Henry Ainsworth

Henry Ainsworth was a prominent English Separatist leader and accomplished Hebrew scholar during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Prominent within the Brownist movement, his nonconformist convictions made his position in England untenable, forcing him to flee to Amsterdam alongside fellow exiled clergy in 1604. Despite his deep erudition, Ainsworth endured severe poverty in Holland, sustaining himself on meager rations while working as a humble porter for a local bookseller.

Remembered for a passionate temperament and a inclination toward theological debate, Ainsworth died unexpectedly around 1622 or 1623. His sudden passing provoked widespread speculation and unsubstantiated rumors of foul play involving the local Jewish community, with whose scholars he had frequently interacted on linguistic and biblical matters.

Ainsworth's paramount legacy rests in his metric translation of the Hebrew Psalter, printed in Amsterdam in 1612 as The Booke of Psalms: Englished both in Prose and Metre. The work included a detailed preface alongside musical notation to guide public worship. This collection became hugely influential among early dissenters and was famously carried across the Atlantic by the Pilgrims, with an original copy preserved today in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.