Rawson, George

Author

b Leeds, Yorks 1807, d Clifton, Bristol 1889. Manchester Grammar Sch; he qualified and practised as a solicitor and belonged to the Congregational church. With Conder and others he edited The Leeds Hymn Book in 1853, the most successful of many private collections for the thriving chapels of that time. He also assisted with Psalms and Hymns for the use of the Baptist Denomination (1858), which includes 27 of his own texts; he wrote some 80 in all. A vigorous and more liberal Free Ch favourite, now as then, is We limit not the truth of God, with a refrain closely modelled on Pastor John Robinson’s address to the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ in 1620: ‘The Lord hath yet more light and truth to break forth from his word’. The hymns originally appeared over the ascription ‘A Leeds Layman’; in 1876 GR published Hymns, Verses and Chants, and in 1885, Songs of Spiritual Thought. In retirement at Clifton, Bristol, he attended the local Highbury Chapel. 5 of his hymns are in the 1951 Congregational Praise and 5 (with 3 overlapping) in the 1962 Baptist Hymn Book; CH and GH each have 4. In Julian, W R Stevenson commends their refined and delicate thought and language, while regretting some of the author’s revisions of his own texts. No.645.