Marianne Nunn

Nunn, Marianne, was born May 17, 1778, and died unmarried, in 1847. She published The Benevolent Merchant, and wrote a few hymns, including the following:—
One there is above all others, O how He loves. [The love of Jesus.] This was written to adapt John Newton's hymn “One there is above all others, Well deserves the name of friend," to the Welsh air, Ar hy-d y nos, and consisted of one stanza of 5 lines, with the refrain "Oh how He loves!" at the end of lines 1, 2 and 5, and the remaining 3 stanzas in 5 lines without the refrain, it being understood that the refrain was to be repeated. (Original text in Lyra Britanica, 1867, p. 449.) It was first published in her brother's, the Rev. John Munn's Psalms & Hymns, 1817. It has undergone several changes at various hands. In Curwen's The New Child's Own Hymn Book, 1874, it begins, "There's a Friend above all others," which is adopted from the American collections. It also sometimes begins, "One is kind above all others." In addition, where the original first line is given the rest of the hymn is considerably altered. Its use as a hymn for children is very extensive.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)