The Roll Family Genealogy

God Save the King
Anonymous

The lyrics and melody of God Save the King are anonymous. They may date back to the seventeenth century, but are sometimes credited to Henry Carey, 1740. The melody first appeared in this form in 1744. It became popular in 1745, the second year of the Jacobite Uprising. After the Battle of Prestonpans, the bandleader of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane arranged the melody and played it at the end of the night, which other theatres picked up and which became customary.

God Save the King became a rallying cry for the House of Hanover. It came to be referred to as the national anthem at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The tune is also sung in America as America or My Country 'Tis of Thee, and was also sung in the German Reich as Heil Dir in Seigerkranz.

It should now, of course, be sung as God Save the Queen, in honor of Queen Elizabeth II.

God save our gracious King,
Long live our noble King,
God save the King!
Send him victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God Save the King.

O Lord and God arise,
Scatter his enemies,
And make them fall.
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix
God Save the King

Thy choicest gifts in store
On him be pleased to pour
Long may he reign!
May he defend our laws
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save the King.

Additional Verse added
in 1946 - meant to replace
the third stanza.
The verse was written by
Rev. W. E. Hickson (1803-1870).

Nor on this land alone,
But be God's mercies known
From shore to shore.
Lord, make the nation see
That men should brothers be,
And form one family
The wide world o'er.

America
My Country ’Tis of Thee
Lyrics, Samuel F. Smith, 1832

Samuel F. Smith wrote the lyrics for
My Country ’Tis of Thee in 1832.

Samuel F. Smith

The lyrics for America, better known as My Country 'Tis of Thee, were born because Smith’s friend, Lowell Mason, could not read German. Mason had received several German hymnals, and sent them to Smith, who he knew understood German. In one of them, Smith ran across the tune now used for My Country ’Tis of Thee. Noting that the German words were patriotic in nature:

"I instantly felt the impulse to write a patriotic hymn of my own, adapted to the tune. Picking up a scrap of waste paper which lay near me, I wrote at once, probably within half an hour, the hymn America as it is now known everywhere. The whole hymn stands today as it stood on the bit of waste paper."

America

My Country, 'Tis Of Thee,
Sweet Land Of Liberty,
Of Thee I Sing;
Land Where My Fathers Died,
Land Of The Pilgrim's Pride,
From Ev'ry Mountain Side
Let Freedom Ring.

My Native Country Thee,
Land Of The Noble Free,
Thy Name I Love;
I Love Thy Rocks And Rills,
Thy Woods And Templed Hills;
My Heart With Rapture Thrills
Like That Above.

Let Music Swell The Breeze,
And Ring From All The Trees,
Sweet Freedom's Song.
Let Mortal Tongues Awake;
Let All That Breathe Partake;
Let Rocks Their Silence Break,
The Sound Prolong.

Our Father's God! To Thee,
Author Of Liberty,
To Thee We Sing;
Long May Our Land Be Bright
With Freedom's Holy Light;
Protect Us By Thy Might,
Great God, Our King!