William Fowler
Who was William Fowler?
Australian hymnwriter (1830-1865)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on William Fowler (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
William Fowler (May 9, 1830 – August 25, 1865) was a Latter-day Saint hymnwriter and cutler born in Australia to an English father, John Fowler, and an Irish mother, Bridget Niel. His father served in the British military, and when Fowler was approximately three years old, the family relocated to India following his father's military posting. At the age of nine, after his father received an honorable discharge from the army, the family moved to Sheffield, England, the birthplace of John Fowler. Sheffield was then a center of the cutlery and knife-making trade, and young William would go on to work in that industry.
Fowler's early life was marked by loss. John Fowler died about two years after the family settled in Sheffield, and Bridget Fowler followed less than four years later. Bridget had been raised in the Roman Catholic faith but had converted to Wesleyan Methodism, as had John, who was originally Anglican. William was thus left an orphan at a relatively young age in an industrial English city, working as a cutler in one of Sheffield's factories.
In 1849, Fowler was introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Peter Poulucci and was baptized by J. V. Long. His conversion carried immediate consequences: he was dismissed from the Sheffield factory where he had worked as a cutler. Rather than abandoning his new faith, Fowler deepened his commitment to it. From 1850 to 1854 he served as a full-time missionary in England on behalf of the LDS Church. He married Ellen Bradshaw, and the couple had three children: Harriet Adeline Fowler (1856–1944), Henry Ammon Fowler (1857–1941), and Florence Ellen Fowler (1860–1946).
Between 1860 and 1863, Fowler composed the hymn 'We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet,' which would become one of the most widely recognized and frequently sung hymns in the Latter-day Saint tradition. In 1863 he emigrated to Utah Territory and settled in Manti, Utah, where he worked as a schoolteacher. He died in Manti on August 25, 1865, at only 35 years of age. The LDS Church later erected a monument in Manti to honor his memory and contribution to the faith's musical heritage.
Before Fame
William Fowler was born in 1830 in Australia while his father was stationed there as a soldier in the British military, making his origins genuinely multinational — Australian by birth, shaped by time in India, and formed culturally in England. The move to Sheffield in his youth placed him in one of Britain's foremost industrial cities, known throughout the world for its steel and cutlery trades. Working as a cutler, Fowler belonged to a skilled but often economically precarious working class in mid-Victorian England.
His introduction to the LDS Church in 1849 marked the turning point that set him on a different course. At that time, LDS missionaries were actively proselytizing throughout England, drawing many working-class converts who would eventually emigrate to Utah Territory. Fowler's willingness to lose his factory employment rather than renounce his new faith, and his subsequent years of missionary service, reflect both his personal conviction and the broader wave of religious ferment that swept through industrial Britain in the mid-nineteenth century.
Key Achievements
- Authored 'We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet,' one of the most enduringly popular hymns in the Latter-day Saint canon
- Served as a full-time LDS missionary in England from 1850 to 1854
- Emigrated to Utah Territory in 1863 and contributed to the early settlement community of Manti as a schoolteacher
- Received a posthumous monument erected by the LDS Church in Manti, Utah, in recognition of his contributions to the faith
Did You Know?
- 01.Fowler was born in Australia but spent most of his formative years in Sheffield, England, and is often identified as Australian due to his birthplace despite having no adult connection to the country.
- 02.He was fired from his job as a cutler in Sheffield immediately after being baptized into the LDS Church in 1849, suggesting his employer or coworkers were hostile to his conversion.
- 03.His three children — Harriet, Henry, and Florence — all lived into the twentieth century, with his daughter Florence surviving until 1946, more than 80 years after her father's death.
- 04.Fowler wrote 'We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet' while still in England, at least three years before he ever set foot in Utah, the territory most associated with the Latter-day Saint faith.
- 05.The LDS Church erected a monument in Manti, Utah, in Fowler's honor, making him one of the relatively few hymnwriters in the tradition to receive such formal civic commemoration.