William H. Groser

Groser, William, son of a Baptist Minister, was born in London in 1791. In 1813 he became pastor of a small Baptist church at Princes Risborough, Bucks; in 1820 he removed to Maidstone, and in 1839 to London, where he resided until his death, in 1856. For some years subsequently to 1839, he was editor of The Baptist Magazine, and for the last five years of his life Secretary of the Baptist Irish Society. Mr. Groser also did good service to hymnody as an editor of hymn-books. The Baptist New Selection, prepared by Dr. Murch and others [see Baptist Hymnody], was edited by him in 1828. At the request of the Baptist Missionary Society he also prepared and edited in 1852, A Selection of Hymns adapted to Public Worship, and designed chiefly for the use of Baptist Churches in Jamaica. London, Haddon & Co. This selection was reprinted in 1860 with the addition of 57 hymns; but is no longer in use, having been superseded by the Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858. As a hymn-writer Mr. Groser is known by one hymn only:—
Praise the Redeemer, almighty to save. Death Conquered. It was composed during his residence at Maidstone, to the metre and tune of "Sound the loud timbrel" and appeared in the enlarged Selection of Hymns for the use of Baptist Congregations, London, 184U; again in Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book, 1866, and in the 1880 Supplement to Baptist Psalms & Hymns. [Rev. W. R. Stevenson, M. A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology