MONTGOMERY, JAMES

born Nov. 4, 1771, Irvine, Ayrshire, Scot. died April 30, 1854, Sheffield, Yorkshire, Eng. Scottish poet and journalist best remembered for his hymns and versified renderings of the Psalms, which are among the finest in English, uniting fervour and insight in simple verse. The son of a Moravian minister, Montgomery was first a shop assistant, then a journalist. He wrote some 22 books of verse. In 1835, through the agency of Sir Robert Peel, then prime minister, he was given a pension.