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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Conder, John

​ CONDER, JOHN, D.D. (1714–1781), congregationalist minister and tutor, was born 3 June 1714, at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, and came of an old nonconformist stock in that county. On leaving school he was taken up by the ‘King's Head Society,’ instituted in aid of the education of dissenting ministers, and studied first in the London academy of which he afterwards became the head, and which ultimately was settled at Homerton; afterwards in another London academy, for the benefit of the instructions of John Eames, F.R.S., described by Isaac Watts as ‘the most learned man I ever knew.’
Conder inaugurated his ministerial career at Cambridge, being invited to the congregational church, Hog Hill, on 23 Nov. 1738, and ordained there on 27 Sept. 1739. He restored harmony in a congregation which had been unhappy in its pastors, and remained at Cambridge till 13 Oct. 1754, when he removed to London to fill the place of Zephaniah Marryat, D.D. (d. September 1754), as theological tutor in the academy which had previously been conducted at Plasterers' Hall. It was moved to Mile End in 1755, and in 1772 to Homerton. Conder continued at the head of the academy until his death. He was elected one of the preachers at the Merchants' lecture in Pinners' Hall on 3 Oct. 1759. On 21 May 1760 he became assistant to the venerable Thomas Hall, minister at Little Moorfields, afterwards the Pavement, whose funeral sermon he preached in 1762. Succeeding Hall as pastor, Conder enjoyed marked repute in the pulpit as well as in the theological chair. William Bennet was his assistant at the Pavement from 1778. Conder was disabled by a paralytic stroke, which he survived but a few weeks, dying at Homerton on 30 May 1781. He was buried at Bunhill Fields; his epitaph, composed by himself, concludes thus: ‘Peccavi. Resipui. Confidi. Amavi. Requiesco. Resurgam. Et ex gratia Christi, ut ut indignus, regnabo.’
Conder married in 1744 a daughter of John Flindel of Ipswich, by whom he had James [q. v.] and six elder sons. He published ​‘A Serious Address … on the important subject of a Gospel Ministry,’ 1753, 8vo (anon.); and eight single sermons, including ‘Exhortation’ at ordination of R. Winter (1759, 8vo), funeral sermons for John Guyse, D.D. (1761, 8vo), and T. Hall (1762, 8vo), and sermon at ordination of T. Saunders at Cambridge (1768, 8vo). He prefixed a preface to ‘Living Christianity delineated in the Diaries of … Hugh Bryan and Mary Hutson,’ &c., 1760, 8vo; and a recommendation to W. Cooper's ‘Predestination explained,’ 1765, 12mo. He edited S. Harrison's ‘Songs in the Night,’ 1781, 8vo.
Some catalogue-makers have confounded him with John Conder of Hare Court, who at the Salters' Hall conference in 1719 ‘sign'd on both sides.’
[Funeral Sermon by James Webb, 1781; Middleton's Biographia Evangelica, 1786, iv. 488 (gives list of Conder's works, and biographical particulars from a manuscript by his son, T. Conder); Monthly Repos. 1810, p. 626 (account of Cambridgeshire dissent by Robert Robinson and Josiah Thompson); Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of Dissenters, 2nd ed. 1833, ii. 222, 517.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vincent, Thomas

​VINCENT, THOMAS (1634–1678), nonconformist divine, second son of John Vincent and elder brother of Nathaniel Vincent [q. v.], was born at Hertford in May 1634. After passing through Westminster school, and the grammar school at Felsted, Essex, he entered as a student at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1648, matriculated 27 Feb. 1650–1, and graduated B.A. 16 March 1651–2, M.A. 1 June 1654, when he was chosen catechist. Leaving the university, he became chaplain to Robert Sidney, second earl of Leicester [q. v.] In 1656 he was incorporated at Cambridge. He was soon put into the sequestered rectory of St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street, London (he was probably ordained by the sixth London classis), and held it till the uniformity act (1662) ejected him. He retired to Hoxton, where he preached privately, and at the same time assisted Thomas Doolittle [q. v.] in his school at Bunhill Fields. During the plague year (1665) he preached constantly in parish churches. His account of the plague in ‘God's Terrible Voice in the City by Plague and Fire,’ 1667, 8vo, is very graphic. Subsequently he gathered a large congregation at Hoxton, apparently in a wooden meeting-house, of which for a time he was dispossessed. He did not escape imprisonment for his nonconformity. He died in his prime on 15 Oct. 1678, and was buried (27 Oct.) in Cripplegate churchyard. His funeral sermon was preached by Samuel Slater [q. v.]
