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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rogers, John (1572?-1636)

​ROGERS, JOHN (1572?–1636), puritan divine, a native of Essex, was born about 1572. He was a near relative of Richard Rogers (1550?–1618) [q. v.] who provided for his education at Cambridge. Twice did 1 the ungrateful lad sell his books and waste the proceeds. His kinsman would have dis​carded him but for his wife's intercession. On at third trial Rogers finished his university career with credit. In 1592 he became vicar of Honingham, Norfolk, and in 1603 he succeeded Lawrence Fairclough, father of Samuel Fairclough [q. v.], as vicar of Haverhill, Suffolk.
In 1605 he became vicar of Dedham, Essex, where for over thirty years he had the repute of being 'one of the most awakening preachers of the age.' On his lecture days his church overflowed. Cotton Mather reports a saying of Ralph Brownrig [q. v.] that Rogers would 'do more good with his wild notes than we with our set music.' His lecture was suppressed from 1629 till 1631, on the ground of his nonconformity. His subsequent compliance was not strict. Giles Firmin [q. v.], one of his converts, 'never saw him wear a surplice,' and he only occasionally used the prayer-book, and then repeated portions of it from memory. He died on 18 Oct. 1636, and was buried in the churchyard at Dedham. There is a tombstone to his memory, and also a mural monument in the church. His funeral sermon was preached by John Knowles (1600?–1685) [q. v.] His engraved portrait exhibits a worn face, and depicts him in nightcap, ruff, and full beard. Matthew Newcomen [q. v.] succeeded him at Dedham. Nathaniel Rogers [q. v.] was his second son.
He published: 1. 'The Doctrine of Faith,' &c., 1627, 12mo; 6th edit. 1634, 12mo. 2. 'A Treatise of Love,' &c., 1629, 12mo; 3rd edit. 1637, 12mo. Posthumous was 3. 'A Godly and Fruitful Exposition upon . . . the First Epistle of Peter,' &c., 1650, fol. Brook assigns to him, without date, 'Sixty Memorials of a Godly Life.' He prefaced 'Gods Treasurie displayed,' &c., 1630, 12mo, by F. B. (Francis Bunny?)
[Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, ii. 421 sq.; Cotton Mather's Magnalia, 1702, iii. 19; Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 298; Granger's Biogr. Hist, of England, 1779, ii. 191 sq.; Davids's Annals of Evang. Nonconf. in Essex, 1863, pp. 146 sq.; Browne's Hist. Congr. Norfolk and Suffolk, 1877, p. 503.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, Joseph

​HILL, JOSEPH (1625–1707), nonconformist divine and lexicographer, was born at Bramley, near Leeds, Yorkshire, in October 1625. His father, Joshua Hill (d. 1636), was minister successively at Walmesley Chapel, Lancashire and Bramley Chapel, and died a few hours before a citation a reached his house to answer in the archbishop’s court for not wearing a surplice. Joseph Hill was admitted at St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1644, graduated B.A. earlier than usual, was elected fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and proceeded M.A. in 1649. He was a successful tutor, was senior proctor 1658, and in 1660 kept the act for B.D. But as he declined to conform in 1662 the authorities 'cut his name out of their books in kindness to him,' or he must have been ejected. He retired to London, and preached a while at Allhallows Barking. He travelled abroad in 1663, and entered Leyden University as a student 29 March 1654. From Leyden he removed in 1667 (elected 19 June) to the pastorate of the Scottish church at Middleburg, Zeeland. From 1668 a stipend was paid to him by the Provincial States. He wrote (30 Nov. 1672) a political pamphlet, which he had difficulty in getting printed. In April 1673 it appeared in Dutch at Amsterdam, and in English, with the title, 'The Interest of these United Provinces, being a Defence of the Zeelanders Choice,' &c., Middleburg, 1673, 4to. He advocates the English alliance, and vindicated Charles II from suspicion of popery. The printing cost him 100l. On 19 Aug. 1673 he was ordered by resolution of the states to quit Zeeland, with permission to return at the close of the war. Repairing to London he waited on Charles, who rewarded him for his pamphlet with a sinecure of 60l a year; the offer of a bishopric did not move him from his nonconformity. On 13 Jan. 1678 he became minister of the English presbyterian chuch on the Haringsvliet, Rotterdam, and held this office till his death. Calamy met him at Rotterdam in 1678. Hill was an indefatigable student and book-collector, retaining to the last his habit of reading, though his memory was nearly gone. He died on 5 Nov. 1707.
His chief work was the augmentation of Schrevelius's Greek-Latin Lexicon, which he edited 1663, 8vo, adding eight thousand words. The Latin-Greek portion was edited by J. Hutchinson. He wrote also on the 'Antiquities of Temples,' 1696, 4to, and 'Artificial Churches,' 1698, 4to, a sermon on 'Moderation' in the Cripplegate morning exercise, 1677, 4to; and a funeral sermon for Mary Reeve, 1685, 4to.
Another Joseph Hill (1667-1739), unconnected with the foregoing, but sometimes confused with him, was born 11. Oct. 1667 at Salisbury, ordained with Calamy 22 June 1694, was minister at the English presbyterian church in Rotterdam 1699-1716, and at Haberdashers' Hall, London, from 1718 till his death on 21 Jan. 1729.
[Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 81; Calamy's Own Life, i. 140, 348. ii. 522; Wilson's Dissenting Churches, 1810, iii 110 sq.; Steven's Scottish Church at Rotterdam, 1833, pp. 319, 325; Leyden Students (Index Soc.); Hunter's Life of Oliver Heywood, 1849, p. 22.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Langston, John

