William Clagett (controversialist)

William Clagett (1646–1688) was an English clergyman, known as a controversialist.

Life

William Clagett was the eldest son of Nicholas Clagett the elder, a preacher at St. Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. He was born in the parish on 24 September 1646, and educated at Bury grammar school under Dr. Thomas Stephens, author of notes on Statius. He was admitted a pensioner of Emmanuel College, Cambridge on 5 September 1659, before the age of thirteen, under the tuition of Thomas Jackson. He graduated B.A. in 1663, M.A. in 1667, D.D. in 1683.[1]

Clagett was elected preacher at St. Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds, on 12 December 1672, and resigned on 17 June 1680 after being appointed preacher at Gray's Inn, London. He was made chaplain in ordinary to King Charles II in 1677. He was also presented to the rectory of Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire by its Lord Keeper Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford, a kinsman of his wife's, and (instituted on 14 May 1683). Along with his preacher's place at Gray's Inn, Clagett held the lectureship of St Michael Bassishaw, to which he was elected about two years before his death; and he also served as chaplain in ordinary to James II.

On Sunday evening, 16 March 1688, after having preached at St Martin's-in-the-Fields in his Lent course there, he succumbed to smallpox, and died on 28 March 1688. He was buried in a vault under the church of St Michael Bassishaw. John Sharp preached the funeral sermon. His wife, Thomasin North, died eighteen days later and was buried in the same grave.

Works

Clagett took a leading part in the controversy carried on during the reign of James II respecting the points in dispute between Protestants and Catholics.

His works are:

The present State of the Controversie between the Church of England and the Church of Rome; or an account of the books written on both sides (London 1687) was by William Wake. Clagett saw it through the press, while Wake was in hiding in Dorchester, and it has been attributed to him.[13]

Notes

  1. "Clagett, William (CLGT659W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. Reprinted in Edmund Gibson's Preservative against Popery, fol. ed. vol. iii., 8vo ed. vol. xiv.; and in Edward Cardwell's Enchiridion Theologicum, vol. iii.
  3. Reprinted in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, fol. ed. vol. ii., 8vo ed. vol. vii.
  4. Reprinted in 1689 at the end of the second vol. of his Sermons; also in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, fol. ed. vol. ii., 8vo ed. vol. ix.
  5. Reprinted in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, fol. ed. vol. iii., 8vo ed. vol. xiii.
  6. Reprinted in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, 8vo ed. vol. v.
  7. http://words.fromoldbooks.org/Chalmers-Biography/c/clagett-william.html
  8. https://archive.org/stream/lesimprimeurslil00houduoft#page/250/mode/2up
  9. Reprinted in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, fol. ed. vol. ii., 8vo ed. vol. iii.
  10. Reprinted in Gibson's 'Preservative against Popery,' fol. ed. vol. ii., 8vo ed. vol. viii.
  11. Reprinted in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, 8vo ed. vol. i.
  12. The first and second volumes appeared respectively in 1689 and 1693; 3rd edition, 1699–1704. The 'Life' prefixed to the first volume was written by Dr. John Sharp. The third and fourth volumes did not come out till 1720, and were also called vols. i. and ii., but notice was given that they were never before published.
  13. Burns, William E. "Clagett". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5426. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

References

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