Among his publications were, besides many sermons:
* ‘A Spiritual Antidote for a Dying Soul,’ 1665, 8vo.
* ‘The Foundation of God standeth Sure,’ 1668, 8vo; against William Penn [q. v.], the quaker.
* ‘Wells of Salvation Opened,’ 1669, 8vo.
* ‘Fire and Brimstone,’ 1670, 8vo.
Posthumous was
* . ‘Holy and Profitable Sayings,’ 1680, broadsheet.
[Funeral Sermon by Slater, 1679; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 1174; Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss; Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, 1696, iii. 2, 19, 95; Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 32; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, i. 30 sq.; Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1808, ii. 191 sq.; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, ed. Toulmin, 1822, iv. 451, 479; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pell, William

​PELL, WILLIAM (1634–1698), nonconformist divine, son of William Pell, was born at Sheffield in 1634. After passing through the grammar school at Rotherham, ​Yorkshire, he was admitted as sizar at the age of seventeen on 29 March 1651 at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where his tutor was Joseph Hill [q. v.] He graduated M.A., was elected scholar 2 June 1654 and fellow 3 Nov. 1656, and received orders from Ralph Brownrig [q. v.], bishop of Exeter, probably at Sunning, Berkshire. He held the sequestered rectory of Easington, Durham, and a tutorship in the college at Durham founded by Cromwell by patent dated 15 May 1657. At the Restoration this college collapsed, and Clark, the sequestered rector of Easington, was restored. Pell was appointed to the rectory of Great Stainton, Durham, which he held until ejected in 1662.
After ejection he preached in conventicles, and was imprisoned at Durham for nonconformity. Removed to London by ‘habeas corpus,’ he was discharged by Sir Matthew Hale [q. v.] He then betook himself to the North Riding of Yorkshire, and practised medicine. His friends, who valued him for his breadth of acquirement, and especially for his eminence as an orientalist, repeatedly urged him to resume the work of teaching ‘university learning.’ He considered himself debarred from so doing by the terms of his graduation oath. The project of instituting a ‘northern academy’ fell accordingly into the hands of Richard Frankland [q. v.] After the indulgence of 1672 he ‘preach'd publickly’ at Tattershall, Lincolnshire, and was protected by holding the office of domestic steward to Edward Clinton, fifth earl of Lincoln. A London merchant of the same surname, but no kinsman, became his benefactor. On James's declaration for liberty of conscience (1687), he became pastor to the nonconformists at Boston, Lincolnshire. Thence he removed in 1694 to become the assistant of Richard Gilpin, M.D. [q. v.], at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Here he died on 2 Dec. 1698, having entered his sixty-third year. He was buried on 6 Dec. at St. Nicholas's Church, Newcastle. He married Elizabeth (buried 30 Jan. 1708), daughter of George Lilburn of Sunderland. He published nothing, but left unfinished collections which showed the extent of his oriental and rabbinical studies.
