Article

William Briggs

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited December 14, 2013

William Briggs. Trade-publishing operation of the Methodist Book and Publishing House (later Ryerson Press), Toronto. It was directed by William Briggs (b Banbridge, Ireland, 1836, d Port Credit, Ont, 1922), a clergyman who served 1879-1919 as book steward of the Methodist Book and Publishing House.

William Briggs

William Briggs. Trade-publishing operation of the Methodist Book and Publishing House (later Ryerson Press), Toronto. It was directed by William Briggs (b Banbridge, Ireland, 1836, d Port Credit, Ont, 1922), a clergyman who served 1879-1919 as book steward of the Methodist Book and Publishing House. Briggs' musical copyrights - some 40 pieces of sheet music and 10 volumes - date from the years between 1883 and the turn of the century and are all religious.The volumes include Revival Hymns (1889), Gospel Tent Hymns (1889), The Canadian Hymnal (1889), the Methodist Hymn and Tune Book (1894), The New Canadian Hymnal (1916) and Canadian editions of E.O. Excell's Triumphant Songs (various dates). In its field Briggs' production was among the largest and highest-ranking in Canada.