Samuel Augustus Willoughby Duffield

Background

Samuel Augustus Willoughby Duffield was born on September 24, 1843 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. He was fourth in descent from Reverend George Duffield, grandson of Rev. George Duffield and the son of Rev. George Duffield and Anna Augusta Willoughby. His father was a Presbyterian clergyman and writer of hymns, some of which are now widely used in public worship.

Education

Duffield graduated from Yale in the class of 1863. The following winter he was in charge of the Adrian, Michigan, high school. He then studied theology under his father and grandfather, and was licensed to preach by the Knox Presbytery of Illinois.

Career

After being in charge of the Mosely Mission, Chicago, for six months, and preaching and studying for a period in New York and Philadelphia, Duffield was called to the latter city and ordained and installed pastor of the Kenderton Presbyterian Church on November 12, 1867.

He bad a brief pastorate in Jersey City in 1870, and was subsequently pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan (1871 - 74), of the Eighth Presbyterian Church, Chicago; acting pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church, Auburn, New York. (1876 - 78); pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Altoona (1878 - 81); and thereafter pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Bloomfield, New Jearsey, relinquishing active work in 1886 because of a heart affection from which he died less than two years later.

A volume of his poems, Warp and Woof, was issued in 1870. He had previously published, The Heavenly Land (1867), a translation in English verse of De Contemptu Mundi by Bernard of Cluny. Five of his hymns, four of them translations, appeared in Charles Seymour Robinson’s Laudes Domini (1884).

In collaboration with his father he also prepared and published, The Burial of the Dead (1882).

Achievements

• Duffield's greatest contribution to hymnology, however, is his elaborate work, English Hymns: Their Authors and History (1886). At the time of his death he was engaged on a similar work, The Latin Hymn Writers and Their Hymns (1889), which was completed and edited by Robert E. Thompson.

Works

More photos

• book

  • English Hymns: Their Authors and History 1886

    (Originally published in 1886. This volume from the Cornel...)

  • Heavenly Land From the De Contemptu Mund
  • Burial of the Dead: A Pastor's Complete Hand-Book for Funeral Services, and for the Consolation and Comfort of the Afflicted

Personality

Duffield was a man of literary tastes and poetic gifts.

Connections

Duffield married Hattie S. , daughter of Isaac Haywood.

Father:

George Duffield

Mother:

Anna Augusta Willoughby

Grandfather:

George Duffield

Wife:

Hattie S. Haywood