Born: May 17, 1788, Princ­es Street, Spi­tal­fields, Lon­don, Eng­land.

Died: Au­gust 18, 1863, Li­ver­pool, Eng­land.

Son of W. Raffles, a so­li­ci­tor, Thom­as be­came a clerk in Doc­tors’ Com­mons in 1803, but quit short­ly af­ter­ward. Through the in­flu­ence of Will­iam Coll­yer, to whose church at Peck­ham he be­longed, Raf­fles en­tered Ho­mer­ton Coll­ege in 1805. He be­gan his min­is­try at Ham­mer­smith, where he was or­dained as a Con­gre­ga­tion­al min­is­ter on June 22, 1809. In 1812, he moved to Li­ver­pool, where he suc­ceed­ed Rev. T. Spen­cer and served as pas­tor of the Great George Street Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church for 49 years. For half a cen­tu­ry he was one of the most in­flu­en­tial Con­gre­ga­tion­al min­is­ters, and helped found the Lan­ca­shire In­de­pen­dent Coll­ege. He re­ceived an LLD de­gree from the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Aber­deen in De­cem­ber 1820, and a DD de­gree from Un­ion Coll­ege, Con­nec­ti­cut, in Ju­ly 1830. His works in­clude:

• Memoirs of the Life and Min­is­try of the Rev. Thom­as Spen­cer, 1813
• A Tour on the Con­ti­nent, 1817
• Brown’s Self-In­ter­pre­ting Bi­ble, 1815 (ed­it­or)
• Po­ems by Three Friends, (joint au­thor)
• The Investigator, a Lon­don quarterly (joint ed­it­or with Will­iam Coll­yer and Dr. J. B. Brown)
• Supplement to Dr. Watts’ Ps. & Hys., 1853

Sources

Lyrics

1. Blest Hour, When Mor­tal Man Re­tires
2. Cause of All Causes, and the Source
3. Come, Heavenly Peace of Mind
4. Cup Which My Father Hath Giv­en, The
5. Eternal Father, Throned Above
6. Father of Mercies, God of Love
7. Go, Preach the Gos­pel to the Poor
8. High in Yonder Realms of Light
9. Lord, Like the Pub­li­can I Stand
10. No Night Shall Be in Heaven
11. O God of Families, We Own
12. Rapid Flows the Stream of Time
13. Savior, Let Thy Sanction Rest
14. Sovereign Ruler, Lord of All
15. Thou Art My Hid­ing Place, O Lord
16. What Is Life? A Ra­pid Stream