Isaac Watts

Often called the Father of English Hymnody, Isaac Watts profoundly influenced the church music of both England and America. Frail and ugly of body, but precocious and sharp of intellect, Watts singlehandedly may have shifted the practice in English-speaking Protestant churches from metrical Psalms to congregational hymns. Watts was born in Southampton, England, the eldest of nine children. His father, a well-educated and outspoken Congregationalist deacon, was in prison for his nonconformist views at the time of Isaac's birth. Isaac quickly showed his father's intellectual str...