Hi, I have just joined this list. I am looking for any information,about JOHN Bacchus DYKES- but especially about his birth and family. I believe he was b. in Kingston -on-Hull about mid 1820s. There are descendants of my great grandfather in Sunderland Co Durham to whom he is probably related.Any help would be appreciated, I live in a small town in Nova Scotia Canada and Genealogical rescources are poor unless you are from this area or Newfoundland. Betty.

Hello, John Bacchus DYKES is famous as a composer of church music, so I looked him up in "The Oxford Companion to Music". Unfortunately that gives no details about his family - it says that he was born at Hill in 1823, and died in 1876 at the Asylum in Ticehurst, Sussex. He wrote many hymn-tunes which are still in frequent use today, including "Nicaea" (for the hymn "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty), "Vox Dilecti" (for "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say"),"Alford" (for "Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand"), "Dominus Regit Me" (for "The King of Love my Shepherd is"), and "Melita" (for "Eternal Father, Strong to Save"). He was a clergyman, having been a minor canon and precentor at Durham Cathedral, and later a vicar in that city. I expect there would be more about him in a fuller music reference book such as "Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians", a multi-volume work which you may find in your local public library. Alternatively, you could do a Google search (or a search using whatever search-engine you normally use). I have just tried that, and found many references, including: http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Biographies/john_b acchus_dykes.htm (which includes a biography), http://www.texassailor.com/collection.htm#Dykes http://www.oswalds.org.uk/dykes.html (the website of St Oswald's parish church, where John was vicar) and many, many more. It seems from these sites that both his father and his grandfather were clergymen. The site http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/a/l/alderson_esd.htm indicates that John's sister, Eliza Sibbald DYKES, born Hull 1818, also wrote hymns, but in her case it was the words. I hope this is of some help to you. David Lamb (Paignton, Devon, UK) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dr. Elizabeth B. Holmes" <bede@ns.sympatico.ca> To: <ENG-EAST-YORKS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 1:59 PM Subject: [ERY] John Bacchus Dykes > Hi, I have just joined this list. I am looking for any information,about > JOHN Bacchus DYKES- but especially about his birth and family. I believe > he was b. in Kingston -on-Hull about mid 1820s. > There are descendants of my great grandfather in Sunderland Co Durham to > whom he is probably related.Any help would be appreciated, I live in a > small town in Nova Scotia Canada and Genealogical rescources are poor > unless you are from this area or Newfoundland. Betty. >