Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748), is recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", as he was the first prolific and popular English hymnwriter, credited with some 750 hymns. Many of his hymns remain in active use today and have been translated into many languages.
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Born in Southampton, England,in 1674, Watts was brought up in the home of a committed Nonconformist — his father, also Isaac Watts, had been incarcerated twice for his controversial views. At King Edward VI School (where one of the houses is now named "Watts" in his honour), he learned Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
He displayed a propensity for rhyme at home, driving his parents to the point of distraction on many occasions with his verse. Once, he had to explain how he came to have his eyes open during prayers.
Receiving corporal punishment for this, he cried
Watts, unable to go to either Oxford or Cambridge on account of his non-conformity, went to the Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newington in 1690, and much of his life centred around that village, then a rural idyll but now part of Inner London.
His education led him to the pastorate of a large Independent Chapel in London, and he also found himself in the position of helping trainee preachers, despite poor health. Taking work as a private tutor, he lived with the non-conformist Hartopp family at Fleetwood House, Abney Park in Stoke Newington, and later in the household of Sir Thomas Abney and Lady Mary Abney at Theobalds, Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, and at their second residence, Abney House, Stoke Newington. Though a non-conformist, Sir Thomas practised occasional conformity to the Church of England as necessitated by his being Lord Mayor of London 1700–01. Likewise, Isaac Watts held religious opinions that were more non-denominational or ecumenical than was at that time common for a non-conformist, having a greater interest in promoting education and scholarship, than preaching for any particular ministry.
On the death of Sir Thomas Abney, Watts moved permanently with his widow and her remaining daughter to Abney House, a property that Mary had inherited from her brother, along with title to the Manor itself. The beautiful grounds at Abney Park, which became Watts' permanent home from 1736 to 1748, led down to an island heronry in the Hackney Brook where he sought inspiration for the many books and hymns he wrote. He is likely to have attended the nearby Newington Green Unitarian Church, as "in later life [he] was known to have adopted decidedly Unitarian opinions"[2].
He died in Stoke Newington and was buried in Bunhill Fields, having left behind him a massive legacy, not only of hymns, but also of treatises, educational works, essays and the like. His work was influential amongst independents and early religious revivalists in his circle, amongst whom was Philip Doddridge, who dedicated his best known work to Watts. On his death, Isaac Watts' papers were given to Yale University, an institution with which he was connected because of its being founded predominantly by fellow Independents (Congregationalists).
Sacred music scholar Stephen Marini (2003) describes the ways in which Watts contributed to English hymnody.[3] Notably, Watts led the way in the inclusion in worship of "original songs of Christian experience"; that is, new poetry. The older tradition limited itself to the poetry of the Bible, notably the Psalms. This stemmed from the teachings of the 16th century Reformation leader John Calvin, who initiated the practice of creating verse translations of the Psalms in the vernacular for congregational singing.[4] Watts' introduction of extra-Biblical poetry opened up a new era of Protestant hymnody as other poets followed in his path.[5]
Watts also introduced a new way of rendering the Psalms in verse for church services. The Psalms were originally written in Biblical Hebrew within the religion of Judaism. Later, they were adopted into Christianity as part of the Old Testament. Watts proposed that the metrical translations of the Psalms as sung by Protestant Christians should give them a specifically Christian perspective:
Marini discerns two particular trends in Watts' verses, which he calls "emotional subjectivity" and "doctrinal objectivity". By the former he means that "Watts' voice broke down the distance between poet and singer and invested the text with personal spirituality." As an example of this he cites "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross". By "doctrinal objectivity" Marini means that Watts verse achieved an "axiomatic quality" that "presented Christian doctrinal content with the explicit confidence that befits affirmations of faith." As examples Marini cites the hymns "Joy to the World" as well as "From All That Dwell Below the Skies":[6]
Besides being a famous hymn-writer, Isaac Watts was also a renowned theologian and logician, writing many books and essays on these subjects. Watts was the author of a text book on logic which was particularly popular; its full title was, Logic, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard Against Error in the Affairs of Religion and Human Life, as well as in the Sciences. This was first published in 1724, and its popularity ensured that it went through twenty editions.
