Isaac Watts (1674 - 1748)

Born 17 Jul 1674 in Southampton, Hampshire, England

Ancestors

Died 25 Nov 1748 at age 74 in Stoke Newington, Middlesex, England

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Biography

Isaac Watts was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England.

Isaac Watts is Notable.

Isaac Watts was born in 1674. He was the son of Isaac Watts and Sarah Taunton.

His father, also named Isaac Watts, was described as ‘a clothier’ of 21 French Street, Southampton (1719). As deacon of the independent meeting, he was imprisoned for his religious opinions in the gaol of Southampton at the time of the birth of his son Isaac (1674) and also in the following year (1675).
In 1685 he was, for the same cause, obliged to hide in London for two years.
In later years he kept a flourishing boarding-school at Southampton. He had a liking for the composition of sacred verses. One or two of his pieces appear in the posthumous works of his son (1779), and several others in that volume are credited to him by Gibbons in his biography. He died in February 1736–7, aged 85. His wife was daughter of an Alderman Taunton at Southampton, and had Huguenot blood in her veins. ^[1]

Isaac Watts was an English Non-Conformist Christian minister, hymn writer, theologian, and logician. He was a prolific and popular hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. He is recognized as the "Father of English Hymnody;"
Even as young child he wrote poems. At age seven, he wrote an acrostic spelling out the letters of his name. This acrostic not only showed his brilliance, but also the strong Calvinistic theology which was characteristic of his life. ^[2]

"I" - I am a vile, polluted lump of earth
"S" - So I've continued ever since my birth
"A" - Although Jehovah, grace doth daily give me
"A" - As sure this monster, Satan, will deceive me
"C" - Come therefore, Lord, from Satan's claws relieve me.

"W" - Wash me in Thy blood, O Christ
"A" - And grace divine impart
"T" - Then search and try the corners of my heart
"T" - That I in all things may be fit to do
"S" - Service to Thee, and Thy praise too.

List of some of his hymns in the Trinity Hymnal (1990) ^[2]

Death

Dr. Isaac Watts passed away on 25 Nov 1748 at Stoke Newington, Hackney, London, England. ^[3]

Bunhill Fields Burial Ground 1873

Isaac was buried at Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, used by nonconformists.

Sources

1. ↑ DNB WATTS, ISAAC (1674–1748) https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Watts,_Isaac
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Isaac Watts Acrostic: and Hymns https://songsandhymns.org/people/detail/isaac-watts
3. ↑ Death/Burial Entry: Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 11 August 2019), memorial page for Isaac Watts (17 Jul 1674–25 Nov 1748), Find A Grave: Memorial #19793, citing Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London Borough of Hackney, Greater London, England ; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19793/isaac-watts

• Wikipedia: Isaac Watts

• Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 11 August 2019), memorial page for Isaac Watts (17 Jul 1674–25 Nov 1748), Find A Grave: Memorial #1078, citing Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, London Borough of Islington, Greater London, England ; Maintained by Find A Grave .

• Will transcription Milner, Thomas. The life, times, and correspondence of the Rev. Isaac Watts. (London : Simpkin and Marshall, 1834), p. 729. Accessed 9 Dec 2019 on https://archive.org/details/cu31924029455700/page/n751

See also:

• Records of the Family of Deacon, of Kettering and London, with notices of allied families

• 'Michael Faraday - a Sandemanian and Scientist' by Geoffrey Cantor

• 'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell, published by The Hogarth Press, Pimlico, London in 1996. ISBN 0 7126 7450 0, includes extensive family trees. Hundreds of friends, professional connections and people in the 'Bloomsbury set' are also mentioned in the text.'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell