Songs of the Saints: Robert Skene
by Wayne S. Walker
Unlike Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell, Robert Skene is probably not a readily recognized individual to many people. However, his name has been preserved in history as the composer of the tune for a song that has been quite popular among churches of Christ. Very little information is available about him, including the dates and places of his birth and death. However, it is believed that he was the grandson of Benjamin Skene, a long-time advocate of religious reform whose obituary was given ample space in the Millennial Harbinger of April 1859 (pp. 237-238). Benjamin had a son named Robert, who lived in Louisville, KY.
The composer Robert Skene edited a hymnbook entitled The Concordia in Louisville in 1861. Also he co-edited The Christian Psaltery in 1867 with Augustus Damon Fillmore, the father of James H. and Fred A. Fillmore, all associated with churches of Christ and Christian churches of the mid to late 1800s. But he is best-known for a tune composed most likely around 1869 for the hymn "On Zion's Glorious Summit Stood," by John Kent, who was born at Bideford in Devonshire, England, in Dec. 1776. A shipwright by trade, Kent acquired only a limited education but became known for his hymns, which were strongly worded, very earnest, and simple. Several appear in Samuel Reese's 1799 Collection, but this one was first included in Kent's 1803 Collection of Original Hymns. In all probability, he was an English Baptist.
Kent died on Nov. 15, 1843, but in 1861, his Collection was still being published in its 10th edition. It contained "The Author's Experience" and a biography of Kent by his son. The English Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon made use of Kent's hymns in his collections employed in his tabernacle in London. This melody was first published with Kent's hymn in the 1872 New Harp of Zion, edited by A. D. Fillmore and his son James, with an abbreviated form of the Sanctus, the origin of which is unknown. The hymn with the full Sanctus, which is sung after the third stanza, first appeared in Hermon: A New Collection of Sacred Music published in 1873 in New York City, NY, by Rigdon McCoy McIntosh.
All we know for certain about Robert Skene is that he lived in the nineteenth century. However, the evidence indicates that his forefathers were associated with those who called for restoring the ancient order of things in religion. Thus, there is reason to believe that he may have been identified with non-denominational, New Testament churches in the mid-to-late 1800s, most likely in the area of Louisville, KY. And whether his name means anything to us or not, every time we sing "On Zion's Glorious Summit Stood," we take something that he left us and use it to praise the eternal God of heaven and His glorious Son, Jesus Christ.
