Margaret Mackay was a Scottish author of several books. Her Thoughts Redeemed; or, Lays of Leisure Hours (1854), contained 72 of her hymns and poems. Among her prose works, The Family at Heatherdale (1837) was most widely read. Of all funeral hymns in her era, none was sung more often than Mackay's, "Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep"; it was first published in The Amethyst: or Christian's Annual (Edinburgh, 1832).
