Born: November 27, 1787, St. Clement Danes, Middlesex, England. Died: February 25, 1862, Cambridge Heath, Middlesex, England. Buried: Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London. |
Reed wrote his own epitaph:
| I was born yesterday, I shall die tomorrow, And I must not spend today in telling what I have done, But in doing what I may for HIM who has done all for me. I sprang from the people, I have lived for the people– The most for the most unhappy; and the people when They know it will not suffer me to die out of loving remembrance. |
Husband of hymnist Elizabeth Reed, Andrew attended Hackney College, London, and became a Congregational minister. He was pastor at the New Road Chapel, St. George’s-in-the-East, then at Wycliffe Chapel, which he helped build in 1830. He also earned a degree from Yale College, and founded the London Orphan Asylum and Reed’s School in Cobham, Surrey. He wrote 21 total hymns. His works include:
Sources
Lyrics