Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts grew up in Southampton with a father who had been jailed twice for refusing to conform to the Church of England. English congregations in his youth sang metrical psalms and little else, often badly. The story his family told is that the teenaged Watts complained about the singing and was told that if he thought he could do better he should try — and he did, week after week, for years.

His achievement was twofold: he wrote hymns of free composition at a time when many thought only Scripture could be sung, and he rewrote the Psalms in the language of the New Testament, so Psalm 72 became Jesus Shall Reign and Psalm 98 became Joy to the World. He pastored an Independent congregation in London until poor health made it impossible, and spent his last thirty-six years as a guest of the Abney family, still writing — hymns, children's verse, and a logic textbook the universities used for a century.