​LANGSTON, JOHN (1641?–1704), independent divine, was born about 1641, according to Calamy. He went from the Worcester grammar school to Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was matriculated as a servitor in Michaelmas term 1655, and studied for some years. Wood does not mention his graduation. At the Restoration in 1660 (when, if Calamy is right, he had not completed his twentieth year) he held the sequestered perpetual curacy of Ashchurch, Gloucestershire, from which be was displaced by the return of the incumbent. He went to London, and kept a private school near Spitalfields. On the coming into force of the Uniformity Act (24 Aug. 1662) he crossed over to Ireland as chaplain and tutor to Captain Blackwell, but returned to London and to school-keeping in 1663. Under the indulgence of 1672 he took out a license, in concert with William Hooke (d. March 1677, aged 77), formerly master of the Savoy, 'to preach in Richard Loton's house in Spittle-yard.' Some time after 1679 he removed into Bedfordshire, where he ministered till, in 1686, he received an invitation from a newly separated congregation of independents, who had hired a building in Green Yard, St. Peter's parish, Ipswich. Under his preaching a congregational church of seventeen persons was formed on 12 Oct. 1686. Langston, his wife, and thirty others were admitted to membership on 22 Oct., when a call to the pastorate was given him; he accepted it on 29 Oct., and was set apart by four elders at a solemn fast on 2 Nov. A 'new chappell' in Green Yard was opened on 26 June 1687, and the church membership was raised to 123 persons, many of them from neighbouring villages. Calamy says he was driven out of his house, was forced to remove to London, and was there accused of being a jesuit, whereupon he published a successful 'Vindication.' The publication is unknown, and Calamy gives no date; the year 1697 has been suggested. Langston's church-book gives no hint of any persecution, but shows that he was in the habit of paying an annual visit of about three weeks' duration to London with his wife. He notices the engagement with the French fleet at La Hogue on 19 May 1692, 'for ye defeat of w$^h$ blessed he God,' and the earthquake on 8 Sept. in the same year. The tone of his ministry was conciliatory 'towards people of different perswasions.' In November 1702 Benjamin Glandfield (d. 10 Sept. 1720) was appointed as his assistant. Langston died on 12 Jan. 1704, 'aetat. 64.' Hs portrait hangs in the vestry of Tacket Street Chapel, Ipswich; an engraving from it is in the 'Evangelical Magazine,' 1801. He published nothing of a religious nature, but issued the following for school purposes: 1. 'Lusus Poeticus Latino-Anglicanus,' &c., 1675, 8vo; 2nd edition, 1679, 8vo; 3rd edition, 1688, 12mo (intended as an aid to capping verses). 2. 'Ἐγχειρίδων ποεητικόν. Sive Poeseως Græcæ Medulla, cum versione Latina,' &c., 1679, 8vo.
[Calamy's Account, 1713, pp. 650 sq.; Browne's Hist. Congr. Norf. and Suff. 1877, pp. 369 sq.; information from the master of Pembroke College, Oxford.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Griffith, John (1622?-1700)

