Classic Hymns and Their Stories
Puzzle 10 · Isaac Watts and His World · Page 24 in print
Watts at Stoke Newington
A fever in 1712 left Watts in lasting poor health, and he became the guest of Sir Thomas Abney. He lived with the Abney household for thirty-six years: mostly at Theobalds in Hertfordshire, and for the last thirteen years at Stoke Newington.
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The words
Abney House
Manor house at Stoke Newington where Watts spent his last years.
Wikipedia: Mary Abney (opens a new tab) · London Remembers: Abney House and Park (opens a new tab)
Bunhill Fields
Dissenters’ burial ground in London where Watts was buried. His burial place after he died at Stoke Newington in 1748.
Bury Street
Meeting house at Bury Street, St Mary Axe, used by Watts’s congregation from 1708. His London congregation’s chapel during his Abney years.
Cheshunt
Hertfordshire parish containing the Theobalds estate. Location of the Abneys’ Theobalds home.
Doddridge
Philip Doddridge, dissenting minister and hymn writer, Watts’s friend. Younger friend who dedicated a major work to Watts while he lived at Stoke Newington.
Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh, which gave Watts an honorary DD. Honour received during his years with the Abneys.
John Hartopp
Puritan baronet at Stoke Newington whose son Watts tutored.
DNB: Watts, Isaac (1674-1748) (opens a new tab) · Hymnary.org: Isaac Watts (opens a new tab)
Logic
Watts’s textbook Logick: or, the Right Use of Reason. Major prose work of his Abney years; commemorated as ‘logician’ at Abney Park.
Wikipedia: Isaac Watts (opens a new tab) · Abney Park Trust: Restoration of the Isaac (opens a new tab)
Mary Abney
Lady of the manor of Stoke Newington; Watts’s hostess.
Wikipedia: Mary Abney (opens a new tab) · London Remembers: Abney House and Park (opens a new tab)
Samuel Price
Watts’s assistant (1703) and co-pastor (1713). Carried pastoral work while Watts’s health confined him to the Abney household.
Theobalds
Abney country seat in Hertfordshire where Watts lived before Stoke Newington. The Abneys’ other residence, where his long stay began.
Hymnary.org: Isaac Watts (opens a new tab) · Wikipedia: Mary Abney (opens a new tab)
Thomas Abney
Lord Mayor of London and Watts’s host from 1712.
Thomas Gibbons
Dissenting minister who wrote the 1780 Memoirs of Watts. Early biographer whose Memoirs record Watts’s later life.
Thomas Rowe
Head of the dissenting academy Watts attended from 1690.
Tutor
Private teacher in a household. His post in the Hartopp household.
Sources
- Mary AbneyWikipedia
- Abney House and ParkLondon Remembers
- Isaac WattsHymnary.org
- Dictionary of National Biography: Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)Dictionary of National Biography (via CCEL)
- Philip DoddridgeWikipedia
- Isaac WattsWikipedia
- Restoration of the Isaac Watts monumentAbney Park Trust
- Thomas Gibbons (hymn writer)Wikipedia