Music

A hymn for Belton's Chapel

Handwritten in several hymnals, is a previously unknown version of our familiar O Come All Ye Faithful, left.

Hymnist, John Francis Wade (1711-1786), a Catholic, is credited with writing Adeste Fidelis, in Latin. Frederick Oakeley translated it to English in 1841 for the version commonly used today. The number of verses varies up to eight.

The Portuguese Hymn is the tune for the words. Either, written by Wade and first sung in the Portuguese Chapel in London, or composed by King John IV of Portugal “The Musician King” (1603–1656).

The Belton version, is from William Robert Spencer (1769-1834) an English poet. The text differs from our 21st century versions. He may have matched his own text variant to the music.

This rendition is unlisted in Wikipedia's, 45 different translations of Adeste Fideles. It does not appear in Spencer's corpus, but he did write at least one poem used as a carol, Be Merry All.

The family member who wrote this in? Residents in the 1851 census, were the 1st Earl and Countess Emma Brownlow, along with the Earl's two unmarried daughters, Caroline (31) and Amelia (29). But if written in around 1855 this would relate to the 2nd Earl Brownlow and his mother Marion Alford.