Isaac Watts
born July 17, 1674, Southampton, Hampshire,
Eng.
died Nov. 25, 1748, Stoke Newington, London
English Nonconformist minister, regarded as the
father of English hymnody.
Watts, whose father was a Nonconformist, studied
at the Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newington,
London, which he left in 1694. In 1696 he became
tutor to the family of Sir John Hartopp of Stoke
Newington (a centre of religious dissent) and of
Freeby, Leicestershire, and preached his first
sermons in the family chapel at Freeby. He was
appointed assistant to the minister of Mark Lane
Independent (i.e., Congregational) Chapel,
London, in 1699 and in March 1702 became full
pastor. He was apparently an inspiring preacher.
Because of a breakdown in health (1712) he went
to stay, intending a week’s visit, with Sir
Thomas Abney in Hertfordshire; he remained with
the Abneys for the rest of his life.
Watts wrote educational books on geography,
astronomy, grammar, and philosophy, which were
widely used throughout the 18th century. He is
now best known, however, for his hymns. The
famous hymns were written during Watts’s Mark
Lane ministry. His first collection of hymns and
sacred lyrics was Horae Lyricae (1706), quickly
followed by Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707),
which included “When I Survey the Wondrous
Cross,” “There is a Land of Pure Delight,” and
others that have become known throughout
Protestant Christendom. The most famous of all
his hymns, “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past”
(from his paraphrase of Ps. 90), and “Jesus
Shall Reign” (part of his version of Ps. 72),
almost equally well known, were published in The
Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the
New Testament . . . (1719). He also wrote
religious songs especially for children; these
were collected in Divine Songs for the Use of
Children (1715).
