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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
The introduction of hymns and hymn-singing has been described as one of the greatest contributions made by dissent to English worship. Yet, with the exception of specialist studies by hymnologists, church historians have largely ignored eighteenth-century hymns and hymn-singing, though it is clear they represented a powerful and popular source of contemporary religious expression. Hymns, that is compositions which depart too far from Scripture to be called paraphrases, have been one of the most effective mediums of religious thought and feeling, second only to the Bible in terms of their influence. The only recent academic studies have been in English Literature, where hymns have been examined as literary texts for their poetic value. As a consequence neither the historical context of the development of the hymn in the decades following the 1689 Toleration Act, nor the liturgical significance of their introduction to public worship, has been addressed.
1 Watts, M., The Dissenters, 2 vols (Oxford, 1978), 1, p. 308 Google Scholar.
2 M. F. Marshall and J. Todd, English Congregational Hymns in the Eighteenth Century (Lexington, KY, 1982); D. Davie, The Eighteenth-Century Hymn in England (Cambridge, 1993). J. R. Watson, The English Hymn: a Critical and Historical Study (Oxford, 1997), appeared after this paper had been completed.
3 Davies, Worship, 3, p. 34.
4 William Gardiner, Music and Friends, 2 vols (London, 1838), 1, pp. 1-3.
5 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. misc. e. 257, Antiquarian notes and drafts of letters of William Bickerstaffc (1728-89), fol. 154V: ‘The Dissenting meeting house, was the Barn in Bonners or Mill Lane ye Horspool street, where the clarke began to sing chevy chase.’ Bickerstaffc presumably had the account from his mother who was a member of the Great Meeting congregation during the ministry (c. 1709-29) of Thomas Gee. See J. Nichols, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, 4 vols in 8 pts (London, 1795–1811), 1 pt 2, p. 315 n.3.
6 Watts, Dissenters, 1, p. 308; Davics, Worship, 2, p. 274.
7 See D. L. Wykes, ‘“The Settling of Meetings and the Preaching of the Gospel”: the development of the dissenting interest after toleration’, JURCHS, 5 (1993), pp. 127-45.
8 D. Maclean and N. G. Brett-James, ‘London in 1689-90’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, ns 7 (1934), pp. 143-5, 148-50.
9 The Diary of Samuel Sewall 1674-1729, ed. M. and H. Thomas, 2 vols (New York, 1973), 1, pp. 208-9, 214. 218, 226.
10 Routley, E., Hymns and Human Life (London, 1952), pp. 52, 59 Google Scholar; Davies, Worship, 2, pp. 269-70.
11 For an account of the history and complex relationship between the different editions, see R. Ming, ‘The English metrical Psalter of the Reformation’, Musical Times, 128 (1987), pp. 517-21; N. Temperley, The Music of the English Parish Church, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1979), 1, p. 76.
12 Routley, Hymns, p. 55; Davies, Worship, 2, pp. 278-9.
13 Mr Richard Baxter’s Paraphrase on the Psalms of David in Metre, with other Hymns (London, 1692), preface, sig. 5.
14 Watts, I., The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament (London, 1719), p. xv Google Scholar; cf. idem, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (London, 1707), pp. iv-v.
15 The Scottish Psalter was the Edinburgh edition of the English metrical psalter, which excluded the Canticles associated with the Common Book of Prayer and included the Fonn of Prayers and Catechism from Calvin’s Order of Worship; See Illing, ‘English metrical Psalter’, pp. 517-19. For Barton, see E. Welch, ‘William Barton, hymnwriter’, Guildhall Miscellany, 3 (1971), pp. 235-41.
16 London, Dr Williams’s Library, MS 90.4.5, Sarah Savage to Matthew Henry, 12 Feb. 1686/7. Barton’s Psalms were said to have been used at the Above Bar meeting in Southampton, when Isaac Watts was a boy: L. F. Benson, The English Hymn (New York, 1915), p. 113; Maclean and Brett-James, ‘London in 1689-90’, p. 145.
17 R. Brown, The English Baptists of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1986), pp. 15, 38, 46- 7, 58-9; Davies, Worship, 2, pp. 272-4; Maclean and Brett-James, ‘London in 1689-90’, p. 148; I. Watts, Home Lyricae, 2nd edn (London, 1709), p. vi; London Borough of Tower Hamlets, TH/8337/1, Records of Stepney Meeting House, 1644-1974, fol. 9r. Quaker reactions to hymns and hymn-singing were discussed by Rosemary Moore in a paper given at the 1997 Summer Conference of the Ecclesiastical History Society, ‘Quaker worship: a discontinuity?’, which is to be published in the chapter on the development of Quaker worship in her forthcoming book.
