Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Row, Thomas

ROW, THOMAS (1786–1864), hymn-writer, born in 1786, was educated for the baptist ministry. He lived first at Hadleigh, Suffolk, and became known to all the Calvinistic baptist congregations in East Anglia as a travelling preacher. Before 1838 he was settled as minister of a baptist church at Little Gransden, Cambridgeshire, and contributing regularly to the ‘Gospel Herald.’ His writings, chiefly hymns and religious papers, were first signed ‘A Labourer.’ He died on 3 Jan. 1864 at Little Gransden.

He published two volumes of hymns, without much poetical merit, many of which have passed into well-known collections. They are ‘Concise Spiritual Poems,’ &c., London, 1817, 12mo, containing 529 hymns and ‘Original and Evangelical Hymns … for private and public worship,’ London, 1822, 12mo, containing 543 hymns.

[Julian's Dict. of Hymnology, p. 979; Gospel Herald, 1838–64.]

C. F. S.