The Newport Collection : the First Baptist hymnal in America - 1766

Baptist History and Heritage, Spring, 2003 by David W. Music

Baptist beginnings in the New World are generally traced to the founding of the First Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island, in 1639. From this modest beginning the number of Baptist churches in America grew slowly but steadily until the Revolutionary War.

Church music in these congregations--where it existed at all--generally consisted only of congregational singing. Some churches followed a Zwinglian tradition that excluded all song from the sanctuary. The churches that did sing mainly adhered to the Calvinist practice of singing only metrical Scripture (principally the Psalms) in unison without instrumental or choral accompaniment. During the late-seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the most popular psalters in the New World were the Bay Psalm Book (1640) and Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins's Whole Book of Psalms (1562, the "Old Version"), the former used principally by Congregationalists, the latter by Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and others.

Metrical psalmody continued to form the backbone of congregational singing in most Baptist churches in America until after the Revolutionary War. However, hymns (as opposed to metrical psalms) were beginning to make headway in British Baptist churches, thanks particularly to the work of Benjamin Keach (1640-1704), Joseph Stennett (1663-1713), and the non-Baptist Isaac Watts (1674-1748). A book of congregational songs published at Boston in 1762 suggests that Baptists in America were beginning to accept "human composures," for it contained reprints of two hymn books by English Baptists--Benjamin Wallin's Evangelical Hymns and Songs (1750) and Joseph Stennett's Hymns Compos'd for the Celebration of the Holy Ordinance of Baptism (1712)--and a selection of hymns gleaned from the sermons of Isaac Watts.

By 1766, the time appeared ripe for the publication of the first Baptist hymnal to be compiled in the Colonies, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, collected from the works of several authors. Because of its generic title (Hymns and Spiritual Songs), which was used by many other hymnals of the day, the work is usually called the "Newport Collection" after the place of its publication, Newport, Rhode Island. Though the word "Baptist" did not appear on the title page, the contents and what is known of the people involved in its publication make it evident that the book was both compiled by and intended for Baptists.

The People

The title page of the Newport Collection did not include the name of a compiler, nor does this information appear to be available from other sources. However, the title page did list the names of the book's sellers, William Rogers and Clarke Brown, as well as that of the printer, Samuel Hall.

The William Rogers who has been identified previously as the person of that name has been described as the first student and a member of the initial graduating class at Rhode Island College (now Brown University). (1) Rogers (1751-1824) became one of the most prominent Baptist leaders of his time, serving as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a chaplain (and friend of George Washington) in the Revolutionary Army, professor at the College of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, a member of the Pennsylvania state legislature, and an officer in many significant organizations.

However, there is reason to treat this identification with caution. In 1766, the year the Newport Collection was published, this William Rogers was no more than fifteen years old, and had only just completed (or would soon complete) his first year at Rhode Island College (he entered the college at age fourteen). Furthermore, the diary of Isaac Backus suggested that Rogers was not converted until 1770. (2) To be sure, Backus observed a short time later that Rogers "appears a promising youth," (3) but it seems doubtful that the responsibility for being the seller of a hymnal would have rested with a person so young, and one who was not converted at that.

A more likely possibility is that it was not this William Rogers but his father of the same name who served as one of the sellers of the Newport Collection. William Rogers Sr. was born about 1709. His occupation was that of a merchant. He was following this trade at least as early as 1763, when he placed an advertisement in the Newport Mercury touting his inventory of newly imported London goods, including various types of cloth as well as tea, chocolate, snuff, sugar, and flour, all of which were available at his shop "on the north side of the Parade." (4) Being the owner of a general store would have provided Rogers with a natural outlet for selling the Newport Collection.

William Rogers Sr. appears to have been a member of the Second Baptist Church of Newport. A copy of the Newport Collection in the library of Brown University contains a note to the effect that it was given to Robert Rogers by his father for use in the Second Baptist Church of Newport. (5) William Rogers Sr. is known to have had a son named Robert, who was listed along with William Rogers Jr. and Gardner Thurston (the pastor of Second Baptist Church, Newport) in William Sr.'s. will and codicil. (6) Thurston's involvement suggested that he was assisting with the arrangements for one of his church members. Shortly after William Sr.'s death in 1772, Morgan Edwards listed his widow Sarah, his son William Jr., and a number of other Rogerses as members of the Second Baptist Church--which Edwards called the "Farewell Street Church"--of Newport, further suggesting that William Sr., had been a member there. (7)