​GRIFFITH, JOHN (1622?–1700), general baptist minister, appears to have joined the baptists about 1640, and founded about 1646 a congregation in Dunning's Alley, Bishopsgate Street Without. It is probable that he practised medicine, as he was known as Dr. Griffith. After the Restoration he frequently got into trouble as a conventicle preacher, and persistently declined the oath of allegiance. His difficulty was that the terms of the oath bound him to obey laws not then in being, and future sovereigns who might prove papists. His first imprisonment was in Newgate (1661) for seventeen months. He was again committed on 18 April 1683, and is said to have spent fourteen years more or less in gaol. He appears to have been free from molestation after James's declaration for liberty of conscience (11 April 1687). In 1698 his small congregation received an endowment under a trust created by Captain Pierce Johns' bequest. He was an advocate of close communion. He died on 16 May 1700, in his seventy-ninth year. He published:
* ‘A Voice from the Word of the Lord, to … Quakers,’ &c., 1654, 12mo.
* ‘Six Principles of the Christian Religion,’ &c., 1655, 4to.
* ‘A Complaint of the Oppressed,’ &c., 1661, 4to.
* ‘The Unlawfulness of Mixed Marriages,’ &c., 1681, 4to.
* ‘The Case of Mr. John Griffith,’ &c., 1683, 4to.
[Funeral Sermon by Richard Allen, 1700; Crosby's Hist. English Baptists, 1738, vol. ii.; Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1808, ii. 175 sq.; Wood's Hist. General Baptists, 1847, p. 153.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Griffith, John (1714-1798)

​GRIFFITH, JOHN (1714–1798), independent minister, was born in London in December 1714. His father was a churchman, his mother a member of the independent congregation of Thomas Bradbury [q. v.] He was for a short time apprenticed to a clog-maker. He became a follower of Whitefield, and joined Whitefield's society at the Tabernacle in 1749. Chance led him to hear Samuel Stockell at the independent congregation in Meeting House Lane, Red Cross Street. About 1750 he became one of Stockell's communicants, without severing his connection with the Tabernacle class meetings. Griffith began to preach about 1752, and after Stockell's death (3 May 1753) was appointed pastor 30 Oct. 1754. His ministry was successful, till a dispute with one of his deacons led him to withdraw in 1758 with part of his congregation to an old meeting-house in White's Alley. The congregation grew, and built (1771) a new meeting-house in Mitchell Street. But in a few years it declined, and Griffith retired. In January 1778 he became minister of a new congregation at West Orchard, Coventry, Warwickshire. He ‘does not appear to have been adapted to the situation,’ and removed on 25 March 1781 to Brigstock, Northamptonshire, where his ministry ended in 1788. Returning to London he still preached occasionally. He died on 17 Aug. 1798, and was buried in Bunhill Fields. He was twice married, and had a large family by his first wife; his second wife died before 1788.
He published ‘A Brand Plucked out of the Fire,’ &c., 1759, 12mo (a curious account of his early life and of his quarrel with his first church).
Evangelical Mag. 1799, p. 175 sq.; Wilsons Diss. Churches of London, 1808 ii. 559, 1810 iii. 314 sq.; Sibree and Causton's Independency in Warwickshire, 1855, p. 82 sq.; Centenary of West Orchard Chapel, Coventry, 1879, p. 8.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ryder, John (1697?-1775)

​RYDER, JOHN, D.D. (1697?–1775), archbishop of Tuam, son of Dudley Ryder, haberdasher, was born at Nuneaton, Warwickshire, about 1697. His grandfather was Dudley Ryder (d. 1683) the ejected rector of Bedworth. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1715, M.A. 1719, D.D. 1741. In 1721 he became vicar of Nuneaton, and held the living till his appointment to the see of Killaloe by patent of 30 Jan. 1742. He was consecrated in St. Bridget's, Dublin, on 21 Feb. Next year he was translated to the see of Down and Connor, and was further promoted, in March 1752, to be archbishop of Tuam and bishop of Ardagh. His views were evangelical and his disposition courteous and kindly. His latter years he spent at Nice, where he died on 4 Feb. 1775 from the effects of a fall from his horse. He was buried on 6 Feb. in a ground near the shore, purchased for protestant burials by the British consul, and since washed away by the sea. His portrait is at Queens' College, Cambridge.
His eldest son, John, born at Nuneaton in 1723, rector of Templemichael, co. Longford, prebendary of Tuam (1754), and dean of Lismore (1762), died at Nuneaton on 18 April 1791, and is buried in the parish church.
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smethurst, John

