Isaac Watts

WATTS, Isaac. b. Southampton, 17 July 1674; d. Stoke Newington, London, 25 November 1748. His Life and Ministry He was the eldest of nine children in a prosperous dissenting family. His father, who has been variously described as teacher, clothier and gentleman, was a deacon of the Above Bar Congregational Church. His mother’s family, the Tauntons, were of Huguenot descent. Tradition has it that during the year of his birth he was breast-fed by his mother on the steps of the Old Town Gaol, where his father was imprisoned for some violation of the Act of Uniformity. His father was imprisoned again in 1683, after the king had been forced to withdraw the Act of Indulgence, which had allowed...

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