Samuel Horsley

Samuel Horsley
Bishop of St Asaph
Church Church of England
Diocese Diocese of St Asaph
Elected 1802
Term ended 1806 (death)
Predecessor Lewis Bagot
Successor William Cleaver
Other posts Bishop of Rochester
1793–1802
Dean of Westminster
1793–1802
Bishop of St David's
1788–1793
Personal details
Born (1733-09-15)15 September 1733
London
Died 4 October 1806(1806-10-04) (aged 73)
Brighton
Nationality British
Denomination Anglican
Profession Scholar
Alma mater Trinity Hall, Cambridge

Samuel Horsley (15 September 1733 – 4 October 1806) was a British churchman, bishop of Rochester from 1793. He was also well versed in physics and mathematics, on which he wrote a number of papers and thus was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767; and secretary in 1773, but, in consequence of a difference with the president (Sir Joseph Banks) he withdrew in 1784.

Entering Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1751, he became LL.B. in 1758 without graduating in arts.[1] In the following year he succeeded his father in the living of Newington Butts in Surrey. In 1768 he attended the son and heir of the 3rd Earl of Aylesford to Oxford as private tutor; and, after receiving through the earl and Bishop of London various minor preferments, which by dispensations he combined with his first living, he was installed in 1781 as archdeacon of St Albans.

Horsley now entered on his controversy with Joseph Priestley, who denied that the early Christians held the doctrine of the Trinity. In this fierce debate, Horsley's aim was to lessen the influence which Priestley's name gave to his views, by pointing to (what he claimed were) inaccuracies in his scholarship. Horsley was rewarded by Lord Chancellor Thurlow with a prebendal stall at Gloucester; and in 1788 Thurlow procured his promotion to the see of St David's.

As a bishop, Horsley was active both in his diocese, and in parliament. The effective support which he afforded the government was acknowledged by his successive translations to Rochester in 1793, and to St Asaph in 1802. With the see of Rochester he held the deanery of Westminster.

Works

Besides the controversial Tracts, which appeared in 1783-1785, 1786, and were republished in 1789 and 1812, Horsley's more important works are:

After his death there appeared several collections edited by Heneage Horsley:

References

  1. "Samuel Horsley (HRSY751S)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

External links

Church of England titles
Preceded by
Edward Smallwell
Bishop of St David's
1788–1793
Succeeded by
William Stuart
Preceded by
John Thomas
Bishop of Rochester
1793–1802
Succeeded by
Thomas Dampier
Dean of Westminster
1793–1802
Succeeded by
William Vincent
Preceded by
Lewis Bagot
Bishop of St Asaph
1802–1806
Succeeded by
William Cleaver
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