This hymn is an evolved variation of "O Jesus, my Savior, I know thou art mine" by Caleb Jarvis Taylor, the eight-verse original published in 1804, and several times thereafter. In 1862, a revised version of the hymn emerged twice, without attribution, in the UK periodical The Christian Pioneer Vol XVI (1862) with the revised incipit "My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine" - first in six verses (Feb.) then in the present four verses (Oct.). A minor revision was published two years later in The London Hymn Book with a single phrase edited to adjust meter and rhyme. This version is today's canonical versification. The first stanza hews closely Taylor's original, and key turns of phrase are retained throughout, such as "If ever I loved thee" and "mansions on high" as "mansions of glory".

Taylor's original appeared in his own collection, a songster (pamphlet) entitled Spiritual Songs (Lexington, KY: Joseph Charles, 1804). Born 1763 into a Roman Catholic family in Maryland, he converted at age 20, and a few years later founded Mount Gilead Methodist Church in what was then a frontier state, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, in Bourbon County, now famed for its whiskey. He is the author of several hymns (Hymnary.org lists 26), many still sung today, including the original.

When the revised hymn was published 40 years posthumously in London, it appeared without attribution. It seems more than plausible the organization that published the work may have regarded the work of Taylor as their own - he was, after all, in integral part of the transatlantic Primitive Methodist revival movement in its early days and was still revered within its circles at mid-century. Conveniently, any copyrights were expired. The editorial revisions change the work's tenor from personal devotion to an invitational hymn, and added the 'on my brow' metaphor, a unifying poetic device absent in the original. The sharpened focus is powerful.  Though some mythology has been created to ascribe this sophistication to a schoolboy or an ironworker, depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on, there is not a single shred of documentary evidence for either. Not one word. Zip. Nothing. Substantiated documentation of authorship points only to Caleb Jarvis Taylor as the originating hymnographer, with theological and poetic finishes provided by Primitive Methodist publishers. See the addendum below to go deeper down this rabbit hole.

With the hymn's theology machined to a keen evangelical edge, the hymn only needed a tune sufficient to make its message compelling. Several tunes were tried along the way, but the one that reverberates was composed by Adoniram Judson Gordon, pastor of Clarendon Street Baptist Church and founder of the college now named, like the tune, after him. GORDON first appeared in The Vestry Hymn and Tune Book (Boston, 1872) - a volume he edited with the same versification found in The London Hymn Book, published eight years earlier.

For John Churchwell and the choir of St. John's Church, Gloucester, Mass.

Addendum this hymn was composed and edited by professionals. It is not the work of amateurs as suggested by some widespread, and completely unsubstantiated, myth-attributions. The truth makes a better story.

The Primitive Methodists are the connection between the two variants. As the industrial revolution gathered steam, emigrés from England had begun working in American mines and factories. With people on the move in both lands pursuing opportunities, many now rootless, the open air camp meeting had become a phenomenon in both the fledgling US and in established Britain, occasioning a division among Methodists. Wesleyan congregations refused to admit the supposed rabble of open air converts to their now mature Wesleyan churches, which were ironically founded in just such a movement, literally in a foundry. The Primitive Methodists separated and established circuits (the equivalent of a parish or diocese) in England, and sent missionaries to establish the same in America, resulting in a single transatlantic organization until 1840. An 1819 posthumous account of Taylor's contributions to hymn singing, the writer commented that it was common for pages to be torn out of the songsters and carried as separate sheets (image below), which goes a long way to explaining how the hymn might have arrived in England in the pockets of returning missionaries.

Caleb Jarvis Taylor was prominent in this movement, highly regarded both as preacher and hymnwriter by the English, and his original version was documented as circulating in England during the period of joint organization. Forty-two years after his death, an 1859 article on the camp meeting songwriters devoted several pages to his biography, noting particularly his poetic prowess. Only three years later, the first variant appeared with the new incipit and more focused tone.

Taylor's works were written expressly for the camp meeting, whose liturgical focus is the Invitation, often referred to as an altar call. There are no attributions at all in The London Hymn Book, and attributions are generally rare in Primitive Methodist literature. The authoritative The Dictionary of Hymnology listed "My Jesus I love thee" as anonymous in 1902, but explicitly documented the connection between the two versions (see the inset image above). A scan of numerous hymnals through 1909 credits the source as "The London Hymn Book" exclusively.

FURTHER READING