Watts' logic text book was written for beginners of logic, and the book is arranged methodically. He divided the content of his elementary treatment of logic into four parts: perception, judgement, reasoning, and method, which he treated in this order. Each of these parts is divided into chapters, and some of these chapters are divided into sections. The content of the chapters and sections is then subdivided by using some combination of the following devices: divisions, distributions, notes, observations, directions, rules, illustrations, and remarks. Thus, every contentum of the book comes under one or more of these headings, and this methodical arrangement serves to make the exposition clear.
In Watts' Logic there are some notable departures from what one would expect to find in a text book of logic from Watts' time, and there are also some notable innovations. Detectable throughout the work is the influence of British empiricism, and in particular, the influence of philosopher and empiricist John Locke. For, Locke was a contemporary of Watts, and in the Logic there are several references to Locke and his Essay Concerning Human Understanding[7], in which Locke espoused his empiricist views. Another departure from most other authors of logic is that Watts was careful to distinguish between judgements and propositions. According to Watts, judgement is "to compare... ideas together, and to join them by affirmation, or disjoin then by negation, according as we find them to agree or disagree"[8]. However, he continues by saying, "when mere ideas are joined in the mind without words, it is rather called a judgement; but when clothed with words it is called a proposition"[9]. Watts' Logic follows the scholastic tradition and divides propositions into universal affirmative, universal negative, particular affirmative, and particular negative. In the third part, Watts discusses reasoning and argumentation, with particular emphasis on the theory of syllogism, which was a centrally important part of the classical logic which Watts' was treating in his work. According to Watts, and in keeping with the common practice of logicians of his day, Watts defined logic as an art (see liberal arts), as opposed to a science. Throughout the Logic Watts revealed his high conception of logic by stressing the practical side of logic, rather than just the speculative side. According to Watts, as a practical art, logic can be really useful in any of our inquiries, whether they are inquiries in the arts, or inquiries in the sciences, or inquiries of an ethical kind. It is Watts' emphasis on logic as a practical art which distinguishes his book from others. For, by stressing that there is a practical and non-formal part of logic, Watts was able to give rules and directions for any kind of inquiry, including the inquiries of science and the inquiries of philosophy. These rules of inquiry were given in addition to the formal content of classical logic that one would expect to find in a text book on logic from that time. Thus, Watts' conception of logic as being divided into its practical part and its speculative part, and therefore containing more than just formal logic, marks a departure from the conception of logic of most other authors. Instead, Watts' conception of logic is much more akin to that of the later, nineteenth century logician, C.S. Peirce.
Isaac Watts' Logic became the standard text on logic at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale; being used at Oxford University for well over 100 years. C.S. Peirce, the great nineteenth century logician, wrote favourably of Watts' Logic. When preparing his own text book on Logic entitled A Critick of Arguments: How to Reason (also known as the Grand Logic), Peirce wrote, 'I shall suppose the reader to be acquainted with what is contained in Dr Watts' Logick, a book... far superior to the treatises now used in colleges, being the production of a man distinguished for good sense.' [10] The Logic was followed in 1741 by a supplement, The Improvement of the Mind, which itself went through numerous editions and later inspired Michael Faraday.
The earliest surviving built memorial to Isaac Watts is at Westminster Abbey; this was completed shortly after his death. His much-visited chest tomb, in its photogenic setting at Bunhill Fields, dates from 1808, replacing the original that had been paid for and erected by Lady Mary Abney and the Hartopp family. In addition a stone bust of Watts can be seen in the non-conformist library Dr Williams's Library in central London. The earliest public statue stands at Abney Park, where he lived and died before it became a cemetery and arboretum; a later, rather similar statue, was funded by public subscription for a new Victorian public park in the city of his birth, Southampton. In the mid nineteenth century a Congregational Hall, the Dr Watts Memorial Hall, was also built in Southampton, though after the Second World War it was lost to redevelopment. Now standing on this site is the Isaac Watts Memorial United Reformed Church.
