Pelham Humphrys was born in England in 1647 and died at Windsor in 1647. He was among the first children appointed to the restored Chapel Royal in 1660. After study in France (on a grant from King Charles II, according to legend) he returned to England and was appointed Gentleman of the Chapel Royal on October 26, 1667. Pepy's diary described him as being "full of form, and confidence and vanity" and disparaging "everything and everybody's skill but his own". His mastery of the fashionable Italianate expression and English declamation was acknowledged, however, by his contemporaries. This present edition of the Verse Anthem O LORD, MY GOD is based on the Warren edition of Volume 3 of Boyce's CATHEDRAL MUSIC.