Joseph Hart

Joseph Hart (1712-68) was an Independent minister at Jewin Street, London, 1760-68. He was the author of Hymns, &c. Composed on Various Subjects (1759), which went through 13 editions by 1796. The 1796 edition is quite remarkable, for it was printed by T. Bensley, but sold by all women:  Hart’s daughter at 58 Golden Lane, Mrs Newbury at the corner of St Paul’s Church Yard and Ludgate Street, and Mary Priestley at Paternoster Row, as well as the nonconformist meetings at Jewin Street and the Barbican (Independent chapels). He was converted after many years of turmoil, attending in the 1750s Whitefield’s chapels in Moorfields and Tottenham Court Road. He was minister at the Independent meeting in Jewin Street, 1760-68. He was buried at Bunhill Fields. In his brief biographical note prefixed to Hymns, he writes that for seven years he wrestled over the state of his soul, ‘the Question with me now was, not whether I would be a Christian or no; but whether I might; not whether I should repent and believe; but whether God would give me true Repentance, and a living Faith’ (vi).