What we know so far about John Eagleton:
According to James T. Lightwood in The Music of the Methodist Hymn-Book, (London 1938), John Eagleton was born in Coventry in 1785 and was one of the first scholars at the Sunday School founded in that town by the Rev’d George Burder. Being very fond of music, he acted as leader of the choir until his voice broke. He then became a Wesleyan local preacher, and on reaching his 21st birthday he succeeded his father in the pastorate of a meeting-house near Coventry. Later he had charge of a Congregational church in Vicar Lane, Coventry.
His musical abilities were especially directed towards improving the music at his church, and for the use of his choir and congregation he published in 1816 a set of original tunes called
- Sacred Harmony (1816)
in which his tune Justification first appeared. John Eagleton also held pastorates at Birmingham and at Ramsden Street Congregational Chapel, Huddersfield, where he died in 1832. Just before his death he published a
- Manual of Hymns for Family, Social and Public Worship (1832?)
which was in use at Ramsden Street, Huddersfield, for many years.
John Eagleton is said, therefore, to have composed many hymn tunes, including JUSTIFICATION, found in several hymnals including the Methodist Hymn Book, and Centenary Tune Book. To date, however, only seven have been found in print before 1821 – DESERTION, TILBURY, JUSTIFICATION, REDEMPTION, AFFECTION, CONFIDENCE, and CRUCIFIXION. Of these, TILBURY and DESERTION have only been found in American publications before 1821, the first and second editions of compilations by Samuel Dyer (A New Selection of Sacred Music, consisting of . . . psalm and hymn tunes, Baltimore, Maryland, 1817 and 1819 respectively. [Second Ed. 1819 of Samuel Dyer is in our possession].
The other five tunes have so far only been traced* to a publication by Charles Rider of Manchester in 1820 (A Selection of Hymn Tunes for the use of the Sunday School in Elm Street, Manchester [Vol. 1]. [Manchester] : [ Charles Rider], [1820-] ) this being the only known copy, and which is in all probability a reprint of an earlier edition of 1816. If this is the case the tunes by Eagleton may well have been part of the 9 extra tunes which the 1820 edition contained, because it seems inconceivable that they would have appeared in the 1816 edition as well as in Sacred Harmony, which as recorded by Lightwood, was also 1816.
Henry Parr, in his work entitled Church of England Psalmody, 1880, a copy of which is in the library of the Royal School of Church Music, also refers to Eagleton’s publication, and states “. . . T[une] 90 appears in Sacred Harmony, A Set of Tunes . . . Composed in an easy Style. Obl. 4vo. The work contains twenty-seven Tunes in three parts.” Whilst no date of publication is quoted, this, surely, is therefore the work to which Lightwood refers.
[S & E Macadam, 2005].
* Nicholas Temperley, The Hymn Tune Index, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK, 1998.