​SMETHURST, JOHN (1793–1859), unitarian minister, son of a farmer, was born at Failsworth, near Manchester, in 1793. He was educated (1814–16) for the unitarian ministry at the Hackney academy under Robert Aspland [q. v.], Jeremiah Joyce [q. v.], and John Morell, LL.D. (1776–1840). In July 1817 he became minister of the unitarian congregation, Cross Street, Moreton Hampstead, Devonshire. On the death (2 Dec. 1818) of Jacob Isaac, minister of the Fore Street general baptist congregation, Smethurst succeeded him, holding both charges. For some years the managers of the London ‘unitarian fund’ had tried in vain to get a missionary for the north of Ireland. At length Smethurst volunteered, and during the autumn of 1821 spent nine weeks in Ulster. His visit is memorable as calling out for the first time the great controversial powers of Henry Cooke, D.D. [q. v.], and thus leading to the separation (1829) of the Arian party from the general synod of Ulster [see Montgomery, Henry, LL.D.]. Smethurst's report of his mission (Christian Reformer, 1822, pp. 217 sq.) is a valuable document. His warmest friends were Fletcher Blakely [q. v.] and Andrew Craig (1754–1833), minister of Lisburn. At Killeleagh he encountered Cooke, lecturing in his school-house, under the auspices of Archibald Hamilton Rowan [q. v.] His mission was supposed to be partly political, but Smethurst was simply a guileless enthusiast, no great speaker, and blind to the real situation. Returning to Moreton Hampstead, he there spent the remainder of his days. For some years he was scribe to the Exeter assembly, a relic of the unions of 1690 [see Howe, John, (1630–1705)]. Personally he was much beloved. He devoted his leisure to Anglo-Saxon studies, and his fame as an angler got him the name of ‘the Walton of the moor.’ He died unmarried on 27 June 1859 at Moreton Hampstead, and was buried (3 July) in the Cross Street burial-ground. His funeral sermon was preached by George Browne Brock (1805–1886) of Exeter. He published a sermon on slavery (1824).
He has been confused with John Smethurst (1789–1820), educated at Manchester College, York, from 1805 to 1810, and minister at Knutsford, Cheshire, from 1810 to 1819.
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hume, Abraham (1616?-1707)

​HUME, ABRAHAM (1616?–1707), ejected divine, a native of the Merse, Berwickshire, was born about 1616. He was educated at St. Andrews, where he graduated M.A. Leaving the university, he became chaplain to the widowed Countess of Home, who brought him to London. John Maitland [q. v.], afterwards Duke of Lauderdale, who married the countess's second daughter, took Hume with him on his travels to Paris and Geneva. He subsequently attended on his patron in Scotland, and accompanied him to London in 1643, when Maitland was one of the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly. While there Hume obtained the vicarage of Long Benton, Northumberland, and on 20 April 1647 received presbyterian orders from members of the fourth London classis, Nathaniel Hardy, D.D. [q. v.], being one of his ordainers. His ministry was popular, but being a strong royalist his politics were obnoxious to Sir Arthur Hesilrige [q. v.], who procured his banishment from England. He lived obscurely in Scotland till 1653, when Hesilrige joined in procuring him the vicarage of Whittingham, Northumberland. He stood out against any acknowledgment of Cromwell's government, and was instrumental in obtaining the appointment of royalist presbyterians to vacant parishes. In 1662 the Uniformity Act ejected him. He became chaplain to Lauderdale, but of this situation he was deprived by inability to take the oath imposed by the Five Miles Act of 1665. Lauderdale offered him preferment if he would conform, and on his refusal cast him off. In 1669 he travelled in France, making the acquaintance of Jean Claude at Charenton. Returning to London, he became chaplain to Alderman Plampin, on whose death he took the charge of a presbyterian congregation in Bishopsgate Street Without. The congregation was broken up, and he retired to Theobalds, Hertfordshire, and preached privately till 1687. On the strength of James's declaration for liberty of conscience he returned once more to London, and was called to a presbyterian congregation in Drury Street, Westminster. How long he held this charge is not known; Glascock was the minister in 1695. He died on 29 Jan. 1707, aged about 92, according to his tombstone in Bunhill Fields. His funeral sermon was preached by Robert Fleming the younger [q. v.]
[Funeral Sermon by Fleming, 1707; Calamy's Account, 1713, pp. 511 sq.; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, ii. 672; Protestant Dissenter's Mag., 1799, p. 349; Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1808, i. 398; Urwick's Nonconformity in Herts, 1884, p. 510 (confuses the Merse with the Mearns).]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lavington, John

