There came a little Child to earth

Author: Emily E. S. Elliot

Elliott, Emily Elizabeth Steele, third daughter of the late Rev. E. B. Elliott, of Brighton, author of the Horae Apocalypticae was born at Brighton, and now [1887] lives in London. She has contributed hymns, some of which have obtained wide acceptance, to the choir manuals, and Additional Hymns, 1866 (Nos. 8, 34) for use in St. Mark's Church, Brighton; to the Church Missionary Juvenile Instructor, which she edited for six years. Her Chimes of Consecration, a volume of 70 hymns and poems, was published in 1873, and her Chimes for Daily Service in 1880. The latter contains 71 hymns in two parts. The second part of 48 hymns is also published separately as Under the Pillow, for use as a cheap large type hymn-book (with corresponding tune-book)… Go to person page >

There came a little Child to earth. Emily E. S. Elliott. [Christmas.] First published in 1856 in Matty's Missionary Box (London: T. Nelson & Son), and since included in Miss Elliott's Chimes for Daily Service, 1880, p. 97, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines. It has appeared in the Church Sunday School Hymn Book, 1868, Scottish Presbyterian Hymnal, 1876; Allon's Children's Worship, 1878, &c.; and is included in full and unaltered (save stanzas ii. 1. 8) as No. 373 in the Scottish Free Church Hymn Book, 1882. Its use is extensive. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)