Stephen Bird was born in 1759. His father, Thomas, was a farm labourer from Thatcham in Berkshire. He attended Winchester College from 1774 to 1781 and Corpus Christi College, Oxford from 1781 to 1784.
Bird was ordained as an Anglican priest on June 27th 1807. His first post was All Souls Church in London as curate to William Cowper with whom he collaborated on a revision of John Wesley’s hymn book.
The new curate at All Souls was Thomas Scott, whom Bird had met in Italy, where he was serving as a chaplain to the papal campaign against Napoleon in Italy. Scott persuaded Bird not to return home as he had expected and proposed instead that Bird could go with him to his native Scotland.
Bird went to Edinburgh where he became the clergyman of St George’s Tron Church from 1808–1814. He found a way out of the controversy over congregational singing in churches by opening his church doors to all the people who wished to sing. It was an instant success, with congregations swelling to overflowing. This was in contrast to his encounters in London, where he had failed to promote similar liberalities regarding church music.
Bird returned to London where he accepted a Lectureship at King’s College London and chaplaincy under the Royal Greenwich Hospital until 1816.
In 1817 he was appointed Chaplain to the Provincial Assembly of the German Evangelical Church. At the same time he was admitted to the Royal Society as a Fellow of King’s College London.
Bird became a Presbyterian and preached his first sermon on behalf of this church on 3 Sep 1817 in Edinburgh, Scotland at St Giles’ Church, Edinburgh. The sermon was published in “The Reformed Presbyterian Magazine” and entitled “A Discourse on the Saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ”.
He was elected a Fellowship of the Royal Society in February 1818, and served as the society’s librarian from 1819-1838.
In 1817 he became a member of the Literary Association for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He served as its treasurer from 1821–1827 and its vice president from 1829-1832.
From 1820 to 1830 Bird was also associated with the Church Missionary Society, which sent him on missions to German Lutheran churches in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Prussia.