​LAVINGTON, JOHN (1690?–1759), presbyterian divine, born about 1690 or a little later, was probably educated for the ministry in London. In 1715 he was chosen colleague to John Withers in the pastorate of Bow Meeting, Exeter, and was ordained on 19 Oct. along with Joseph Hallett (1691?–1744) [q. v.] The two pastors of Bow Meeting preached also at the Little Meeting, in rotation with the two pastors of James' Meeting. Of all four, Lavington was the only one unaffected in his theology by the movement towards Arianism, initiated by the publication of the ‘Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity’ (1712), by Samuel Clarke (1675–1729) [q. v.] Hence, in the controversies which belong to the life of James Peirce [q. v.], he took, though a young man, a leading part on the orthodox side. Lavington drew up the formula of orthodoxy adopted (by a majority of more than two to one) in September 1718 by the Exeter assembly of divines (including the presbyterian and congregationalist ministers of Devon and Cornwall), viz.: 'that there is but one living and true God; and that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are the one God.' For thirty-five years an adhesion to this formulary, or its equivalent, was the condition of license or ordination by the Exeter assembly. Micaijah Towgood [q. v.], who became one of the pastors of James' Meeting in 1750, moved that it be set aside. Acting in concert with congregationalists, Lavington, in 1752, instituted a 'Western academy' at Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, for the training of an orthodox ministry; the principal tutor was his son John. The names of six students are preserved, the best known being John Punfield, a predecessor of John Angell James [q. v.] at Birmingham. In 1753 the assembly repealed the resolution of 1718, thus making belief in the doctrine of the Trinity an open question. By this time the ministers of Cornwall had left the assembly; the vote for repeal was 14 to 9, with three neutrals; among the majority was William Harris (1720–1770) [q. v.] the biographer. Lavington died in 1759. He published nothing with his name, but had a hand in several of the anonymous pamphlets issued during the Exeter controversy, 1719–20.
His son, John Lavington (d. 1764), ordained 29 Aug. 1739, died 20 Dec. 1764. He published several sermons, 1743–59; others were published in 1790.
[Murch's Hist. Presb. and Gen. Baptist Churches in West of England, 1835, pp. 386 sq.; Christian Moderator, September 1826, pp. 153 sq.; Christian Life, 16 and 23 June 1888; manuscript list of ordinations preserved with minutes of Exeter Assembly; Walter Wilson's manuscript account of Dissenting Academies, in Dr. Williams's Library.]
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Towgood, Richard

​TOWGOOD, RICHARD (1595?–1683), dean of Bristol, was born near Bruton, Somerset, about 1595. The family name is spelled also Toogood, Twogood, and Towgard. He entered Oriel College, Oxford, as a servitor in 1610; matriculated 19 April 1611, at the age of sixteen; graduated B.A. 1 Feb. 1614-15, M.A. 4 Feb. 1617-18, B.D. 7 Nov. 1633. Having taken orders about 1615, he preached in the neighbourhood of Oxford, till he was appointed master of the grammar school in College Green, Bristol. In 1619 he was instituted vicar of All Saints', Bristol, and preferred in 1626 to the vicarage of St. Nicholas, Bristol. He was made a chaplain to Charles I about 1633. On 20 Feb. 1645 he was sequestered from his vicarage 'for his great disaffection to the parliament.' He was several times imprisoned, under unusually severe conditions, was ordered to be shot, and with difficulty reprieved. Gaining his liberty, he retired to Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire. After some years, through the mediation of Archbishop Ussher, he began to preach at Kingswood Chapel, near Wotton, and was soon after presented to the neighbouring rectory of Tortworth. On the Restoration he returned to St. Nicholas, Bristol, at the earnest request of the parishioners. He was installed, 25 Aug. 1660, in the sixth prebend in Bristol Cathedral, to which he had been nominated before the civil war; and was sworn chaplain to Charles II. In 1664 he was presented to the vicarage of Weare, Somerset. On 1 May 1667 he succeeded Henry Glemham as dean of Bristol, and in October 1671 he was offered the bishopric, vacant by the death of Gilbert Ironside the elder [q. v.], but declined it. He died on 21 April 1683, in his eighty-ninth year, and was buried in the north aisle of the choir of the cathedral. He published two sermons in 1643, another in 1676. By his wife Elizabeth he had sons Richard and William; his grandson Richard (son of Richard) was prebendary of Bristol (30 July 1685) and vicar of Bitton (1685), Olveston (1697), and Winterbourne (1698), all in Gloucestershire.
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