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Joseph Scriven

We ran a thread on the Oshawa Forums asking if anyone knew of a ghost story or place they would like to share with us. One reader had this to say...

The house is tiny, and I'm not even sure how old it is. It sits beside a graveyard and the tombstones are tiny small stones with only numbers. It's very hard to make out the numbers, you can see in the windows of the house. There are old newspapers and things left in it. Please get back to me on your findings if you go there. I've been interested in that place since I was a child. Thanks and happy hunting.” - Ashley

First of all, we’d like to thank Ashley for this tip and for providing the exact location. We did go last weekend (June, 2005), but unfortunately the place is not haunted. It's just a small shanty with a fenced in cemetery in the back. It appeared as if the tiny stones with numbers on them were to mark the graves, but have since been replaced with the proper gravestones. Sorry...we were hoping it was haunted. Keep the tips coming though, we are always eager to check out new places!

There was a sign out front with a brief history of a man who lived in the little house though. His name was Joseph Scriven. We were able to locate the following information on the Internet, which is just an extended version of what the Historical sign read.

There was a sign out front with a brief history of a man who lived in the little house, by the name of Joseph Scriven. Here is what we found on the internet, which by the way was just a longer version of what historical sign read.

Joseph Scriven

Author of the Hymn, “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” From an article published in the Bainbridge Chronicle by the late J. Harris Rea, who was a well-known local historian.

Joseph Scriven, described as one who lived the Christian life of service to his fellows, was born in Ballymoney Lodge, Bainbridge and baptized on the 10th of September 1819. His baptismal entry is recorded in Sea Patrick Parish Church in Bainbridge, where his father, Captain John Scriven of the Royal Marines was twice Church Warden. His mother was Jane Medlicott, sister of a Wiltshire Vicar, the Rev. Joseph Medlicott. Mr. Leslie baptized Joseph Scriven, and the Rev. James McCreight, then Curate, initialed the entry.

Joseph Scriven took his B.A. degree at Trinity College in Dublin, where his two brothers were students. One of which became M.B. in 1842. Joseph was a Cadet at the Military College, Addiscombe in Surrey. It was his intention to enter the East India Company, but he abandoned this idea at an early age. It cannot be said that Joseph Scriven had a very happy life after obtaining his degree in 1842. He fell in love with a Bainbridge girl and in two years became engaged. But, alas, tragedy struck a sad blow on the eve of their wedding day. His bride to be, while crossing a bridge over the River Bann was thrown from her horse and drowned in full view of her lover who was awaiting her on the other bank. Following this sad event Joseph Scriven immigrated to Canada. He first settled in Rice Lake, Ontario, and later in Port Hope, Ontario and there became a private tutor to several of the local families.

To further add to the sorrows of Joseph Scriven’s life, was the death of his then fiancée Miss Eliza Roche. This is thought to have inspired him to write his famous hymn. In 1854, Joseph was to be married to Eliza Roche, but sadly, she caught a chill due to immersion in Rice Lake and became seriously ill. After three years, she passed away. The well-known hymn was then brought into being out of great sorrow and heart searching. It is said that it was written to comfort his mother who mourned her son’s unhappiness. The hymn was not discovered until just prior to Scriven’s death in 1886. Composed in 1857, it was entitled ‘Pray Without Ceasing’. Joseph Scriven was a practical Christian, known as the man who saws wood for poor widows and sick people unable to pay. A Mr. James Sackville cared for Scriven in his home when he became poor in health and it was Mr. Sackville who discovered Joseph’s copy of the hymn while searching a drawer on behalf of his patient. When asked how he came to write such a beautiful hymn Scriven, on his deathbed replied simply ‘The Lord and I did it between us’.

There are four memorials to Scriven in the land of his adoption; the monument at Bewdley bears the famous hymn inscribed on one side of the stone, on the other side are the words ‘Four miles North in Pengelly’s cemetery, lies the Philanthropist and author of the great masterpiece written at Port Hope 1857’. Special services were held in 1957 in the local churches to mark the centenary of the hymn and in 1962 a Joseph Scriven Memorial Committee was formed at Bewdley and a fund was started for students entering the Christian ministry. In the town of his birth, there is now a memorial to this son of Bainbridge; one time student of Trinity College Dublin, who as a boy, walked the streets of Bainbridge and worshipped in Sea Patrick Parish Church. This memorial is in the form of a plaque erected on the wall of the house in which he was born.

Another article, which appeared on October 24,1969 is entitled ‘Joseph Scriven’s Burial Place-Visit’, by Guildford Man. It reads, “Much has been written over the years about Joseph Scriven, author of that well known hymn ‘What a Friend we Have in Jesus’ and it was after reading about him in the Chronicle that Mr. Robert Black of Madden Hill, Guildford, while on a trip to Canada, decided to visit the hymn writers last earthly resting-place at Balieboro, Cavan County, on the shores of Rice Lake. Mr. Black described to us the tiny triangular-shaped graveyard where a tall obelisk marks the grave. The inscription (in addition to verses of the hymn) reads; this monument was erected to the memory of Joseph Scriven, B.A. by lovers of his hymn, which is engraved hereon, and is his best memorial. Born at Sea Patrick, County Down, Ireland, Sept.10, 1819, immigrated to Canada in 1844. Entered into rest at Bewdley, Rice Lake, August 10,1886, and buried here. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

