Isaac Watts
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Isaac Watts (July 17, 1674 – November 25, 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.
Life
Born in Southampton, Watts was brought up in the home of a committed Nonconformist — his father had been imprisoned twice for his controversial views. At his local school he learnt Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and 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.
- "A little mouse for want of stairs
- ran up a rope to say its prayers."
- "O father, do some pity take
- And I will no more verses make."
His education led him to the pastorate of a large 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 a nonconformist family at Fleetwood House in Stoke Newington, and later became part of the household of Sir Thomas Abney at Theobalds in Hertfordshire whose children he taught. Though a nonconformist, Sir Thomas practiced 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 nondenominational or ecumenical than was at that time common for a nonconformist; 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 Lady Mary Abney and her remaining daughter to their second home, Abney House in Stoke Newington, which Lady Mary Abney 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 Watts sought inspiration for the many books and hymns written during these two decades. He died there 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.
One of his best known poems was an exhortation Against Idleness And Mischief in Divine Songs for Children :
- How doth the little busy bee
- Improve each shining hour,
- And gather honey all the day
- From every opening flower!
Other works
Besides being a great hymn-writer, Isaac Watts was also a brilliant theologian and logician, writing many books on these subjects. One such text on logic was a standard at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale; being used at Oxford for well over 100 years.
Memorials
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. 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.
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.
List of hymns
Some of Watts' more well-known hymns are:
- Joy to the World! (sung to a tune by Handel)
- [Come We that Love the Lord] (often sung with the chorus [and titled] "We’re Marching to Zion")
- [Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove]
- [Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun]
- [O God our Help in Ages Past]
- When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
- Alas! and Did My Saviour Bleed
See also
External links
- [The Isaac Watts Fan Club] background info and midi files
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