18 Keach, Benjamin, Spiritual Melody (London, 1691 Google Scholar); idem, Spiritual Songs (London, 1696; 2nd edn, 1700); Davies, Worship, 2, pp. 284, 509-10.
19 Davies, Worship, 3, p. 135.
20 Calendar of the Correspondence of Richard Baxter, ed. N. H. Kecble and G. F. Nuttall, 2 vols (Oxford, 1991), 1, p. 319; Michael Harrison, A Gospel Church Describ’d (London, 1700); idem, The Best Match … Preached at Potters Pury in Northamptonshire, September the 29th, 1690 (London, 1691); Richard Davis, Hymns Composed on Several Subjects, 2nd edn (London, 1694), no copy of the first edition appears to survive; [Samuel Bury], A Collection of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs (London, 1701); Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs. By the late Reverend Mr Daniel Burgess (London, 1714), p. iv; Gardiner, Music and Friends, p. 1.
21 Watts, Psalms of David, p. viii.
22 Boyse, J., Sacramental Hymns (Dublin, reprinted London, 1693 Google Scholar), see title and preface; Davis, Hymns, p. 146.
23 For example, Davis, Hymns, p. 56; Nicholetts, Charles, The Devil’s Champion foil’d (London, 1707), p. 37 Google Scholar, who published the hymn ‘publickly sung at the close of the Sermon’ delivered in December 1706 on the day of public thanksgiving to celebrate Marlborough’s victories.
24 Barton, W., The Book of Psalms (London, 1644 Google Scholar).
25 Boysc, J., Family Hymns for Morning and Evening Worship (Dublin, 1701 Google Scholar).
26 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. lett c.29, fol. io6r, Matthew Henry to Philip Henry, 3 Apr. 1693; M[atthcw] H[cnry], Family-Hymns Gather’d (mostly) out of the best Translations of David’s Psalms (London, 1695), see ‘Epistle to the reader’. New Testament hymns were not added until the 2nd and enlarged edn in 1702; W. Tong, An account of… Matthav Henry (London, 1716), p. 117.
27 Clifford, J., Sound Words: The Catechism of the Westminster Assembly (London, 1699), pp. 7–8 Google Scholar.
28 Samuel Cradock, Knowledge and Practice (first pub. London, 1659; 4th edn, ‘corrected, and very much ciilarg’d’, 1702), pp. 226, 276-83, 146-7. He included 25 hymns, both personal and private, to be used in the family.
29 Peirce, J., Vindicœ fratrum dissentientium in Anglia (London, 1710 Google Scholar). Although Pcircc’s Vindiae was extensively revised when the English translation was published in 1718, the third part, ‘Concerning Discipline, and Modes of Worship’, was little altered: A Vindication of the Dissenters: in answer to Dr W. Nichols’s Defence of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England (London, 1717), pp. 385-6.
30 Rothwell, Northamptonshire: Rothwell United Reformed Church, First Church book of Rothwell Independent Church, 1655-1708, s.v. 3 Jul. 1699.
31 Portsmouth Record Office, CHU 82/9/1, High Street Presbyterian Meeting, Portsmouth, Ledger of miscellaneous church receipts, 7 Nov. 1697-1 Aug. 1736, under 21 Feb. 1709/10.
32 Croft, William, Musica Sacra, or, Select Anthems in Score (London, 1724 Google Scholar). This edn is one of the first attempts in England to engrave music in score.
33 Nichols, History, p. 547.
34 B. Elliott and R. H. Evans, The French exiled clergy in Leicestershire from 1792’, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, 64 (1990), p. 37.
35 Watts, Hymns, pp. iii, vi, viii.
36 Gibbons, T., Memoirs of the Rev. Isaac Watts (London, 1780), p. 254 Google Scholar; Enoch to Isaac Watts, March 1700, printed in T. Milner, The Life, Times and Correspondence of the Rev. Isaac Watts (London, 1834), p. 177.
37 Bishop, S. L., Hymns and Spiritual Songs (London, 1962), p. ix Google Scholar.