One of the earliest built memorials may also now be lost: a bust to Watts that was commissioned on his death for the London chapel with which he was associated. The chapel was demolished in the late eighteenth century; remaining parts of the memorial were rescued at the last minute by a wealthy landowner for installation in his chapel near Liverpool. It is unclear whether it still survives.
The stone statue in front of the Abney Park Chapel at Dr Watts' Walk, Abney Park Cemetery, was erected in 1845 by public subscription. It was designed by the leading British sculptor, Edward Hodges Baily RA FRS. A scheme for a commemorative statue on this spot had first been promoted in the late 1830s by George Collison, who in 1840 published an engraving as the frontispiece of his book about cemetery design in Europe and America; and at Abney Park Cemetery in particular. This first cenotaph proposal was never commissioned, and Baily's later design was adopted in 1845.
Some of Watts' more well-known hymns are:
Many of his hymns are included in the Methodist hymn book Hymns and Psalms. Many of his texts are also used in the American hymnal The Sacred Harp, using what is known as the shape note singing technique.
Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English theologian, logician, and a prolific and popular hymnwriter. Known as the "Father of English Hymnody" he is credited with some 750 hymns, many of which remain in active use today.
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Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English pastor, preacher, poet, and hymn writer. He is often called the "Father of English Hymnody": he was the first popular English hymn writer. Because of his short height and large head, in all his portraits Isaac Watts wore a large gown.[1] He wrote about 600 hymns including When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Am I a Soldier of the Cross, and Joy to the World.[2] He is buried today in Bunhill Fields Cemetery, London, England.[2]
Isaac Watts was born in 1674 as a small and sickly child. At this time, his father was in prison for being a nonconformist preacher.[3] At that time in England, a man who did not preach the way the leaders of the Church of England thought about God could go to prison. Christians who were dissenters met secretly in fields and barns to hide from people who would report them. Dissenters were fined for preaching anywhere if five or more people were there. Isaac Watts gave much encouragement for people to continue to believe in Christ.[3]
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Isaac, even when he was young, was good at and liked rhyming.[3] He was a good student and liked books. Once, when his mother said she would give a farthing (a coin) to one of her husband's students who could make the best rhyme, Isaac tried and made this couplet:
"I write not this for a farthing, but to try
How I your farthing writers can outvie’."[4]
When he was six, he made some verses. When his mother saw them, she could hardly believe he had written them.[4] So Isaac gave his mother a poem he had made with his name[3]:
I am a vile polluted lump of earth
S-o I've continu'd ever since my birth
A-lthough Jehovah grace does daily give me
A-ssure this monster Satan will deceive me
C-ome, therefore, Lord, from Satan's claws relieve me.
W-ash me in thy blood, O Christ
A-nd grace divine impart
T-hen search and try the corners of my heart
T-hat I in all things may be fit to do
S-ervice to thee, and sing thy praises too.[4]
When he was in his early tewnties, Isaac saw a need in the church. He told his father that the psalms sung in the church were rough and hard. [3] Isaac's father challenged him to write better songs, and Isaac began writing hymns. Watts produced many hymns for which he is now famous.
Watts also saw that children needed to have hymns that suited their age, hymns that they could sing in their everyday life. Because of this, in 1720 he wrote Divine and Moral Songs, for the Use of Children. [3] These songs were about problems of youth at that time and still today, with titles like Against Evil Company and Against Pride in Clothes. [3]
Watts lived a long and full life preaching about Jesus, teaching, and writing books and hymns. When he died, his papers were given to Yale University.
Some of Isaac Watts' most well known and loved songs are:
   | O God our Help in Ages Past - Our God, Our Help in Ages Past |
| | Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove - Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove |
| | Come We that Love the Lord - Marching to Zion |
| | The Isaac Watts Fan Club - Welcome to the Isaac Watts Fan Club |
| | This is the day the Lord has made - This Is the Day the Lord Hath Made |
| | Alas! and did my Saviour bleed - Alas And Did My Savior Bleed (Guy/Purdy) |
| | When I survey the wondrous cross - When I Survey the Wondrous Cross |
| | ''A Solemn Address to the Great and Ever Blessed God'' - A Solemn Address to the Deity - BelieveTheSign |
| | Dr Williams's Library - Royal Holloway, University of London |
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