Henry Ainsworth › Hymnals

Ainsworth, Henry, was a leader of the Brownist party in England, and one of those nonconforming clergy who, in 1604, left this country for Amsterdam. He was a learned man and skilled in Hebrew. He became very poor in exile, living on the meanest fare, and acting as porter to a bookseller. He was of a warm temperament and apt to be quarrelsome; died 1622 or 1623, suddenly, which gave rise to a suspicion of unfair play on the part of the Jewish community. His translations from the Hebrew Psalms were printed at Amsterdam and entitled The Booke of Psalms: Englished both in Prose and Metre, 1612. It contained a preface and had musical notes. There is a copy in the Bodleian Library. [Rev. J. T. Bingley, L.R.A.M., F.G.O.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Ainsworth, Henry. (Swanton Morley, Norfolk, England, 1571--1622 or 1623, Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Brownist. Son of Thomas Ainsworth. Cambridge. Leader of a separatist congregation in Amsterdam. Rabbinical and oriental scholar. Author of works on the Brownist movement, of Biblical commentaries, and of The Booke of Psalms: Englished both in Prose and Metre. This work, a relatively literal translation with accompanying music, was published in Amsterdam in 1612. It was widely used by nonconformists and was brought by the Pilgrims to the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620. In Plymouth it remained in use until 1692, but elsewhere in Massachusetts the Bay Psalm Book of 1640 replaced it as early as the 1660s.

--Anastasia Van Burkalow, DNAH Archives