ing in Par­a­dise Street Cha­pel, and from 1849 in the new Hope Street Church. In 1840 he was ap­point­ed pro­fes­sor of Men­tal and Mor­al Phil­o­so­phy and Po­lit­ic­al Econ­o­my at Man­ches­ter New Coll­ege, and in 1857 fol­lowed the coll­ege to Lon­don, be­com­ing its Prin­ci­pal in 1869, and re­sign­ing in 1885. On set­tling in Lon­don, he be­came al­so min­is­ter of Lit­tle Port­land Street Cha­pel, first in con­junc­tion with the Rev. J. J. Tayler, and af­ter­ward alone un­til his res­ig­na­tion in 1872. Ox­ford award­ed him the de­gree of DCL in 1888. Mar­tin­eau’s works in­clude:

• A Collection of Hymns for Christ­ian Wor­ship (Dub­lin: 1831) (ed­it­or)
• Hymns for the Christ­ian Church and Home (Lon­don: 1840)
• Endeavours af­ter the Christ­ian Life, 1843 & 1847
• Hours of Thought on Sac­red Things, 1876 & 1879
• Studies of Christ­i­an­i­ty, 1858
• Essays Phil­o­so­phic­al and The­o­lo­gic­al, 1866 & 1868
• Hymns of Praise and Pray­er (Lon­don: 1873)
• A Study of Spi­no­za, 1882
• Types of Eth­ic­al The­o­ries, 1885 & 1886

Lyrics

1. Thy Way Is in the Deep
2. Voice upon the Midnight Air, A
3. Where Is Your God?