Samuel Davies as pioneer of Watts usage and first American hymn writer

Context

The dissertation devotes significant attention to Samuel Davies (1723-1761) as a key figure in introducing Watts to American Presbyterianism. Davies was a leader of the Great Awakening in Virginia, founder of Hanover Presbytery, and later President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton). The passages describe his role in championing Watts’ psalms and hymns.

Extract

Davies was years ahead of his time with his interest in using Psalms and hymns of Isaac Watts, and his desire to have these hymns sung in Presbyterian churches.

He belongs to that generation of American Presbyterians who began the movement of revolt against the established ordinance of exclusive psalm-singing; who first tested and then welcomed the Imitations of Dr. Watts and, later, his Hymns. When Davies was born Watts’s earliest hymns had been before the public for only 16 years, and the date of Davies’s death was but 13 years later than that of Watts himself. It was not until 27 years after Davies’ death that the singing of hymns was actually authorized by the Synod of the Church in which he ministered.

[From Davies’ 1756 letter to the London Society for Promoting Religious Education among the Poor:]

The books I principally want for them are Watts’ Psalms and Hymns and Bibles, especially the former, for the negroes, above all the human species I ever knew, have an ecstatic delight in Psalmody.

[After receiving and distributing the books:]

Sundry of them have lodged all night in my kitchen, and sometimes when I awakened about two or three o’clock in the morning, a torrent of sacred harmony poured into my chamber and carried my mind away to heaven.

Significance

This extract establishes Samuel Davies as the crucial figure who introduced Watts to Southern Presbyterianism, decades before the formal controversy erupted:

1. Generational timing: Davies was a near-contemporary of Watts himself, introducing his work to America in real time rather than as an established tradition
2. “Revolt” against exclusive psalmody: The language explicitly frames Davies as beginning a “revolt against the established ordinance of exclusive psalm-singing”
3. New Side connection: Davies’ role with Hanover Presbytery and the New Side Synod of New York explains why that branch became “more inclined to look with favor upon the use of Watts”
4. Ahead of his time: Davies died 27 years before the Synod officially authorized hymn-singing, showing he was a pioneer
5. Enthusiasm for Watts: His letters reveal genuine love for Watts’ work, describing its use among enslaved people who had “an ecstatic delight in Psalmody”

This helps explain the regional and theological divisions in the later controversy: Davies’ introduction of Watts through the Great Awakening and New Side Presbyterianism set up the eventual conflict with Old Side and Scottish-Irish traditionalists.