On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
cause of religion and virtue , and whose name is justly revered in the country where he exercised his ministry .
Untitled Article
270 Notes on the Memoirs of Mr . J . Fox
Untitled Article
Clapton , Sir , May 1 , 1821 . SINCE I sent you the remarks , ( p . 220 , ) I have recollected that " 8 . Hill , Archdeacon of Wells , " ( p . 223 , coL 2 , ) is the person mentioned in yourXIIthVoLp . 467 , as the author of a virulent attack on Bishop Burnet in 1695 . I have also observed , that the
various answers to the Rights are reviewed by Le Cterc m Bib . Chois Tom . XXL P . 193 , col . 2 . " One Mr . Seeker . " The future << r Primate of all England , " for whom was reserved the
extraordinary distinction of christening , marrying and crowning the same royal personage , ( George III ., ) was , according to his biographer , Bishop Porteus , the son of " a Protestant Dissenter , a
pious , virtuous and sensible man , who , having a small paternal fortune , followed no profession . " He resided ** at a small village called Sid thorp , in the vale of Belvoir , Notts , " where Seeker was born in 1693 .
" He received his education at several private schools and academies in the country , being obliged by various accidents to change his masters frequently . Notwithstanding this evident disadvantage , at the age ot nineteen he had not only made a considerable progress in Greek and Latin , and read the
best and most difficult writers in both languages , but had acquired a knowledge of French , Hebrew , Chaldee and Syriac , had learned Geography , Logic , Algebra , Geometry , Conic Sections ,
and gone through a course of lectures on Jewish Antiquities , and other points preparatory to the critical study of the Bible . At the same time , in one or other of those seminaries , he had the good fortune to meet , ami to form an
acquaintance with , several persons of great abilities . Amongst the rest , in the academy of Mr . Jones , kept first at Gloucester , then at Tewkesbury , he laid the foundation of a strict friendship with Mr . Joseph Butler , afterwards Bishop of Durham . " ( Review of Seeker ' s Life , 1797 , p . 2 . )
This passage discovers the attainments of Mr . Fox's early associate at the commencement of their acquaint-
Untitled Article
ance . It may serve also to describe the cursory manner of a Churchman reared amidst the stately piles of old munificence / ' when constrained to mention the unendowed institutions for intellectual improvement , supported and enjoyed by Separatists .
Amidst the confusion of * private schools and academies , " and the " evident disadvantage" of " being obliged ¦—to change his masters frequently , " who would discover that ** the
academy of Mr . Jones" was distinguished " amongst the rest" ? Yet in that academy Seeker must have found the opportunities for making those valuable attainments " at the age of
nineteen , " which , without any university education , except being entered , in 1721 , in his 28 th year , for " about a twelvemonth" at Oxford , merely for the sake of taking a degree , or , according to a ludicrous description , as a term-trotter , enabled him to reflect so much honour , as a theologian , upon the Church of England . The prelate , it is to be feared , had
seldom , if ever , conversed with his chaplains , of whom Dr . Porteus was chiefly in his confidence , on his obligations in early life to an education in a Dissenting academy . But , sometimes , litera scripta manet . There exists a curious record on this subject by Seeker himself . It is one with which
a biographer , writing not to compliment or aggrandize a church , but to instruct and entertain the world , while he did justice to those who had contributed to form the character which he described , would have been eager to adorn his narrative .
Dr . Gibbons , the biographer of Watts , annexed to the Memoirs of his friend , in 1780 , " Select Letters of his Correspondents , " printed from the originals . The first of these letters is from Se . cher . It is dated " Gloucester , Nov . 18 , 171 I , " and thus commences : " Before I give you an account of the state of our academy , and those other things you desired me , please to accept of my hearty thanks for that service you have done me , both in advising me to prosecute my studies in such an extraordinary place of education , and in procuring me admittance into it . I wish my improvements may be answerable to the advantages * enjoy ; but , however that may happen ,
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1821, page 270, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2500/page/14/
-