Jessie Seymour Irvine

Jessie Seymour Irvine (26 July 1836 – 2 September 1887) was the daughter of a Church of Scotland parish minister who served at Dunottar, Peterhead, and Crimond in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. She is best known for being the likely composer of the hymn tune “Crimond”, which is commonly used as the music for the hymn “The Lord’s My Shepherd”. Irvine is referred to by Ian Bradley, in his 1997 book Abide with Me: The World of Victorian Hymns, as standing “in a strong Scottish tradition of talented amateurs who tended to produce metrical psalm tunes rather than the dedicated hymn tunes increasingly composed in England.” Early life Jessie Seymour Irvine was born in Dunottar in the north-east of Scotland in 1836. She was the daughter of Rev Alexander Irvine, a Church of Scotland minister. Rev Irvine moved to different church appointments in the north-east of Scotland, serving at Dunottar, Peterhead and Crimond. “Crimond” composition While Rev Irvine was serving at Crimond Church, his teenage daughter Jessie was undertaking training as an organist at the nearby town of Banff. According to some accounts, she composed a tune in 1871 for the metrical version of Psalm 23, “The Lord’s My Shepherd”,