Watts, Isaac. The John Mycall, Newburyport edition of Watts' Psalms

WATTS, ISAAC

THE PSALMS OF DAVID, IMITATED IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, AND APPLIES TO THE CHRISTIAN STATE OF WORSHIP... NEWBURY-PORT: PRINTED AND SOLD BY JOHN MYCALL, 1781. [WITH:] HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS, IN THREE BOOKS... NEWBURY-PORT. PRINTED AND SOLD BY JOHN MYCALL, 1782

Two works in one volume, 12mo (6 1/8 x 3 3/8 in.; 154 x 86 mm). Title page to each section with decorative woodcut border; foxing and staining. Contemporary brown calf; overall rubbed, with loss to corner and head and tale of spine, previous owner's bookplate partially removed from front pastedown.

The John Mycall, Newburyport edition of Watts' Psalms, first edition thus 

Watts was an English Christian minister, logician, and hymn writer (credited with some 750 hymns, earning his title of the "Godfather of English Hymnody"). While Watts’s poetry remained hugely popular both during and after the American Revolution, his frequent references to “Northern Isles,” Britain, and kings, proved awkward for patriotic church-goers. In 1781, Newburyport printer John Mycall brought forth a new edition of Watts’s psalms, from which all references to Britain and its king had been erased by a committee of ministers. Between 1781 to 1832, there would be nine distinct revision projects, yielding at least 75 different editions or printings of Watts’s psalter.

REFERENCE:

Evans 17098; Evans 17099; Benson, The American revisions of Watts’s Psalms 18-34

PROVENANCE:

Mary Merrill (signature to front pastedown) — ? Chase (signature to front pastedown)