Joseph Swain (poet)

Joseph Swain (1761 – 14 April 1796) was a British Baptist minister, poet and hymnwriter. Born in Birmingham, and orphaned at an early age, he was apprenticed as an engraver in Birmingham and afterwards in London. He experienced a religious conversion in 1782, and was baptised by John Rippon in the Baptist meeting-house in Carter Lane, Tooley Street, Southwark, on 11 May 1783. He subsequently became a Baptist minister and pastor of East Street Baptist church in Walworth from 1792 until his death in 1796. He was a popular preacher, and during the period of his ministry it became necessary to extend the church building on three occasions.

He was also a writer of devotional poems and hymns, many of which remained popular through the 19th century, although now largely forgotten. Many were published under the collective title Walworth Hymns in 1792. A version of his hymn "My Song in the Night" was included on the album