Smith, Samuel Francis (1808–1895)

US clergyman and poet. He wrote ‘My Country, 'tis of Thee’ 1831, which, with the title ‘America’, was adopted as a national hymn of the USA in 1832. The tune is that of the British ‘God save the King’. He took the melody from a German songbook, unaware that it was a British anthem. His Poems of Home and Country were published in 1895.