George Croly

George Croly (August 17, 1780 – November 24, 1860) was an Irish poet, novelist, historian, and Anglican priest. He was rector of St Stephen Walbrook in the City of London from 1835 until his death.

Croly was born in Dublin. His father was a physician. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin with an MA in 1804. The college was to award him an honorary LLD in 1831.

He was ordained in 1804, and served as a curate at a parish in the diocese of Meath until around 1810. Then, accompanied by his widowed mother, his brother Henry and his sisters, he moved to London. Finding himself unable to obtain preferment in the church, he dedicated himself to a literary career.

Croly was a leading contributor to the Literary Gazette and Blackwood's Magazine, from the establishment of both in 1817, and was also associated with the Tory magazine Britannia. He worked as a theatre critic for the New Times and later as a foreign correspondent. He wrote poems, plays, satires, novels, history, and theological works, and achieved some measure of success in all. Perhaps his best known works were his novels, Salathiel (1828), based on the legend of the Wandering Jew, and Marston (1846). His main contribution to theological literature was an exposition of the Apocalypse. His hymns included Spirit of God, descend upon my heart written in 1854.

In 1832 he was put in charge of the parish of Romford in Essex, while the vicar was unable to carry out his duties due to illness. The editor of the Literary Gazette, William Jerdan, had previously attempted to procure a living for him, but this had proved unsuccessful, the reason (according to Croly's obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine) being a confusion between him and another clergyman, a former Roman Catholic, with a similar name. In 1835, however, through the influence of Lord Brougham, a distant relative of his wife he was appointed rector of St Stephen Walbrook in the City of London, a position he held until his death. He had previously turned down Brougham's offer of a remote living on the edge of Dartmoor. His son Frederick wrote:

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