About the Author

LEGH RICHMOND (1772-1827) was born in Liverpool, England. His father, Henry, was a physician. As a child he had a bad fall and permanently injured his leg. He attended Trinity College in Cambridge and received his A.B. and M.A. degrees. He soon married Mary Chambers. The young clergyman entered the ministry in the Isle of Wight in 1797. When he read "Practical View of Christianity," he had a spiritual awakening, and respectfully named his son Wilberforce, after his much loved friend William Wilberforce. On the Isle of Wight he met "The Dairyman's Daughter," "Little Jane," and "The African Servant." In 1805 he moved to London and then to Turvey, where he was a much loved pastor and wrote "The Fathers of the English Church."