Jessie Seymour Irvine was the daughter of a Church of Scotland parish minister who served at Dunottar, Peterhead, and Crimond in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. She is referred to by Ian Campbell Bradley in his 1997 book Abide with Me: The World of Victorian Hymns as standing in a strong Scottish tradition of talented amateurs ... who tended to produce metrical psalm tunes rather than the dedicated hymn tunes increasingly composed in England.