William Kethe

Short Name: William Kethe
Full Name: Kethe, William, d. 1594
Death Year: 1594

William Kethe (b. Scotland [?], d. Dorset England, c. 1594). Although both the time and place of Kethe's birth and death are unknown, scholars think he was a Scotsman. A Protestant, he fled to the continent during Queen Mary's persecution in the late 1550s. He lived in Geneva for some time but traveled to Basel and Strasbourg to maintain contact with other English refugees. Kethe is thought to be one of the scholars who translated and published the English-language Geneva Bible (1560), a version favored over the King James Bible by the Pilgrim fathers. The twenty-five psalm versifications Kethe prepared for the Anglo-Genevan Psalter of 1561 were also adopted into the Scottish Psalter of 1565. His versification of Psalm 100 (All People that on Earth do Dwell) is the only one that found its way into modern psalmody.

Bert Polman

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Kethe, William, is said by Thomas Warton in his History of English Poetry, and by John Strype in his Annals of the Reformation, to have been a Scotsman. Where he was born, or whether he held any preferment in England in the time of Edward VI., we have been unable to discover. In the Brieff discours off the troubles begonne at Franckford, 1575, he is mentioned as in exile at Frankfurt in 1555, at Geneva in 1557; as being sent on a mission to the exiles in Basel, Strassburg, &c, in 1558; and as returning with their answers to Geneva in 1559. Whether he was one of those left behind in 1559 to "finishe the bible, and the psalmes bothe in meeter and prose," does not appear. The Discours further mentions him as being with the Earl of Warwick and the Queen's forces at Newhaven [Havre] in 1563, and in the north in 1569. John Hutchins in his County history of Dorset, 1774, vol. ii. p. 316, says that he was instituted in 1561 as Rector of Childe Okeford, near Blandford. But as there were two Rectors and only one church, leave of absence might easily be extended. His connection with Okeford seems to have ceased by death or otherwise about 1593.

The Rev. Sir Talbot H. B. Baker, Bart., of Ranston, Blandford, who very kindly made researches on the spot, has informed me that the Registers at Childe Okeford begin with 1652-53, that the copies kept in Blandford date only from 1732 (the earlier having probably perished in the great fire there in 1731), that no will can be found in the district Probate Court, and that no monument or tablet is now to be found at Childe Okeford.
By a communication to me from the Diocesan Registrar of Bristol, it appears that in a book professing to contain a list of Presentations deposited in the Consistory Court, Kethe is said to have been presented in 1565 by Henry Capel, the Patron of Childe Okeford Inferior. In the 1813 edition of Hutchins, vol. iii. pp. 355-6, William Watkinson is said to have been presented to this moiety by Arthur Capel in 1593.
Twenty-five Psalm versions by Kethe are included in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter of 1561, viz. Ps. 27, 36, 47, 54, 58, 62, 70, 85, 88, 90, 91, 94, 100, 101, 104, 107, 111, 112, 113, 122, 125, 126, 134, 138, 142,—the whole of which were adopted in the Scottish Psalter of 1564-65. Only nine, viz. Ps. 104, 107, 111, 112, 113, 122, 125, 126, 134, were included in the English Psalter of 1562; Ps. 100 being however added in 1565. Being mostly in peculiar metres, only one, Ps. 100, was transferred to the Scottish Psalter of 1650. The version of Ps. 104, "My soul, praise the Lord," is found, in a greatly altered form, in some modern hymnals.
Warton calls him ”a Scotch divine, no unready rhymer," says he had seen a moralisation of some of Ovid by him, and also mentions verses by him prefixed to a pamphlet by Christopher Goodman, printed at Geneva in 1558; a version of Ps. 93 added to Knox's Appellation to the Scottish Bishops, also printed at Geneva in 1558; and an anti-papal ballad, "Tye the mare Tom-boy." A sermon he preached before the Sessions at Blandford on Jan. 17, 1571, was printed by John Daye in 1571 (preface dated Childe Okeford, Jan. 29,157?), and dedicated to Ambrose Earl of Warwick.

[Rev James Mearns, M.A].

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Kethe, William, p. 624, i., line 30. The version which Warton describes as of Psalm 93 is really of Psalm 94, and is that noted under Scottish Hymnody, p. 1022, ii., as the version of Psalms 94 by W. Kethe.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Wikipedia Biography

William Kethe (also Keithe) (died 6 June 1594) was a European churchman and Protestant Bible translator, especially of the Psalms.

Texts by William Kethe (26)sort descendingAsAuthority LanguagesInstances
Adoru ni nun la Reĝon de glor'William Kethe (Author (English))Esperanto2
Al Dio nun kun ĝoja kri'W. Kethe (Author)Esperanto3
All people that on earth do dwellRev. W. Kethe (Author)English537
All people that on earth do dwell, Sing out your faith with cheerful voiceWilliam Kethe (Author)English1
ഭൂ-വാസികൾ സർ-വ്വ-രുമേ (Bhū-vāsikaḷ sar-vva-rumē)William Kethe (Author (attributed to))Malayalam2
Cantad, naciones, al SeñorRev. William Kethe (Author)Spanish2
Dios grande eres túWilliam Kethe (Author)Spanish2
E földön ti minden népek!William Kethe (Author)Hungarian1
Give thanks unto the Lord our God, For gracious is heW. K. (Author)English3
Ho'eva tsevesėstanovesėWilliam Kethe (Author)Cheyenne2
Ho'onani i ka Makua mauWilliam Kethe (Author)Hawaiian1
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the LordWm. Kiffin (Author)English1
I did in heart rejoyceW. K. (Author)English3
My soul, praise the Lord, O God, Thou art greatWilliam Kethe, b. 1593 (Author (attributed to))English4
My soul praise the Lord, Speak good of his Name (Kethe)W. K. (Author)English4
Nun jauchzt dem Herren, alle Welt!William Kethe (Author)German1
O worship the King all glorious aboveWm. Kethe (Author)English20
Oh pueblos todos alabadWilliam Kethe, 1555-1593 (Author)Spanish3
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow (Ken)William Kethe (Author)English13
Praise ye the Lord, for he is good, His mercy dures for ayeWilliam Kethe (Author)English2
Such as in God the Lord do trustWilliam Kethe, ?-1594 (Author)3
The man is blest that God doth feareW. K. (Author)English3
Thy mercies, Lord, to heaven reachWilliam Kethe (Author)English2
Wakaŋtaŋka Ti kiŋ oknaWilliam Kethe (Author)Dakota1
يا أرض غني بالسرورWilliam Kethe (Author)Arabic1
Ye children which do serve the LordW. K. (Author)2

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