Philip Doddridge was an English nonconformist born in 1702. He became on Nonconformist minister and he empathized a spiritual and devotional frame of mind in his congregation through his preaching. Throughout his minister he was a prolific writer and is credited with writing many hymns. He wrote The Life of Col. James Gardiner in 1747. Doddridge wrote The Life of Col. James Gardiner to tell the story of his friend and his heroic fight during the first significant conflict in the second Jacobite rising. Colonel Gardiner was a senior Hanoverian commander in the Battle of Prestonpans, where he was wounded and later died.