[Calamy's Account, 1713, pp. 288 sq., Continuation, 1727, i. 454; Memoirs of Ambrose Barnes (Surtees Soc.) l. 141; Miall's Congregationalism in Yorkshire, p. 75; extracts from the records of Magdalene College, Cambridge, per A. G. Peskett, esq.; extracts from the burial register of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-on-Tyne, per R. Welford, esq.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Relly, James

​RELLY, JAMES (1722?–1778), universalist, was born at Jeffreston, Pembrokeshire, about 1722 and educated at the Pembroke grammar school. An ungovernable youth of great bodily strength, he was apprenticed to a cow-farrier. It is reported that he joined some young fellows who planned to make game of George Whitefield, but Whitefield's preaching at once laid hold of him. This must have been about 1741, the date of Whitefield's first preaching tour in Wales. He made Whitefield's acquaintance, and became one of his preachers, as also did his brother John. His first station was at Rhyddlangwraig, near Narberth, Pembrokeshire, where he remained a few years. In 1747 he reported to Whitefield the result of a missionary tour to Bristol, Bath, Gloucestershire, and Birmingham. He broke with Whitefield on doctrinal grounds; his views on the certainty of salvation being regarded as antinomian. For some time he seems to have travelled as a preacher on his own account. In 1756 we find him at Carrickfergus, delivering, in opposition to John Wesley, a ‘pointless harangue about hirelings and false prophets.’ On 2 April 1761 Wesley writes of him and others as ‘wretches’ who ‘call themselves methodists,’ being really antinomian.
About this time Relly definitely adopted universalism, which he viewed as a logical consequence of the universal efficacy of the death of Christ. He settled in London as a preacher at Coachmakers' Hall, Addle Street, Wood Street. In 1764 a chancery action was brought against him by a Yorkshire lady, who had given him a sum of money and executed a deed securing to him an annuity of 5l. It was alleged that Relly had fraudulently obtained these benefits while the grantor was in a state of religious frenzy. Under an order of the court the deed was cancelled and the money refunded. Shortly afterwards Relly removed to a meeting-house in Bartholomew Close (formerly presbyterian), which had just been vacated by Wesley. Here he remained till midsummer 1769, when the lease expired. He then secured (October 1769) a meeting-house in Crosby Square (formerly presbyterian), where he continued to preach till his death, but his cause did not thrive, and he had no immediate successor in this country [see Winchester, Elhanan]. He made a convert, however, in 1770, of John Murray, who was the founder of the universalist churches in America. Relly is said to have shown much natural ability and a generous disposition, under a rough manner. He died on 25 April 1778, and was interred in the baptist burial-ground, Maze Pond, Southwark; the inscription on his tombstone represents him as ‘aged 56 years.’ Two elegies were written by admirers. He left a widow and one daughter, who was living in 1808 and had issue. John Relly Beard [q. v.] was named after him, but was not a descendant. Relly's portrait was twice engraved.
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rogers, Timothy (1658-1728)

​ROGERS, TIMOTHY (1658–1728), nonconformist minister, son of John Rogers (1610–1680) [q. v.], was born at Barnard Castle, Yorkshire, on 24 May 1658. He was educated at Glasgow University, where he matriculated in 1673, and afterwards studied under Edward Veal [q. v.] at Wapping. His entrance into the ministry was as evening lecturer at Crosby Square, Bishopsgate. Some time after 1682 he was prostrated by hereditary hypochondria, from which he recovered in 1690, and then became assistant to John Shower [q. v.], minister of the presbyterian congregation in Jewin Street, removed in 1701 to the Old Jewry. His services were highly acceptable, but his hypochondria returned, and in 1707 he left the ministry, retiring to Wantage, Berkshire, where he died in November 1728; he was buried in the churchyard there on 29 Nov. His portrait is in Dr. Williams's Library; an engraving from it by Hopwood is in Wilson. John Rogers, his grandson, was minister at Poole, Dorset.
