The hymn’s lyrics to “What Wondrous Love is This” were first published in Lynchburg, Virginia in the c. 1811 camp meeting songbook A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use. In most early printings, the hymn’s text was attributed to an anonymous author, though the 1848 hymnal The Hesperian Harp attributes the text to Alexander Means (1801-1883) — a Methodist clergyman, physician, scientist, and teacher. Although Dr. Means certainly sounds capable of authoring the lyrics, he would have been 10 years old when they were first published, making it unlikely he’s the author.
Most sources attribute the hymn’s melody to the 1701 English song “The Ballad of Captain Kidd”, which describes the exploits of pirate William Kidd. The melody itself predates the Kidd usage, however, possibly by more than a century. In addition, at least a dozen popular songs were set to the same melody after 1701. In the early 1800s, when the lyrics to “What Wondrous Love Is This” were first published, hymnals typically lacked any musical notation. (After all, musical notation requires expensive engraving — the words alone only relatively inexpensive movable type.) Camp meeting attendees during the Second Great Awakening would sing the hymns printed in these hymnals to a variety of popular melodies, including “The Ballad of Captain Kidd”, which was well known at the time. This is likely how the text and melody came to be paired.
Other hymns exhibit a similar history — where the now familiar melody has a secular origin. Luther is supposed to have used ‘drinking songs’ as the melody for some of his hymns. (Some say “A Mighty Fortress.”) The melody to “Amazing Grace” was originally a song called “New Britain.” Frequently these are hard to nail down, as the traces of their original secular usage have often been lost in the mists of time past, overwhelmed by their now sacred usage.
I had a modern-day experience of ”baptizing’ secular songs. As a young man, there was a period where I made a point of going to as many different styles of worship as I could find. (Still do, to a lesser extent). One of them was a group originating with Watchman Nee (1903-1972) — an evangelistic preacher in Communist China and the founder of the largest indigenous church there, founding over 400 local churches, and writing 60 books. (He spent the last 20 years of his life in prison for his troubles.) I happened upon a group of his followers who met weekly at a school cafeteria. Their idea of Communion was that it’s “just” a big communal meal. So they had a big potluck every Thursday night, eating at those long school cafeteria tables and kids running around having too much fun. Then, after the meal, they got out their ‘hymnal’ — lyrics set to well-known popular tunes. One was set to the “Budweiser Beer” commercial, another to the “Flintstones,” crazy stuff like that. It was way too much fun hearing maybe 100 people sing hymns set to these almost preposterous tunes. And, later, when I heard these secular tunes and words on TV or wherever, I found myself mentally substituting the ‘sacred’ words I had heard that night. Maybe they were onto something…