BARING-GOULD

Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. The manor house of Lew Trenchard, near Okehampton, Devon, has been preserved as he had it rebuilt and is now a hotel. He is remembered particularly as a writer of hymns, the best-known being Onward, Christian Soldiers.He took Holy Orders in 1864, and became the curate at Horbury Bridge, West Riding of Yorkshire. It was while acting as a curate that he met Grace Taylor, the daughter of a mill hand, then aged fourteen. In the next few years they fell in love. His vicar, John Sharp, arranged for Grace to live for two years with relatives in York to learn middle-class manners. Baring-Gould, meanwhile, relocated to become perpetual curate at Dalton, near Thirsk. He and Grace were married in 1868 at Wakefield.