Claim: Catcott, an English churchman from Bristol who had been corresponding since 1733 with John Hutchinson, preached a sermon in St Mark's Church on April 16, 1735, which provoked "the first serious debate about Hutchinsonianism and the scientific evidence contained in the Old Testament".
Evidence: Alexander Stopford Catcott (1692–1749) was an English churchman from Bristol, and headmaster of Bristol Grammar School from 1722 to 1743 or 1744. Catcott had been corresponding since 1733 with John Hutchinson, who saw the Old Testament as a repository of scientific as well as divine knowledge. Catcott preached a sermon in St Mark's Church (also called "Mayor's chapel") on 16 April 1735 (The Supreme and Inferior Elahim, published London, 1736); this sermon, preached before Chief Justice Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, provoked "the first serious debate about Hutchinsonianism and the scientific evidence contained in the Old Testament".