He published, besides single sermons, in- ​cluding funeral sermons for Robert Linager (1682), Anthony Dunswell (1692), Edmund Hill (1692), Edward Rede (1694), M. Hasselborn (1696), and Elizabeth Dunton (1697): 1. ‘Practical Discourses on Sickness and Recovery,’ &c., 1690, 8vo. 2. ‘A Discourse concerning … the Disease of Melancholy; in three parts,’ &c., 1691, 8vo; 2nd ed. 1706, 8vo; 3rd ed. 1808, 12mo (with life by Walter Wilson). He prefaced the ‘Works’ of Thomas Gouge (1665?–1700) [q. v.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Veel, Edward

​VEEL or VEAL, EDWARD (1632?–1708), nonconformist tutor, was of good family, and born, probably in Gloucestershire, about 1632. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 27 Feb. 1650–1, and graduated B.A. 13 Feb. 1651–2, M.A. 21 Feb. 1653–4. Between these last dates he was elected fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and was promoted to a senior fellowship before 24 Nov. 1656. On 14 Aug. 1657 he was ordained at Winwick, Lancashire, by the fourth Lancashire presbyterian classis, on a call from the parish of Dunboyne, co. Meath, where he had officiated from 1655, with a stipend of 40l. under the civil establishment of Henry Cromwell. On 3 July 1661 he was made B.D. at Trinity College. Shortly afterwards he was deprived for nonconformity, and, having received a certificate (31 Dec. 1661) of his eminent usefulness from Stephen Charnock [q. v.] and five other nonconformist divines, he left Ireland in January 1662. He became chaplain to Sir William Waller [q. v.], after whose death in 1668 he was pastor to a small congregation at New Stairs, Wapping. He kept also an academy at Stepney for ‘university learning;’ among his pupils was Samuel Wesley (1666?–1735) [q. v.], the father of John and Charles Wesley. He died on 6 June 1708, aged 76. His funeral sermon was preached in the parish church of Wapping by Thomas Simmons (d. March 1717–18), his successor. He spelled his name Veel, and sometimes Veal; it is also given as Veale and Veele.
Besides single sermons (some in the Morning Exercises at Cripplegate), he published two volumes of ‘Discourses,’ 1703, 8vo, and 1705, 8vo.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), ii. 95, 104; Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 57; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, i. 81 sq.; Protestant Dissenter's Magazine, 1797, p. 96; Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of Dissenters, 1833, i. 336; Reid's Hist. Presb. Church in Ireland (Killen), 1867, ii. 556; Urwick's Early Hist. of Trinity College, Dublin, 1892, pp. 61 sq. 72 sq.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mottershead, Joseph

​MOTTERSHEAD, JOSEPH (1688–1771), dissenting minister, son of Joseph Mottershead, yeoman, was born near Stockport, Cheshire, on 17 Aug. 1688. He was educated at Attercliffe Academy under Timothy Jollie [q. v.], and afterwards studied for a year under Matthew Henry [q. v.] at Chester. After license he preached (1710–12) at Kingsley, in the parish of Frodsham, Cheshire. On 5 Aug. 1712 he was ordained at Knutsford as successor to Samuel Lawrence [q. v.] at Nantwich. Matthew Henry visited him in 1713, and died at his house in 1714. In 1717 Mottershead became minister of Cross Street Chapel, Manchester, and held this post till his death. His colleagues were Joshua Jones [see under Jones, Jeremiah], John Seddon (1719–1769) [q. v.], and Robert Gore (1748–1779). When the Young Pretender entered Manchester in November 1745, Mottershead was selected as hostage for a pecuniary fine, but he had timely warning and made his escape. During his protracted ministry at Manchester, Mottershead, whom Halley calls ‘a very quiet peaceable man,’ passed from Calvinism to a type of Arianism. About 1756 there was a secession from the congregation owing to the Socinian tenets of Seddon, his colleague and son-in-law. Mottershead died on 4 Nov. 1771, and was buried near the pulpit in his meeting-house. His portrait, by Pickering, was engraved by William Pether [q. v.] He married, first, at Kingsley, the eldest daughter of Bennett of Hapsford, Cheshire; she died in October 1718, leaving four children; his only son was educated at Edinburgh as a physician, but took Anglican orders, acted as curate in Manchester, and was lost at sea as chaplain of a man-of-war; his eldest daughter married (February 1743) Seddon, his colleague; his second daughter, Sarah, married John Jones, founder of the banking house of Jones, Loyd, & Co., whose grandson was Samuel Jones Loyd, first baron Overstone [q. v.] He married, secondly, in January 1721, Margaret (d. 31 Jan. 1740), widow of Nathaniel Glaskell of Manchester; he was her third husband. He married, thirdly, in June 1742, Abigail (d. 28 Dec. 1753), daughter of Chewning Blackmore [see under Blackmore, William].
