Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 36:142 (Apr 1879)
Article: Early New England Psalmody
Author: Increase N. Tarbox

BSac 36:142 (April 1879) p. 247

Early New England Psalmody

Rev. Increase N. Tarbox

When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth they brought with them, for the service of praise in their public worship, Mr. Henry Ainsworth’s version of the Psalms. A well-preserved copy of this book (not of the earliest edition) belongs to the Prince Library, now in the keeping of the Boston Public Library. On a fly-leaf of the book is a brief entry by Rev. Thomas Prince himself, which reads as follows: “T. Prince, Plymouth, May 1, 1732. I have seen an edition of this version, in 1618. And this version of Ainsworth was sung in Plymouth Colony, and, I suppose, in the rest of N. E. till the New England version was printed.”

Mr. Henry Ainsworth was the teacher in the English church at Amsterdam where he was associated in the ministry with Mr. Francis Johnson. It is not unlikely that the copy of Ainsworth’s version which Mr. Prince saw (printed in 1618) was the earliest edition of the work.

Governor Bradford, in his Dialogue, written in 1648, between “some young men born in New England and sundry ancient men that came out of Holland and old England,” has this pleasant descriptive passage touching Mr. Ainsworth:

“Mr. Henry Ainsworth, a man of a thousand, was teacher of this church at Amsterdam, at the same time when Mr. Johnson was pastor. Two worthy men they were, and of excellent parts. He [Mr. Ainsworth] ever maintained good correspondence with Mr. Robinson at

BSac 36:142 (April 1879) p. 248

Leyden, and would consult with him on all matters of weight, both in their differences and afterwards. A very learned man he was, and a close student, which much impaired his health. We have heard some, eminent in the knowledge of the tongues, of the university of Leyden, say that they thought he had not his better for the Hebrew tongue in the university, nor scarce in Europe. He had an excellent gift of teaching and opening the Scriptures; and things did flow from him with that facility, plainness, and sweetness, as did much affect the hearers. He was powerful and profound in doctrine, although his voice was not strong, and had this excellency above many, that he was most ready and pregnant in the Scriptures, as if the book of God had been written in his heart; being as ready in his quotations, without tossing and turning his book, as if they had lain open before his eyes, and seldom missing a word in the citing of any place, teaching not only the word and doctrine of God, but in the words of God; and, for the most part, in a continued phrase and words of Scripture. He used great dexterity and was ready in comparing Scripture with Scripture, one with another.”

Mr. Ainsworth died in 1622, two years after the Pilgrims reached ...