Isaac Watts was an influential English theologian, poet, and logician who lived from 1674 to 1748. Born in Southampton to a nonconformist father, he was unable to attend Oxford or Cambridge due to his religious affiliations. Instead, he studied at a Dissenting Academy before serving as a minister at Mark Lane Congregational Chapel in London. He is widely celebrated as the "Godfather of English Hymnody" for composing approximately 750 hymns, many of which remain central to Protestant worship globally.