Mottershead published, besides two sermons (1719–1745), ‘Religious Discourses,’ &c., Glasgow, 1759, 8vo. Under the signature ‘Theophilus’ he contributed essays to Priestley's ‘Theological Repository,’ 1769, i. 173, sq., 225 sq., and 1771, iii. 112 sq. He also published a revised edition of Matthew Henry's ‘Plain Catechism’ (no date).
[Biographical notice in Toulmin's Memoirs of S. Bourn, 1808, pp. 251 sq.; Urwick's Nonconformity in Cheshire, 1864, pp. 129 sq.; Halley's Lancashire, 1869, ii. 364, 447; Wade's Rise of Nonconformity in Manchester, 1880, pp. 34 sq.; Turner's Nonconformist Register of Heywood and Dickenson, 1881, pp. 215, 231, 232, 276; Baker's Mem. of a Dissenting Chapel, 1884, pp. 27 sq., 141 sq.; Nightingale's Lancashire Nonconformity (1893), v. 97 sq.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Scargill, William Pitt

​SCARGILL, WILLIAM PITT (1787–1836), unitarian minister and author, was born in London in 1787. Originally intended for a business life, he attracted the notice of Hugh Worthington, minister at Salters' Hall, under whose advice he studied for the ministry at Wymondley academy. For six months (March to August 1811) he was assistant to James Tayler at High Pavement Chapel, Nottingham. In 1812 he succeeded Thomas Madge as minister of Churchgate Street Chapel, Bury St. Edmunds, and held this charge for twenty years. His ministry was not successful, and he turned to literature as a means of augmenting a narrow income, contributing to periodicals, and producing original tales and sketches. He had been a liberal in politics, but displeased his congregation by becoming a writer for the tory press. Resigning his charge in 1832, he became an adherent of the established church. At the end of 1834 he published anonymously ‘The Autobiography of a Dissenting Minister,’ in which he plays the part of a candid friend to his former co-religionists. The book is often classed with the anonymous ‘Particulars of the Life of a Dissenting Minister’ [1813], by Charles Lloyd [q. v.]; but Lloyd's is a genuine autobiography, Scargill's a romance, though possibly based on his early life and education. He made a precarious living by his pen, yet his sketches are brisk and readable, with a curious vein of paradox. An essay on ‘The Blessings of Biography’ opens with the advice, ‘If you think a man to be a devil, and want to make him an angel, sit down to write a biography of him.’ He was famed as a punster. He died of brain fever at Bury St. Edmunds on 24 Jan. 1836. He married Mary Anne, daughter of Robert Cutting of Chevington, Suffolk, who survived him with two children.
He published:
* ‘An Essay on War,’ 8vo, n. d.
* ‘Essays on Various Subjects,’ 1815, 8vo.
* ‘Moral Discourses,’ 1816, 12mo.
* ‘The Sequel of “Truth,”’ a novel [1826], by Elizabeth Evanshaw, 1827, 12mo.
* ‘Truckleborough Hall,’ 1827, 12mo.
* ‘Blue-Stocking Hall,’ 1827, 12mo.
* ‘Penelope; or Love's Labour Lost,’ 1829, 16mo.
* ‘Rank and Talent,’ 1829, 12mo; reprinted [1856], 8vo.
* ‘Tales of a Briefless Barrister,’ 1829, 12mo.
* ‘Atherton: a Tale of the Last Century,’ 1831, 8vo.
