Editing Isaac Watts (section)

==Legacy, honours and memorials==
[[File:Isaac Watts DD tomb in Bunhill Fields.jpg|thumb|left|Watts' tomb in [[Bunhill Fields]]]]
[[File:Abney Park Cemetery Isaac Watts 2020.jpg|thumb|upright|London's only public statue to Watts is in [[Abney Park Cemetery]], [[Stoke Newington]].]]
[[File:Watts Park.jpg|thumb|Statue of Watts in [[Watts Park]], Southampton (city of his birth)]]

On his death, Isaac Watts' papers were given to [[Yale University]] in the [[Colony of Connecticut]], which nonconformists (Puritans/Congregationalists) had established. [[King Edward VI School, Southampton]], which he attended, named one of its [[House system|houses]] "Watts" in his honour.

The [[Church of England]] and [[Lutheran Church]] remember Watts (and his ministerial service) annually in the [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|Calendar of Saints]] with a [[Commemoration (Anglicanism)|commemoration]] on 25 November.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=10 April 2021|website=The Church of England|language=en}}</ref>

The earliest surviving monument to Watts is in [[Westminster Abbey]]; this was completed shortly after his death. His much-visited chest tomb at [[Bunhill Fields]] dates from 1808, replacing the original that had been paid for and erected by [[Lady Mary Abney]] and the Hartopp family.<ref>{{NHLE |num=1396517 |desc=Monument to Isaac Watts, East Enclosure |access-date=24 February 2014}}</ref>

Another early memorial may be lost: a bust to Watts commissioned on his death for the London chapel with which he was associated. The chapel was demolished in the late 18th century: remaining parts of the memorial were rescued at the last minute by a wealthy landowner for installation in his chapel near [[Liverpool]], but it is not known whether the bust survives. Another bust is installed at the nonconformist [[Dr Williams's Library]], in central London.

The first public statue stands at [[Abney Park]], where Watts lived for more than 30 years at the manor house, and where he also died. The park later became [[Abney Park Cemetery]], opened in 1840; and the statue of Watts was erected here by public subscription in 1845. It stands in Dr Watts' Walk, in front of the [[Abney Park Chapel]], and was designed by the leading British sculptor, [[Edward Hodges Baily]]. A scheme for a commemorative statue on this spot had been promoted in the late 1830s by [[George Collison]], who in 1840 published an engraving as the frontispiece of his book about cemetery design in Europe and America, and at Abney Park in particular. Collison's proposal was never commissioned, and Baily's design was adopted instead.

A later, rather similar statue was also funded by public subscription and erected in a new Victorian public park named after Watts in Southampton, the city of his birth. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Congregational Dr Watts Memorial Hall was built in Southampton and also named after him. It was lost to redevelopment after the [[Second World War]], but the Isaac Watts Memorial United Reformed Church was built on the site.

In 1974, the City of Southampton commemorated the tercentenary of Watts' birth by commissioning the biography ''Isaac Watts Remembered'', written by David G. Fountain, who like Watts, was a nonconformist minister from Southampton. The clock on Southampton Civic Centre chimes the tune of the opening line of 'Our God, our help in ages past', three times a day, at 8{{nbsp}}am, 12{{nbsp}}noon and 4{{nbsp}}pm.<ref>{{Cite web |title=West |url=https://www.southampton.gov.uk/people-places/parks-open-spaces/parks/central/west/ |access-date=31 July 2023 |website=www.southampton.gov.uk |language=en}}</ref>