William W. Walford
Musician
Best known for
Songwriter
William W. Walford was a nineteenth-century English Congregational minister and lay preacher credited with the lyric to “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” the 1845 hymn set in 1861 by William Batchelder Bradbury to the tune that carried it into the standard country, bluegrass, and Southern-gospel repertoires.
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- Worked as a blind Congregational lay preacher and small-shop keeper in Coleshill, Warwickshire, England.
- Composed “Sweet Hour of Prayer” orally; the lyric was transcribed by Thomas Salmon, a visiting American clergyman, around 1842.
- Salmon first published the poem anonymously in the September 13, 1845 New York Observer; it was attributed to Walford only later.
- William Batchelder Bradbury set the lyric to its familiar tune in 1861.
- The hymn has been recorded by country, bluegrass, and Southern-gospel acts from the Carter Family to Loretta Lynn to Alison Krauss.