* ‘The Usurer's Daughter,’ 1832, 12mo; reprinted [1853], 8vo.
* ‘The Puritan's Grave,’ 1833, 12mo.
* ‘The Autobiography of a Dissenting Minister,’ 1834, 8vo (anon.); reissued with new title-pages and prefaces as 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions, all 1835.
* ‘Provincial Sketches,’ 1835, 12mo.
His widow edited some of his contributions to periodicals, many from the ‘Atlas’ newspaper, with the title ‘The Widow's Offering. A selection of Tales and Essays,’ 1837, 8vo, 2 vols. Of this a pirated edition appeared as ‘The English Sketchbook,’ 1856, 8vo. His widow republished the collection with title ‘Essays and Sketches,’ 2nd edit. [1857], 8vo.
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sandeman, Robert (1718-1771)

​SANDMAN, ROBERT (1718–1771), Scottish sectary, eldest son of David Sandeman, merchant and magistrate (1735–63) of Perth, was born at Perth in 1718. After being apprenticed at Perth as a linen-weaver, he studied a session or two at Edinburgh University. While hesitating between medicine and the church as his future profession, he came under the influence of John Glas [q. v.], whose religious views he adopted. Returning to Perth in 1736, he married in the following year Glas's daughter Katharine (d. 1746), and entered into partnership with ​his brother, William Sandeman, as a linen manufacturer. From this business he withdrew in 1744, on being appointed an elder in the Glassite communion. He exercised his ministry successively at Perth, Dundee, and Edinburgh, and became widely known by his ‘Letters’ (1757) in criticism of the ‘Dialogues between Theron and Aspasio’ by James Hervey (1714–1758) [q. v.] This publication led to a controversy with Samuel Pike [q. v.], who ultimately became his disciple. In 1760 Sandeman removed to London, where he gathered a congregation at Glovers' Hall, Beech Lane, Barbican. It was soon transferred to a building, formerly the Friends' meeting-house, in Bull and Mouth Street, St. Martin's-le-Grand. His writings and preaching attracted attention. Among those who went to hear him was William Romaine [q. v.]
On the urgent invitation of his followers in New England, Sandeman sailed from Glasgow for Boston on 10 Aug. 1764, with James Cargill and Andrew Olifant. The first church of his connexion was founded at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 4 May 1765. He succeeded in planting other churches in New England, but the success of his mission was hindered by his warmth in urging the duty of loyalty to the mother country at a critical time in American politics. In March 1770 he was brought to trial by the authorities of Connecticut. He died at Danbury, Connecticut, on 2 April 1771. His interment there was the signal for a hostile display of political feeling.
Sandeman added nothing to the principles of theology and church polity adopted by Glas; but his advocacy gave them vogue, and the religious community which is still called Glassite in Scotland is recognised as Sandemanian in England and America.
He published: 1. ‘A Letter to Mr. W. Wilson … concerning Ruling Elders,’ 1736, 16mo. 2. ‘Letters on Theron and Aspasio,’ 1757, 2 vols. 8vo (often reprinted); a contribution to the controversy excited by the well-known ‘Dialogues’ of James Hervey [q. v.] 3. ‘An Epistolary Correspondence between … Pike and … Sandeman,’ 1758, 8vo; in Welsh, 1765, 12mo. 4. ‘An Essay on Preaching,’ 1763, 12mo. 5. ‘Some Thoughts on Christianity,’ Boston, New England, 1764, 12mo. Posthumous were: 6. ‘The Honour of Marriage,’ 1777, 8vo; Edinburgh, 1800, 12mo. 7. ‘An Essay on the Song of Solomon,’ 1803, 12mo. 8. ‘Letters,’ Dundee, 1851, 8vo. 9. ‘Discourses on Passages of Scripture: with Essays and Letters … with a Biographical Sketch,’ Dundee, 1857, 8vo. In ‘Christian Songs,’ Perth, 1847, 8vo, are nineteen pieces of religious verse by Sandeman, of no poetical merit.
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