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The stanza “When I was a seeker” is from Religious Folk Songs of the Negro (Hampton: Institute Press, 1909), so it is in the public domain. The stanzas by Work, “While shepherds kept their watching,” etc., are from American Negro Songs and Spirituals (NY: Bonanza Books, 1940). According to the copyright laws at the time, a copyright notice had to be clearly given (it wasn't in this case), and it must be filed with the copyright office, with a term of 28 years. This song is not included in the Catalog of Copyright Entries for 1940. Even if a copyright was in force, it needed to be renewed in 1968 (it wasn't). Therefore, no copyright is enforceable here for any of the words from 1909 or 1940.
https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce/
https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/go-tell-it-on-the-mountain
“More Hymns and Spiritual Songs” says the author of the verse “When I was a sinner” is Frederick J. Work, 1880-1942; so it possible these verses are copyrighted, but not in 1971. This hymnal is not clear, but it looks like the copyright statement refers to the harmonization. I merged the seekers and the sinners together.
This problem should be fixed now
That makes good sense, but I'm not sure it's explained transparently and accessibly. If so, show me where, please, so next time something like that drives me batty I can perhaps avoid needing to write about it here.
The person page counts the number of times Watts is credited as the author of a hymn. Not all hymnals indicate an author on the hymn page (especially the older hymnals, the hymnals authored by Watts, and some incomplete hymnals added by volunteers). The authority page counts the number of hymnal instances with the hymn.