Stocker, John

Author

(not in Praise! index). A resident for at least some time of Honiton, Devon, he contributed 9 hymn texts to the Gospel Magazine in 1776–77. In 1861 he was identified by the hymnologist Daniel Sedgwick (a friend of C H Spurgeon) as the ‘J.S.’ who wrote no.273. Some edns of the 19th-c Baptist collections of Gray and Stevens also credit Stocker with the hymn, as do both edns of CH, possibly relying on Sedgwick. The evidence remains uncertain and Julian concludes a brief discussion by saying ‘There is no proof either way.’