Author: Deacon, Samuel
Biography:
Deacon, Samuel (1746-1816: Hollis)
Samuel Deacon, the author of the pious poems listed in this bibliography, was the minister of the Baptist chapel in Barton-in-the-Beans or Barton, Leicestershire. (His New Composition of Hymns and Poems, one of the earliest General Baptist hymn books, was renamed Barton Hymns in the enlarged second edition.) He also wrote prose works in support of his church. But he is better known today as a clockmaker of historical significance, born in Ratby, who set up his workshop in Barton about 1772. He married twice but there is no record of children. His father--also Samuel Deacon (1714-1812)--was a day labourer who served as pastor to both the Ratby and Barton congregations. Deacon the Younger was ordained in 1779 to serve as minister, initially in conjunction with his father but soon on his own. A volume of memoirs was published by way of tribute to him in 1827 by a colleague, John Green (revised by Cook, 1888). (Benson; P. A. Hewitt, "The Deacon Family of Leicestershire Clockmakers--Part I," Antiquarian Horology [Sept. 1986], 255-6; Preacher, Pastor, Mechanic: Memoir of the late Mr. Samuel Deacon, ed. Thomas Cook [1888])
Other Names:
- S. Deacon