Author: Watts, Isaac
Biography:
WATTS, Isaac (1674-1748: ODNB)
A prior author, but his work was included in many later collections and his hymns and versions of the psalms were revised by Joel Barlow (q.v.) for an American audience. Watts was born at Southampton to Sarah (Tanton or Taunton), of Huguenot descent, and Isaac Watts, who was imprisoned several times for Nonconformity. He was educated at the grammar school in Southampton and was recognised as academically precocious. A dissenter, he did not attend university but instead studied at a dissenting academy in Stoke Newington. After a period working as a tutor, he was appointed assistant to the minister at the Independent church in Mark Lane, London. Despite often prolonged periods of illness, Watts’s association with this church lasted the rest of his life and he was ordained minister there in 1702. His contributions to religions life and thought were recognised in 1728 by the award of DD from both Edinburgh University and the University of Aberdeen. He never married and lived mostly with the family of Sir Thomas Abney. It was at Abney Park in Stoke Newington that he died; he was buried in Bunhill Fields. Although Watts wrote extensively and influentially on education, religion, and philosophy, it is chiefly for his hymns that he is remembered. (ODNB 31 Dec. 2020)
Other Names:
- Doctor Watts
- Dr. Watts
- I. Watts
- Watts