Byrom, John

BYROM, JOHN: Author of "Christians awake, salute the happy morn," a Christmas hymn in almost universal use in England; b. at Kersall Cell, Broughton, near Manchester, Feb. 29, 1692; d. there Sept. 26, 1763. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, 1708 (B.A., 1712; M.A., 1715), and became fellow, 1714; contributed to the Spectator; invented a system of shorthand and taught it with success; became F.R.S., 1724; succeeded to the family estate at Kersall, 1740, and spent his later years there. He was a mystic and a Jacobite; took deep interest in religious speculations, and knew most of the celebrities of his time; he wrote some of the best epigrams in the language. His Poems, written in easy, colloquial style for his own and his friends' amusement, were printed posthumously (2 vols., Manchester, 1773; again, with life and notes, London, 1814); the Chetham Society of Manchester has published his Private Journal and Literary Remains, ed. R. Parkinson (2 vols., 1854–1857), and the Poems, ed. A. W. Ward (2 vols., 1894–1895).