“Know This, That Every Soul Is Free” holds the distinction of being the opening hymn in the very first Latter-day Saint hymnal. Originally published as “Know Then That Every Soul Is Free,” it has been included in every subsequent hymnal to the present. Although it is one of the few Latter-day Saint hymns dealing with the principle of agency, it is not of Latter-day Saint origin and was probably borrowed from a collection in use by the Free Will Baptists, or another similar denomination. In the current hymnal the text is listed as anonymous, “ca. 1805, Boston.”
Over the past century various individuals have been claimed as author of this hymn text. In 1903, the Church-owned Deseret News, at the behest of the staff at the Church Historian’s Office, printed a list of more than fifty anonymous hymns, with a request for church members to send authorship information to the Historian’s office at Salt Lake City. Two letters concerning “Know This, That Every Soul Is Free” were received in response. The first, by A. P. Johnson, of Huntington, stated: “‘Know This, That Every Soul Is Free’ I have always understood was from the pen of W. W. Phelps in the early days of the church. That he was inspired to write those beautiful words.” It was the second letter, however, from hymnist John Nicholson (“Come Follow Me”), which would influence how this hymn was credited in the hymnal for more than fifty years to come: “Elder William C. Gregg (deceased) told me many years ago that he was the author of the hymn which begins: ‘Know This, That Every Soul Is Free,’” wrote Nicholson. “Brother Gregg was the man who gilded the Moroni Statue, which surmounts the Salt Lake Temple.” Consequently, when the 1905 hymnal was published, William C. Gregg was listed as author of “Know This, That Every Soul Is Free.” He remained credited with this hymn through the 1960s, when the name was changed to that of another author, William C. Clegg, whose hymn “Let Earth’s Inhabitants Rejoice” is still found in the current Latter-day Saint hymnal (no. 53). Perhaps it was changed due to the similarity of their names; this might have been viewed as a typographical error. Or perhaps the author’s name was changed due to the discovery that Gregg was born in 1834, one year before the first Latter-day Saint hymnal was published, and therefore could not have possibly been the writer of this hymn.
Various non-Latter-day Saint names have also been suggested as author of this hymn text. In her book Memories, a Genealogical History of the Buzzell Family, author Anna B. Hartshorn claims “Know Then That Every Soul Is Free” is from the pen of Aaron Buzzell (1764-1854), a Free Will Baptist clergyman. More recently, Professor Nathan Hatch, in The Democratization of American Christianity, credits it variously to Baptist preacher William Smith (or Smythe) Babcock (1764-1820), and to a nine-year-old girl in Babcock’s congregation.
Hatch’s research was continued by Latter-day Saint scholar Mary Dennis Poulter in her 1995 unpublished master’s thesis, “The First Ten Years of Latter Day Saint Hymnody: A Study of Emma Smith’s 1835 and Little and Gardner’s 1844 hymnals.” Although Hatch never names the nine-year-old girl from Babcock’s congregation, Poulter identifies her as Sally Swey, and prominently touts her as author of this hymn text. As proof of Swey’s authorship, Poulter cites a handwritten page from Babcock’s personal papers. On one side is the poem “Know Then That Every Soul Is Free.” On the other side is written the following: “Sally Swey 9 years last 28 Nov Kings[wit?] 3 or 4 years.” Poulter’s presumption, however, is flawed; nowhere in his papers does Babcock claim Swey wrote these words. In fact, Babcock never gives a reason as to why Swey’s name is written on the back of this poem. In nineteenth-century America it was common for favorite poems to be copied by hand into journals or letters. Furthermore, Poulter never stops to question whether a nine-year old girl could or would have written such a poem. Despite a lack of further evidence, the name Sally Swey has found its way into several published sources as author of “Know This, That Every Soul Is Free,” including at least two scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles.
Swey, however, is not the author of this hymn. “Know Then, That Every Soul Is Free” was written by Joseph Proud (1745-1826), a Swedenborgian minister,and was first published in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the Use of the Lord’s New Church, Signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation (1790).
As information concerning Joseph Proud is easily found online, I will only append this brief biographical sketch:
Joseph Proud was born on March 22, 1745 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. The son of a General Baptist preacher, he soon followed his father into the ministry. In 1788 Proud experienced a spiritual awakening when he was introduced to the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and in February 1789 was baptized into The New Church. Shortly afterward he was requested by friends in London to compose a volume of hymns for The New Church, and he complied with their request, composing more than 300 hymns in three months. This collection was published in 1790 as Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the Use of the Lord’s New Church, Signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation. He also published Hymns and Songs for Children in 1810. As a minister, Proud was well-known, and served in Birmingham, Manchester, and London. He returned to Birmingham in 1814, where he died twelve years later, on August 3, 1826.
Incidentally, Proud is the author of another anonymous hymn in the current Latter-day Saint hymnal, “Jehovah, Lord of Heaven and Earth” (Hymn no. 269).
Notes:
Some of the published sources that attribute this hymn to Sally Swey include: Shane J. Chism, A Selection of Early Mormon Hymnbooks, 1832-1872: Hymnbooks and Broadsides from the First 40 Years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Tucson, Ariz.,: n. p., 2011), 320; Mary Poulter, “Doctrines of Faith and Hope Found in Emma Smith’s 1835 Hymnbook,” BYU Studies, 37, no. 2 (1997–98): 34; Nancy J. Anderson, “Mormon Hymnody: Kirtland Roots and Evolutionary Branches,” Journal of Mormon History 32, No. 1 (2006), 159.
Sources:
A. P. Johnson to Historian’s Office, no date, Historian’s Office correspondence files: Authorship of hymns, 1903. Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah; John Nicholson to Anthon H. Lund, April 7, 1903, Historian’s Office correspondence files: Authorship of hymns, 1903. Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah; “The Dead” (William C. Gregg), Deseret Weekly, March 5, 1898, 32; Anna B. Hartshorn, Memories (n. p., 1910), 34; Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (Yale University Press: New Haven, 1989), 42, 227, 232; Mary Dennis Poulter, “The first ten years of Latter day Saint Hymnody: A study of Emma Smith’s 1835 and Little and Gardner’s 1844 hymnals” (Master’s thesis, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, 1995), 14-16; Joseph Proud, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the Use of the Lord’s New Church, Signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation (London: R. Hindmarsh, 1790), 133; John Julian, A Dictionary of Hymnology (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892), 1105-1106; Ernest A. Payne, “Joseph Proud, General Baptist, Swedenborgian and Hymnwriter,” Baptist Quarterly 23, no. 6 (1970): 280-282; Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, Early History of the New Church in Birmingham (London: New-Church Press Limited, 1916), accessed June 10, 2012.
Latter-day Saint Hymnology 