All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
        (Maker of Heaven and Earth, 1-4)

1. Maker of Heaven and Earth (All Things Bright and Beautiful)

Notes on Life and Works

Cecil Frances Humphreys was born at 25 Eccles Street, Dublin, and lived in Miltown House, county Tyrone, Ireland, beginning in 1833. She married the Right Reverend W. Alexander, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, in 1850. She wrote nearly 400 hymns, among which her work for children established her reputation as a poet. See Selected Poems of William Alexander, Archbishop of Armagh, 1896-1911, and Cecil Frances Alexander, edited A. P. Graves (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1930; PR 4004 A12A6 1930 Robarts Library).

• Litvack, Leon. "Alexander, Cecil Frances (1818-1895)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

Biographical information

Given name: Cecil Frances
Family name: Alexander
Maiden name: Humphreys
Birth date: 1818
Death date: 12 October 1895
Nationality: Irish
Family relations
          father: John Humphreys
          husband: William Alexander (from 15 October 1850)
Language: English
Religion: Christian
Literary movement: Oxford movement
Literary period: Victorian
Residences
          Ballykeane, Ireland: 1818 to 1833
          Milltown House, Strabane, Ireland: 1833 to 1850
          Tyrone, Ireland: 1850 to 1855
          Lough Swilly, Ireland: 1855 to 1860
          Strabane, Ireland: 1860 to 1867
          Londonderry, Ireland: 1867 to 1895
Buried at: Londonderry City Cemetery
First RPO edition: 1998