Gerard Thomas Noel
Gerard Thomas Noel (1782–1851) was a Church of England cleric, known as a hymn writer. Life. Born on 2 December 1782, he was second son of Sir Gerard Noel, 2nd Baronet, and Diana Noel, a baroness in her own right as the only child of Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham; one of a family of 18, he was elder brother of Baptist Wriothesley Noel. The eldest son Charles was created an Earl in 1841, and the brothers were given the courtesy prefix The Honourable. His mother was a noted patron of evangelical ministers and abolitionist. Noel was  at school in Langley, Kent. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, entered Lincoln's Inn in 1798, and went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1805 and M.A. in 1808. On taking holy orders Noel held successively the curacy of Radwell, Hertfordshire and the vicarage of Rainham, Kent, also being curate at Richmond, Surrey. He became vicar of Romsey Abbey, Hampshire. He was instituted to Romsey in 1840. He was also appointed in 1834 to an honorary canonry at Winchester Cathedral. At Romsey he restored the abbey church. Noel died at Romsey on 24 February  1851. He has been described as "a conservative evangelical whose theology was Calvinistic and premillennialist", and an opponent of the Catholic Apostolic Church. Works. Noel's published works were: Family. Noel was twice married, first in 1806 to Charlotte Sophia, daughter of Sir Lucius O'Brien, 3rd Baronet, and secondly in 1841 to Susan, daughter of Sir John Kennaway, 1st Baronet. There were six daughters of the first marriage: