related portals: Hymns, Christmas.
sister projects: Wikipedia article, Commons category, Wikidata item."It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" was written by Edmund Sears (1810-1876), pastor of the Unitarian Church in Wayland, Massachusetts. It appeared on December 29, 1849 in the (Boston, Massachusetts) Christian Register. Sears is said to have written these words at the request of his friend, W. P. Lunt, a minister in Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1850 Richard Storrs Willis, a composer who trained under Felix Mendelssohn, as well as editor and critic for the New York Tribune, wrote the melody called "Carol". The tune used in England, called "Noel", was adapted from an English melody by the composer Arthur Sullivan.
This carol is also known by the title "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear".