Introduction

Biography

Deacon was the son of Sam­uel Dea­con, Sr., one of the first preach­ers of the Lei­ces­ter­shire Ge­ne­ral Bap­tists. He was al­so half bro­ther to hym­nist John Dea­con of Lei­ces­ter.

In 1771, Dea­con set­tled in Bar­ton, a small ag­ri­cul­tur­al vil­lage. He es­tab­lished a con­sid­er­able bu­si­ness there as a clock and watch mak­er, and be­came well known for his me­cha­ni­cal skills.

In 1779, he was in­vit­ed to help his fa­ther min­is­ter to the clus­ter of vil­lage con­gre­ga­tions of Ge­ne­ral Bap­tists, of which Bar­ton was the cen­ter. He was a po­pu­lar preach­er, serv­ing 37 years with­out pay, and con­trib­ut­ing to va­ri­ous re­li­gious en­ter­prises.

Works

• A New Com­po­si­tion of Hymns & Po­ems Chief­ly on Di­vine Sub­jects; De­signed for the Amuse­ment and Edi­fi­ca­tion of Chris­tians of All De­no­mi­na­tions, More Par­ti­cu­lar­ly Them of the Bap­tist Per­sua­sion, 1785. This vol­ume be­came known as the Bar­ton Hymns