Smith, Isaac

Composer

b c1734, d Walworth, SE London (Surrey), 1805. Possibly a clerk to the Alie Street Meeting House in Goodman’s Fields, E London, where he was reputedly the first dissenting Precentor to receive a salary. He may also have worked as a linen-draper in Cheapside. Some time before 1780 (the date of the earliest known edn) he compiled A Collection of Psalm Tunes in three parts, to which are added 2 Anthems and 2 Canons, sold by Mrs Davenhill, No.30 Cornhill; and Mr Buckland, No.57 Paternoster Row. In the 5th edn of 1788 he recommended what was then (and still is?) novel: a weekly hymn practice for not just the choir but the congregation, which would mean that ‘the mistakes of those who sing out of time [sic] may be easily corrected’. His tunes also feature in other books dated between c1755 and 1763. No.811=812.