A plaque, erected by the Architectural and Historical Sites Board of Ontario, was amongst the items of interest photographed by Mr. Black, it carries this wording; Born and educated in Ireland, Scriven was a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. He immigrated to Canada in 1847 and during the 1850’s became tutor to the family of Captain Robert L. Pengelly, R.N., a retired British Naval Officer who had settled in this vicinity. A deeply religious man, he published a book entitled ‘Hymns and other Verses’ in 1869. However, the poem entitled ‘Pray without Ceasing’, for which he was to become famous, was first published in a local newspaper set to music by Dr. Charles C. Converse. It gained international recognition under the title, ‘What a Friend we have in Jesus’. We gather from Mr. Black that at that time of his visit a Miss Pengelly, an elderly lady, understood to be a relative of Commander Pengelly (referred to above) was meeting the cost of caring for the hymn writers grave. This information prompts us to suggest that if it were possible a contribution from his admirers in and around the old place of his birth would be a very fine gesture. Incidentally, a plaque, which reads, marks his birthplace of Ballymoney Lodge, Bainbridge: “Joseph Scriven 1819, hymn writer and humanitarian was born here.”

The following is an extract from the pen of the Rev. Dr. E. Gilmour Smith, entitled ‘Joseph Scriven, a Truly Unselfish Life’, which appeared in a Canadian newspaper.

Few hymns have so widely sung and so greatly beloved as Joseph Scriven’s, ‘What a Friend we have in Jesus’. The 150th anniversary of Scriven’s birth occurred recently. Born in County Down, Ireland, near the village of Bainbridge on September 10th 1819, he spent most of his adult life in Canada, living in the vicinity of Port Hope and Rice Lake. He was well educated, and as a young man he spent two years at Addiscombe Military College in Surrey and in 1842 graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Sometime before 1850 he immigrated to Canada where he taught school, tutored two generations of Pengelly boys on their farm two miles east of Balieboro, and became a preacher associated with the Plymouth Brethren.

For many years, the grave of Joseph Scriven remained unmarked, but on Sept.10th 1919, the centenary of his birth, a pilgrimage of Clergymen visited the grave, joined hands around it, and sang the hymn, which has brought comfort and uplift to thousands of hearts wherever the English language is spoken. Under the leadership of the Rev. W. D. Lee of the Millbrook Presbyterian Church, the Joseph Scriven memorial committee was formed to erect a monument to his memory. On the white granite monument, which stands 13 feet high, overlooking the shining waters of Rice Lake, the words of the hymn are inscribed. It was dedicated on May 24th, 1920, when 6000 people gathered, including the Premier of Ontario, E. C. Drury.

In paying tribute to Scriven the Premier said: he did not build a railway or amass a fortune, but he did more than that. He contributed a thought that will outlive railroads and fortunes. It will go on enriching the lives of men, when other things of material nature have crumbled and perished. On this occasion, many people who had known Scriven personally paid tributes. He lived the life of our Savior.

Another testified: He lived a truly unselfish life, going among the afflicted and comforting the sorrowing, sharing his little with the poverty-stricken. A man reported: I remember the times when one of the families lost their cow. They were dependent on that cow for much of their living. Mr. Scriven expressed his sympathy and desire to help out, but regretted that he had no money, so offered his watch for the family to sell. Through the years Scriven became known as the man with a bucksaw and axe who went to homes of widows and aged folk to crop their wood.

For several years he lived in Port Hope in a small cottage isolated in the woods, which still stands at the corner of Strachen and Thomas Street. In his zeal for presenting the gospel he preached on street corners in Port Hope and Bewdley and among the farmers. As a member of the Brethren who renounce worldliness, Scriven would not have his picture taken, for to him it was a form of vanity. However the Rev George A Osborough of Belfast located a great-nephew of Joseph’s, Dr W. H. Scriven, who possessed a photograph, which he believed was an authentic picture of Joseph.

Upon first writing the hymn which he titled ‘Pray without Ceasing’ only verses one and two were included. The third verse was added following a visit to Ireland. Because he had come back a poor man with rather shabby clothes, he had the bitter experience of being snubbed and slighted. This led to the third verse which begins: “Do thy friends despise thee, forsake thee”, expressing the pain of his rejection.

On the east side of Highway 28 just south of Bewdley stands another monument beside a grove of evergreens which was erected with funds collected by a devoted friend, the Rev E. S. Kidd-Byrne. He was not buried there. His body lies in the cemetery on the Pengelly farm two miles east of Balieboro. Distinctive markers have been placed by the Ontario architectural and historical sites board in Balieboro and at the site of the cemetery.

There is now a monument on Downshire Place, put up by Bainbridge District Council and recently a stained glass window was dedicated to Scriven. Bishop Scriven, who was then Bishop of Europe and was the great-great grandnephew of Joseph Scriven, carried out the dedication. Joseph had two brothers - George born 1821 and John born 1823 and one sister Catherine Anne Mary born 1825.

Thank you to the Bainbridge Chronicle for permission to use the above information.

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Joseph Scriven